A History of the Japanese People Part 29

Annals of historical repute are confined to the above account. There is, however, one unexplained feature, which reveals itself to even a casual reader. In their early opposition to Yamato aggression, the Yemis.h.i.+--or Ainu, or Yezo, by whatever name they be called--displayed no fighting qualities that could be called formidable. Yet now, in the eighth century, they suddenly show themselves men of such prowess that the task of subduing them taxes the resources of the Yamato to the fullest. Some annalists are disposed to seek an explanation of this discrepancy in climatic and topographical difficulties. Kosami, in his despatch referring to the Koromo-gawa campaign, explains that 12,440 men had to be constantly employed in transporting provisions and that the quant.i.ty carried by them in twenty-four days did not exceed eleven days' rations for the troops. The hards.h.i.+p of campaigning in a country where means of communication were so defective is easily conjectured, and it has also to be noted that during only a brief period in summer did the climate of Mutsu permit taking the field. But these conditions existed equally in the eras of Yamato-dake and Hirafu. Whatever obstacles they presented in the eighth century must have been equally potent in the second and in the seventh.

Two explanations are offered. They are more or less conjectural. One is that the Yemis.h.i.+ of Mutsu were led by chieftains of Yamato origin, men who had migrated to the northeast in search of fortune or impelled by disaffection. It seems scarcely credible, however, that a fact so special would have eluded historical reference, whereas only one pa.s.sing allusion is made to it and that, too, in a book not fully credible. The other explanation is that the Yemis.h.i.+ were in league with hordes of Tatars who had crossed from the mainland of Asia, or travelled south by the islands of Saghalien and Yezo. The main evidence in support of this theory is furnished by the names of the insurgent leaders Akuro-o, Akagas.h.i.+ra, and Akahige. Ideographists point out that the character aku is frequently p.r.o.nounced o, and with that reading the name "Akuro-o" becomes "Oro-o," which was the term used for "Russian." As for "Akagas.h.i.+ra" and "Akahige," they frankly signify "red head" and "red beard," common j.a.panese names for foreigners. In a shrine at Suzuka-yama in Ise, to which point the insurgents pushed southward before Tamuramaro took the field, there used to be preserved a box, obviously of foreign construction, said to have been left there by the "Eastern Barbarians;" and in the Tsugaru district of the modern Mutsu province, relics exist of an extensive fortress presenting features not j.a.panese, which is conjectured to have been the basis of the Tatar invaders. But all these inferences rest on little more than hypothesis.

RISE OF MILITARY HOUSES

What is certain, however, is that a collateral result of these disturbances was to discredit the great Court n.o.bles--the Otomo, the Tachibana, the Ki, and the Fujiwara--as leaders of armies, and to lay the foundation of the military houses (buke) which were destined to become feudal rulers of j.a.pan in after ages. Ki no Hirozumi, Ki no Kosami, Otomo Yakamochi, Fujiwara Umakai, and Fujiwara Tsugunawa having all failed, the Court was compelled to have recourse to the representatives of a Chinese immigrant family, the Saka-no-ye. By those who trace the ringer of fate in earthly happenings, it has been called a dispensation that, at this particular juncture, a descendant of Achi no Omi should have been a warrior with a height of six feet nine inches,* eyes of a falcon, a beard like plaited gold-wire, a frown that terrified wild animals, and a smile that attracted children. For such is the traditional description of Tamuramaro.

Another incidental issue of the situation was that conspicuous credit for fighting qualities attached to the troops specially organized in the Bando (Kwanto) provinces with the sons and younger brothers of local officials. These became the nucleus of a military cla.s.s which ultimately monopolized the profession of arms.

*The height recorded is five feet eight inches, but as that would be a normal stature, there can be little doubt that "great" (dai) measure is referred to and that the figures indicate six feet nine inches.

RELATIONS WITH KOREA

During the eighth century relations of friends.h.i.+p were once more established with Koma. A Manchurian tribe, migrating from the valley of the Sungali River (then called the Sumo), settled on the east of the modern province of Shengking, and was there joined by a remnant of the Koma subjects after the fall of the latter kingdom. Ultimately receiving invest.i.ture at the hands of the Tang Court, the sovereign of the colony took the name of Tsuying, King of Pohai, and his son, Wu-i, sent an envoy to j.a.pan in 727, when Shomu was on the throne.

Where the emba.s.sy embarked there is no record, but, being blown out of their course, the boats finally made the coast of Dewa, where several of the envoy's suite were killed by the Yemis.h.i.+. The envoy himself reached Nara safely, and, representing his sovereign as the successor of the Koma dynasty, was hospitably received, the usual interchange of gifts taking place.

Twenty-five years later (752), another envoy arrived. The Empress Koken then reigned at Nara, and her ministers insisted that, in the doc.u.ment presented by the amba.s.sador, Pohai must distinctly occupy towards j.a.pan the relation of va.s.sal to suzerain, such having been the invariable custom observed by Koma in former times. The difficulty seems to have been met by subst.i.tuting the name "Koma" for "Pohai," thus, by implication, admitting that the new kingdom held towards j.a.pan the same status as that formerly held by Koma.

Throughout the whole of her subsequent intercourse with the Pohai kingdom, intercourse which, though exceedingly fitful, lasted for nearly a century and a half, j.a.pan uniformly insisted upon the maintenance of that att.i.tude.

ENGRAVING: EMPEROR KWAMMU

CHAPTER XVIII

THE HEIAN EPOCH

THE FIFTIETH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KWAMMU (A.D. 782-805)

j.a.pANESE history divides itself readily into epochs, and among them not the least sharply defined is the period of 398 years separating the transfer of the Imperial palace from Nara to Kyoto (794) and the establishment of an administrative capital at Kamakura (1192). It is called the Heian epoch, the term "Heian-jo" (Castle of Peace) having been given to Kyoto soon after that city became the residence of the Mikado. The first ruler in the epoch was Kwammu. This monarch, as already shown, was specially selected by his father, Konin, at the instance of Fujiwara Momokawa, who observed in the young prince qualities essential to a ruler of men. Whether Kwammu's career as Emperor reached the full standard of his promise as prince, historians are not agreed.

Konin receives a larger meed of praise. His reforms of local abuses showed at once courage and zeal But he did not reach the root of the evil, nor did his son Kwammu, though in the matter of intention and ardour there was nothing to choose between the two. The basic trouble was arbitrary and unjust oppression of the lower cla.s.ses by the upper. These latter, probably educated in part by the be system, which tended to reduce the worker with his hands to a position of marked subservience, had learned to regard their own hereditary privileges as practically unlimited, and to conclude that well nigh any measure of forced labour was due to them from their inferiors.

Konin could not correct this conception, and neither could Kwammu.

Indeed, in the latter's case, the Throne was specially disqualified as a source of remonstrance, for the sovereign himself had to make extravagant demands upon the working cla.s.ses on account of the transfer of the capital from Nara to Kyoto. Thus, although Kwammu's warnings and exhortations were earnest, and his dismissals and degradations of provincial officials frequent, he failed to achieve anything radical.

TRANSFER OF THE CAPITAL TO KYOTO

The reign of Kwammu is remarkable for two things: the conquest of the eastern Yemis.h.i.+ by Tamuramaro and the transfer of the capital from Nara to Kyoto. Nara is in the province of Yamato; Kyoto, in the neighbouring province of Yamas.h.i.+ro,* and the two places lie twenty miles apart as the crow flies. It has been stated that to change the site of the capital on the accession of a sovereign was a common custom in j.a.pan prior to the eighth century. In those early days the term "miyako," though used in the sense of "metropolis," bore chiefly the meaning "Imperial residence," and to alter its locality did not originally suggest a national effort. But when Kwammu ascended the throne, Nara had been the capital during eight reigns, covering a period of seventy-five years, and had grown into a great city, a centre alike of religion and of trade. To transfer it involved a correspondingly signal sacrifice. What was Kwammu's motive? Some have conjectured a desire to shake off the priestly influences which permeated the atmosphere of Nara; others, that he found the Yamato city too small to satisfy his ambitious views or to suit the quickly developing dimensions and prosperity of the nation. Probably both explanations are correct. Looking back only a few years, a ruler of Kwammu's sagacity must have appreciated that religious fanaticism, as practised at Nara, threatened to overshadow even the Imperial Court, and that the influence of the foreign creed tended to undermine the s.h.i.+nto cult, which const.i.tuted the main bulwark of the Throne.

*Previously to becoming the metropolitan province, Yamas.h.i.+ro was written with ideographs signifying "behind the mountain" (yama no us.h.i.+ro), but these were afterwards changed to "mountain castle"

(yamas.h.i.+ro).

We shall presently see how this latter danger was averted at Kyoto, and it certainly does not appear extravagant to credit Kwammu with having promoted that result. At all events, he was not tempted by the superior advantages of any other site in particular. In 784, when he adopted the resolve to found a new capital, it was necessary to determine the place by sending out a search party under his most trusted minister, Fujiwara Tanetsugu. The choice of Tanetsugu fell, not upon Kyoto, but upon Nagaoka in the same province. There was no hesitation. The Emperor trusted Tanetsugu implicitly and appointed him chief commissioner of the building, which was commenced at once, a decree being issued that all taxes for the year should be paid at Nagaoka where also forced labourers were required to a.s.semble and materials were collected. The Records state that the area of the site for the new palace measured 152 acres, for which the owners received compensation amounting to the equivalent of 2580 ($12,550); or an average of 17 ($82) per acre. The number of people employed is put at 314,000,* and the fund appropriated, at 680,000 sheaves of rice, having a value of about 40,800 ($200,000) according to modern prices.

*This does not mean that 314,000 persons were employed simultaneously, but only that the number of workmen multiplied by the number of days of work equalled 314,000.

The palace was never finished. While it was still uncompleted, the Emperor took up his abode there, in the fall of 784, and efforts to hasten the work were redoubled. But a shocking incident occurred. The Crown Prince, Sagara, procured the elevation of a member of the Saeki family to the high post of State councillor (sangi), and having been impeached for this unprecedented act by Fujiwara Tanetsugu, was deprived of his t.i.tle to the throne. Shortly afterwards, the Emperor repaired to Nara, and during the absence of the Court from Nagaoka, Prince Sagara compa.s.sed the a.s.sa.s.sination of Tanetsugu. Kwammu exacted stern vengeance for his favourite minister. He disgraced the prince and sent him into exile in the island of Awaji, which place he did not reach alive, as was perhaps designed.

ENGRAVING: COURTYARD OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE, AT KYOTO

These occurrences moved the Emperor so profoundly that Nagaoka became intolerable to him. Gradually the work of building was abandoned, and, in 792, a new site was selected by Wake no Kiyomaro at Uda in the same province. So many attractions were claimed for this village that failure to choose it originally becomes difficult to understand.

Imperial decrees eulogized its mountains and rivers, and people recalled a prediction uttered 170 years previously by Prince Shotoku that the place would ultimately be selected for the perpetual capital of the empire. The Tang metropolis, Changan, was taken for model.

Commenced in April, 794, the new metropolis was finished in December, 805.

The city was laid out with mathematical exactness in the form of a rectangle, nearly three and one-half miles long, from north to south, and about three miles wide, from east to west. In each direction were nine princ.i.p.al thoroughfares, those running east and west crossing the north and south streets at right angles. The east and west streets were numbered from 1 to 9, and, although the regularity of structure and plan of the city has been altered by fire and other causes in eleven hundred years, traces of this early system of nomenclature are still found in the streets of Kyoto.* Running north from the centre of the south side was a great avenue, two hundred and eighty feet wide, which divided the city into two parts, the eastern, called "the left metropolis" (later Tokyo, "eastern capital"), and "the right metropolis" (or Saikyo, "western capital"),--the left, as always in j.a.pan, having precedence over the right, and the direction being taken not from the southern entrance gate but from the Imperial palace, to which this great avenue led and which was on the northern limits of the city and, as the reader will see, at the very centre of the north wall. Grouped around the palace were government buildings of the different administrative departments and a.s.sembly and audience halls.

*The Kyoto of today is only a remnant of the ancient city; it was almost wholly destroyed by fire in the Onin war of 1467.

The main streets, which have already been mentioned as connecting the gates in opposite walls, varied in width from 80 feet to 170 feet.

They divided the city into nine districts, all of the same area except the ones immediately east of the palace. The subdivisions were as formal and precise. Each of the nine districts contained four divisions. Each division was made up of four streets. A street was made up of four rows, each row containing eight "house-units." The house-unit was 50 by 100 feet. The main streets in either direction were crossed at regular intervals by lanes or minor streets, all meeting at right angles.

The Imperial citadel in the north central part of the city was 4600 feet long (from north to south) and 3840 feet wide, and was surrounded by a fence roofed with tiles and pierced with three gates on either side. The palace was roofed with green tiles of Chinese manufacture and a few private dwellings had roofs made of slate-coloured tiles, but most of them were s.h.i.+ngled. In the earlier period, it is to be remembered, tiles were used almost exclusively for temple roofs. The architecture of the new city was in general very simple and unpretentious. The old canons of s.h.i.+nto temple architecture had some influence even in this city built on a Chinese model. Whatever display or ornament there was, appeared not on the exterior but in inner rooms, especially those giving on inner court yards. That these resources were severely taxed, however, cannot be doubted, especially when we remember that the campaign against the Yemis.h.i.+ was simultaneously conducted. History relates that three-fifths of the national revenues were appropriated for the building.

INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA AND BUDDHIST PROPAGANDISM

The fact that the metropolis at Changan was taken for model in building Kyoto prepares us to find that intercourse with the Middle Kingdom was frequent and intimate. But although China under the Tang dynasty in the ninth century presented many industrial, artistic, and social features of an inspiring and attractive nature, her administrative methods had begun to fall into disorder, which discredited them in j.a.panese eyes. We find, therefore, that although renowned religionists went from j.a.pan during the reign of Kwammu and familiarized themselves thoroughly with the Tang civilization, they did not, on their return, attempt to popularize the political system of China, but praised only her art, her literature, and certain forms and conceptions of Buddhism which they found at Changan.

ENGRAVING: PRIEST SAICHO, AFTERWARD KNOWN AS DENGYO DAIs.h.i.+

The most celebrated of these religionists were Saicho and Kukai--immortalized under their posthumous names of Dengyo Dais.h.i.+ and Kobo Dais.h.i.+, respectively. The former went to Changan in the train of the amba.s.sador, Sugawara Kiyokimi, in 802, and the latter accompanied Fujiwara Kuzunomaro, two years later. Saicho was specially sent to China by his sovereign to study Buddhism, in order that, on his return, he might become lord-abbot of a monastery which his Majesty had caused to be built on Hie-no-yama--subsequently known as Hiei-zan--a hill on the northeast of the new palace in Kyoto. A j.a.panese superst.i.tion regarded the northeast as the "Demon's Gate,"

where a barrier must be erected against the ingress of evil influences. Saicho also brought from China many religious books.

Down to that time the Buddhist doctrine preached in j.a.pan had been of a very dispiriting nature. It taught that salvation could not be reached except by efforts continued through three immeasurable periods of time. But Saicho acquired a new doctrine in China. From the monastery of Tientai (j.a.panese, Tendai) he carried back to Hiei-zan a creed founded on the "Lotus of the Good Law"--a creed that salvation is at once attainable by a knowledge of the Buddha nature, and that such knowledge may be acquired by meditation and wisdom.

That was the basic conception, but it underwent some modification at j.a.panese hands. It became "a system of j.a.panese eclecticism, fitting the disciplinary and meditative methods of the Chinese sage to the pre-existing foundations of earlier sects."* This is not the place to discuss details of religious doctrine, but the introduction of the Tendai belief has historical importance. In the first place, it ill.u.s.trates a fact which may be read between the lines of all j.a.panese annals, namely, that the j.a.panese are never blind borrowers from foreign systems: their habit is "to adapt what they borrow so as to fit it to what they possess." In the second place, the Tendai system became the parent of nearly all the great sects subsequently born in j.a.pan. In the third place, the Buddhas of Contemplation, by whose aid the meditation of absolute truth is rendered possible, suggested the idea that they had frequently been incarnated for the welfare of mankind, and from that theory it was but a short step to the conviction that "the ancient G.o.ds whom the j.a.panese wors.h.i.+pped are but manifestations of these same mystical beings, and that the Buddhist faith had come, not to destroy the native s.h.i.+nto, but to embody It into a higher and more universal system. From that moment the triumph of Buddhism was secured."** It is thus seen that the visit of Saicho (Dengyo Dais.h.i.+) to China at the beginning of the ninth century and the introduction of the Tendai creed into j.a.pan const.i.tute landmarks in j.a.panese history.

*Developments of j.a.panese Buddhism, by the Rev. A. Lloyd. M. A.

**The doctrines that the s.h.i.+nto deities were incarnations of the Buddhas of Contemplation (Dhyani) had already been enunciated by Gyogi but its general acceptance dates from the days of Dengyo Dais.h.i.+. The doctrine was called honchi-suishaku.

ENGRAVING: PRIEST KOKAI, AFTERWARD KNOWN AS KOBO DAIs.h.i.+

KOBO DAIs.h.i.+

Contemporary with and even greater in the eyes of his countrymen than Dengyo Dais.h.i.+, was Kobo Dais.h.i.+ (known as Kukai during his lifetime).

He, too, visited China as a student of Buddhism, especially to learn the interpretation of a Sutra which had fallen into his hands in j.a.pan, and on his return he founded the system of the True Word (s.h.i.+ngori), which has been practically identified with the Gnosticism of early Christian days. Kobo Dais.h.i.+ is the most famous of all j.a.panese Buddhist teachers; famous alike as a saint, as an artist, and as a calligraphist. His influence on the intellectual history of his country was marked, for he not only founded a religious system which to this day has a mult.i.tude of disciples, but he is also said to have invented, or at any rate to have materially improved, the j.a.panese syllabary (hira-gana).

THE SUBSERVIENCE OF s.h.i.+NTO

That the disciples of the s.h.i.+nto cult so readily endorsed a doctrine which relegated their creed to a subordinate place has suggested various explanations, but the simplest is the most convincing, namely, that s.h.i.+nto possessed no intrinsic power to a.s.sert itself in the presence of a religion like Buddhism. At no period has s.h.i.+nto produced a great propagandist. No j.a.panese sovereign ever thought of exchanging the tumultuous life of the Throne for the quiet of a s.h.i.+nto shrine, nor did s.h.i.+nto ever become a vehicle for the transmission of useful knowledge.

ENGRAVING: OKUNO-IN (Kobo Dais.h.i.+'s shrine) AT MT. KOYASAN

With Buddhism, the record is very different. Many of its followers were inspired by the prospect of using it as a stepping-stone to preferment rather than as a route to Nirvana. Official posts being practically monopolized by the aristocratic cla.s.ses, those born in lowlier families found little opportunity to win honour and emoluments. But by embracing a religious career, a man might aspire to become an abbot or even a tutor to a prince or sovereign. Thus, learned and clever youths flocked to the portals of the priesthood, and the Emperor Saga is said to have lamented that the Court n.o.bility possessed few great and able men, whereas the cloisters abounded in them. On the other hand, it has been observed with much reason that as troublers of the people the Buddhist priests were not far behind the provincial governors. In fact, it fared with Buddhism as it commonly fares with all human inst.i.tutions--success begot abuses. The example of Dokyo exercised a demoralizing influence. The tonsure became a means of escaping official exactions in the shape of taxes or forced labour, and the building of temples a device to acquire property and wealth as well as to evade fiscal burdens. Sometimes the Buddhist priests lent themselves to the deception of becoming nominal owners of large estates in order to enable the real owners to escape taxation. Buddhism in j.a.pan ultimately became a great militant power, ready at all times to appeal to force.

THE FIFTY-FIRST SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR HEIJO (A.D. 806-809)

Heijo, the fifty-first sovereign, was the eldest son of Kwammu. The latter, warned by the distress that his own great expenditures on account of the new capital had produced, and fully sensible of the abuses practised by the provincial officials, urged upon the Crown Prince the imperative necessity of retrenchment, and Heijo, on ascending the throne, showed much resolution in discharging superfluous officials, curtailing all unneeded outlays, and simplifying administrative procedure. But physical weakness--he was a confirmed invalid--and the influence of an ambitious woman wrecked his career. While still Crown Prince, he fixed his affections on Kusu, daughter of Fujiwara Tanetsugu, who had been a.s.sa.s.sinated by Prince Sagara during Kwammu's reign, and when Heijo ascended the throne, this lady's influence made itself felt within and without the palace, while her brother, Nakanari, a haughty, headstrong man, trading on his relations.h.i.+p to her, usurped almost Imperial authority.

Heijo's ill-health, however, compelled him to abdicate after a reign of only three years. He retired to the old palace at Nara, entrusting the sceptre to his brother, Saga. This step was profoundly disappointing to Kusu and her brother. The former aimed at becoming Empress--she possessed only the t.i.tle of consort--and Fujiwara Nakanari looked for the post of prime minister. They persuaded the ex-Emperor to intimate a desire of reascending the throne. Saga acquiesced and would have handed over the sceptre, but at the eleventh hour, Heijo's conscientious scruples, or his prudence, caused a delay, whereupon Kusu and her brother, becoming desperate, publicly proclaimed that Heijo wished to transfer the capital to Nara. Before they could consummate this programme, however, Saga secured the a.s.sistance of Tamuramaro, famous as the conqueror of the Yemis.h.i.+, and by his aid Fujiwara Nakanari was seized and thrown into prison, the lady Kusu being deprived of her rank as consort and condemned to be banished from Court. Heijo might have bowed to Nakanari's fate, but Kusu's sentence of degradation and exile overtaxed his patience. He raised an army and attempted to move to the eastern provinces. In Mino, his route was intercepted by a force under Tamuramaro, and the ex-Emperor's troops being shattered, no recourse offered except to retreat to Nara. Then the Jo-o (Heijo) took the tonsure, and his consort Kusu committed suicide. Those who had rallied to the ex-Emperor's standard were banished.