Japan Part 4

Following this is a long legend concerning this child which was dumb from its birth, and how he was sent to wors.h.i.+p at the temple of the deities of Izumo, and how he miraculously attained the power of speech and was brought back to his father.

It was during the reign of this emperor also that Tajima-mori was sent to China to fetch specimens of the orange-tree for introduction into j.a.pan.

He returned with them, but when he reached the capital the emperor was dead. The messenger was shocked and brought the specimens of the orange-tree to the burial place of the emperor, where he died from grief.

Up to this time it seems to have been the cruel custom to bury with the deceased members of the imperial family, and perhaps with others of high rank, the living retainers and horses who had been in their service. It is said that when the emperor's younger brother died (B.C. 2) they buried along with him his living retainers, placing them upright in a circle around him and leaving their heads uncovered. Night and day were heard the agonizing cries of these thus left to die of starvation. The emperor was greatly moved and resolved that this terrible custom should be abolished.

Four years later the empress herself died, and the emperor called together his counsellors to propose some plan by which this practice of living sacrifices could be avoided. Thereupon one of his counsellors, Nomi-no-Sukune, advanced and begged the emperor to listen to a scheme which he had to present. He suggested that, instead of burying the living retainers with their master or mistress, clay images of men and women and horses be set up in a circle around the burial place. The plan pleased the emperor vastly, and images were at once made and buried around the dead empress. As a mark of his high appreciation Nomi-no-Sukune was appointed chief of the clay-workers guild.

It appears probable that this cruel usage of burying living retainers with their dead master was not entirely ended by this subst.i.tution of clay images. As late as A.D. 646 the emperor found it necessary to prescribe regulations for funerals and to forbid the burial of living retainers. Mr.

Satow(55) has given a most interesting account of this edict which pertains not only to the practice of burial of retainers, but also to the size of vaults and mounds and the number of laborers who might be employed in preparing the structure.

The images used as a subst.i.tute for living retainers were called _Tsuchio Ningio_ (clay images). They have been found in many parts of the country, especially in the home provinces where the burial of the imperial families and the connected n.o.bility took place. This burying of images seems to have died out about A.D. 700. Its discontinuance probably was owing to the growing prevalence of Buddhism which discountenanced a custom founded on a religion anterior to it.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Buried Images

The Emperor Suinin was succeeded by his younger son Keiko who became the twelfth emperor. He reigned fifty-nine years, and died at the age of one hundred and forty-three. His son, Prince O-usu, who afterward was known as Yamato-dake, is represented as pursuing a most daring and romantic career.

The myths concerning him are among the most picturesque in j.a.panese history.

The first adventure narrated of him was regarding his elder brother. His father asked him, Why does not thy elder brother make his appearance at the imperial banquets? Do thou see after this and teach him his duty.

A few days after his father said again to him, Why dost not thy brother attend to his duty? Hast thou not warned him as I bade thee?

The young prince replied that he had taken that trouble. Then his father said, How didst thou take the trouble to warn him? And the prince coolly told him that he had slain him and thrown his carca.s.s away.

The emperor was alarmed at the coolness and ferocity of his son, and bethought how he might employ him advantageously. Now there were at k.u.maso in Kyushu two brothers, fierce and rebellious bandits, who paid small respect to the imperial wishes. The emperor conceived that it would be a fitting achievement for his fearless son to put an end to these reckless outlaws. So Yamato-dake borrowed from his aunt her female apparel, and hiding a sword in the bosom of his dress, he sought out the two outlaws in their hiding-place. They were about to celebrate the occupancy of a new cave which they had fitted up for themselves. They had invited a goodly number of their neighbors, and especially of the female s.e.x. Prince Yamato-dake, who was young and fresh-looking, put on his female disguise and let down his hair which was still long. He sauntered about the cave and went in where the two outlaws were amusing themselves with their female visitors. They were surprised and delighted to see this new and beautiful face. They seated her between them and did their best to entertain her.

Suddenly, when the outlaws were off their guard, he drew his sword from his bosom and slew the elder brother. The younger rushed out of the door of the cave, the prince close at his heels. With one hand he clutched him by the back and with the other thrust him through with his sword. As he fell he begged the prince to pause a moment and not to withdraw his sword from his fatal wound.

Then the outlaw said, Who art thou? And he told him and for what purpose he had come.

The outlaw said, There were in the west none so brave as we two brothers.

From this time forward it shall be right to praise thee as the August Child Yamato-dake (the bravest in Yamato).

As soon as he had said this, the prince "ripped him up like a ripe melon."(56)

Then after he had subdued and pacified the rebellious princes of the districts about the straits of s.h.i.+monoseki he returned to the emperor and made his report.

Following this account of Yamato-dake's adventures in the West, there are given the interesting traditions concerning his expedition to the East, and his encounters with the Ainos, who inhabited the northern part of the island. That there was a basis of fact to these traditions there cannot be a doubt. Yet the events have such an air of fable and poetry that it is impossible to separate the fact from the legend. As we have done in previous instances, we give the stories in their essential entirety, leaving to scholars hereafter the task of winnowing the grains of fact out of the chaff which the imagination of the race has left for us.

Prince Yamato-dake took on his expedition to the East the Prince Mi-suki-tomo-mimi-take. The emperor gave him these instructions: "Subdue and pacify the savage deities, and likewise the unsubmissive people of the twelve roads(57) of the East."

Prince Yamato-dake first visited the temple of the Sun G.o.ddess in Ise, where he wors.h.i.+pped at the shrine of his great ancestress. He must have had a presentiment that he never would return alive from this expedition.

His aunt Yamato-hime,(58) who was the priestess of this temple, gave him on his departure the sword(59) which the Impetuous-Male-Deity discovered in the tail of the snake which he slew in Izumo. She also gave him a bag which he was not to open until he found himself in pressing difficulty.

He came to the land of Owari, and appears there to have been smitten by the charms of the Princess Miyazu. And, planning to wed her on his way back, he plighted to her his troth and went on. Then he came to the province of Sagami, where he met the chief of the land. But he deceived him and said that in the midst of a vast moor there is a lagoon where lives a deity. Yamato-dake went over the moor to find the deity. Whereupon the chief set fire to the gra.s.s, expecting to see him consumed. But Yamato-dake seeing his danger, and being a.s.sured that the time of pressing difficulty had come, opened the bag which his aunt, Yamato-hime, had given him. There he found a fire drill,(60) with which a fire could be struck.

He cut away the gra.s.s around him with the sword which had been given him, and then set fire to the moor. When he was safe from the fire he sought out and slew the traitorous chief and all the chiefs who were a.s.sociated with him.

From Sagami he undertook to cross in a boat the waters of Yedo bay to Kazusa opposite. But the sea was rough and they were on the point of being overwhelmed and drowned. Then his wife, the Princess Oto-Tachibana, who accompanied him on this expedition, threw out mats from the boat, and saying, "I will enter the sea instead of the prince; you must finish the task on which you are sent," she sprang from the boat and sat down on the mats(61) she had thrown out. Immediately the waves were quiet and the boat sailed on in safety. And the comb of the princess was washed ash.o.r.e, and the people built for it a sacred mausoleum in which it was kept.

Then Prince Yamato-dake penetrated the regions occupied by the Ainos(62) and subdued them. Having accomplished this princ.i.p.al object of his undertaking, he returned by way of the Usui pa.s.s opposite to mount Fuji.

As he stood in this lofty position and looked out on the sea where his wife had sacrificed herself for his safety, he cried out: "Azuma ha ya!"

(O my wife!) Azuma is a name often used in poetry for the part of j.a.pan north of this pa.s.s. But whether this myth was invented to explain the name, or the name was derived from the incident, it is impossible to determine.

Then Prince Yomato-dake went into the high lands of s.h.i.+nano and after he had settled the disturbances which existed there, he came back to Owari where he had left the Princess Miyazu. In one of his excursions into the rebellious regions he was stricken with a fatal illness. In his enfeebled condition he struggled on, almost unable to walk. He made his way towards Ise. At Otsu, a village on the coast of Owari bay, he recovered the sword which he had left on his way to the East. In his painful journey he sat down under a pine tree. The spirit of poesy even in his pain came upon him and he sang this little poem(63) in praise of the pine tree:

O mine elder brother, the single pine tree That art on cape Otsu, which directly faces Owari!

If thou single pine tree! wert a person, I would gird my sword upon thee, I would clothe thee with my garments,- O mine elder brother, the single pine tree!

He went on a little farther to n.o.bono and his sickness became more serious. And there in the open fields he felt that his end had come. He sent the spoils of his expedition to the temple of his great ancestress, the Sun G.o.ddess. He sent his faithful companion Prince Kibi-no-Takehito to the emperor to carry his last message. It was: "I have chastised the eastern barbarians according to your imperial order with the help of the G.o.ds and with your imperial influence. I hoped to return in triumph with my weapons wrapped in white. But I have been seized with a mortal disease, and I cannot recover. I am lying in the sweet open fields. I do not care for my life. I only regret that I cannot live to appear before thee and make my report of my expedition."

And he died in the thirty-second year of his age. And they buried him there and built a mausoleum over his remains. The emperor lamented the death of his gallant and immortal son, and made an imperial progress into the regions which he had conquered and pacified.

The successor to the Emperor Keiko was known by the canonical name of Seimu. He was the thirteenth emperor, and was the grandson of his predecessor, having been a son of the hero Yamato-dake who was the crown prince until his death. The Emperor Seimu reigned fifty-nine years and died at the age of one hundred and eight. Nothing noteworthy is narrated of his reign.

His successor, the fourteenth emperor, was Chuai, his eldest son. He reigned only eight years and died at the age of fifty-two. It is remarkable that his capital was in the island of Kyushu and not in the Main island, like his predecessors from the time of the Emperor Jimmu.

This removal was probably due to the preparations which had already begun for the invasion of Korea. The island of Kyushu is most favorably situated for the preparation and sailing of such an expedition. The wife of this emperor was Jingo-Kogo, who was a much more forcible and energetic character than her husband.

She is one of the heroines around whom much tradition has gathered, and her successful invasion of Korea is an event which the j.a.panese writers and artists are never tired of representing. The legend-for undoubtedly much of the story is legendary-is essentially as follows:

The emperor was busy in Kyushu in reducing to subjection the tribes of the k.u.maso who inhabited the southern portion of the island. Up to this time these restless tribes had given much trouble to the empire and expeditions were constantly needed to keep them in order. They were unquestionably of a kindred race with the j.a.panese who accompanied the Emperor Jimmu into the Main island. The empress, afterward known as Jingo-Kogo and the faithful prime-minister Take-no-uchi(64) were at their temporary palace at Kas.h.i.+hi. The empress in an interview on the campaign became divinely possessed. And she spoke to the emperor in the name of the deity that possessed her saying, "There is a land at the westward, and in that land there is abundance of various treasures dazzling to the eye, from gold and silver downwards. I will now bestow this land upon thee."

Then the emperor replied, "If you ascend to a high place and look westward, no country is to be seen; there is only the great sea." And he pushed away the lute upon which he was playing and said, "They are lying deities which have spoken to you." Then the deity was very angry and spoke again through the empress. "This empire is not a land over which thou art fit to rule. Go thou the one road."

The prime-minister Take-no-uchi then said to the emperor, "I am filled with awe, my heavenly sovereign, at this fearful message. I pray thee continue playing thy august lute." Then he played softly; and gradually the sound died away and all was still. And they took a light and looking in his face, behold he was dead.

The empress and the prime-minister Take-no-uchi concealed for the time the death of the emperor, and she herself proceeded to carry out the plan for the invasion of Korea. With indefatigable energy she gathered her forces and equipped a fleet for the descent upon Korea. She set out from Wani in Kyushu in the tenth month of the year A.D. 202. Even the fish of the sea were her allies, for with one accord they bore the s.h.i.+p in which she sailed across the intervening straits on their backs.

The coming of the j.a.panese was a complete surprise to the people of Korea.

At this time the peninsula now known to us as Korea and to the j.a.panese as Chosen, was divided into three kingdoms, Korai, s.h.i.+raki, and Kudara. The fleet of Jingo-Kogo landed in the kingdom of s.h.i.+raki. The king was so completely unprepared for this incursion that he at once offered his subjection and proposed to become a tributary kingdom. The proposition was accepted. The kings of Korai and Kudara made similar proposals which also were accepted. Each was to make an immediate contribution to the empress, and annually thereafter to send tribute to the capital of j.a.pan. Thus they became the three tributary countries (_sankan_) dependent on j.a.pan.

Although this invasion of a foreign country without cause or provocation must be p.r.o.nounced indefensible, yet it is not unlikely that the subject kingdoms were quite as safe and free under the distant and little intermeddlesome dominion of the j.a.panese empire, as they had been in the past or were likely to be in the future from their troublesome neighbors, China and the restless Mongolian tribes. To j.a.pan the connection with the continent was of momentous value. It opened up a natural and easy way for the influx of those continental influences which were to be of so great service in their future history.

The empress, having within three years completely accomplished the object of her expedition, returned with her fleet to Kyushu. She brought back with her hostages from the conquered kingdoms, to ensure their fulfilment of the promises they had made. She had learned many lessons of government which she was not slow to introduce into her administration at home. Soon after reaching Kyushu she was delivered of the son of whom she was pregnant at the time of the death of the emperor, and who afterwards became the Emperor Ojin.

The object which she and her faithful prime-minister had in concealing the death of the emperor was accomplished. They now made the fact public, and proclaimed her own son as her successor. Two older sons of Chuai by another empress were unwilling to submit to the rule of a younger brother.

But the Empress Jingo, who had now become a national idol by her Korean expedition, soon put down the conspiracy of these princes and reigned till the end of her life and left a quiet succession to her son.

She is said to have reigned as empress-regent(65) sixty-eight years, and to have died at the age of one hundred.

Her son became the fifteenth emperor and is known by the canonical name of Ojin. He commenced his reign in the year A.D. 270, and reigned forty years and died at the age of one hundred and ten. But the beginning of his reign is reckoned in the government list from the death of his father. The Emperor Ojin is widely wors.h.i.+pped as Hachiman the G.o.d of war, although he is by no means noted as a warrior. The explanation of this curious circ.u.mstance is found in the fact that his mother was pregnant with him during her famous invasion of Korea, and her heroism and success are attributed to the martial character of her unborn son.

The good fruits of the Korean conquest particularly showed themselves in A.D. 284, when the king of Kudara sent his usual tribute to the emperor of j.a.pan. The amba.s.sador for that year was Ajiki, a learned man who was familiar with Chinese literature. At the request of the emperor he gave the young prince, who afterwards became the Emperor Nintoku, lessons in the Chinese language and literature. The year following the king of Kudara seeing how much his efforts to furnish Chinese learning were appreciated, sent an eminent Chinese scholar, Wani, who took with him the _Confucian a.n.a.lects_ and the _Thousand Character Essay_, two noted Chinese cla.s.sics and presented them to the emperor. The prince continued his studies under Wani and became a very learned man.

The emperor had three sons between whom he wished to divide his authority, wis.h.i.+ng however to establish his youngest son as the crown prince and his successor. He summoned them before him and put this question to the elder, "Which should be preferred, a younger son or an older?" Then the elder son replied that he thought the older son should be preferred. But the emperor turned to the second son and asked him the same question. He replied that as the older son was more grown and less of a care, he thought the younger son would be more of a favorite. The emperor was pleased with this reply because it coincided with his own sentiment. He created his youngest son, Prince Waka-iratsu, the crown prince and ordered his second son, Prince Osasagi, to a.s.sist him. He gave the charge of the mountains, rivers, forests, fields, etc. to his eldest son.