Early Japan Landmark Events

297 Wei Chronicle mentions "Land of Wa" and "Yamataikoku" led by a female ruler, Himiko

Early Kofun findings:

--Makimuku Tomb Cluster at Ishizuka c. 190-220 CE

--Hashihaka Tomb--may be Himiko's Tomb?--c.250 CE (The archaeologists have believed that Hashihaka was built around the end of 3rd century CE – early 4th century AD, but the discoveries from recent excavation shows the possibility of much earlier construction.) Gina BARNES’ suggested date for Hashihaka would shift slightly earlier from 280 to 248 CE. 

--Miwa Keyhole Tombs c. 220-350 CE so right around the time it is assumed that the Mimaki line of rulers, starting with Sujin, was exercising power and garnering influence.

But she is followed by the indisputable early ruler Ôjin, or Homuda Wake, followed by his son, Nintoku whose tomb is the largest in Japan. Here we are on much firmer ground. This lineage seems to be closely associated with Mimana or Kaya/Gaya on the tip of the Korean Peninsula as well.  So he is sometimes thought to be a Puyo aristocrat who immigrated to the Japanese archipelago from Kokguryo.

As Kidder notes,

The construction of large mounded tombs in Japan is too coincidental with the break up of the Han dynasty (AD 220) not to be related. Some mound builders are undoubtedly among the new migrants, but without doubt, by the end of the Yayoi period, tribal groups had coalesced under security needs, the power of chieftans had become greatly inflated with land acquisitions and access to or control of metal resources, and the chieftans or their associates had gained stature by exercising their special relationship to the kami. This last was a view promoted by the rising professional class of diviners. 

It could certainly be argued that groupings of tribes in the major population centers of Northern  Kyushu, Izumo, Kibi, and the Kinki area were under Yamato pressure to join the larger confederacy led by the uji affiliated with Amatrerasu, the Sun Goddess. The Wa people then got their first chief among chieftans (Ôkimi), called Sujin tennô by later writers. All of this centralization of power set the stage for the building of the tombs." (adapted from J. Edward Kidder, Himiko and Japan's Elusive Chiefdom, p. 274)

As Silla was stepping up its attacks on Koguryo and Paekche, the situation on the peninsula was destabilized and many elites and their followers were looking for more fortuitous circumstances in which to relocate.

And later Kidder writes:

Princess Yamato-totohi-momoso-hime, the aunt of Emperor Sujin, the female shaman to whom the Hashikaka Tomb is attributed, fits the time period in my view. She was a background figure in the Nihon shoki...The later writers made her the power behind the throne. In her day, she was probably its ocupant. Hers is the first report of a female burial. Whoever is in Hashihaka--and no one has suceesssfully argued that its occupant is not femlae--had reached the highest position society had to offer. ...

Makimuku was clearly the largest thriving community east of north Kyushu when the Yayoi period closed. The first large mounded tombs were built there, proving it to be the chief political center of its day. (281)

So Kidder would place Princess Himiko in the thriving Makimuku community where the first mounded tombs were built and which was the hub of a substantial trading network. (Ibid.)

Gina Barnes fundamentally agrees with Kidder that the Makimuku and later Miwa courts were constituted on the basis of ritual authority, hence the role of a shaman priestess would be central. She concludes, as does Kidder that 

probably the Yamatai location mentioned in the Wei Chronicles and the female ruler Himiko can be equated with Princess Yamato who was related to the Sujin line of rulers who built tombs in the southwestern Nara Basin, and is the person buried in the Hashihaka Tomb.

So, not unlike the Shang Dynasty in China (1700 BCE) the Miwa center

functioned primarily as a ceremonial centre...comprised of highly specialized craft production units, public buildings and residential areas for court members.

Therefore, according to Barnes, the Miwa court existed as

a web of personal relations between the core elite, the paramount and the gods. (Barnes, State Formation in Japan, 189-90)

Barnes elaborates:

The story presented herein is essentially that of the emergence of a pan-regional grouping of elite rulers who established themselves as distinct from their local commoner populations through subscription to an exclusive burial system comprised of monumental tomb building and a relatively fixed repertoire of symbolic grave goods. This process of emergence is proposed to have constituted the process of social stratification, which took approximately one hundred years from mid-3rd to mid-4th century) to produce a ruling class of mutually communicating regional rulers and their families. (See Gina Barnes, State Formation in Early Japan, 193)

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Late Kofun Transitions--300-450 CE--What about the Horseriders? See further discussion of dating issues here.

However things unfolded, it can be argued that after the Ôjin-Nintoku kingships, and the succession by Keitai, Japanese political and social life began to be significantly transformed. It is fair to assume, that underlying the early forms of the state in Japan, with these "strong men" or powerful leaders, i.e., those people claiming to be Chieftans or Kings (the term Tennô 天皇 or emperor is only inserted into the chronolgies much later)--were these communities of powerful clans competing with each other, using both overt armed conflict to achieve their endds. They were also jockeying for power using the manipulation of religious myths, symbols, and ritual worship practices to unite people and marshall resources.

Japan at the time was known for a lineage system called the Uji (氏) or "clan" system. Uji were loose clusters of families who acknowledged real or imagined common descent from clan gods or "Uji-gami (氏神)." The lineage or clan Chief was known as the "Uji-no-kami," and they tended to claim either descent from a "kami," a god or goddess, or to have a special relationship with one. The Yamato-uji claimed their descent from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu-Ômikami, so we often refer to this Uji or lineage group as the "Sun Line."

The early Yamato polity or state can be thought of as a loose confederation of Clans or Uji cobbled together by a combination of military conquest, along with political and marital alliances--much as Gina Barnes described the Miwa court or the Makimuku federation from the earlier phase of state formation.

Beneath the Uji were groups of people--farmers, craftspeople, arms and armor makers, scribes, workers, etc., known collectively as "Be." They were linked in with the Uji by common worship of the Clan Deity or Ujigami.

Beneath the larger Uji chieftans or the early Monarchs/Kings/Emperors were powerful local Kings or Cheiftans called Ô-omi. Some of their power bases were territorial but others were functional like performing important organizational or fiscal tasks--organizing land tilling and harvesting, tax collecting, etc. An example of a very powerful Ô-omi was the Soga-uji or Soga Clan who operated beneath the Sun Line associated with Amaterasu who performed important fiscal functions for the rulers.

For example, Soga no Iname served as Ô-omi or Grand Minister from 536 until his death in 570, and was the first of the Soga clan to carry to extreme lengths the domination of the throne by people from the ranks of the nobility or the Omi. One of the chief ways he exerted influence was through a systematic pattern of marital connections with the "royal" family. For example, Soga no Iname married two of his daughters to Emperor Kimmei, one providing a child to an Emperor, Emperor Yomei. The next five emperors all had a wife or mother who was a descendant of Iname.  Since the marriage system among the elites usually dictated that the female remained with her family and children were raised their, the parents and grandparents obviously and controlling influence over the young Regents and Monarchs.

In this way the Soga unified and strengthened the polity by manipulating the office of the Monarch or the "Emperor" as the symbolic and spiritual leader while they took actual control of secular matters and day-to-day governance.

It is interesting that the Soga clan had strong ties with the Korean Peninsula, probably orginating in Paekche, and regularly fostered contacts with foreigners, including other families from the Korean peninsula along with Chinese monks, teachers, skilled workers, and scribes, as well. They favored the adoption of Buddhism and of governmental and cultural models based on Chinese Confucianism.  The names of Soga no Iname's ancestors, Soga no Koma and Soga no Karako reference the Chinese written form of the Goguryeo state and the Gaya confederacy (Kara), respectively, highlighting their strong ties with the Korean Peninsula.

The Soga clan is best known for championing the introduction of Buddhism into Yamato during the 6th century by monks from Paekche. One of the important figures in early Japanese history was the Prince Regent Shōtoku Taishi 聖徳太子 who served his aunt, the Empress Suiko 推古 (reigned from 592 to 628). Empress Suiko was initially a consort to her half-brother Emperor Bidatsu. After his first wife passed away, Suiko became his official consort and was given the title Ōkisaki (official consort of the emperor) and bore seven sons. After Bidatsu’s death, Suiko’s brother Yōmei became emperor for two years before succumbing to illness. After Yōmei’s death, there was a power struggle between the Soga clan--kind of representing the newer, more progressive statecraft associated with the Korean peninsula and Paekche--and the Mononobe clan--which was rooted in the old uji system--from which the Sogas emerged victorious.

The head of the Soga clan, Soga no Umako, actually had an emperor (Sushun) assassinated in 592. When it came to deciding who would ascend to the throne after Emperor Sushun, Suiko became the first woman in all of Japanese history among seven others to be chosen as empress regnant.

Prince Shotoku was her Regent. A descendant from the powerful Soga 蘇我 clan, he was a learned man, educated in the Confucian classics, and was a powerful patron of Buddhism, so he also comes down to us in history as a serious and devout student of Buddhism. Prince Shōtoku lived at a time when Korean influence was perhaps near its peak in Japan. Immigration from both Korea and China can be traced back to at least the mid-third century. By Shōtoku’s time, many of Japan’s highest ranking monks and artisans hailed from Korea. These immigrants from Korea played instrumental roles in transmitting the Buddhist teachings and artistic techniques to the Japanese court, its court-sponsored art workshops, and the newly established temples that served as Japan’s main centers of Buddhist study.

Shōtoku is credited with constructing numerous temples, including the famous Hōryūji Temple 法隆寺 which we can still see today in Nara and Shitennō-ji Temple 四天王寺 in Osaka. He is also strongly associated with centralizing state administration, importing the Chinese bureaucratic model, and codifying the twelve court ranks, and enacting the 17 Article constitution (see below) that established Buddhist ethics and Confucian ideals as the moral foundations of the young Japanese polity. (I am not sure it should be called a "nation" at this juncture.)

During his regency, Japanese missions were regularly dispatched to China to study and learn from the Sui and Tang systems. Make no mistake, though, developmentally, Yamato was a long way from where China was and the principle of merit--of promoting the worthy and able, those who demonstrated their virtue and suitability for adminsitrative office by mastering the Confucian classics--was still trumped by birth, by one's lineage. So "Aristocracy" was still deeply imbedded in the fabric of life in Japan at this time.

552 CE is the putative date for the "Introduction of Buddhism" but it was probably a more gradual process. Monks, statues and Sutras were brought from Paekche by the Soga-uji and this stirred up conflict with the more indigenous, Sun-line oriented clans like the pro-Shinto Mono-no-be 物部 and Nakatomi clans. After the initial introduction of statuary and religious artifacts, and after an epidemic spread, things looked bad for the Soga but they survived this and ultimately triumphed and Buddhism was integrated into the so-called "Shinto" system, a term coined by Buddhist priests to describe the local clan deity worhip system.

This victory by the Soga clan at the time can be perceived as a victory of the new, progressive forces in the archipelago; their authority was based on

--their bureaucratic function,

--their ability to attract immigrants, to open new farmlands to cultivation, encouraging new improved agricultural technologies,

--their doing a better job of collecting taxes, storing grain, distibuting goods and services and

--and generally better organizing the functions of government.

So their power was lodged in the services or the functions they performed; they had no powerful Ujigami to rely upon as the Sun Line did so they could not rival or displace them very easily. But they could get control of the monarchy, the Sun Line, and exercise influence that way. (see: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/shotoku-taishi.html)

 

In addition to Buddhist ideas, 604 AD Prince Shōtoku was interested in Confucianism and China's superior monarchical and bureaucratic administrative structure. So he is credited with offering something known as the 17 Article Constitution. See also this PDF.

It is really a statement of principles or ideals to which he wished Japanese leaders would adhere. The first thing we notice is that it spoke to a need to get away from the constant infighting and political squabbling among the uji and promoted the idea of establishing a stable political-administrative structure. It would remain a statement of the ideal, the goal, hardly the "law of the land" type of a constitution. Let's look at the first of the 17 Articles:

Article I: Harmony [和] is to be cherished, and opposition for opposition's sake must be avoided as a matter of principle. Men are often influenced by partisan feelings, except a few sagacious ones. Hence there are some who disobey their lords and fathers, or who dispute with their neighboring villages. If those above are harmonious and those below are cordial, their discussion will be guided by a spirit of conciliation, and reason shall naturally prevail. There will be nothing that cannot be accomplished. See the rest of Constitution here.

Clearly, it is time for some good old fashioned Confucian loyalty to be injected into the Japanese Uji-system in the hopes of creating greater political centralization and stability. It also incorporated such ideas as an appreciation for Buddhism, but especially the very Confucian idea that

"Ministers and functionaries should make propriety (li) their leading principle," and therefore the leading principle of government should be the correct modeling of proper or decorous behavior.

It makes you think that if Shōtoku was calling for this, it was something that was probably lacking in Japanese politics at the time. So we find such admonitions as

Find the right man for each job. Unprincipled men in office multiply disasters, which sounds a bit like Confucius idea of promoting the worthy and able and let names and reality correspond.

We also find the admonition:

"Chastise that which is evil and encourage that which is good," a very Confucian idea; and in appealing to Ministers "to turn away from that which is private, and to turn towards that which is public," it seems to ask officials to be more publicly spirited and less concerned with advancing the intersts of an individual clan or uji.

And by calling for decisions on important matters to not be made by one person alone ("Important decisions should not be made by one person but in consultation with others"), there seems to be an appeal for consensus--can't we all just get along?--which is what was implied by the new Chinese character applied to Yamato, 和, or the People of Wa, because this character can be read as Wa, the old name the Chinese had for Japan, but now without the pejorative character meaning "dwarf" (倭) or little people, but includes, instead, the meaning of "Harmony." The the opening line is a double utterance--he is addressing all the people in the Land of Wa, and appealing to them to start working more with Wa (和) as in Harmony and therefore, with greater consensus.

Likewise, there is the declaration:

"Scrupulously obey imperial commands."

Again, this suggests that this was not the case at the time or there would not be such a need to implore people to do so!

So Shōtoku was all about strengthening the powers of the Japanese Monarch, the Sovereign, by investing him with powers and authority like those found in the monarch in China, and therefore centralizing the power of the fledgling Japanese government.

These trends that Shōtoku initiated continued after a coup d'etat in which Shōtoku's clan, the Soga, were displaced by another family, the Nakatomi, who became the Fujiwara clan or lineage system who, like the Sogas, brought the practice of using marriage politics as a way to exercise influence over the monarch to a high art. The first step in continuing the centralization and strengthening of the Sovereign's power came in 646 and the Taika Reforms.

 

646 The Taika Reforms

In the Taika Reforms of 645, there was a coup led by the Fujiwara Clan against the leader of the Soga uji and his top allies who were were assassinated; the head of the Yamato royal family was established as an absolute ruler in the Chinese style. Thus began the process of establishing a strong central government in the Japanese islands. The Taika Reforms declared several major changes in the political and economic order to further their goal of making the head of the royal family, now appropriately called the imperial family, an absolute ruler.

The new emperor asserted that all the land of the Japanese islands was his possession. The old uji, the occuptatonal be, and the old rank and title systems were abolished to be replaced with new government offices and titles of nobility granted by the emperor, much like in the Han-Sui-Tang model in China. The emperor was now also given the ability to appoint governors to each of the provinces, and charged them with reforming local administration in various ways.

The old taxation system was abolished, and replaced by a uniform system of taxation controlled from the capital. This was a huge step. However the Taika Reform leaders had very little actual military power so they could not force compliance. The reforms were thus more on paper than real. Typically the new government simply re-appointed the old local uji heads as "governors" of the same areas, and the old rank and title system was converted over to a new system of court titles.

Still, the Taika Reforms were not meaningless. Since there was no ideological challenge to the theory of absolute imperial rule espoused by the reforms, the reforms laid the ideological groundwork for an Emperor who would come to the throne with enough power to enforce them.

How did it all happen? By 644, no longer feeling the need to act behind the scenes, Soga no Emishi and his son Soga no Iruka began to build increasingly elaborate palaces and tombs for themselves, styling themselves much like "sovereigns" in their own right. This sparked some opposition from more indigenous Uji like the Nakatomi whose hereditary function was managing rituals for the Ujigami. Clan leader Nakatomi no Kamatari (later known as the founder of the Fujiwara clan and traditionally referred to as Fujiwara no Kamatari), conspired with disgruntled members of the Soga Clan and Prince Naka no Ōe (later Emperor Tenji) and they arranged for Iruka's assassination at a dinner party. Prince Ōe himself attacked Iruka during a court ceremony concerning edicts from Korean kingdoms in front of Empress Kōgyoku; he survived, but the Empress left the scene and Ōe's guards finished Iruka off. Subsequently, Soga no Emishi committed suicide by burning down his own residence, destroying many important court documents. The Empress abdicated and her brother took the throne as Emperor Kōtoku. The Soga clan's hold over the imperial family was broken and two years later the Emperor enacted the Taika Reforms as described above, returning full power to the emperor and strengthening the monarch's position by drawing upon Chinese notions of the Imperial Bueaucratic System.

What were the Taika Reforms (大化の改新 Taika no Kaishin) exactly? They were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 Kōtoku-tennō) in the year 645. They were written shortly after the death of Prince Shōtoku, and the defeat of the Soga clan (蘇我氏 Soga no uji), uniting Japan. The reforms also artistically marked the end of the Asuka period and the beginning of the Hakuhō period. Crown Prince Naka no Ōe (who would later reign as Emperor Tenji), Nakatomi no Kamatari, and Emperor Kōtoku jointly embarked on the details of the Reforms. Emperor Kōtoku then took the reign name of "Taika" (大化), or "Great Reform."

The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from China, but the true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys and students were dispatched to China to learn seemingly everything from the Chinese writing system, literature, religion, and architecture, to even dietary habits at this time. Even today, the impact of the reforms can still be seen in Japanese cultural life.

More Background on the Taika Reforms:

After the regency of Shōtoku Tenchi ended, the Soga clan, from which Shōtoku's ancestry was derived, took hegemony of the Yamato court. The clan was opposed to Shōtoku's son Yamashiro Ōe and killed him in 643. Under the reign of Empress Kōgyoku, the Soga clan head, Soga no Iruka, was virtually an almighty leader of the court. Those who were against Soga's dictatorship included the emperor's brother Karu, the emperor's son, Prince Naka no Ōe, along with his friend Nakatomi no Kamatari, and his son-in-law Soga no Ishikawamaro (Iruka's cousin). They ended Iruka's regime by a coup d'état in 645 (Isshi Incident). As Kōgyoku renounced her throne, Karu ascended to be Emperor Kōtoku. The new emperor, together with the Imperial Prince Naka no Ōe, issued a series of reform measures that culminated in the Taika Reform Edicts in 646. At this time, two scholars,Takamuko no Kuromaro and priest Min (who had both accompanied Ono no Imoko in travels to Sui Dynasty China, where they stayed for more than a decade), were assigned to the position of kuni no hakushi (国博士; National doctorate). They were likely to take a major part in compiling these edicts which in essence founded the Japanese imperial system and government. The ruler, according to these edicts, was no longer a clan leader, butEmperor (in Japanese, Tennō), who ruled by the Mandate of Heaven and exercised absolute authority.

From today's vantage point, the Taika Reform is seen as a coherent system in which a great many inherently dissonant factors have been harmonized, but the changes unfolded in a series of successive steps over the course of many years.

The Reform Edicts severely curtailed the independence of regional officials and constituted the imperial court as a place of appeal and complaint for the people. In addition, the last edicts attempted to end certain social practices, in order to bring Japanese society more in line with Chinese social practices. Nonetheless, it would take centuries for the conceptual ideal of the Chinese-style emperor to take root in Japan.

 

701 Taiho Codes or Ritsu-Ryo System

The first emperor to have a significant amount of military power was Tenmu, who took the throne in 672 when he deposed the chosen succsor of Emperor Tenji. Tenmu was able to enforce the Taika Reforms in a significantly stronger manner than his predecessors. It was not until after his death however that the power of the imperial institution began to reach its zenith, with the promulgation of the first of two major law and administrative codes which specified the general structure of the imperial government. The first of these codes was the Taiho-Ritsuryo Code of 701, which was supplemented by the Yoro Code of 718. Below the emperor were two major divisions of equal standing, the Council of Kami Affairs, which dealt with divination and state religious rites, and the Council of State, which controlled political administration. The core of the Council of State consisted of seven powerful ministers, the Chancellor, the Minister of the Left, the Minister of the Right, and four Senior Counselors. It was this group that made policy decisions. As time went on, the Minister of the Left became the most powerful of these officials. The struggle to make this new governmental structure work would absorb much time and effort in the late Asuka and Nara periods.

The Taiho-Ritsuryo and the Yoro codes created a system of government based upon the Chinese Tang government, but with some modifications. The extent of the Chinese influence on the government created by these codes is a matter of debate. Many traditional scholars claim that the government at this time was a direct copy of the Chinese style imperial government. Others however believe that the "rational shopper" model first proposed by John Hunter Boyle to describe the cultural borrowing of late nineteenth century Japan is equally applicable to the Asuka and subsequent Nara period. Thought the extent of Japanese borrowing of Tang Chinese institutions does seem considerable, the development of uniquely distinct institutions like the Council of Kami Affairs and the high degree of power invested in it points to an attempt to modify the borrowed structures to suit Japanese needs. (https://www.courses.psu.edu/spcom/spcom483_sdp2/lectures/Bill/intro.html)

 

 

 

710 Capital moved to Nara

712 Kojiki compiled

720 Nihon shoki compiled

758 Manyoshu--poetic anthology--compiled

 

794 Capital moved to Kyoto

905 Kokinshu, 1st Imperial Poetry Anthology compiled