The art of writing and printing was not introduced into Japan until a.d. 284, when it was brought from China. Up to that time therefore no written accounts existed or could exist of the early history of the country. Oral tradition was the only agency by which a knowledge of the events of that epoch could be preserved and transmitted. That such a method of preserving history28 is uncertain and questionable no one can doubt. We may expect to find therefore in the accounts which have come down to us of those centuries which transpired before written records were introduced, much that is contradictory and unintelligible, and much out of which the truth can be gleaned only by the most painstaking research.

The oldest book of Japanese history which has come down to us is called Kojiki,29 or Records of Ancient [pg 033] Matters. This work was undertaken by the direction of the Emperor Temmu (a.d. 673-686), who became impressed with the necessity of collecting the ancient traditions which were still extant, and preserving them in a permanent record. Before the work was ended the emperor died, and for twenty-five years the collected traditions were preserved in the memory of Hiyeda-no-are. At the end of that time the Empress Gemmyō superintended its completion, and it was finally presented to the Court in a.d. 711. By a comparison of this work with Nihongi, or Chronicles of Japan, which was completed a.d. 720, only nine years after the other, we are convinced that the era of Chinese classicism had not yet fallen upon the country. The style of the older book is a purer Japanese, and imparts to us the traditions of Japanese history uncolored by Chinese philosophical ideas and classic pedantry which shortly after overwhelmed Japanese literature. But in many particulars these two works, almost equally ancient, supplement and explain each other. The events given in the two are in most respects the same, the principal difference being that the Chronicles is much more tinctured with Chinese philosophy, and the myths concerning the creation especially show the influence of that dual system which had been introduced to give a philosophical aspect to the Japanese cosmogony.

The Kojiki30 has been translated into English, to [pg 034] which have been added a valuable introduction and notes. The Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan) has never been translated entire into English, but has been used by scholars in connection with the Kojiki. Among the Japanese it has always been more highly esteemed than the Kojiki, perhaps because of its more learned and classical style.

Besides these two historical works the student of early times finds his chief assistance in the Shintō rituals31 contained in a work called Yengishiki (Code of Ceremonial Law). They have been in part translated by Mr. Satow, who for many years was the learned Japanese secretary of the British legation, and who read two papers on them before the Asiatic Society of Japan, and afterward prepared an article on the same subject for the Westminster Review.32

It will be apparent from these circumstances that the knowledge of the earlier events, indeed of all preceding the ninth century, must be derived from tradition and cannot claim the same certainty as when based on contemporaneous documents. Not only the whole of the so-called divine age, but the reigns of the emperors from Jimmu to Richū, must be reckoned as belonging to the traditional period of Japanese history, and must be sifted and weighed by the processes of reason.

Relying on the narratives of the Kojiki and the Nihongi, Japanese scholars have constructed a table of the emperors which has been accepted by the great [pg 035] mass of the readers, both foreign and native. It will be found in the Appendix.33 It must be remembered that the names of these early emperors, their ages at the time of accession and at the time of death, and the length of reign, must have all been handed down by tradition during almost a thousand years. That errors and uncertainties should have crept in seems inevitable. Either the names and order of the successive emperors, or the length of time during which they reigned would be liable to be misstated. If we examine the list of emperors34 we find that the ages at death of the first seventeen, beginning with Jimmu and ending with Nintoku, sum up 1853 years, with an average of 109 years35 for each. The age of Jimmu is given as 127 years; of Kōan 137 years, of Kōrei 128 years, of Keikō 143 years, of Nintoku, the last, 110 years, etc. Then suddenly the ages of the emperors from Richū onward drop to 67, 60, 80, 56, etc., so that the ages of the seventeen emperors, beginning with Richū, have an average of only 61-½ years. This reasonable average extends down through the long series to the present time. It is plain that up to this time there must have existed a different system of reckoning the ages than that which pertained afterwards. Either the original epoch of the Emperor Jimmu has been rendered more remote and [pg 036] the lives of the emperors have been prolonged to fill up the space, or, if we assume the epoch of Jimmu to be correct, we must suppose that a number of the emperors have been dropped from the count.

In writing the history of Rome, Dr. Thomas Arnold36 said that the only way to treat its early history [pg 037] was to give the early legends in as nearly the form in which they had been handed down as possible; that in this way the spirit of the people would be preserved and the residuum of truth in them would become the heritage of the present generation. We have tried to treat the myths and legends of Japanese history in this manner, and have given the principal stories as they are preserved among the Japanese.

The scene opens in the plain of high heaven. When heaven and earth began there were three deities37 in existence, that is:

These three came into existence without creation and afterwards died.

Then two other deities were born from a thing that sprouted up like unto a reed shoot when the earth, young and like unto floating oil, drifted about medusa-like, viz.:

These two deities likewise came into existence without creation and afterward died.

Then the heavenly deities gave commandment to Izanagi and Izanami to make, consolidate, and give birth to this drifting land. For their divine mission they received a heavenly jewelled spear. With this, standing on the floating bridge of heaven, they reached down and stirred the brine and then drew up the spear. The brine that dripped from the end of the spear was piled up and became the island of Onogoro38 or Self-Coagulated Island. Then the pair descended upon [pg 039] this island and erected thereon a palace eight fathoms long. Here they lived and begat successive islands. The first was the island of Hirugo, which, as it was a miscarriage, they put in a boat of bulrushes and let it float away. The second was the island of Awa, which also is not reckoned among their offspring. The next was the island of Awaji,39 and the next the land of Iyo by which is understood the present island of Shikoku.

So in succession they produced the islands of Mitsugo, near the island of Oki, the island of Tsukushi, which is now called Kyūshū, the island of Iki, the island of Tsu, and the island of Sado, and lastly the Great-Yamato-the-Luxuriant-Island-of-the-Dragon-Fly, which is supposed to mean the principal island, named in these pages the Main island. Afterward they produced Kojima in Kibi, Ōshima, the island of Adzuki, the island of Hime, the island of Chika, and the islands of Futago.

Thus were finished the labors of this industrious pair in producing the islands of Japan. Then they turned to the duty of begetting additional deities, and thirty-five are named as their descendants. But as their names do not appear in the record of subsequent events, we omit them here. Finally the Deity of Fire was born, and the mother in giving birth to this child died and departed into hades. Izanagi was overwhelmed with grief at his wife's death. The tears which he shed turned into the Crying-Weeping-Female-Deity. In his madness he drew the ten-grasp40 [pg 040] sabre with which he was augustly girded, and cut off the head of the Deity of Fire. Three deities were born from the blood that stuck to the blade; three were born from the blood that besprinkled the sword guard; two were born from the blood which oozed out through his fingers as they grasped the hilt; and eight were born from the head and trunk of the slaughtered deity.

Then Izanagi, in order to purify himself from the pollution of hades, came to a small stream on the island of Tsukushi. So he threw down the august staff which he carried and it became a deity. He [pg 041] took off his girdle and it became a deity. He threw down his skirt and it became a deity. And he took off his upper garment and it became a deity. And from his trousers which he threw down there was born a deity. Three deities were born from the bracelet which he took from his left arm, and three from the bracelet which he took from his right arm. Thus twelve deities were born from the things which he took off.

Then he found that the waters in the upper reach were too rapid, and the waters in the lower reach were too sluggish. So he plunged into the waters of the middle reach. And as he washed, there were born successive deities, whose names it is not needful to mention. But when he washed his left august eye there was born from it the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity,41 or as she is often called the Sun Goddess.

When he washed his right august eye there was born His-Augustness-Moon-Night-Possessor. Then when he washed his august nose there was born His-Brave-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness. Thus fourteen deities were born from his bathing. All these deities, as well as those before produced, seem to have come into being in full maturity, and did not need years of growth to develop their final powers.

Izanagi was greatly delighted with the beauty and brilliancy of these last three children. He took from his neck his august necklace and gave it to the [pg 042] Sun Goddess, saying, Rule thou in the plains of high heaven. Then he gave command to the Moon-Night-Possessor, Rule thou the dominion of the night.

Thereupon she proposed to him a test of his sincerity. They stood on opposite sides of the tranquil river of heaven. She begged him to reach her his mighty sabre. She broke it into three pieces and crunched the pieces in her mouth, and blew the fragments away. Her breath and the fragments which she blew away were turned into three female deities. Then His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness took the jewels which she wore in her hair, and the jewels which she wore in her head-dress, and the jewels she wore on her left arm, and the jewels she wore on her right arm, and crunched them and blew them out, and they were turned into five male deities. Then the Sun Goddess declared that the three female deities which were produced from her brother's sword belonged to him, and the five male deities which were produced from her own jewels belonged to her. But His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness was angry at this decision, and broke down the fences of her rice fields, and filled up the water sluices, and defiled her garden. And as she sat with her maidens in the weaving hall, he broke a hole in the roof and dropped upon them a piebald horse which he had flayed with a backward flaying.42

Retirement of the Sun Goddess.

Then the Sun Goddess closed the door of the cave in which the weaving hall was, and the whole plain of heaven and the Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains were darkened, and night prevailed, and portents of [pg 044] woe were seen on every hand. Myriads of deities assembled in the bed of the tranquil river of heaven and besought the deity Thought-Includer, child of the High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity, the second of the original trio of deities, to propose a plan for inducing the Sun Goddess to reappear. They gathered the cocks of the barn-door fowl and made them crow; they wrought a metal mirror; they constructed a string of beautiful jewels; they performed divination with the shoulder-blade of a stag; they took a plant of Sakaki and hung on its branches the strings of jewels, the mirror, and offerings of peace. Then they caused the rituals to be recited, and a dance to be danced, and all the assembled deities laughed aloud. The Sun Goddess heard these sounds of merriment and was amazed. She softly opened the door and looked out, and asked the meaning of all this tumult. They told her it was because they had found another goddess more illustrious than she. At the same time they held before her luminous face the mirror which they had made. Astonished, she stepped out, and they shut and fastened the door behind her. And the plain of heaven and the Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains became light again.

So His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness came to the river Hi in Izumo. And he found there an old [pg 045] man and an old woman and a young girl, and they were weeping. And he asked them why they wept. And the old man answered. I once had eight daughters; but every year an eight-forked serpent comes and devours one of them; and now it is the time for it to come again. Then the deity said, Wilt thou give me thy daughter if I save her from the serpent? And he eagerly promised her. Then the deity said, Do you brew eight tubs of strong saké, and set each on a platform within an enclosure. So they brewed and set the saké according to his bidding. Then the eight-forked serpent came and putting a head in each tub drank up all the saké, and being intoxicated therewith went to sleep. The deity then with his sabre hacked the serpent in pieces, and the blood flowed out and reddened the river. But when he came to the middle tail his sabre was broken, and when he searched he found that within the tail was a great sword which he took out. And this is the herb-quelling-great-sword.

The Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains43 being now reported as peaceful, the heavenly deities sent His-Augustness-Heaven-Plenty-Earth-Plenty-Heaven's-Sun-Height-Prince-Rice-Ear-Ruddy-Plenty,44 who was [pg 047] a grandson of Her-Augustness-the-Sun-Goddess, to dwell in and rule over it. There were joined to him in this mission45 the Deity-Prince-of-Saruta as his vanguard and five chiefs of companies. They gave him also the string of jewels and the mirror with which the Sun Goddess had been allured from the cave, and also the herb-quelling-great-sword which His-Augustness-the-Impetuous-Male-Deity had taken from the tail of the serpent. And they charged him saying, Regard this mirror precisely as if it were our august spirit, and reverence it as if reverencing us.

Then His-Augustness-Heaven's-Prince-Rice-Ear-Ruddy-Plenty, taking leave of the plains of heaven, and pushing asunder the heavenly spreading clouds, descended upon the peak of Takachiho46 in Tsukushi, a mountain which is still pointed out in the present island of Kyūshū. And noting that the place was an exceedingly good country, he built for himself a palace and dwelt there. And he married a wife who was the daughter of a deity of the place, who bore him three sons whom he named Prince Fire-Shine, Prince Fire-Climax, and Prince Fire-Subside.

Princes Fire-Shine and Fire-Subside.

Now Prince Fire-Shine was a notable fisherman and Prince Fire-Subside was a hunter. And Prince [pg 048] Fire-Subside said unto his elder brother, Let us exchange our occupations and try our luck. And after some hesitation on the part of the elder brother the exchange was made. But Prince Fire-Subside was not successful and lost the fish-hook in the sea. Then Prince Fire-Shine proposed to his younger brother to exchange back the implements which they had used. But the younger brother said he had had no luck and had lost the hook in the sea. But Prince Fire-Shine was angry and demanded his hook. Then Prince Fire-Subside broke his sword into many fragments and made them into fish-hooks, which he gave to his brother in place of the one he had lost. But he would not receive them. Then he made a thousand fish-hooks and offered these. But he said, I want my original hook.

So he sailed away in the boat and came to the [pg 049] palace of the Ocean-Possessor, and he climbed the cassia tree and sat there. And the maidens of the daughter of the Sea Deity came out to draw water, and saw the beautiful young man sitting in the tree. Then he asked them for some water. And they drew water and gave it to him in a jewelled cup. Without drinking from it he took the jewel from his neck and put it in his mouth and spat it into the vessel, and it clung to the vessel. So the maidens took the vessel and the jewel clinging to it into the palace to their mistress. And they told her that a beautiful young man was sitting in the cassia tree by the well.

At last one morning his daughter reported to the Sea Deity that Prince Fire-Subside, although he had passed three years without a sigh, yet last night he had heaved one deep sigh. The Sea Deity asked him why he sighed. Then Prince Fire-Subside told him about his difficulty with his brother, and how he would accept no compensation for his lost fish-hook, but demanded the return of the original. Thereupon the Sea Deity summoned together all the fishes of the sea and asked them if any one of them had swallowed this hook. And all the fishes said that the tai had complained of something sticking in its throat, and doubtless that was the lost [pg 050] hook. The throat of the tai therefore being examined, the hook was found and given to Prince Fire-Subside.

Without settling the difficult ethnographical questions which are involved in this problem, we propose [pg 052] to follow the Kyūshū invaders into the Main island. We will note the slow and laborious steps by which they proceeded to establish a government, which through many changes and emergencies continues to this day.

The Prince, whom we will continue to call Jimmu,47 had an elder brother, Prince Itsu-se, who seems, however, to have been less active and energetic than the younger. At least, even from the first it is Prince Jimmu who is represented as taking the initiative in the movements which were now begun. The two brothers consulted together and resolved to conduct an expedition towards the east. It will be remembered that their grandfather had established his palace on Mount Takachiho, which is one of the two highest peaks in Kyūshū, situated in the province of Hyūga, nearly in the middle of the southern extension of the island of Kyūshū. It was from this place that the two brothers started on their expedition. It was no doubt such an expedition as the Norse Vikings of a later day often led into the islands of their neighbors. They had with them a force composed of the descendants of the invaders who had come with their grandfather from the continent. They marched first through the country called Toyo, which was a luxuriant and fertile region on the northeast part of the island. Thence they marched to the palace of Wokada, situated in [pg 053] a district of the island of Tsukushi, lying on the northwest coast facing Tsushima and the peninsula of Korea, and bordering on the straits of the Inland sea. Here they remained a year and probably built the boats by which they crossed the Inland sea.

Here their conflicts with the natives began. The whole region seems to have been occupied by tribes [pg 054] not unlike their own, who had probably come thither from the settlements in Izumo. The first to dispute their progress was Prince Nagasuné (Long Legs), of Tomi, who raised an army and resisted the landing of the invaders. It was in the battle that ensued at this place that Prince Itsu-se, the elder brother, received a wound in his hand from an arrow shot by Prince Nagasuné. The reason given reveals a curious superstition which seems to have prevailed from this early time. The Japanese prince on receiving the wound exclaims, “It is not right for me, an august child of the Sun Goddess, to fight facing the sun. It is for this reason that I am stricken by the wretched villain's hurtful hand.” Prince Itsu-se, after a few days, died from the effects of the wound. He is buried on mount Kama in the province of Kii.

At Uda, on the east coast of the Yamato peninsula, [pg 055] there lived two brothers named Ukashi. The elder brother undertook to deceive Prince Jimmu, and set a trap in which to capture and slay him. But the younger brother revealed the plot, whereupon the followers of Prince Jimmu compelled the traitor to retreat into his own trap, where they killed him. The younger brother was honored and rewarded by Jimmu, and appears afterward among the hereditary princes of the country.

Again, as he was making his progress through the country Prince Jimmu came upon a company of the savages known as pit-dwellers,48 whom the Kojiki calls earth-spiders, and describes them as having tails. There appear to have existed at this period remnants of these tribes as far south as the 35th parallel. At a later period they were driven out by the Ainos, and nothing but some of their relics now exists, even in Yezo. The peculiarity by which they were known was, that they lived in a sort of pit dug out of the earth in the sides of the mountains, over which they built a roof of limbs and grass. In the present case there were eighty of the warriors of this tribe. Prince Jimmu made a banquet for them in one of their pits and assigned an equal number of his own men to act as attendants. Each of these attendants was girded with a sword. Then from a post outside he sang a song,49 and at a given signal [pg 056] in this song the eighty attendants fell upon the eighty earth-spiders and slew them all.

Thus having subdued all opposing forces and brought the country into subjection, Prince Jimmu established himself in a palace built for him at Kashiwara in the province of Yamato. This is usually regarded by Japanese historians as the beginning of the empire, and the present era50 is reckoned from this establishment of a capital in Yamato. From the record of the length of the reigns of the several emperors contained in the Kojiki, and the Nihongi, and later books, the date of the accession of the Emperor Jimmu is fixed at 660 b.c. We have given elsewhere51 our reason for believing the record of the early reigns of doubtful authenticity. Nevertheless, as it is impossible to propose a definite change, it is better to use the accepted scheme with its admitted defects.

The Emperor Jimmu after his accession continued to reign seventy-five years and, according to the Kojiki, died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven. The Nihongi, however, gives his age at death as one hundred and twenty-seven, and this has been adopted by the government in its published chronology.52 His burial place is said to be on the northern side of mount Unebi in the province of Yamato. It is just to assign to the Emperor Jimmu the exalted place which the Japanese claim for him in their history. That he was a prince of high enterprise is evident from his adventurous expedition from the home of his family into the barbarous and unknown regions of the Main island. He accomplished its conquest with less slaughter and cruelty than the customs of the times seemed to justify. He made it his policy to effect terms with the native princes and seek their co-operation in his government. He extended his sway so that it covered Anato, now known as Nagato, and Izumo on the west, and reached probably to Owari on the east. All this time he had held a firm hand on the island from which he had come, so that few if any outbreaks occurred among its restless Turanian or native inhabitants.

The Emperor Jimmu was succeeded by his third son, known by his canonical name as the Emperor Suizei. The reigning emperor, it seems, exercised the right to select the son who should succeed him. This was not always the oldest son, but from the time he was chosen he was known as taishi, which is [pg 058] nearly equivalent to the English term crown prince. The Emperor Suizei, it is said, occupied a palace at Takaoka, in Kazuraki, in the province of Yamato. This palace was not far from that occupied by his father, yet it was not the same. And in the reigns of the successive sovereigns down to a.d. 709, when the capital was for a time established at Nara, we observe it as a most singular circumstance that each new emperor resided in a new palace. In the first place, the palace spoken of in these early times was probably a very simple structure. Mr. Satow, in his paper53 on the temples at Isé, gives an account of the form and construction of the prehistoric Japanese house. The Shintō temple in its pure form is probably a survival of the original palace. Before the introduction of edge-tools of iron and boring implements or nails, the building must have been constructed in a very primitive fashion. It will be understood that stone or brick were never used. Wood was the only material for the frame. The roof was thatched with rushes or rice straw. The pure Shintō temples of modern times are built with the utmost simplicity and plainness. Although the occasion for adhering to primitive methods has long since passed away, yet the buildings are conformed to the styles of structure necessary before the introduction of modern tools and appliances. To build a new palace therefore for a new emperor involved by no means such an outlay of time and work as might be imagined.

Nothing is narrated of the immediate successors of the Emperor Jimmu of importance to this story. [pg 060] The accounts contained in either of the oldest histories relate merely to the genealogies of the several sovereigns.

The Emperor Suizei was, as we have seen, the third son of Jimmu and reigned thirty-two years, dying at the age of eighty-four.54

The third emperor was Annei, the only son of the Emperor Suizei. He reigned thirty-seven years and died at the age of fifty-seven.

The fourth emperor was Itoku, the oldest son of the Emperor Annei. He reigned thirty-three years and died at the age of seventy-seven.

The fifth emperor was Kōshō, the oldest son of the Emperor Itoku. He reigned eighty-two years and died at the age of one hundred and fourteen years.

The sixth emperor was Kōan, the oldest son of the Emperor Kōshō. He reigned one hundred and one years and died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven.

The seventh emperor was Kōrei, the second son of the Emperor Kōan. He reigned seventy-five years and died at the age of one hundred and twenty-eight.

The eighth emperor was Kōgen, the oldest son of the Emperor Kōrei. He reigned fifty-six years and died at the age of one hundred and sixteen.

The ninth emperor was Kaikwa, a younger son of the Emperor Kōgen. He reigned fifty-nine years and died at the age of one hundred and eleven.

A conspiracy came near ending the life of this [pg 062] emperor. A brother of the empress was ambitious to attain supreme authority. He approached his sister with the subtle question, Which is dearer to thee, thine elder brother or thy husband? She replied, My elder brother is dearer. Then he said, If I be truly the dearer to thee, let me and thee rule the empire. And he gave her a finely tempered dagger and said to her, Slay the emperor with this in his sleep. So the emperor, unconscious of danger, was sleeping one day with his head on the lap of the empress. And she, thinking the time had come, was about to strike him with the dagger. But her courage failed her, and tears fell from her eyes on the face of the sleeping emperor. He started up, awakened by the falling tears, and said to her, I have had a strange dream. A violent shower came up from the direction of Saho and suddenly wet my face. And a small damask-colored snake coiled itself around my neck. What can such a dream betoken? Then the empress, conscience-stricken, confessed the conspiracy with her brother.

The emperor, knowing that no time was to be lost, immediately collected a force of troops and marched against his brother-in-law. He had entrenched himself behind palisades of timber and awaited the emperor's attack. The empress, hesitating between her brother and her husband, had made her escape to her brother's palace. At this terrible juncture she was delivered of a child. She brought the child to the palisades in sight of the emperor, and cried out to him to take it under his care. He was deeply moved by her appeal to him and forthwith planned [pg 063] to rescue both the child and its mother. He chose from among his warriors a band of the bravest and most cunning, and commanded them, saying, When ye go to take the child, be sure that ye seize also the mother.

But she, fearing that the soldiers would try to snatch her when they came for the child, shaved off her hair and covered her head with the loose hair as if it were still adhering. And she made the jewel-strings around her neck and arms rotten, and she rendered her garments, by which they might catch hold of her, tender by soaking them in saké. When the soldiers came to her she gave them the child and fled. Then they seized her by the hair and it came away in their hands; and they clutched at the jewel-strings and they broke; and then they grasped her garments, but they had been rendered tender and gave way in their hands. So she escaped from them and fled. Then they went back to the emperor and reported that they had been unable to capture the mother, but they had brought the babe. The emperor was angry at what the soldiers told him. He was angry at the jewellers who had made the rotten jewel-strings and deprived them of their lands. He called to the empress through the burning palisades around the palace—for the soldiers had set fire to the palace—saying, A child's name must be given by its mother; what shall be the name of this child? And she answered, Let it be called Prince Homu-chiwake. And again he called: How shall he be reared? She replied, Take for him a foster-mother and bathing woman who [pg 064] shall care for him. Then he asked again, saying: Who shall loosen the small, fresh pendant which you have tied upon him? And she gave directions concerning this also. Then the emperor paused no longer, but slew the rebellious prince in his burning palace, and the empress perished with her wicked brother.

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 [pg 065] his counsellors to propose some plan by which this practice of living sacrifices could be avoided. Thereupon one of his counsellors, Nomi-no-Sukuné, 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-Sukuné 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 substitution 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. Satow55 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 substitute 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 nobility took place. This burying of images seems to have died out about a.d. 700. Its discontinuance probably [pg 066] was owing to the growing prevalence of Buddhism which discountenanced a custom founded on a religion anterior to it.

The emperor was alarmed at the coolness and ferocity of his son, and bethought how he might employ him advantageously. Now there were at Kumaso in Kyūshū 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 [pg 068] 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 sex. 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.

As soon as he had said this, the prince “ripped him up like a ripe melon.”56

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 roads57 of the East.”

Prince Yamato-dake first visited the temple of the Sun Goddess in Isé, where he worshipped 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 [pg 070] the priestess of this temple, gave him on his departure the sword59 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 grass, expecting to see him consumed. But Yamato-dake seeing his danger, and being assured 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 grass 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 associated 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 mats61 she had thrown out. Immediately the waves were quiet and the boat sailed on in safety. And the comb of the princess was washed ashore, and the people built for it a sacred mausoleum in which it was kept.

Then Prince Yamato-dake penetrated the regions occupied by the Ainos62 and subdued them. Having accomplished this principal object of his undertaking, he returned by way of the Usui pass 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 Japan north of this pass. 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 Shinano 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 Isé. At Ōtsu, 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 poem63 in praise of the pine tree:

He went on a little farther to Nobono 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 Goddess. 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 gods and with your imperial influence. I hoped to return in triumph [pg 073] 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.”

The emperor was busy in Kyūshū in reducing to subjection the tribes of the Kumaso 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 Japanese who accompanied the Emperor Jimmu into the Main island. The empress, afterward known as Jingō-Kōgō and the faithful prime-minister Take-no-uchi64 were at their temporary palace at Kashihi. 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.” [pg 075] 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 coming of the Japanese was a complete surprise to the people of Korea. At this time the peninsula now known to us as Korea and to the Japanese as Chōsen, was divided into three kingdoms, Kōrai, Shiraki, and Kudara. The fleet of Jingō-Kōgō landed in the kingdom of Shiraki. 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 Kōrai and Kudara made similar proposals which also were accepted. [pg 076] Each was to make an immediate contribution to the empress, and annually thereafter to send tribute to the capital of Japan. Thus they became the three tributary countries (sankan) dependent on Japan. Although this invasion of a foreign country without cause or provocation must be pronounced 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 Japanese 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 Japan 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 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 Chūai by another empress were unwilling [pg 077] to submit to the rule of a younger brother. But the Empress Jingō, 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-regent65 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 Ōjin. 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 Ōjin is widely worshipped as Hachiman the god of war, although he is by no means noted as a warrior. The explanation of this curious circumstance 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 Japan. The ambassador 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. [pg 078] 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 Analects and the Thousand Character Essay, two noted Chinese classics and presented them to the emperor. The prince continued his studies under Wani and became a very learned man.

So when the Emperor Ōjin died a.d. 310, the younger son urged his brother to accept the imperial power; but he declined, saying: “How can I disobey the commands of my father?” The oldest of the three brothers, learning of the controversy, undertook to secure the authority for himself by a plot. The conspiracy was, however, soon put down and [pg 079] the elder brother slain. The friendly dispute between the two other brothers lasted three years and was finally ended by the younger committing suicide, and thus devolving the imperial office on his remaining brother. This brother was the noted Emperor Nintoku. He began his reign in the year a.d. 313, and died a.d. 399 in the one hundred and tenth year of his age. He was a most careful and considerate ruler. By observing his subjects he was convinced that they were overburdened and impoverished with the taxes which the government collected from them. So he announced by an imperial decree that for three years all taxes should be remitted. Even the sums which were necessary to keep the palace in repair and to provide his court with suitable clothing were not collected. And the palace grew shabby, and its roof leaked, and he himself went about in coarse and cheap garments. And the farmers came to him and begged that they might contribute to his wants. But he refused, and suffered three years to pass. In the meantime the country revived, and the farmers being relieved from the burdens which they had so long borne entered on a long period of encouraging prosperity. He surveyed the land from a high outlook, and saw the curling smoke and the fertile fields and rejoiced. Then he gave commands, and the taxes were renewed, and the people paid them willingly, and they in their gratitude called Nintoku the Sage Emperor.

It was in the reign of the Emperor Nintoku that the noted prime-minister Prince Take-no-uchi is said to have died. He had served six emperors, viz.: Keikō, Seimu, Chūai, Jingō-Kōgō, Ōjin, and Nintoku. [pg 080] His age66 is given variously from two hundred and eighty-two to three hundred and eighty, in different books, one of which is a Chinese work and one a Korean. It will be remembered that he was the chief adviser of the warlike Empress Jingō in her invasion of Korea, and took an active part in the events which followed that expedition. That there was such a figure in Japanese history there can be little doubt, but that much of his life and the great age to which he lived are like many of the stories of the characters in the midst of which he lived, legendary and mythical, no one can question.

It was in this reign also that we have it stated that historiographers were sent out to the provinces and directed to make record of all important events and forward them to the court.

We have now reached a point in Japanese history where the accounts compiled by the historians of the times have written records on which to rely. The legendary and marvellous stories which have been the bulk of the preceding history may now be replaced by the soberer narrations which writing has preserved for us. It will be seen that the lives67 of the emperors now drop from the astonishing age which in previous years they attained to a very moderate and reasonable length. In the subsequent chapters will be found the sober and chastened story to which Japanese history is henceforth reduced.