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Takara Hime had passed away, and now Naka no Oe had finally become the sovereign. He would be be known as Tenji Tennō (天智天皇), and the posthumous name he was given by the Chroniclers means something like “Heavenly Wisdom”. It is also a good indication that they were being handed out by the Chroniclers posthumously because the name appears to be directly related to the name of his successor… but we’ll get to that in a future episode.
Naka no Ōe had a lot to focus on when he took the reins of the government. Not only was he keeping things going on the death of Takara Hime, he also had the aftermath of the failed war on the Korean peninsular to deal with. He had thousands of Baekje refugees now living in the archipelago, and the very real threat that the Tang empire might decide to punish Yamato for its participation—it might even invade. For the time being it was perhaps preoccupied with their war against Goguryeo, but that wouldn’t last forever. Yamato needed to get ready.
Dramatis Personae
Here we’ll cover some of the people mentioned in the record.
Crown Prince Naka no Ōe
Son of Takara Hime, and the main perpetrator of the Isshi incident of 645. He was originally known as Prince Katsuraki. He has clearly been a powerful political force, and was probably organizing much of the military efforts. He is considered responsible for many of the reforms in the Great Change, which kicked off the Ritsuryō reforms. As sovereign he was given the name Tenji Tennō
Nakatomi no Kamatari (aka Nakatomi no Kamako)
Scion and eventual head of the Nakatomi uji. He was apparently out to take down the Soga, and found Prince Karu and Prince Naka no Ōe. The latter he met through a kemari game, and then they started studying together under the priest Min. They used those study sessions as an excuse to talk and plot. Eventually, Kamatari would be granted the position of Naidaijin (内大臣) in the new government. This was a special ministerial position that gave him particular access to the Crown Prince, allowing him to help Naka no Ōe with his Great Change.
Takara Hime, aka Kōgyoku Tennō, aka Saimei Tennō
Sovereign of Yamato from 654, in her second reign on the throne, her first being interrupted in 645. She had moved the capital back to Asuka after the stand up of the Naniwa Palace in modern Ōsaka.
Soga no Iname
Soga no Iname was the patriarch of the Soga family during the early to mid-6th century. He came to power while the Mononobe clan was still largely at the head of the court, and when the most powerful position appears to have been that of Ōmuraji (大連), the head of the most powerful Muraji level at court. The Mononobe had usurped the position of the Ōtomo, and Soga no Iname was climbing that ladder. He had been able to get several of his daughters married off to royal princes who became sovereign. The Soga were an Omi level family. The Omi, or Ministerial, families appear to have originally been less influential than the Muraji level families. Soga no Iname eventually became Ōmi, or Great Omi (大臣), much like the Ōmuraji. There are previous Ōmi listed in the Nihon Shoki, but it is unclear how many of them really held the title, or if it meant the same thing. Eventually Ōmi would come to mean “Prime Minister”. Soga no Iname kicked off much of this. He also was responsible for bringing Buddhism to the archipelago, though he was opposed by the Mononobe and the Nakatomi.
Soga no Umako
Son of Soga no Iname. His sisters were married to the sovereign, and thus his nieces and nephews were royal princes and princesses. He inherited the position of Ōmi, and he led the Soga family to victory during the bloody Soga-Mononobe conflict, and he eventually established Buddhism permanently. He would later be one of the three leaders of Yamato, along with Kashikiya Hime (aka Suiko Tennō) and Prince Umayado (aka Shōtoku Taishi).
Soga no Emishi
Son of Soga no Umako, who inherited his father’s position of Ōmi. He also was instrumental in ensuring that Prince Tamura, rather than Prince Yamashiro no Ōe, would take the throne.
Soga no Iruka
Son of Soga no Emishi. When his father grew ill and could no longer attend court, he took on the role of Ōmi. He decided to go after Yamashiro no Ōe, sending forces out to kill him and end his threat to the Soga backed candidate, Furubito no Ōe.
Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawa no Maro
A member of a separate branch of the Soga family. His father, Soga no Kuramaro, opposed Soga no Emishi and his attempt to place Prince Tamura on the throne. Soga no Ishikawa no Maro likely supported Yamashiro no Ōe. He was eventually killed by forces sent after him by Naka no Ōe based on spurious allegations.
Prince Umayado (aka Shōtoku Taishi)
Crown Prince, and son of the sovereign Tachibana no Toyohi (Yōmei Tennō), and thus a grandson of Soga no Kitashi Hime, and a great-grandson of Soga no Iname. Much of the credit for the changes that happened during the reign of his aunt, Kashikiya Hime, aka Suikō Tennō, were attributed to him, rightly or wrongly. He is also praised for supporting Buddhism, becoming the first Japanese Buddhist saint. He passed away before assuming the throne, leaving his family, including his son, Yamashiro no Ōe.
Yamashiro no Ōe
Son of Prince Umayado, and a contender for the throne on the death of Kashikiya Hime. Eventually he stood down, supposedly to help keep the peace and avoid a bloody conflict, allowing Prince Tamura to take the throne. He was again passed over when Tamura (aka Jomei Tennō) died, and his wife, Takara Hime, took the throne. He was eventually killed by a force sent after him by Soga no Iruka.
Furubito no Ōe
Son of Tamura (Jomei Tennō) and Soga no Hōde no Iratsume, daughter of Soga no Umako. Furubito may have been the Crown Prince during Takara Hime’s reign—Naka no Ōe is noted as “Crown Prince”, but it was likely that he received that appellation under Karu’s reign. He took vows to become a monk after the Isshi Incident, but was dragged back into politics and ended up being killed to prevent his supporters from putting him on the throne.
Karu (aka Kōtoku Tennō)
Brother to Takara Hime. He took the throne when she abdicated, at the insistence of Naka no Ōe. This was apparently to placate those who felt that Naka no Ōe should not take the throne after murdering the heads of the Soga Clan. It also likely sidestepped the issue of legitimacy between Naka no Ōe and his half-brother, Furubito no Ōe.
Liu Jenyuan
The Tang general in charge of Baekje. After the Tang-Silla alliance destroyed Baekje, the Tang empire occupied Baekje, which gave them a strategic base of operations from which they could more easily launch attacks against Goguryeo.
Guo Wucong
Tang ambassador to Yamato. Initial contacts with Yamato may have been an attempt to simply re-establish diplomatic relations. It may have also been trying to feel out the archipelago, though they don’t exactly mention this. Certainly, however, we have seen how Tang ambassadors have, in the past, been able to make observations and bring back intelligence on a foreign country.
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Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua and this is episode 125: The Sovereign of Heavenly Wisdom
The people of Baekje looked around at the strange and unfamiliar land. They had fled a wartorn country, and they were happy to be alive, but refugee status was hardly a walk in the park. Fortunately, they still knew how to farm the land, even if their homeland was hundreds of miles away, across the sea, and occupied by hostile forces. Here, at least, was a land where they could make a home for themselves.
Some of them had to wonder whether this was really permanent. Was their situation just temporary until their kingdom was restored? Or were they truly the last people of Baekje, and what would that mean?
Either way, it would mean nothing if they didn’t work the land and provide for their families. And so, as with displaced people everywhere, they made the best of the situation. They had been given land to work, and that was more than they could have asked for. They might never return to Baekje, but perhaps they could keep a little of it alive for themselves and their descendants.
Greetings, everyone, and welcome back. Last episode we talked about the downfall of Baekje and the defeat of the Yamato forces at the battle of Hakusukinoe, also known as the Battle of Baekgang, in 663. And yet, something else happened as well: the sovereign, Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tennou, died as the Yamato forces were setting out. Immediately Prince Naka no Oe took the reins of government. He would be known to later generations as Tenji Tennou, with Tenji meaning something like “Heavenly Wisdom”.
Now Prince Naka no Oe has been in the forefront of many of our episodes so far, so I’d like to start this episode out with a recap of what we’ve heard about him so far, as all of this is important to remind ourselves of the complex political situation. I’m going to be dropping – and recapping – a lot of names, but I’ll have many of the key individuals listed on the podcast website for folks who want to follow along. I would note that this episode is going to be a summary, with some extrapolation by me regarding what was actually happening. Just remember that history, as we’ve seen time and again, is often more messy and chaotic than we like, and people are more complex than just being purely good or evil. People rarely make their way to the top of any social hierarchy purely through their good deeds.
To start with, let’s go back to before the year 645, when Naka no Oe instigated a coup against Soga no Iruka and Soga no Emishi. In the Isshi Incident, covered in Episode 106, Naka no Oe had Soga no Iruka murdered in court, in front of his mother, Takara Hime, when she sat on the throne the first time. And yet, though he could have taken the throne when she abdicated in apparent shock, he didn’t. Instead, he took the role of “Crown Prince”, but this wasn’t him just sitting back. In fact, evidence suggests that he used that position to keep a strong hand on the tiller of the ship of state.
Prior to the Isshi Incident of 645, the rule of the Yamato sovereign had been eroded by noble court families. These families, originally set up to serve the court and its administration, had come to dominate the political structures of the court. The main branch of the Soga family, in particular, had found its way to power through a series of astute political marriages and the support of a new, foreign religion: Buddhism. Soga no Iname, Emishi’s grandfather, had married his daughters to the sovereigns, and thus created closer ties between the Soga and the royal line. He also helped ensure that the offspring of those marriages would be the ones to take over as future sovereigns. Soga no Iname, himself took the position of Oho-omi, the Great Omi, or the Great Minister, the head of the other ministerial families. As Prime Minister, he held great sway over the day-to-day running of the court, and execution of much of the administration. Much of this was covered in previous episodes, but especially episodes 88, 90, 91, 92, 95, 98, 99, and 103.
Soga no Umako, who succeeded his father as Oho-omi, was joined in his effort to administer the government by his grand-nephew, Prince Umayado, also known as Shotoku Taishi, son of Tachibana no Toyohi, aka Youmei Tennou, and thus grandson of Umako’s sister, Kitashi-hime, and the sovereign known as Kimmei Tennou. Umayado’s aunt, sister to Tachibana no Toyohi, was Kashikiya Hime, or Suiko Tennou. The three of them: Soga no Umako, Prince Umayado, and Kashikiya Hime, together oversaw the development of Yamato and the spread of Buddhism. Buddhism was also controversial at first, but they turned it into another source of ritual power for the state—ritual power that Soga no Umako, Prince Umayado, and even Kashikiya Hime were able to harvest for their own use.
Unfortunately, the Crown Prince, Umayado, died before Kashikiya hime, suddenly leaving open the question of who would take the throne. Soga no Umako himself, passed away two years before Kashikiya Hime. When she in turn passed away, there was another struggle for the throne, this time between the descendants of Crown Prince Umayado and Soga no Umako. Eventually, Soga no Umako’s son and heir, Soga no Emishi, made sure that a more pliant sovereign, Prince Tamura, would take the throne, and Prince Umayado’s own son, Prince Yamashiro no Oe, was cut out of the succession.
Soga no Emishi, serving as prime minister, effectively ran things much as his father had. When Tamura diedhis queen, Takara Hime, took the throne, rather than passing it back to Umayado’s line—no doubt with Emishi’s blessing. He was careful, however, not to provoke direct action against Yamashiro no Oe, possibly due to the reverence in which Yamashiro’s father, Prince Umayado, aka the Buddhist Saint Shotoku Taishi, was held. Meanwhile, Emishi appears to have been cultivating his grandson by way of Prince Tamura, Furubito no Oe, to eventually succeed to the throne, trying to duplicate what his own father Umako and even grandfather had been able to accomplish.
Soga no Emishi’s son, Soga no Iruka, was not quite so temperate, however. Who would have thought that growing up at the top of the social hierarchy might make one feel a bit arrogant and entitled? When Soga no Emishi was ill, Soga no Iruka took over as Prime Minister, and he didn’t just stand back. He decided that he needed to take out Furubito no Oe’s competition, and so he went after Yamashiro no Oe and had him killed.
Unfortunately for him, he apparently went too far. There were already those who were not happy with the Soga family’s close hold on power—or perhaps more appropriately, this particular line of the Soga family. This kind of behavior allowed a group of discontented royals and nobility to gain support.
According to the popular story recounted in the Nihon Shoki, the primary seed of resistance started with a game of kickball, or kemari. Nakatomi no Kamako, aka Nakatomi no Kamatari, was the scion of his house, which was dedicated to the worship of the traditional kami of Yamato. The Nakatomi were ritualists: in charge of chanting ritual prayers, or norito, during court ceremony. This meant that their powerbase was directly challenged by the increasing role of Buddhism, one of the Soga patriarchs’ key influences on the political system.
Kamatari was feeling out the politics of the court, and seemed to be seeking the support of royal family members who could help challenge the powerful Soga ministers. He found that support in two places. First, in Prince Karu, brother to Takara Hime, the current sovereign, who had been on the throne ever since her husband, Tamura, had passed away. And then there was the Prince Katsuraki, better known to us, today, as Prince Naka no Oe. A game of kemari, where a group of players tried to keep a ball in the air as long as they could, using only their feet, was a chance to get close to the Prince. When Naka no Oe’s shoe flew off in the middle of the match, Kamatari ran over to retrieve it. As he offered the shoe back to its owner, they got to talking, and one of the most impactful bromances in Yamato history was born.
The two ended up studying together. The unification of the Yellow River and Yangzi basin regions under the Sui and Tang, and the expansion of the Silk Road, had repercussions felt all the way across the straits in Yamato. Naka no Oe and Kamatari were both avid students and were absorbing all that the continent had to throw at them about philosophy and good governance. As is so often the case, it seems like idealistic students were the fertile ground for revolutionary new thoughts.
There were problems implementing their vision, however. Although the Nihon Shoki claims that Naka no Oe was the Crown Prince, that honor was probably given to Prince Furubito no Oe, who would have no doubt perpetuated the existing power structures at court. This is something that the Chroniclers, or perhaps those before them, glossed over and may have even tried to retconned, to help bolster the case that Naka no Oe was actually working for the common good and not just involved in a naked power grab for himself. There is also the question as to where Yamashiro no Oe had stood in the succession, as he likely had a fair number of supporters.
With the destruction of Yamashiro no Oe’s family, however, the balance of power shifted. Although Soga no Emishi had long been an influential member of the court, and not solely because of his role as Prime Minister, Soga no Iruka was relatively new to power. Yamashiro no Oe’s family, in turn, likely had a fair number of supporters, and even neutral parties may have been turned off by Iruka’s violent methods to suppress an opponent who had already been defeated politically. Naka no Oe and Kamatari seem to have seized on this discontent againt the Soga, but they needed at least one other conspirator. They achieved this by offering a marriage alliance with Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawa no Maro, a lesser member of the Soga household, whose own immediate family had been supporters of Yamashiro no Oe, and so likely had plenty of grievances with his cousins. Naka no Oe married Ishikawa no Maro’s daughter, Wochi no Iratsume, also known as Chinu no Iratsume. Together, these three—Naka no Oe, Kamatari, and Ishikawa no Maro—brought others into their plot, and finally, in 645, they struck. Soga no Iruka was killed at court, in front of a shocked Takara Hime and Prince Furubito no Oe. By the way, this is another thing that suggests to me that Furubito no Oe was the Crown Prince, because why was he front and center at the ceremony, while Naka no Oe was able to skulk around at the edges, tending to things like the guards?
After the assassination at the court – the Isshi Incident -- Naka no Oe gathered forces and went after Soga no Emishi, since they knew they couldn’t leave him alive. With both Soga no Emishi and Soga no Iruka dead, and Takara Hime having abdicated the throne in shock at what had just occurred, Naka no Oe could have taken the throne for himself. However, in what was probably a rather astute move on his part, he chose not to. He recognized that Furubito no Oe’s claim to the throne was possibly stronger, and those who had supported the Soga would not doubt push for him to take the throne. And so, instead, he pushed for his uncle, Prince Karu, to ascend as sovereign. Karu was Takara Hime’s brother, and they could use Confucian logic regarding deference to one’s elders to support him. Plus, Karu’s hands weren’t directly bloodied by the recent conflict.
As for Prince Furubito, he saw the way that the winds were blowing. To avoid being another casualty, he retired from the world, taking the vows of a Buddhist monk. However, there were still supporters who were trying to put him on the throne and eventually he would be killed, to avoid being used as a rallying point.
Prince Karu, known as Jomei Tennou, ruled for around a decade. During that time, Naka no Oe and his reformers helped to cultivate a new image of the state as a bureaucratic monarchy. Naka no Oe was designated the Crown Prince, and Nakatomi no Kamatari was made the “Inner Prime Minister”, or Naidaijin. Ishikawa no Maro was made the minister of the Right, while Abe no Uchimaro was made Minister of the Left, and they ran much of the bureaucracy, but the Naidaijin was a role more directly attached to the royal household, and likely meant that Kamatari was outside of their jurisdiction, falling into a position directly supporting Naka no Oe. They instituted Tang style rank systems, and set up divisions of the entire archipelago. They appointed governors of the various countries, now seen as provinces, and made them report up to various ministers, and eventually the sovereign. After all, if you were going to manage everything, you needed to first and foremost collect the data. This period is known as the Taika, or Great Change, period, and the reforms are known as the Taika reforms, discussed in episode 108. They even built a large government complex in the form of the Toyosaki Palace, in Naniwa, though this may have been a bit much—for more, check out episodes 112 and 113.
Years into the project, though, things seem to have soured, a bit. Rumors and slander turned Kamatari against his ally, Ishikawa no Maro, resulting in the death of Ishikawa no Maro and much of his family. Naka no Oe and other members of the royal family eventually abandoned the Naniwa palace complex, leaving now-Emperor Karu and the government officials there to run the day-to-day administration, while much of the court made its way back to the Asuka area.
Karu would later pass away, but the throne still did not pass to Crown Prince Naka no Oe, despite his title. Instead, the throne went back to Takara Hime. This was her second reign, and one of only two split reigns like this that we know of. The Chroniclers, who were creating posthumous titles for the sovereigns, gave her two names—Kogyoku Tennou for her reign up to 645, and then Saimei Tennou for her second reign starting in 655. During her latter reign, Naka no Oe continued to wield power as the Crown Prince, and the Chroniclers don’t really get into why she came back into power. It may be that Naka no Oe, in his role as Crown Prince, had more freedom: although the sovereign is purportedly the person in power, that position can also be limiting. There are specific things which the sovereign is supposed to do, rituals in which they are expected to partake. In addition, there were restrictions on who was allowed into the inner sanctum of the palace, and thus limits on who could interact with the sovereign, and how. That meant that any sovereign was reliant on intermediaries to know what was going on in their state and to carry out their orders. As Crown Prince, Naka no Oe may have had more flexibility to do the things he wanted to do, and he could always leverage the sovereign’s authority.
When Baekje was destroyed, and Yamato decided to go to their aid, Naka no Oe appears to have had a strong hand in raising forces and directing movements, at least within the archipelago. When Takara Hime passed away rather suddenly, he accompanied her funerary procession much of the way back, and then returned to Tsukushi—Kyushu—to direct the war. This is the same thing that Toyotomi Hideyoshi would do when he sent troops to Korea in the late 16th century. Moving headquarters closer to the continent would reduce the time between messages. Theoretically he could have moved out to the islands of Iki or Tsushima, but I suspect that there were more amenities at Tsukushi, where they even built a palace for Takara Hime—and later Naka no Oe—to reside in. It was likely not quite as spectacular as the full-blown city that Hideyoshi developed in a matter of months, but the court could also leverage the facilities previously created for the Dazaifu.
The war took time. This wasn’t like some “wars” that were more like specific military actions. This was a war that dragged on for several years, with different waves of ships going over to transport people and supplies. Things came to a head in the 9th month of 663, roughly October or November on the Western calendar. The Baekje resistance was under siege, and their only hope was a fleet of Yamato soldiers coming to their aid. The Yamato fleet met with a much smaller Tang fleet at the mouth of the Baek River—the Hakusukinoe. They attempted to break through the Tang blockade, but the Tang had positional advantage and were eventually able to counterattack, destroying the Yamato fleet. Without their relief, the Baekje resistance fell.
The remnants of the Yamato army, along with those Baekje nobles that were with them, headed out, fleeing back to the archipelago. One presumes that there may have been other Baekje nobles, and their families, who had already made the trip.
After the entry describing this rout, on the 24th day of the 9th month of 663, we have a gap in the Chronicles of just a little more than 4 months. We then pick up with Naka no Oe’s government starting to look at internal affairs. For one thing, we are told that he selected his younger brother, the Royal Prince Ohoama, as Crown Prince, and he made updates to the cap-rank system, changing it from 19 ranks to 26 ranks. The first six ranks remained the same, but the name “kwa”, or “flower”, for the 7th through 10th ranks was changed to “Kin”, meaning “brocade”. Furthermore, a “middle” rank was added between the Upper and Lower ranks, further distinguishing each group, and adding 6 extra ranks. Finally, the initial rank, Risshin, was divided into two: Daiken and Shouken. We aren’t told why, but it likely meant that they could have more granular distinctions in rank.
At the same time that was going on, the court also awarded long swords to the senior members of the great families, and short swords to the senior members of lesser families. Below that, senior members of the Tomo no Miyatsuko and others were given shields and bows and arrows. Furthermore, the vassals, or kakibe, and the domestic retainers, or yakabe, were settled, to use Aston’s translation. The kanji used in the text appears to refer to settling a decision or standardizing something, rather than settling as in giving a place to live. It seems to me to mean that the court was settling servants on families: determining what kind and how many servants that various houses could have based on their position in the hierarchy.
I can’t help but notice that all of these gifts were very martial in nature. That does not mean, of course, that they were necessarily because of the war over Baekje, nor that they were in response to the concern about a possible Tang invasion -- we’ve seen in the past where swords were gifted to people who had served the court --but it is hard not to connect these gifts with recent worries. We also know that this year, Naka no Oe turned his focus on building defenses, setting up guards and beacon fires on the islands of Tsushima and Iki. Should any unknown fleet be seen coming to the archipelago, the fires would alert the forces at Kyushu, so they could send word and prepare a defense.
In addition, the court built an impressive defense for Tsukushi—for the Dazai itself, the seat of the Yamato government in Kyushu. It is called the Mizuki, or Water Castle, though at the time “castle” was more about walls and fortifications than the standalone fortress we tend to think of, today. Along those lines, the Mizuki was an earthen embankment, roughly 1.2 kilometers long, extending from a natural ridgeline to the west across the Mikasa river. Archeological evidence shows it had a moat, and this line of fortifications would have been a line of defense for the Dazai, should anyone try to invade. This construction was so large and impressive that you can still see it, even today. It stands out on the terrain, and it is even visible from overhead photographs.
In the third month of 664, we are told that Prince Syeongwang of Baekje and his people, were given a residence at Naniwa. In fact, even though Baekje was no longer an independent kingdom, there appear to have been thousands of Baekje people now living in Yamato, unable to return home. Many of these were former nobles of the Baekje court, which Yamato treated as a foreign extension of its own. Resettling these people would be a major theme for the Chronicles, but we will also see, as we read further on, how their talents were leveraged for the state.
Also in the third month, a star fell in the north—it says “in the north of the capital”, but I suspect that anywhere north, south, east, or west of the capital would have seen the same thing “in the north”. There was also an earthquake, which isn’t given any particular significance, beyond its mention as a natural phenomenon.
On the 17th day of the 5th month of 664, so roughly 2 months later, we are told that Liu Jen’yuan, the Tang dynasty’s general in Baekje, sent Guo Wucong to Yamato with a letter and gifts. We aren’t told the contents of the letter, but one imagines that this may have been a rather tense exchange. Yamato had just been involved in open warfare against Tang forces on the peninsula, and they still weren’t sure if the Tang empire would come after them next. Their only real hope on that front was Goguryeo, since the Tang and Silla were still trying to destroy the Goguryeo kingdom, and that may have kept the Tang forces tied up for a while. No doubt Guo Wucong would have seen some of the defenses that Yamato was constructing during his visit.
Guo Wucong would hang around for about seven and a half months. He was given permission to take his leave on the 4th day of the 10th month. Naka no Oe had his friend and Inner Prime Minister, Nakatomi no Kamatari send the Buddhist Priest, Chisho, with presents for Guo Wucong, and he and his officers were granted entertainments before they left as well. Finally, Guo Wucong and his people returned to the Tang on the 12th day of the 12th month.
While the delegation from the Tang was in Yamato, we are told of several tragedies. First was that Soga no Murajiko no Oho-omi had passed away. Soga no Murajiko appears to have been another son of Soga no Kuramaro, and thus brother to Soga no Ishikawa no Maro. Unfortunately, we don’t have much more on him in the record.
Just a month later, we are told that the “Dowager Queen” Shima passed away. Aston translates this as the Queen Grandmother, suggesting that she was Naka no Oe’s grandmother.
We are also told, that in the 10th month of 664, around the time that Guo Wucong was given leave to depart, that Yeon Gaesomun, the Prime Minister—though perhaps more correctly the despotic ruler—of Goguryeo, died. It is said that he asked his children to remain united, but, well, even if we didn’t know how it all turned out, I think we would look somewhat skeptically on any idea that they all did exactly as they were told. Sure enough, in 667 we are told that Gaesomun’s eldest son, Namseng, left the capital city of Pyongyang to tour the provinces, and while he was gone his younger brothers conspired with the nobility, and when he came back they refused to let him back in. So Namseng ran off to the Tang court and apparently helped them destroy his own country.
This is largely corroborated by other stories about Goguryeo, though the dates do seem to be off. Tang records put Gaesomun’s death around 666 CE, which the Samguk Sagi appears to follow, but on his tomb the date would appear to be 665. Confusion like this was easy enough given the different dates and trying to cross-check across different regnal eras. Sure, there were some commonalities, but it was very easy to miscount something.
One last note from the twelfth month of 664—it seems that there were omens of apparent prosperity that came to the court from the island of Awaji. First, there was rice that grew up in a farmer’s pig trough. The farmer’s name is given as Shinuta no Fumibito no Mu, and Mu gathered this rice and stored it up, and thus, every day his wealth increased. Then there was the bridal bed of Iwaki no Sukuri no Oho, of Kurimoto district. They claimed that rice grew up at the head of his brides’ mattress during her first night’s stay with him. And this wasn’t just some brand new shoot, but overnight it formed an ear, and by the morning it bent down and ripened. Then, the following night, another ear was formed. When the bride went out into the courtyard, two keys fell down from heaven, and after she gave them to her husband, Oho, he went on to become a wealthy man.
The exact purpose of these stories is unclear, but it seems to be that the Chroniclers are choosing to focus on stories of wealth and growth, which speak to how they wanted this reign as a whole, including the sovereign, to be remembered.
However, more tragedy struck the following year, in 665, when Hashibito, another Dowager Queen – this time the wife of Karu, aka Koutoku Tennou - passed away on the 25th day of the 2nd month. On the first day of the 3rd month, 330 people took Buddhist vows for her sake.
We are also told that in the second month the ranks of Baekje were cross-referenced with the ranks of Yamato, and then ranks were given out to some of the Baekje nobles that had come over to Yamato. Kwisil Chipsa, who was originally ranked “Dalsol” in Baekje, was accorded “Lower Shoukin”. That was rank 12 of the 26. In comparison, “Dalsol” seems to have been the 2nd rank of 16 in Baekje. Along with handing out rank, over 400 Baekje commoners, both men and women, were given residence in the Kanzaki district in Afumi. This appears to be an area along the Aichi river, running from the Suzuka Mountains, west towards Lake Biwa. The court granted them rice-lands in the following month. At the same time, several high ranking Baekje nobles were put in charge of building castles at strategic points around the archipelago. These included one castle in Nagato, as well as the castles of Ohono and Woyogi, in Tsukushi. Two years later, in 667, we also see the building of Takayasu castle, in Yamato and Yashima castle in Yamada, in Sanuki—modern Kagawa, on Shikoku, facing the Seto Inland Sea passageway. Kaneda castle in Tsushima was also a Baekje-built one.
We mentioned something about these castles last episode. They were in the Baekje style, and as I said, the term “castle” here is more about the walls, which were largely made of rammed earth ramparts. This means that you pile up earth and dirt in a layer and then the laborers use tools specifically to tamp it down until it is thick and hard. Then another layer is piled on top and the process is repeated. These walls were often placed on mountain tops, and they would follow the terrain, making them places that were easy to defend. Beyond that, they didn’t necessarily have a donjon keep or anything like that—maybe a tower so that one could see a little further, but being at the top of a mountain usually provided all the visual cues that one needed.
We know there were other castles made as well. For example, I mentioned last week about Kinojo, in Okayama, the ancient Kibi area. Kinojo is not mentioned in the Nihon Shoki, but it clearly existed back then, and matches the general description of a 7th century mountain castle as built in Baekje. The name means Demon Castle, and there is a story about it that is connected to the local Kibitsu Jinja—the Shrine to Prince Kibi. According to legend, Kibitsu Hiko, aka Prince Kibitsu or, perhaps more appropriately, the Prince of Kibi, came to the area around the time of the Mimaki Iribiko, so probably about the 3rd century, at the head of a large force. Kibitsu Hiko had come to defeat the demon, Ura, who lived in the nearby castle, hence Kinojo, and legend says that he freed the people from the demon’s rule.
As I also mentioned, last week, this particular castle may have ended up in the Momotaro story. There are those who believe that the story of Momotarou is based on the story of Prince Kibitsu Hiko, and his defeat of the so-called demon, “Ura”. Certainly the story has grown more fantastical, and less connected to the ancient history of the Kibi region, but it still may have its origin in a much more standard legend of a founding prince of the ancient Kibi kingdom that was later changed into a fairy tale.
More likely, the castle was built by a Baekje nobleman, often thought to be a prince, who settled in the area. There is the possibility that the demon’s name “Ura” came from a mistranslation of his name, or it is also possible that he was unrelated to the story at all. The Kibitsu Hiko legend may have incorporated the castle, Kinojo, at a later date, once people had forgotten when and why the castle was actually built.
It would make sense if Kinojo had been built as part of the defenses for Yamato, as that area overlooks a large part of the fertile plains of Okayama and out beyond Kojima to the Seto Inland Sea -- it is perched over a key overland route from the western edge of Honshu to Yamato, and there would have been several ways to signal boats to put to sea to intercept forces on the water. . This all suggests to me that Kinojo was probably part of Naka no Oe’s castle-building effort, even if it isn’t specifically remembered in the Chronicle.
But building castles wasn’t enough to bring peace of mind that Yamato would survive a Tang invasion, and it is possibly as a defensive measure that Naka no Oe would go on to do something truly incredible—he would eventually move the capital from Asuka and Naniwa all the way to the shores of Lake Biwa itself, establishing the Ohotsu palace. This was a truly extreme step that didn’t endear Naka no Oe to the court, but it had several advantages.
For one thing, this move pulled the capital further away from the sea routes, meaning that if they were attacked, they had a more defensible position. Even more so than Yamato, the Afumi region around Lake Biwa is surrounded by mountains, with a few narrow passes that restricted movement in and out. One of these is the famous Sekigahara, which remained a choke point even up to modern times. The name even means the Field of the Barrier, indicating the barrier and checkpoint that had been set up there in ancient times.
Moving the capital also pulled the court away from some of the previous political centers, which may have been another feature that made it attractive to Naka no Oe. Many capital moves have been made, at least in part, to get farther away from strong Buddhist temples, and this certainly would have moved things out of the Asuka region, which by now was a hotbed of Buddhist temple activity.
But we’ll talk about that all more, next episode. Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support.
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And that’s all for now. Thank you again, and I’ll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan
References
倉本一宏. (2007). 壬申の乱.
Bentley, J. (29 May. 2006). The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047418191.
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4.