This episode we continue with the first year of the Taika era and discuss more of the reforms as well as other such things that were going on. We cover what became of Prince Furubito, the previous Crown Prince and rival to the throne, as well as looking at international and internal relations. We see some of the most concerted policy edicts as well, which will radically transform the relationship between the sovereign and the people and land of the archipelago.

In much of what is happening we can see the change in the cultural imaginaries of the people of Yamato, who have been influenced by continental ideas through both trade and through the various books brought over. Reforms were geared towards a more Sinified concept of government, one heavily influenced by Confucian and Buddhist ideas.

References

• Van Goethem, E. E. M. A. (2009). Capital and Countryside in Japan, 300-1180: Japanese Historians Interpreted in English (Joan R. Piggott, ed.). Journal of Asian Studies, 68(3), 988–90.

• Kracke, E. A. (1976). Early Visions of Justice for the Humble in East and West. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 96(4), 492–498. https://doi.org/10.2307/600081

• Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4

• Knox, George William (1903). The Early Institutional Life of Japan, a Study in the Reform of 645 A. D. By K. ASAKAWA, Ph.D. The American Historical Review, Volume 11, Issue 1, October 1905, Pages 128–129