Episode 110: Manual Labor, Mounded Tombs, and Marital Missteps
Takamatsuzuka kofun from the outside. This tomb would have been one of those built after the edicts that closely regulated the size and what could be done for different members of the royal family and the aristocracy. Inside it is richly decorated in a style similar to that of Goguryeo.
This episode covers just the first three months of year 2 of the Taika reforms, but there is a lot in the various edicts. The labor of the elites was being moved under the purview of the State, which would have wide ranging consequences. And there were restrictions placed on the size of mounded tombs—though those appear to have been falling out of vogue around this time, replaced with familial temples.
Tomb measurements were made in shaku (尺) and hiro (尋). A shaku is considered equivalent to about 1 foot, with a conversion, today, of about 0.99 feet to a shaku. A hiro was about 5 shaku. Later, a hiro would be made roughly equivalent to a European fathom, and so today it is often 6 shaku, instead. However, given that it was actually based on the distance between a grown man’s outspread arms, 5 shaku is a more reasonable distance for what we are discussing.
One of the key concepts this episode is that of “harai”, or “purification”. This is a term often used in Shinto, today, often in relation to things like “tsumi”: ritual pollution. It seems to have been a bit broader in the past, however, and was something that people actively attempted to avoid having to do, likely because of the social and/or fiscal costs associated with it. Unfortunately, what it was isn’t exactly laid out, but we can make some guesses based on later centuries.
References
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