Episode 96: From the Land Where the Sun Rises
Figurine of a court official from the Sui Dynasty. This is the kind of dress that envoys like Pei Shiqing wore, and it would eventually influence the court dress of Japan. Photo by author. Figurine from the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
This episode we look at the Sui Dynasty and the famous exchange between the Sui and Yamato. The Sui Dynasty is relatively short-lived—only two rulers to speak of, it lasted from 581 to 618, so not quite forty years. And yet, in that time, they accomplished a lot and set the stage for the later Tang Dynasty.
It is hard to say exactly when many of the various influences came over to Yamato, but we can see in the art and literature many things that we also find in Japan. Below are the sun and moon, represented by a rabbit with a mortar and pestle and a three legged bird. These are both from the Northern Zhou period, just preceding the Sui dynasty. Combined with Buddhism and all of the trappings of the court, even if the Sui dynasty would not last, Yamato was only absorbing more and more of the continental culture, and that would continue into the Tang dynasty.
Image of what appears to be a rabbit with a mortar and pestle, representing the moon—an image also found in Japan event today.
The three legged bird in the sun, often used in Japan to represent the Yatagarasu that guided Jimmu.
References
Como, Michael (2008). Shōtoku: Ethnicity, Ritual, and Violence in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition, ISBN 978-0-19-518861-5
Bentley, John. (2006). The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi: a New Examination of Texts, with a Translation and Commentary. ISBN-90-04-152253.
Kawagoe, Aileen (2009). “Caps and court rank: the Kan’i junikai system”. Heritage of Japan. Retrieved 10/1/2023.
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4
Tsunoda, Ryusaku (1951). Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories: Later Han Through the Ming Dynasties. Perkins Asiatic Monographs Number 2