Episode 136: Kabane and Court Rank

October 16, 2025 Joshua Badgley

An artist’s depiction of Ōama no Ōkimi, aka Temmu Tennō. He continued the work of his brother, Naka no Ōe, and made significant changes to the social and political landscape of Yamato. Image in public domain, from Wikimedia Commons.

Kabane (姓)

The kanji for “kabane” actually translates, today, as family name.

Kabane according to MillerNew Kabane (684)
Kimi (公)Mabito (眞人)
Omi (臣) Asomi (朝臣)
Sukune (宿禰) 
Kimi (君) Asomi (朝臣) 
Muraji (連) Asomi (朝臣)
Sukune (宿禰) 
Obito (首) Muraji (連) and then…
Sukune (宿禰)
Imiki (忌寸) 
 (Kuni no) Miyatsuko (国造)  Muraji (連) and then…
Sukune (宿禰)
Imiki (忌寸) 
Kishi (吉士)  Muraji (連) and then…
Sukune (宿禰)
Imiki (忌寸) 
Atahe (値)
also: Atahi/Atai Muraji (連) and then…
Imiki (忌寸) 
Fubito (史) Muraji (連) 
Agata-nushi (県主) Muraji (連) 
Suguri (村主)Muraji (連) 
Kurabito (蔵人)Muraji (連) 

The above lacks data for the last four of the new kabane, so here are the Eight Kabane of 684:

Mabito (眞人)
Asomi [aka Ason] (朝臣)
Sukune (宿禰)
Imiki (忌寸)
Michinoshi (道師)
Omi (臣)
Muraji (連)
Inaki (稲置)

Court Ranks of 685

Ranks for those not lower than Prince (王):

Myō-dai-ichi-i　明大一位 (Great Bright First Rank)
Myō-kō-ichi-i　明黄一位 (Broad Bright First Rank)
Myō-dai-ni-i　明大二位 (Great Bright Second Rank)
Myō-kō-ni-i　明黄二位 (Broad Bright Second Rank)
Jō-dai-ichi-i　浄大一位 (Great Pure First Rank)
Jō-kō-ichi-i　浄黄一位 (Broad Pure First Rank)
Jō-dai-ni-i　浄大二位 (Great Pure Second Rank)
Jō-kō-ni-i　浄黄二位 (Broad Pure Second Rank)
Jō-dai-san-i　浄大三位 (Great Pure Third Rank)
Jō-kō-san-i　浄黄三位 (Broad Pure Third Rank)
Jō-dai-shi-i　浄大四位 (Great Pure Fourth Rank)
Jō-kō-shi-i　浄黄四位 (Broad Pure Fourth Rank)

Ranks for other court officials:

Shō-dai-ichi-i　正大一位 (Great Upright First Rank)
Shō-kō-ichi-i　正黄一位 (Broad Upright First Rank)
Shō-dai-ni-i　正大二位 (Great Upright Second Rank)
Shō-kō-ni-i　正黄二位 (Broad Upright Second Rank)
Shō-dai-san-i　正大三位 (Great Upright Third Rank)
Shō-kō-san-i　正黄三位 (Broad Upright Third Rank)
Shō-dai-shi-i　正大四位 (Great Upright Fourth Rank)
Shō-kō-shi-i　正黄四位 (Broad Upright Fourth Rank)
Jiki-dai-ichi-i　直大一位 (Great Straight First Rank)
Jiki-kō-ichi-i　直黄一位 (Broad Straight First Rank)
Jiki-dai-ni-i　直大二位 (Great Straight Second Rank)
Jiki-kō-ni-i　直黄二位 (Broad Straight Second Rank)
Jiki-dai-san-i　直大三位 (Great Straight Third Rank)
Jiki-kō-san-i　直黄三位 (Broad Straight Third Rank)
Jiki-dai-shi-i　直大四位 (Great Straight Fourth Rank)
Jiki-kō-shi-i　直黄四位 (Broad Straight Fourth Rank)
Gon-dai-ichi-i　勤大一位 (Great Diligent First Rank)
Gon-kō-ichi-i　勤黄一位 (Broad Diligent First Rank)
Gon-dai-ni-i　勤大二位 (Great Diligent Second Rank)
Gon-kō-ni-i　勤黄二位 (Broad Diligent Second Rank)
Gon-dai-san-i　勤大三位 (Great Diligent Third Rank)
Gon-kō-san-i　勤黄三位 (Broad Diligent Third Rank)
Gon-dai-shi-i　勤大四位 (Great Diligent Fourth Rank)
Gon-kō-shi-i　勤黄四位 (Broad Diligent Fourth Rank)
Mu-dai-ichi-i　務大一位 (Great Earnest First Rank)
Mu-kō-ichi-i　務黄一位 (Broad Earnest First Rank)
Mu-dai-ni-i　務大二位 (Great Earnest Second Rank)
Mu-kō-ni-i　務黄二位 (Broad Earnest Second Rank)
Mu-dai-san-i　務大三位 (Great Earnest Third Rank)
Mu-kō-san-i　務黄三位 (Broad Earnest Third Rank)
Mu-dai-shi-i　務大四位 (Great Earnest Fourth Rank)
Mu-kō-shi-i　務黄四位 (Broad Earnest Fourth Rank)
Tsui-dai-ichi-i　追大一位 (Great Pursuit First Rank)
Tsui-kō-ichi-i　追黄一位 (Broad Pursuit First Rank)
Tsui-dai-ni-i　追大二位(Great Pursuit Second Rank)
Tsui-kō-ni-i　追黄二位 (Broad Pursuit Second Rank)
Tsui-dai-san-i　追大三位(Great Pursuit Third Rank)
Tsui-kō-san-i　追三位 (Broad Pursuit Third Rank)
Tsui-dai-shi-i　追大四位(Great Pursuit Fourth Rank)
Tsui-kō-shi-i　追黄四位 (Broad Pursuit Fourth Rank)
Shin-dai-ichi-i　進大一位 (Great Advancement First Rank)
Shin-kō-ichi-i　進黄一位 (Broad Advancement First Rank)
Shin-dai-ni-i　進大二位 (Great Advancement Second Rank)
Shin-kō-ni-i　進黄二位 (Broad Advancement Second Rank)
Shin-dai-san-i　進大三位 (Great Advancement Third Rank)
Shin-kō-san-i　進黄三位 (Broad Advancement Third Rank)
Shin-dai-shi-i　進大四位 (Great Advancement Fourth Rank)
Shin-kō-shi-i　進黄四位 (Broad Advancement Fourth Rank)

Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 136: Kabane and Court Rank

Mononobe no Muraji no Ujimaro was in a foul mood. Once more he had been passed over for promotion, and so he continued to toil away, tallying reports as they came in from the various provinces across the kingdom. Meanwhile, Hasama no Atahe no Woshibi was now his superior, with an exalted rank and the generous stipend that came with it. Ujimaro fumed—he was Mononobe, and his family had once all but ruled Yamato. Though they had been perhaps reduced in circumstances since then, they still proudly held to their place as a Muraji family—a distinction that demonstrated their superior pedigree. Meanwhile, Woshibi was from the Hasama family. Sure, his relative, Nemaro, had been one of those on the front lines in the recent conflict, but still, his family was only atahe. Honestly, a Mononobe was supposed to take orders from someone of an Atahe family?
But this was the new way of things. The ancient traditions were no longer enough—you had to work hard and make sure way up through this new court rank system if you wanted to succeed. Ujimaro grumbled, but there was little he could do in the moment. Nonetheless, he couldn’t help but think about how the natural order of the world was somehow turned upside down…

Greetings and welcome back, everyone. We are working our way through the reign of Ohoama, aka Temmu Tennou. This reign spanned fourteen years, if you include the Jinshin year of 672, though it is broken into two narratives in the Nihon Shoki. The first chapter covers the year of the disturbance, the Jinshin no Ran, when Ohoama fought with the Afumi court, who supported his nephew, Ohotomo, on the throne. We’ve covered that turbulent period previously. The second chapter covers the other 13 years of Ohoama’s reign.
Last episode we covered the first year of Ohoama sitting properly on the throne. The year 673 included Ohoama’s ascension; the confirmation, continuation, and evolution of the Ritsuryou system instituted during Naka no Oe’s time; as well as various ceremonies around Ohoama’s ascension to the throne, including the first verifiable “Daijosai”, the specialized harvest ceremony for the first harvest season of the reign.
This episode we are going to try and tackle something that people have sent in questions about. We’ve touched on it here and there, but I really want to get into the Kabane system—that ancient practice of family titles that were like a collective rank system. It was during Ohoama’s reign that the court made major reforms to the kabane system and restructured it pretty extensively. At the same time, the kabane system was gradually being replaced by other systems of displaying one’s status in society—such as the court rank system, which was also revised this reign. Eventually, without the same purpose as before, kabane would fade away, with a few remaining as honorifics and titles, but at this point they were still important.
So we’ll get into both of these status systems and discuss a little bit about what that meant for the people of the late 7th century court.
From the beginning of Ohoama’s reign, the court had continued to implement the cap-rank system, most recently amended in 664, by Ohoama’s brother, Naka no Ohoye. With the new rank system of 685, the format changed considerably. To better understand this, let’s talk about the rank systems in Yamato and how we have gotten to this point. We’ll want to start with the kabane, and to do that, I want to take us back to a much earlier time.
As you may recall, in the oldest stories in the Nihon Shoki, the Kojiki, and the Sendai Kuji Hongi, most individuals only have a single name, or they are known by the name of a location and a title. Iware Hiko, for example, with Hiko and Hime being general masculine and feminine terms for elites from a given area.
From this, it would appear as though there was no such thing as a “family” name in early Wa societies. As I’ve pointed out before, that does not mean that there were not families, of course, or that lineage and family relationships were not important; we do see familial relationships, and we see concepts of lateral inheritance—from brother to brother rather than necessarily from father to son. The rules behind such inheritance seem to have been rather malleable, however.
And that all makes some sense in a society where most people are dealing with the people of their village and surrounding communities—there is no need for anything more than a given name. Otherwise one’s place of origin or their profession could easily be used to identify any given individual. Even the elites would be known by the territory they control.
I mention all of this because some of the earliest terms we see as “kabane” appear to be titular in nature—that is to say they are derived from ancient titles. Hiko, Hime, Wake, Mimi, and Ushi are all terms we see from the ancient past, commonly found in the names of sovereigns, among other things.
It isn’t until some time in about the 5th century that we start to see the family units arise. These started as something like a corporate group or guild: Those who looked after horses were all labelled as Umakai, while those who worked jade and made magatama jewels were labelled as Tamatsukuribe. These groups or “be” were familial in that they were structured much as a family, with a single family head. That gave the ruler a single point of contact to presumably administer all of the work that particular corporate group was expected to perform. Furthermore, the name passed to their children, who would presumably have been brought up in the family business.
For some of these families, rather than overseeing a business, craft, or similar thing, they were, instead, administrators of a given region or locality. We might think of these as chiefly families, overseeing domains of varying sizes.
These families were known as “uji”. This is often translated in English as “clan”, which is an overloaded term used to describe a group that all claim familial descent from a single putative ancestor—whether real or fictional. Many of the earliest uji were created as “-be” groups: Abe, Mononobe, Imbe, Kataribe, etc., but they eventually started dropping “-be” altogether: Inukahi, Umakahi, Soga, Nakatomi, Wani, and the like. For these Uji, many were connected to various deities, or kami, from which they claimed descent. These kami are thought to be some of the original ujigami, though that term later came to be applied to various kami that were seen as guardians of a particular locale, and later uji need not claim direct descent from a kami for it to be special. For example, the main deity of Kasuga Taisha, the shrine built in Nara in the 8th century, said to house the ujigami of the Nakatomi and Fujiwara, primarily pays worship to Takemikazuchi no Mikoto and Futsunushi no Mikoto, deities brought from the east. Takemikazuchi is considered an ujigami of the two uji, but the oyagami, the actual parent or ancestral kami from which they claim direct lineage, would be Ame no Koyane no Mikoto, who is also worshipped as the third deity at the shrine.
The fact that these uji operate more like clans means that they were made up of numerous family units, who might be scattered across the archipelago. At the head of each uji would have been a central family to provide the uji leadership and interface with the court. Nonetheless, they were all considered the same uji, and a rise in the fortunes of the uji applied to all of its disparate members.
To be clear, there were titles attached to individual names, Sukune, for example, which is one we’ve encountered several times in the narrative.
Professor Kan’ichi Asakawa, in his work “The Early Institutional Life of Japan”, provides an overview of some of these corporate titles, that came to be known as “kabane”.
In all likelihood, they all had a straightforward meaning at some point. “Omi” means minister, for example, and continues to be used in that sense—as well as as a title—up through at least the 7th century. Another common kabane that we see is “Muraji”, which appears to originally reference someone in charge of a village or similar polity. Asakawa suggests that it comes from Mura no Ushi, with “Ushi” meaning something like “lord” and showing up elsewhere as well. “Kimi” also appears to be demonstrating some kind of hegemony over a land.
Beyond that, here are a few others that we have seen: Atahe—or Atai—as well as Suguri, which appears to truly be a lower level village headmaster. Then there is Agata-nushi, aka Agata No Ushi, the Lord of an Agata, or district. Asakawa also notes Wake, Inaki, Sukune, Kishi, and Tamitsukasaas other kabane.
The kabane are interesting in that they do appear to be precedental—that is to say that there does appear to be some kind of hierarchy in terms of the social position of each uji. The kabane did not, however, confer any particular resources. There was no stipend attached to a given kabane, though certain court positions were only open to members of uji with the appropriate kabane. Perhaps most notable in this are the Omi and the Muraji, which were the only two family types that held the supreme court positions—what we would likely refer to as “Prime Minister”. These included families such as the Ohotomo no Muraji, the Mononobe no Muraji, the Kose no Omi, and the Soga no Omi. The heads of these families had a special title—the Ohomuraji or the Oho-omi, the Great Muraji and the Great Omi. These positions were placed at the top of the court system, allowing them unrivaled access to the levers of power. Typically there were two to three of these individuals at any given time, down to as few as one during the height of the Soga no Omi’s power and influence.
It is unclear if all uji at the Omi and Muraji level had a designated Oho-Omi or Oho-Muraji at their head, or if that was only for those who were in actual positions at the top of the court structure.
It is also unclear if the precedence between the Omi and Muraji was always fixed. Early on, we see Muraji houses that appear to be holding the majority of the powerful positions, and later we see the ascendancy of the Omi households. By the 7th century, however, it appears that Omi came first, followed by Muraji, based on the order that individuals are frequently named in the Chronicles, among other things.
As for the other titles, some of them we believe we know, and others are more of a mystery. The origin of “wake” and “kimi” are rather obscure, though they both appear to have something to do with territorial rule and belong to uji that lay some kind of claim to a blood relationship with the royal house. Some of them may have been rulers in their own lands, prior to Yamato hegemony.
“Inaki” may be related to rice castle, or storehouse, and seems to have referred to one of the smallest local units. That also means we rarely see it in the narrative, which tended to focus on those more closely tied to the court and the royal house. Asakawa notes that the Atahe, or Atai, seems to be for uji who possessed some amount of private land and private soldiery, but we don’t know much more. Asakawa also points out that the Suguri, Tamitsukasa, and the Kishi kabane all seem to be related to groups with ties to the continent—perhaps descended from immigrant groups.
The Kuni no Miyatsuko and the Agata-nushi are the titles with the clearest seeming ties to territorial hegemony. “Kuni” is the term for the ancient lands, such as Yamato, Kibi, Kenu, Koshi, etc. There seem to be around 140 such “kuni” described in the archipelago. Agata, on the other hand, were much smaller districts. While some of these district names have survived, it is hard, if not impossible, to know exactly how many of them there were.
Then you have this term: “Miyatsuko”. Breaking that apart, he translates it as child or servant—ko—of the exalted house—miya. Taken together, these appear to reference the elite families in charge of overseeing territorial lands.We also see another term that uses “Miyatsuko”: Tomo no Miyatsuko. Unlike Kuni no Miyatsuko, Tomo no Miyatsuko is a term representing a group, rather than a kabane attached to an individual family. When the sovereign addresses the court, for example, he typically addresses the Omi, the Muraji, the Tomo no Miyatsuko and the Kuni no Miyatsuko.
Asakawa proposed that, technically, all of these could fall under the term “Miyatsuko” as servants of the sovereign’s house. Rather than focusing on specifics of all the myriad kabane, however, Asakawa treats them broadly as the Omi, Muraji, Tomo no Miyatsuko, and Kuni no Miyatsuko.
The Omi and the Muraji we already touched on. They were the houses that could, among other things, supply the court with their Ohoomi and Ohomuraji—their prime ministers. So it makes some sense. The Tomo no Miyatsuko and the Kuni no Miyatsuko are a little more tricky to pin down, but Asakawa suggests that, ased on what we can tell, the heads of the Omi, Muraji, and Tomo no Miyatsuko likely attended court on a regular basis and lived nearby, whereas the Kuni no Miyatsuko were those whose heads dwelt elsewhere, likely because they were the local elites in various other areas of the archipelago. This is in the name—the term “tomo” might be thought of as being “with” someone, and at one point it is suggested that the Tomo no Miyatsuko are related to those who traced kinship back to the kami who originally descended from the Plain of Heaven. However, among the myriad kabane, not all of them were strictly local, and we find some kabane doing double duty for both local and geographically dispersed uji.
Thus he also suggested that Kuni no Miyatsuko, though it was a kabane in its own right, also represented the other forms of territorial elite titles—all those who did not regularly attend the court, but instead administered their own lands.

Richard Miller, in his work, “Ancient Japanese Nobility”, does provide a suggested hierarchy of the kabane. I don’t know if I completely agree, as I think that it was a lot more complicated across the entire archipelago, but nonetheless I’ll add the information to the blogpost page if you want to see at least one suggestion of relative precedence between uji of different kabane.
Now let’s not forget that not everyone was a member of an uji. For one thing, the royal family—both the sovereign’s immediate family and Princes who claimed a more distant relationship—were exempt from the Uji-Kabane system. Also, the commoners, those who actually toiled and worked the land, likewise would not have been included in a given Uji. The Uji may have directed production, and even included certain artisans, but it still only included those who were tied, in some way, to the government.
Now while the Uji-Kabane system may have started as titles with actual meanings—that is to say that the names and titles were essentially indicative of a group’s role in society—it didn’t take too long for it to become a little more abstract. After all, generation after generation, people change. Individuals vied for power and position in the court and elsewhere, and one’s uji may rise, and even fall, depending on how they were able to succeed in the political climate of the day. This was augmented with the marriage politics which no doubt was conducted as much between the elite families as well as with the royal family.
And then there were the branch or cadet families. For example, let’s say that the head of a family has four children. Each one of those children could theoretically succeed their father—if his own siblings don’t do so. With each generation, the familial ties get weaker, and smaller, sub-houses could form. If the uji was geographically dispersed, then local branches could become more or less independent.
All of this seems to have caused not a small bit of confusion, and thus we get an edict in the last months of 682: it instructed all of the uji to ensure that they had a senior member—an uji-no-kami or ko-no-kami, with “kami”, in this instance, meaning top or head, rather than deity. This family head was to be reported to the government, presumably so that the government knew exactly who was in charge of each family. If there were too many people in a given uji, then they were encouraged to split themselves up and submit their own heads, with government officials adjudicating the decision. Finally, they are exhorted not to include any people that do not belong.
A few things this seems to indicate. First is that the government did not have a handle on all of the different families out there, which makes some sense. It had been many generations since the uji had been initially set up, and the State had gone through a lot in that period. It may also indicate that there were those making a false claim to a family name specifically for the added prestige. How difficult would it be to claim to be a member of a prominent family that just happened to have been from a far-flung, out of the way branch? We see this in the 10th century with the Oushu Fujiwara—a family in Tohoku, around the region of Hiraizumi, who claimed descent from the famous Fujiwara family. Of course, the Fujiwara family by that point had grown so large, that it was next to impossible to check any such claim. How much moreso in the age before written records were common?
We’ve seen examples where different parts of a given Uji were recorded separately. For example, the Aya were split early on into different groups, with the Yamato no Aya being perhaps the most often referenced, but we also have the Kawachi no Aya—the Aya from Kawachi. And then we have the Inukahi, where we see the Ama no Inukahi and the Agata no Inukahi, referring to the Inukahi of the Sea and the Inukahi of the District, though sometimes just a reference to “Inukahi”.
Of course, it also seems that these branch families maintained the kabane of the original. Over time, uji were promoted, but rarely were they demoted. And so, over time, more and more uji are counted among the ranks of the Omi and the Muraji.
At the same time, the court was changing. With the Taika reforms and the development of the ritsuryo codes, the Uji-kabane system was no longer required for managing the realm. Furthermore, the government was centralizing land and the produce thereof. And so they instituted the cap-rank system, a more explicit system of rank within the court that was held by the individual, not by the entire uji. In addition, cap-rank could be tied directly to a stipend, making the court officers more dependent on the central government, rather than on their own uji’s resources.
Early on, it is likely that higher cap rank was given to members of the more highly exalted uji, as those were the uji that also filled the upper echelons of government and therefore would have been best prepared to succeed in those roles. However, as things continued, it was likely that it was going to get even more confused. Or they would need to raise up all of the families to Omi and Muraji status, but as that happened, the meaning of the kabane themselves became less and less clear. After all, if everyone is an “Omi” and “Muraji” than, really, nobody is.
In 681, we are told that they began to put together a law code, and later a law code of 92 articles is said to have been established. However, it seems it was still being updated, and wasn’t until 689, after Ohoama’s death, that all 22 volumes would be distributed to the various governors. It became known as the Kiyomihara Codes. In 684, Ohoama’s reforms attacked the problem of the Kabane. The record complains that the various titles had become confused. That there were people out there taking kabane they were not entitled to, and just a general confusion because it no longer aligned quite so well with the evolving cultural norms of the new Yamato state.
Early attempts to deal with this appear to have been, in the years since they began codifying it all in 681, to raise up families and individuals to the rank of “Muraji”. There are several records where lists of families are all given “Muraji”. In the case of individuals being granted Muraji, it is unclear if that was going just to them or to their entire family, though there are some examples where it seems an individual was granted the title and then their uji was separately awarded the same.
This seems like an initial attempt to straighten things out. With the new bureaucratic system and the court ranks, no doubt there were people of worth from uji with less prestigious kabane who now outranked individuals from uji that were, at least on paper, more prestigious. This can’t really have solved the problem. If anything, it just watered down the meaning of “muraji” even further, since now everyone and their brother seemed to have been granted that title.
Ohoama’s solution was to pare down the system to only eight kabane, total. Some of these were existing kabane, and others were entirely new.
At the bottom of this new system was the title of Inaki, which had been about the lowest territorial kabane of the existing system. I suspect that this included all of those families that were still below the rank of Muraji, who had not been raised up in the preceding years. However, from there it immediately jumped up to the Muraji and Omi, in that order. And so the kabane that were previously at the top of the system were now towards the bottom. That way, they could “promote” families into greater kabane, without needing to “demote” a bunch of existing families at the same time.
Above the Omi were mostly new kabane, except for one. The first was “Michinoshi”, a Master of the Way. It is unclear what this was intended for, as we aren’t told who was promoted to this kabane. Based on the name, it is thought that this may have been for uji that had demonstrated a mastery of learning or perhaps some other pursuit, such as medicine, science, crafts, etc.
Above the Michinoshi title was the kabane of Imiki, the fourth of eight. This may mean something like “One who arrived”. Some suggest that it may have originally been “imaki”. Richard Miller, in his work “Ancient Japanese Nobility” suggests that this was effectively the equivalent of the old title of “Atahe”. That said, most of those who received this kabane had previously been promoted to the old title of “Muraji”, though before that they were mostly Atahe, or else Obito, Kishi, or Miyatsuko.
There is a thought that Imiki had something to do with “coming” and was meant for uji descended from immigrant families. Miller notes that this is not immediately born out in the data from the Nihon Shoki, where we see about a 50:50 split between immigrant and native uji. However, in the following chronicle, the Shoku Nihongi, we see about 100 of 150 of uji with the Imiki kabane that were of immigrant origins, so 2/3rds. That still isn’t entirely conclusive, but does add some weight to the idea.
Continuing to the 3rd kabane from the top we are at “Sukune”. This was previously used as a kabane, but from what I can tell it was given to an individual and was not passed down to the entire uji. Now it was something different. Miller suggests that this kabane was for those uji who claimed descent from one of the kami, but not necessarily from the royal lineage.
In contrast, Asomi, later read as “Ason”, the 2nd of the 8 kabane, literally reads as “court minister”. It appears to be for those who claimed some connection to the royal family. It is notable that Ohoama awarded this to some 52 families during his reign. Compare that with making 11 Imiki and 13 Mabito, the next and highest ranking kabane. Asomi would be the most common kabane among those at the top of the court bureaucracy. Of all of them, this one seems to linger, perhaps because it is the kabane that was given to the Fujiwara family, who then carried that with them into later centuries.
Finally, there is Mabito. Mabito means something like “True Person” or perhaps “Upright Person”, and it seems to have gone exclusively to families with the old kabane of “kimi”. An examination of the thirteen uji in this group indicates that they were those with close royal ties, who claimed a descent closely related to that of the royal family.
So those were the new kabane. Although they were declared in 684 and handed out through the following year, we do see some individuals referenced with these kabane earlier in the narrative. This is likely just due to the fact that it is how they were eventually known, and so they are given an anachronistic kabane, which was probably much easier for the compilers than trying to make sure that all of the names were exactly correct for each record.
With the kabane thus dealt with, Ohoama then went on to make some major changes to the court rank system as well. In many ways I would say that his ranks were quite novel—previous changes to the cap-rank system had largely been additions or slight modifications but had left many of the names intact with each change. As such, the rank system decreed in 664 was really just an update to the previous cap-rank system of 649 and earlier. And so even through 664 you still had things like “Greater brocade” as someone’s rank. Towards the end of his reign, though, along with other reforms to the government,
Determining what exactly the rank system was at any given point can be a little confusing. Depending on the record being used, names are sometimes referenced anachronistically: That is they are given with the ultimate title, kabane, or rank by which they were known. This could sometimes be after multiple phases of reform, and so the honors mentioned may not necessarily reflect that individual’s ranks and position at the date of the entry. Also the various rank systems are close enough, sharing many of the various rank names, such that it isn’t immediately obvious if something different is being used. This is true of both kabane and court ranks. Furthermore, as many individuals may only be mentioned once or twice, we may not always have a lot of data on how things may have changed.

The new system enacted in 685 was different in several ways that make it quite distinct. In fact, we see in the record of this reign earlier mentions of individuals where their rank is given in terms of the new system even in records predating 685. So what did that look like?
The rank system of 685 still used various signifiers, which broke things up into categories, but these were broken up into 2-4 numerical grades: Ichi-I, Ni-I, San-I, Shi-I, or first rank, second rank, third rank, and fourth rank. This gets us closer to what was eventually an almost purely numerical system. Each grade was then divided further into “Larger”: “Dai”; or “Broader”: “Kou”
This is also where we see Princely ranks enumerated for the first time. As we noted, previously, princely rank was something that we started to see at the beginning of this reign in the Nihon Shoki, with Prince of the third rank, etc. In 685, however, we get an actual proclamation.
The Princely ranks are broken into two large categories—the bright, or Myou, ranks and the Pure, or Jou ranks. There were two grades of Myou—Ichi-I and Ni-I, and four grades of Jou—Ichi-I, Ni-I, San-I, and Shi-I. Each grade was further divided twice into large, dai, or broad, kou. So you had Myou-dai-ichi-I, Myou-kou-ichi-I, Myou-dai-ni-I, Myou-kou, ni-i… et cetera. That translates to something like Large First Bright rank, Broad First Bright rank, Large Second Bright rank, and Broad Second Bright rank. This would continue with “Jou” replacing “Myou”, and provided a total of 12 princely ranks.
As for how they were divvied out, we only see the granting of “Jou” ranks. In fact, Kusakabe, the Crown Prince himself is given Broader Pure First Rank (Jou-kou-ichi-i). His brother, Prince Ohotsu, was given Larger Pure Second Rank, their brother Takechi, who had helped lead the forces in the Jinshin war, was given Broader Pure Second Rank, one lower than his younger brother. Both Kawashima and Osakabe were given Larger Pure Third Rank. So if the highest “Pure” rank was going to the Crown Prince, then who were the Myou ranks going to? Unfortunately, thou the system would last until the development of the Taihou code, in 703, we don’t have any clear examples of the Myou ranks being handed out, so that may be a puzzle we don’t unravel.
Beyond the ranks for the various princes, there was another, similar set of ranks for the common court nobles. This system had 6 categories, broken up, like the Princely ranks, into four grades, each further divided into Larger and Broader, as before. In this case the categories were:
Shou – Upright
Jiki – Straight
Gon – Diligent
Mu – Earnest
Tsui – Pursue
Shin – Advancement
This created 48 total rank divisions, which gave an unprecedented granularity for the court.
As for granting rank, we have a couple of examples of that, beyond just the posthumous grants. In 686, Ohoama conferred Gon-I, the Dilligent rank, on six ministers who attended to him, personally. There was also a request that provincial governors should select nine people of achievement who could likely be given the same.
There is one strange account: in 685, Awata no Asomi no Mabito—Mabito, in this case, being his given name—requested permission to transfer his rank to his father, but this was refused.
And I think this gets to the heart of the cultural change that was underway, and which Ohoama and the court was actively encouraging. Although the kabane titles were a collective rank, court rank, and the accompanying stipend, was for the individual. This wasn’t something that could accrue to the head of a family. That would have been an important point at a time when the traditions of the uji system were still quite strong.
So there we have it. Hopefully there was something new for you to take away as we come to better understand Ohoama and his court.
We still have plenty more to discuss—probably enough for a few more episodes as we cover some of the natural events and disasters, the ties between the court and religion, as well as what was going on with peninsular affairs, not to mention the myriad other little random tidbits. We’ll get to all of that as we can.
Next episode we’ll take a look at the material culture of the court. Specifically we’ll take a look at what we know about their dress and clothing, much of which was influenced by that sumptuary laws that were, themselves, tied in closely with this new rank system.
Until then, if you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts. If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode.
Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page. You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.
Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast.
And that’s all for now. Thank you again, and I’ll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.

References

Bentley, John R. (2025). Nihon Shoki: The Chronicles of Japan. ISBN 979-8-218634-67-4 pb
Miller, Richard J. (1973). Ancient Japanese Nobility: The Kabane Ranking System. University of California Press. ISBN 0-320-09494-8.
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4.
Asakawa, K. (1903). The Early Institutional Life of Japan: A Study in the Reform of 645 AD. Tokyo Shueisha. Reprint (1963): Paragon Book Reprint Corp., New York, N.Y. 10016

New Year's Recap 2025

January 1, 2025 Joshua Badgley

Mt. Fuji from Miho Matsubara. Photo by author.

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Happy New Year!

Welcome to our 2025 recap. This episode we look back on the past year, but also try to make sure that we prepare for the next year. We’ll cover the big events and then go into some of the major themes that we’ve seen over the year. For that, we’ll also cover some of the previous history that has led up to the start of things this year.

One of the biggest things we’ll do is look at the various forms of power and influence used in the archipelago, based on what we can see in the archaeological record, but also on what we are told by the histories. There is still much that we don’t know, and one of the largest debates between the Chronicles and modern scholarly interpretations of events seems to be just how much control Yamato actually held prior to this period. However, from about the 7th century onwards, there appears to be enough correlation with other events that we have some idea of what was actually happening.

A key fact to remember is that we are in the middle of the 7th century, and the Nihon Shoki’s account ends in 697 CE—about twenty-three years earlier than the date it was published, in 720 CE. So these latter events would have been the ones with the most sources and the most people who probably remembered something about them—or had at least heard stories. In fact, we can imagine that someone who was 80 years old in 720 CE would have been born in 640, and would have been in the prime of their life by 660. So we are now within the period where people actually remembered the events the Chroniclers were writing about.

Chart showing the various lineages with bold outline around those referenced most heavily this year

Isshi Incident and the Taika Era

The majority of this year was focused on the changes that stemmed from the Isshi Incident, which spawned the Taika era—the era of “Great Change.” This is the start of the Ritsuryo era, and the birth of the bureaucratic state that would be used for some time to govern Yamato—and eventually Nihon, aka Japan.

Though it wouldn’t necessarily take a direct path—after building a grand palace in Naniwa, they moved back to Asuka. Still, they had expanded control throughout the archipelago, or so it seemed.

And now here we are: Takara hime is back on the throne, but Prince Naka no Oe is still Crown Prince and still has a lot of influence on the court.

Shinnen Akemashite! Happy New Year and Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua, and this is the New Year’s Recap episode for 2025!
It’s that time again: we are going to look back at what happened in the episodes this year. That was only episodes 101 to 117—we’ll skip the travelogue episodes for the time being. This covered the years of the early to mid-7th century, from roughly 613 to 659. That is easily within the lifetime of a single individual, and yet a lot was going on.
At the start of this year, we were at the height of Soga power. In 2023, we covered how back in 587, Soga no Umako had wrested power away from the powerful Mononobe clan, defeating Mononobe no Moriya. As you may recall, the sovereign known to posterity as Jimmu Tennou was the descendant of the Heavenly Grandchild known as Ninigi no Mikoto, at least according to the Nihon Shoki. The Mononobe clan claimed descent from none other than Nigi Hayahi, the Other Heavenly Grandchild, whose offspring were said to have been defeated by Jimmu.
You may recall that scholars generally consider the story of Jimmu, and the nine sovereigns that immediately followed him, as almost certainly a later addition to the story of the royal lineage. So when did the story of Nigi no Hayahi’s defeat enter the picture? And was its inclusion perhaps related to the defeat of the Mononobe by the Soga family? A family that successfully intermarried with the Royal House, themselves, such that all later sovereigns would trace their ancestry back to the Soga house?
Of course, under Soga dominance we saw the rise of figures like the Soga descended Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tenno. During her reign, major reforms were carried out, Buddhism became fully established by the State, and ties with the continent were strengthened.
Politics would continue to be dominated by Soga, even after the death of Soga no Umako and Kashikiya Hime, with Soga no Emishi taking up the mantle of Prime Minister, working closely with his son, Soga no Iruka. The Soga family was so entwined with the politics of rulership that the main rivals of the Soga were… the Soga. That is to say different Soga-descended lineages, like that of the Prince Umayado, aka Prince Shotoku. Rather than supporting Umayado’s son, Prince Yamashiro no Oe, Soga no Emishi backed another candidate to the throne, Prince Tamura. , of the royal Okinaga lineage. Tamura came to power as Jomei Tenno, but there is little doubt that Soga no Emishi was the one in control.
Later, when Tamura passed away in 641, Yamashiro no Oe continued to be passed over. In fact, Soga no Emishi supported the ascension of Tamura’s wife, Takara hime, over Yamashiro no Oe, and there is evidence that he supported a prince known as Furubito no Oe as the Crown Prince and eventual successor. All of the evidence—which, to be honest, is rather biased—suggests that the Soga family were setting up a series of puppet rulers who would do their bidding, or at least be pliable to their suggestions.
There must have been some pushback, though, especially when one considers how strong the cult of Prince Shotoku, aka Umayado, would eventually become. One imagines that Prince Yamashiro was another pole around which those who opposed the Soga family could rally. After all, he was the son of Crown Prince Umayado, and likely had just as much of a claim as Tamura and his children. And so, to counter this threat, Soga no Emishi’s son and successor, Soga no Iruka, took matters into his own hands.
In a brazen display of the violence of court politics, Soga no Iruka had Yamashiro no Oe accused of plotting against the throne and took an army to arrest him—no doubt in the hope that the prince would resist. Eventually they cornered Yamashiro and his family, who committed suicide rather than submit.
This attack was likely targeted to take out the rival to the Soga family’s preferred Crown Prince, Prince Furubito no Oe, but rather than quell any dissent, the move seems to have enflamed the passions of those who wanted to see an end to the Soga house. Those passions took particular root in none other than Furubito no Oe’s younger brother, Prince Naka no Oe. Together with the support of his uncle, Prince Karu; the head of the Nakatomi house, Nakatomi no Kamatari; as well as another scion of the Soga house, Soga no Kuroyamada, Prince Naka no Oe staged a coup d’etat. Using the death of Prince Yamashiro no Oe as an excuse, they engineered a plot to assassinate Soga no Iruka in court, in front of Naka no Oe’s own mother, Takara Hime no Oho-kimi. After Iruka’s death, Naka no Oe and his supporters then took the fight to Soga no Emishi, who committed suicide and set his own house on fire in what came to be known as the Isshi Incident.
This shocking assassination caused Takara hime to step down. The Soga-backed Prince Furubito no Oe, rather than stepping up and taking the throne, retreated to a Buddhist temple and took holy orders, effectively retiring and theoretically taking himself out of court politics. That left Prince Naka no Oe and his uncle, Prince Karu, as possible candidates.
We are told that Prince Naka no Oe declined to take the throne himself, instead supporting his uncle, Prince Karu. Prince Karu took the throne, and is known to us as Kotoku Tenno, today. Prince Naka no Oe stepped up as the Crown Prince, and with the help of his co-conspirators, such as Nakatomi no Kamatari, Soga no Kurayamada, and others, they began a project to remake the Yamato government, using continental models—specifically the Sui and Tang courts, which were also influencing the governments of the Korean peninsula, such as those of Baekje and Silla.
This is known as the Taika, or Great Change, era. There had been previous movements to adopt some of the continental trends, but nothing to this extent, which culminated in a tremendous palace complex built in Naniwa—modern Ohosaka. Governors were sent out to the east of the country. The old, decentralized system was being replaced by a centralized bureaucracy.
And yet this wasn’t entirely a smooth transition. Early on there was a threat by supporters of the previous Crown Prince, Furubito no Oe. He was killed to put down any possible revolt. Later, Naka no Oe was hoodwinked into going after his own co-conspirator, Soga no Kurayamada, resulting in Kurayamada’s death and the punishment of his entire family. A few years later, Naka no Oe moved back to Asuka, taking most of the royal family and the court with him, abandoning the grand government complex that they had built in Naniwa for reasons that remain unclear.
Shortly thereafter, Karu, aka Kotoku Tenno, passed away. But rather than Naka no Oe taking the throne—or even Karu’s son, Prince Arima—the throne went back to Naka no Oe’s mother, Takara Hime. This is the only case we have of a single sovereign reigning twice, and the Chroniclers gave her two separate regnal names—Kogyoku Tenno to refer to her first reign and Saimei Tenno to refer to her second.
And this is the reign that we are going to start the new year with.
Beyond what was going on on the archipelago, there was also plenty that we covered on the continent. We started the year with the Sui dynasty having consolidated control and working to continue to expand their territory north, south, and west, while also connecting the economic areas of the Yangzi and Yellow rivers.
Unfortunately, through their wars and public works projects they overextended themselves, and the dynasty fell, replaced, in 619, with the Tang dynasty. The Tang continued to expand, taking control of important points on the Silk Road and becoming a hub of trade and commerce. At the same time, they were contesting their borders with the Goguryeo, who, themselves, had come under the control of Yeon Gaesomun, an infamous noble and anti-Tang hard-liner, who had staged a coup, murdered the Goguryeo king and any who stood against him, and who had installed a puppet king on the throne. It is little wonder that the Tang dynasty was courting Goguryeo’s enemy, Silla, to pressure them from the other side. This eventually kicked off the Tang-Goguryeo war, with the loosely allied Tang and Silla fighting on and off with Goguryeo and their ally, Baekje, who was also invested in stifling Silla’s ambitions on the peninsula.
So that’s where we are: The Korean peninsula is currently embroiled in conflict between the three kingdoms on the peninsula and the nearby superpower, the Tang Dynasty. Meanwhile, Yamato, on the archipelago, is going through a whole… thing. What that is, we’ll try to get into over the next year.
Given all of this, let’s go over some of the themes from the past year. To start with, let’s talk about expanding Yamato influence.
From what we can tell, Yamato’s influence in the archipelago had peaked around the 5th century, between the creation of giant Daisen Ryo kofun and the reign of Wakatake no Ohokimi, aka Yuryaku Tenno. Wakatake no Ohokimi had courtiers from as far away as Kyushu and the Kanto plain. However, from what I can tell, Yamato’s influence appears to have temporarily waned, possibly coinciding with the end of Wakatake’s own dynasty, with a new dynasty coming to power in the 6th century.
It is possible that Wakatake was simply never quite as powerful as the Chronicles make out, but there are a few other things that make me think that the end of the 5th and early half of the 6th century were a low point in Yamato’s power. For one thing, we see a drop off in interactions with the continent after 479—or at least anything beyond the tip of the Korean peninsula. In addition, we see smaller rooms built in the region of the Nara Basin and the Kawachi plain, while more “royal” tombs continue to appear elsewhere in the archipelago. It isn’t that they stopped, but the size decreased, suggesting that Yamato didn’t have the same labor pool it used to.
On top of that, we have the dynastic change. We are told that the line related to Wakatake died out and they had to bring in someone from Afumi and Koshi, who traced their lineage back to the legendary Homuda-wake, aka Ōjin tennō, some five generations back. Many scholars suggest that this connection was a later merging of the lineages, suggesting that, in reality, an entirely new branch of sovereigns had come to power.
Finally, we can see the Chronicles focusing more and more on the areas near to Yamato, the area known as the Home Provinces, possibly because Yamato only held direct control over these areas, while control beyond that was only nominal. Local elites in those regions had a lot of autonomy, and if Yamato did not have anything in particular to offer them, they would not have a reason to necessarily go along with Yamato’s requests.
This may have even been part of the impetus for the so-called “rebellion” by Iwai, in Kyushu. As you may recall, in the early 6th century Iwai attempted to ally with Silla against Yamato and Baekje, with the idea of cutting off Yamato’s access to the continent. This ultimately failed, and Yamato ended up creating what would become the Dazaifu near modern Fukuoka, but the fact that Iwai could contemplate it and gather such support would suggest that Yamato was at least perceived as vulnerable.
Now up to this point, we see several different policies that were used for increasing the court’s control. Early on, this was done by doling out various elite goods. We also see Yamato soft power in the form of spiritual authority and the expansion of local Yamato cultic practices out into the other lands of the archipelago. There was also the tradition of monumental tombs, and especially the royal keyhole style tombs, which spread out from Yamato and was likely as much an indication that those regions saw Yamato practices as worthy of emulation, at the least, and perhaps saw Yamato as a cultural nexus on the archipelago.
To all of this, they eventually added the “Be” system. This appears to have been copied from systems being used on the Korean peninsula, and it focused on creating familial units to organize various industries, with family heads responsible for reporting and funneling necessary goods up to the court. This eventually included the noble “uji” clans, with their power bases in various geographic regions.
Yamato extended its influence through a variety of methods, including various public works projects. These included things like the building of ponds, or reservoirs, which would have been critical to the wet-rice paddy agriculture that was the economic backbone of the Yamato government.
Another means of extending government control was the “miyake”, or Royal Granaries. Originally we see these set up in the Nara basin, but during the current dynasty they had been extended all the way out to Kyushu. Ostensibly, they were there to collect rice for taxes, but they appear to have acted as government offices, providing a presence for Yamato even out in the hinterlands. Eventually they would turn the area in Kyushu, the Dazai, into its own, semi-autonomous extension of the Yamato government, as well.
In the past year of the podcast, we’ve seen many of those older forms of government control replaced with a new bureaucratic system. This included an upgrade to the rank system, which was a way for the government to both organize the bureaucracy while also creating a means to award individuals. Early rank systems had initially been granted at the family level, but following a continental model meant that the new system was based solely on the individual. Thus they could hand out rank to various kings and chieftains across the archipelago and entice them into the Yamato orbit, a trick they had been doing previously as well with various types of recognition. Those that took the titles and rank that Yamato handed out gained a certain amount of legitimacy, locally, but since that legitimacy was tied to the Yamato court, it also helped solidify Yamato’s own influence on those areas.
That doesn’t mean that all expansion was peaceful. Yamato contested on their eastern and northern border with the people referred to as the Emishi, which eventually included contests as far north as the island of Hokkaido with the Mishihase people.
There was another form of soft power used by the court in the way that it supported Buddhism, which was still a new religion at this point, having arrived in the early part of the 6th century. Patronage of Buddhism would lead to the building of temples and otherwise claiming some authority in the spiritual realm, beyond simply the court’s control of the Mt. Miwa site. Furthermore, the state itself took particular interest in Buddhist institutions, and cracked down heavily on the clergy, ensuring that they reported up to the court, formally solidifying the connection between temples and the State.
But then they went a bit further and instituted actual governors. They were appointed by the Yamato government, and they were particularly installed in the Eastern lands—referred to as provinces. These governors reported to the court, and appear to have initially been separate from locally recognized elites, who were known as the Kuni no Miyatsuko. The governors were to take stock of the areas under their authority and report up information such as a summary of the lands and local census information. This meant that Yamato did not need to rely on local elites to administer an area, they would have greater insight into what was actually going on.
This was all combined with the institution of new laws on taxes, corvee labor, and more, while eliminating traditional practices such as the Miyake and even royal tomb-building. The latter was likely affected by the various public works projects, but also the fact that more work was going into the building of things like Buddhist temples.
As we noted back in the previous year, Buddhist temple building appears to have had a hand in the end of the prolific kofun building, at least in Yamato proper. Kofun were memorials—meant to carry on the memory of an individuals well after their death. They were ritual sites, and families were set up to care for them.
Temples, likewise, were erected with certain memorial qualities. Donating to build a temple was thought to increase one’s karma, and thus do wonders for your next life. Temple patrons would be remembered, and services were carried out, but temples also had a certain public aspect to them, as well. On top of that, they were new, and no doubt exotic, with their tiled rooves, intricate carvings, and colorful buildings. Much of the labor that would have built tombs appears to have been co-opted, instead, to build temples.
Some of the temples founded in this period include Asuka dera, aka Hokoji, built on or near the Soga family compound, as well as other Asuka temples, such as Yamadadera, Kawaradera, Toyouradera, and Kudaradera. There was also Houryuji, erected by Prince Umayado near his house, and the ancient temple of Shitennouji, erected in Naniwa. Of these, both Horyuji and Shitennoji continue, today, at or near their original with some of the oldest extant buildings in Japan. Asukadera was moved to its modern site of Gangoji, in Nara city proper, but there is still a smaller Asukadera on the original site, with what may be one of the original images, though the buildings have been rebuilt after numerous fires and disasters over the years.
Of course, a big part of all of these foreign ideas, such as Buddhism but also Confucian thought as well, was the growing influence of the continent, whether in the form of Baekje, Silla, Goguryeo, or beyond. While there had been influence ever since the Yayoi period—and arguably even during the Jomon, in some instances—there seems to have been an acceleration once Yamato began to import Buddhism, which was likely connected with all of the learning and texts that were also being imported around that time. Then, during the Sui and Tang dynasties—both of which the Chronicles simply label as the “Great Tang”—the court sent several embassies to the Sui and Tang emperors, bringing back individuals with actual experience in the way things were happening outside of the archipelago.
And we should not discount the various embassies to and from the Korean peninsula. Yamato was increasing its involvement in peninsular affairs. They continued to be concerned with the state of Nimna, also known as Imna or Mimana, which had been assimilated by Silla, along with the rest of Gaya, or Kara, by the early to mid-6th century, with many accounts dealing with attempts to reinstate Nimna as a separate and sovereign entity. Along with this, Yamato continued their relationship with Baekje, who sent Prince Pung to reside at the Yamato court. This continued a long-standing tradition that is portrayed as a type of diplomatic hostage, though there have been several times that princes at the Yamato court came back to Baekje to rule after the king died or was killed.
All of this to say that not only did ambassadors from Yamato go to these countries, but ambassadors also traveled to Yamato, while various immigrants from these areas of Baekje, Silla, and even Goguryeo occasionally settled in Yamato. This further increased the number of individuals with knowledge and experience of continental concepts and technology, and we can see their influence in numerous different ways.
This was all part of what led to the Yamato government’s adoption of Tang style law codes, though it should be noted that the law codes were not taken wholecloth. Rather, they were adapted specifically to the issues of the archipelago. This was the beginning of what came to be known as the Ritsuryo system, literally the system of laws and punishments.
Under this system, the government went from a single Oho-omi, or great minister, to two Great ministers, one of the left and one of the right. These would come to be known as the Sadaijin and the Udaijin. Nakatomi no Kamatari was afforded a special place as the third minister, the minister of the center, or Naidaijin, possibly referring to his responsibilities with the interior of the royal household, while the ministers of the left and right would have had particular ministries beneath them - eight ministries in total, with various departments underneath them. They would be assigned to report either to the Minister of the Left or the Minister of the Right, each one overseeing, effectively, half of the government portfolio.
This system, combined with the governors and the Tomo no Miyatsuko in the provinces, meant that Yamato had much more granular control over the workers and the means of production. They organized households into villages, and villages into districts. There were lower level officials who reported up the chain all the way to the great ministers, the Daijin, or Oho-omi. This meant that they effectively abolished the Be and Uji system, at least as it had been set up. These familial groups continued to operate as families, or perhaps more appropriately as “clans”, given how the groups had come to be.
These officials were granted rank and, more importantly, stipends from the government. A portion of taxes, which were paid in rice, went to various officials. This meant that officials not only relied on the government for their status, but for their incomes as well.
This went along with an attempt to implement something known as the “equal field system”, imported, again, from the continent. This determined who would work what fields, and was another way that the government was involved down to the actual labor producing the rice that was the economic engine of the State.
And that covers most of what we’ve been up to this past year. There have been individual accomplishments that we didn’t get into, but there is plenty there if you want to listen to it.
So that covers the past year in the podcast—a little over half of the 7th century. It really was a time of dramatic change—whether or not “Taika” was the name given to part of it, it certainly feels appropriate. Even though the court eventually moved to Naniwa, this is the height of the Asuka period, and the start of the Ritsuryo state. It would form the foundations for what was to come, and themes from this period will continue to show up again and again.
In this next year, we are going to continue to look at Takara Hime’s reign and beyond. We’ll see the resolution of the Tang-Goguryeo war, and the impact of all the continental fighting on the archipelago. We’ll also see continued developments within the archipelago itself, hopefully getting through to the end of the 7th century.
We are actually reaching the end of the material in the Nihon Shoki. This does not mean that we are running out of material, though. The Chronicles end in 697—less than 40 years out from our current place in the Chronicles. From there, we have the Shoku Nihongi, which covers 95 years, until 797 CE. Translation of much of the Shoku Nihongi is available through the work of Dr. Ross Bender, and you can find his work online if you want to get a leg up on the reading, though that is a ways out. For now, we can still comfortably continue with the Nihon Shoki, at least through the reign of Temmu Tennou.
Until then, Happy New Year! As usual, thank you for listening and for all of your support. Thanks also to my lovely wife, Ellen, for her continued work at helping to edit these episodes!
Remember, if you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts. If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode.
Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page. You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.
And that’s all for now. Thank you again, and I’ll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.

References

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New Year's Recap 2024

January 1, 2024 Joshua Badgley

Sunset over the hills west of Asuka. Photo by author.

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References

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Kabane (姓)

Court Ranks of 685

Ranks for those not lower than Prince (王):

Ranks for other court officials:

Rough Transcript

References

Rough Transcript

References

Rough Transcript

References