Best books online Library

These
naturalized persons were distinguished, in many cases, by technical
skill or literary attainments. Hence they received treatment
different from that given to ordinary tomobe, some of them being
allowed to assume the title and enjoy the privilege of uji,
distinguished, however, as uji of the Bambetsu. Thus, the descendants
of the seamstresses, E-hime and Oto-hime, and of the weavers,
Kure-hatori and Ana-hatori, who were presented to the Yamato Court by
an Emperor of the Wu dynasty in China, were allowed to organize
themselves into Kinu-nui-uji (uji of Silk-robe makers); and that a
Hata-uji (Weavers' uji) was similarly organized is proved by a
passage in the records of the Emperor Ojin (A.D. 284) which relates
that the members of the Hata-uji had become scattered about the
country and were carrying on their manufacturing work in various
jurisdictions. This fact having been related to the Throne, steps
were taken to bring together all these weavers into the Hata-uji, and
to make them settle at villages to which the name of Kachibe was
given in commemoration of the weavers' ancestor, Kachi. The records
show that during the first four centuries of the Christian era the
people presented to the Yamato Court by the sovereigns of the Wu
dynasty and of Korea must have been very numerous, for no less than
710 uji were formed by them in consideration of their skill in the
arts and crafts.

SLAVES

The institution of slavery (nuhi) existed in ancient Japan as in so
many other countries. The slaves consisted of prisoners taken in war
and of persons who, having committed some serious offence, were
handed over to be the property of those that they had injured. The
first recorded instance of the former practice was when Yamato-dake
presented to the Ise shrine the Yemishi chiefs who had surrendered to
him in the sequel of his invasion of the eastern provinces. The same
fate seems to have befallen numerous captives made in the campaign
against the Kumaso, and doubtless wholesale acts of self-destruction
committed by Tsuchi-gumo and Kumaso when overtaken by defeat were
prompted by preference of death to slavery. The story of Japan's
relations with Korea includes many references to Korean prisoners who
became the property of their captors, and that a victorious general's
spoils should comprise some slaves may be described as a recognized
custom. Of slavery as a consequence of crime there is also frequent
mention, and it would appear that even men of rank might be overtaken
by that fate, for when (A.D. 278) Takenouchi-no-Sukune's younger
brother was convicted of slandering him, the culprit's punishment
took the form of degradation and assignment to a life of slavery. The
whole family of such an offender shared his fate. There is no
evidence, however, that the treatment of the nuhi was inhuman or even
harsh: they appear to have fared much as did the tomobe in general.

THE LAND

There are two kinds of territorial rights, and these, though now
clearly differentiated, were more or less confounded in ancient
Japan. One is the ruler's right--that is to say, competence to impose
taxes; to enact rules governing possession; to appropriate private
lands for public purposes, and to treat as crown estates land not
privately owned. The second is the right of possession; namely, the
right to occupy definite areas of land and to apply them to one's own
ends. At present those two rights are distinct. A landowner has no
competence to issue public orders with regard to it, and a lessee of
land has to discharge certain responsibilities towards the lessor. It
was not so in old Japan. As the Emperor's right to rule the people
was not exercised over an individual direct but through the uji no
Kami who controlled that individual, so the sovereign's right over
the land was exercised through the territorial owner, who was usually
the uji no Kami. The latter, being the owner of the land, leased a
part of it to the members of the uji, collected a percentage of the
produce, and presented a portion to the Court when occasion demanded.
Hence, so long as the sovereign's influence was powerful, the uji no
Kami and other territorial magnates, respecting his orders, refrained
from levying taxes and duly paid their appointed contributions to the
Court.

But in later times, when the Throne's means of enforcing its orders
ceased to bear any sensible ratio to the puissance of the uji no Kami
and other local lords, the Imperial authority received scanty
recognition, and the tillers of the soil were required to pay heavy
taxes to their landlords. It is a fallacy to suppose that the Emperor
in ancient times not only ruled the land but also owned it. The only
land held in direct possession by the Throne was that constituting
the Imperial household's estates and that belonging to members of the
Imperial family. The private lands of the Imperial family were called
mi-agata.* The province of Yamato contained six of these estates, and
their produce was wholly devoted to the support of the Court. Lands
cultivated for purposes of State revenue were called miyake.** They
existed in several provinces, the custom being that when land was
newly acquired, a miyake was at once established and the remainder
was assigned to princes or Court nobles (asomi or asori). The
cultivators of miyake were designated ta-be (rustic corporation); the
overseers were termed ta-zukasa (or mi-ta no tsukasa), and the
officials in charge of the stores were mi-agata no obito.

*The prefix mi (honourable) was and is still used for purposes of
courtesy.

**In ancient Japan, officials and their offices were often designated
alike. Thus, miyake signified a public estate or the store for
keeping the produce, just as tsukasa was applied alike to an overseer
and to his place of transacting business.

As far back as 3 B.C., according to Japanese chronology, we read of
the establishment of a miyake, and doubtless that was not the first.
Thenceforth there are numerous examples of a similar measure.
Confiscated lands also formed a not unimportant part of the Court's
estates. Comparatively trifling offences were sometimes thus
expiated. Thus, in A.D. 350, Aganoko, suzerain of the Saegi, being
convicted of purloining jewels from the person of a princess whom he
had been ordered to execute, escaped capital punishment only by
surrendering all his lands; and, in A.D. 534, a provincial ruler who,
being in mortal terror, had intruded into the ladies' apartments in
the palace, had to present his landed property for the use of the
Empress. These facts show incidentally that the land of the country,
though governed by the sovereign, was not owned by him. Lands in a
conquered country were naturally regarded as State property, but
sufficient allusion has already been made to that custom.

THE SPHERE OF THE SOVEREIGN'S RULE

It is related in the Records that, in prehistoric days, the last of
the chieftains sent by Amaterasu to wrest Japan from its then holders
addressed the leaders of the latter in these terms, "The central land
of reed plains owned (ushi-haku) by you is the country to be governed
(shirasu) by my son." Japanese historiographers attach importance to
the different words here used. Ushi-haku signifies "to hold in
intimate lordship"--as one wears a garment--whereas shirasu means "to
exercise public rights as head of a State." A Japanese Emperor
occupied both positions towards mi-nashiro (q.v.), toward naturalized
or conquered folks, towards mi-agata, miyake, and confiscated
estates, but his functions with regard to the people and the land in
general were limited to governing (shirasu).

If the ancient prerogatives of the sovereign be tabulated, they stand
thus:

(1) to conduct the worship of the national deities as general head of
all the uji;

(2) to declare war against foreign countries and to make peace with
them, as representative of the uji, and (3) to establish or abolish
uji, to nominate uji no Kami, and to adjudicate disputes between
them. The first of these prerogatives remains unaltered to the
present day. The second was partly delegated in medieval times to the
military class, but has now been restored to the Throne. As for the
third, its exercise is to-day limited to the office of the hereditary
nobility, the Constitution having replaced the Crown in other
respects.

Two thousand years have seen no change in the Emperor's function of
officiating as the high priest of the nation. It was the sovereign
who made offerings to the deities of heaven and earth at the great
religious festivals. It was the sovereign who prayed for the aid of
the gods when the country was confronted by any emergency or when the
people suffered from pestilence. In short, though the powers of the
Emperor over the land and the people were limited by the intervention
of the uji, the whole nation was directly subservient to the Throne
in matters relating to religion. From the earliest eras, too, war
might not be declared without an Imperial rescript, and to the
Emperor was reserved the duty of giving audience to foreign envoys
and receiving tribute. By foreign countries, China and Korea were
generally understood, but the Kumaso, the Yemishi, and the Sushen
were also included in the category of aliens. It would seem that the
obligation of serving the country in arms was universal, for in the
reign of Sujin, when an oversea expedition was contemplated, the
people were numbered according to their ages, and the routine of
service was laid down. Contributions, too, had to be made, as is
proved by the fact that a command of the same sovereign required the
various districts to manufacture arms and store them in the shrines.

THE THRONE AND THE UJI

The sovereign's competence to adjudicate questions relating to the
uji is illustrated by a notable incident referred to the year A.D.
415, during the reign of Inkyo. Centuries had then passed since the
inauguration of the uji, and families originally small with clearly
defined genealogies had multiplied to the dimensions of large clans,
so that much confusion of lineage existed, and there was a
wide-spread disposition to assert claims to spurious rank.