power than his father. He also designed to obtain the throne for Prince Furuhito, a relative of his family. But an obstacle existed in the person of Prince Yamashiro, whose goodness and discretion had won popular respect. Steps were taken to have this prince assassinated, and otherwise Iruka showed himself so arbitrary and unscrupulous that there appeared to be danger of his compassing the destruction of the lineal successors to the throne and usurping the sovereignty himself. Thereupon Nakatomi Kamatari, a loyal subject, conferred with Prince Nakano-ōye, son of the Emperor Shōmei, as to the expediency of making away with Iruka. This plot culminated in the killing of Iruka in the throne room on a day when Korean ambassadors were received at the court. Iruka's father, Emishi, was also killed, and with them the glory of the Soga vanished.
Thus ended the interesting period of history in which active relations, first with Korea, and then with China, began to produce in Japan a direct, profound effect upon her society and politics. Agents of the advanced civilization were liberally introduced, and, in the midst of this process, a grave crisis which was about to overcome the central institutions of the state system was averted only by an anomalous act of a few patriots. It was these latter who inaugurated in the next period the grand work of reconstructing the entire system of government and administration after the pattern of Chinese institutions. The continental civilization in all its refinement was then even more eagerly studied around the capital than before, while the country at large, under the unforeseen effects of these artificial reforms, passed gradually into a still later period of her history. Before taking up the story of the reform period, we as usual subjoin a table of the sovereigns of the period which has been under review in this chapter.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS.
14. Emperor Chūai, 192–270 AD (including the 69 years of the
regency of Empress Jingō-kōgō).
|
15. Emperor Ojin, 270–313.
|
16. Emperor Nintoku, 313–400.
|
17. Emperor Richû,--18. Emperor Hanshō,--19. Emperor Inkyō,
400–405. 405–411. 411–453.
| |
| +----------------+
| |
Prince Ichinobe Oshiiwa. 20. Emperor Ankō,--21. Emperor Yūryaku,
| 453–456. 456–480.
| |
| 22. Emperor Seinei.
23. Emperor Kensō,--24. Emperor Ninken, 488–499. 480–485.
485–488. |
25. Emperor Buretsu, 499–507.
(Emperor Ojin.)
|
(Emperor Nintoku.)--Prince Wakamikenofutamata.
|
Prince Ōhito.
|
Prince Hikouishi.
|
26. Emperor Keitai, 507–534.
|
+---------------+
|
27. Emperor Ankan,--28. Emperor Senkwa,--29. Emperor Kimmei, 540–572.
534–536. 536–540. |
+----------------------------------------+
|
30. Emperor Bidatsu,--31. Emperor Yōmei,--32. Emperor Susun,--33. Empress
572–586. 586–588. 588–591. Suiko,
| 591–629.
|
Prince Oshisakahiko-nushibito.
|
+----------+
|
34. Emperor Shōmei, 629–642.--Prince Chinu.
|
35. Empress Kōkyoku, 642–645.
Chapter IV
THE TAIKWA REFORM. 645–708 AD
It was in the year 645 A. D. that a small league of supporters of the imperial institutions, under the leadership of two true statesmen, Prince Naka-no-ōye and Nakatomi-no-Kamatari, overthrew the disloyal family of Soga. For the first time in Japanese history, the Chinese system of year-periods was adopted, and the name Taikwa ("Great Change") was applied to the period which began with this year. No more appropriate name could be invented, for the reforms henceforth introduced, known in history as the Taikwa reformation, were of such a sweeping character as to transform within a few years all the fundamental institutions of the central and local administration. The model of the changes was found in the system of politics and society of China, which had lately come under the sway of the dynasty of T'ang, the centralized government and refined civilization of which had excited emulation in the minds of the Japanese reformers. The memorable year 645 A. D. thus marks the beginning of the exhaustive reformation which was completed only after fifty-six years, extending over the reigns of six sovereigns, for it was not till 701 that the celebrated Taihō code of laws brought the work of state reorganization to a close.
It would hardly be necessary for us to study the reforms in detail, which brought profound changes upon nearly all the features of national life. The central institution of the new state may be said to be the land system. Formerly, noble families abused the influence of their position and extended their territorial estates so greatly that the commoner was in a state of perpetual eviction. Between the rich and the poor had grown a widening gap. Now the reformers, after their Chinese model, boldly confiscated to the state all the landed estates of private individuals, which they then allotted equally among all the people above the age of six at the rate of two tan for a male and one and one-third tan for a female (a chō, or 10 tan, at the time being approximately equal to two acres), subject to a redistribution at every sixth year. Naturally neither the periodical redistribution nor the system of equal allotment itself could be long maintained, but the notion that the ownership of land was ultimately vested in the state was not abandoned until the present reign, when the people of all classes were at last allowed to own land.
The economic and financial unit of the nation being thus defined, it was also provided that a national census should be returned at a fixed period. New taxes were of three kinds, the principal one, called so, being levied upon land. The method of its assessment was to fix the annual produce of two tan of rice land at 100 sheaves, 8 of which—4 large and 4 small—were taken as tax, or, roughly,
