Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/153

* JAPAN. 135 JAPAN. retired thither before the advancing invaders, leaving their names on rivers, mountains, streams, and other natural landmarks. In the south dwelt aboriginal people, perhaps from the ilalay regions. The invaders of the archipelago, whether coming from Tartary or Korea, were without letters or writings, but possessed superior arms, valor, and discipline. They came as immigrants, at various times and to various places, finding people already on the soil, whom they proceeded to put under their control. There are thus early discerned with clearness, in the morning of the history of Japan, race struggles among various tribes of differing cus- toms and languages, and two types of men, whom we now call Japanese and Ainos. the former liv- ing south, the latter north of the thirty-eighth parallel. Gradually the Tsukushi and the Id- zumo people became subordinate to the Yamato house or tribe. The conquerors intermarried with the subjugated, and the pacified chiefs were awarded rank and honor, while the power of the Mikado or Yamato chief was consolidated by making the primitive cult, now called Shinto, or Kami-no-michi, a political engine. The whole country was put under a rude feudal system, the conquered or subordinated holding their lands in loyalty to the Yamato chieft-ain or ilikado. Civilization gradually drifted in from Korea, through teachers, artificers, and men of learning. There are indications that a cen- tury or two before the great flood of civilizing influences was borne on the waves of Bud- dhism, considerable knowledge of Chinese letters, WTiting, and ethical notions had penetrated to the Yamato Court, and among some of the chiefs of the southwest. The Xihongi (another histori- cal work compiled in a.d. 720) states that in the year 40.5 a Korean scholar was appointed tutor in China to one of the Imperial princes, and that about the year 430 Tiistoriographers were appointed.' As yet, however, there was no such thing as a settled capital, the ilikado and his household moving from place to place in Cen- tral Japan. After the death of the Mikado-chief, his successor, with a horror of the place of the dead, moved on and built a new palace. There have been thus no fewer than si.ty capitals. To- day the provinces of Yamato, Y'amasliiro. Ka- waehi. and Settsu "are dotted with places, now mere villages, sometimes indeed empty names, but once in the proud position of capitals of the Empire." The line between legend and true history is made clear upon the arrival in a.d. 5.52 of Bud- dliist missionaries from Korea, who brought with them not only the sutras and images of their cult — the Mahayana northern form of Buddhism ■ — but also letters, writing, calendars, and meth- ods of keeping time. Buddhism took root, and be- came so popular with both Court and people that in 621 it was proclaimed by edict to he the estab- lished religion of the land. From this time forth wc have something like a coherent account of things, and can trace with some clearness, through many rebellions and oppositions, the rise to paramountcy of the Yamato House. Nara, in Yamato. became the fixed capital, and re- Tnained so for seven reigns between the years 709 and 7S4. One decade later Kioto was made the Imperial residence, and. with few interrup- tions, continued to be so until 1868. At the open- ing of the seventh century Chinese civilization had so far been accepted that in 603 the form of government was changed from feudalism to mon- archy; eight boards or departments of State were established, in imitation of the Chinese system, and a new order of nobility, in nine rank^, was created. A great council, called the Dai-jo-Kwan, which had also been established, superintended the eight boards, and ruled the Empire by means of local governors appointed and sent out from the capital. The practical enforcement of this new central- ized system of rule from Kioto was not accept- able, and was in many places long and stoutly resisted. Gradually a military class was formed, which became separate from the agricultural, the latter comprising the farmers and those who per- manently tilled the soil. By parallel develop- ment the men at arms became professional sol- diers. Other great lines of movement may be summarized in the increasing centralization of government, and the withdrawal of the ilikado from active service in the field,* or even in the affairs of government, and liis comparative seclu- sion. Under the pretext of religion, or a desire to lay aside the cares of government, committing tile actual work of administration to his sub- ordinates in order to seek retirement, he became in the national life rather an abstraction than a person. By means of the superior valor, force, and skill of its soldierSj the Empire was extended north, south, east, and west tmtil all Kiushiu and Shikoku were subdued and the arms of Japan extended to the far east and north. ^Jlcantime, in the capital and palace, the Fujiwara family, who had come into position and power abotit the year 670. had developed a bureaucracy, so that they gradually monopolized most of the offices in and about the Court and the administrative boards. In other civilian families. tKe particular administration of sacred rites or the cultivation of learning became the specialty or monopoly. The military commands were always given to the rival clans of the Taira and ilinamoto. The Taira warriors, fighting imder the white crest or banner, gained renown and power in the south- west. Th.? ilinamoto, under the red banner or crest, won victory and held power in the east and north ; but when once the activities of the field were comparatively things of the past, both elans lusted for power nearer the throne. Then began a struggle in the capital. The Fujiwara, who had formed a ring around the Emperor, and by their own henchmen blocked most of the ways of ap- proach by nepotism, were ousted by the Taira, whose star was now in the ascendent. This nat- urally excited the jealousy of the Minamoto, and in the year 1159 the two rival military clans came to blows. Then began that famous period of the wars of 'Genji and Heikf,' which have since colored all .Japanese history, literature, and art. and which in later times, even to this day, have given the standard and motives for games of skill and chance. Kiyomori. the Taira chief, became Premier in 1167. He not only redis- tributed the offices, civil and military, among I'.is own clansmen, but by marrying hi^ daughter to the Emperor controlled the throne itself. The Minamoto men, their leaders beheaded or ban- ished, were scattered, one line becoming rulers of far-off Loo-choo. Tn 1181. after Kiyomori's death. Yoritomo led the !Minamoto in an uprising, and under the generalship of Yoshitsung, his