The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 1: Ancient Japan
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
YAMATO EXPANSION 137
appointments in order to strengthen his control and that his reign was
marked by the emergence of a new clan alignment. Some heads were
then receiving the grand title of great otni or great muraji. The
Katsuragi was no longer dominant at court, having been replaced by
the Heguri, Otomo, and Mononobe clans, which were valued for their
military strength and loyalty and whose heads were awarded the high-
est kabane. Clan heads in outlying regions also came to hold kabane
during those years (as revealed in the inscriptions on the two fifth-
century swords mentioned earlier), indicating that their clans had
been incorporated into the Yamato system. Such developments at this
time had a political significance comparable to the rise of the Soga to a
position of dominance at the end of the following century.
5'
Having obtained a somewhat clearer picture of how clans and
kabane figured in the rapid increase of Yamato control after the middle
of the fifth century, historians can now understand why King Ingyo
(Yuryaku's father) ordered (according to both the Nihon shoki and the
Kojiki) persons who claimed they were kabane-holding heads of clans
to subject themselves to an ordeal (kugatachi). The Nihon shoki reports
that Ingyo issued the following decree in the third year of his reign:
In ancient times good governance consisted of people acquiring [proper]
positions and avoiding clan or kabane irregularities. But during the three
years of my reign, there has been [incessant] conflict between inferiors and
superiors, and the people have no peace. In some cases persons have mistak-
enly lost their
kabane
and in others purposely [and fraudulently] laid claim to
a high clan position. Probably this is why we have not had good governance.
Although I lack wisdom, I must do something to rectify these irregularities.
The Nihon shoki goes on to report that Ingyo issued another decree
after obtaining advice from his ministers:
Nobles and bureaucrats [at the capital] and such officials as provincial gover-
nors (Kuni no Miyatsuko) have been claiming that they are descendants of
a
great ruler (Mikado) and have sacred
origins.
But ever since the appearance of
heaven, earth, and man, tens of thousands of
years
have elapsed and various
clans and thousands of
kabane
have appeared, making it difficult to know
whose clan and kabane claims are authentic. Consequently, I hereby order
that all clan heads and all
kabane
holders first purify themselves and then
subject themselves to a
kugatachi
ordeal [in order to determine whose claims
are true and whose are
false].
Then, according to the Nihon shoki, a vat of boiling water was placed
on a certain hill, and all who claimed that they were clan heads or held
59 Inoue, Asuka
no
chotei,
pp. 22-36.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
138 THE YAMATO KINGDOM
kabane titles were assembled
and
ordered
to put
their hands
in the
boiling water, having been assured that
if
their claims were true their
hands would
not be
burned. The Nihon
shoki's
report ends with
the
comment that many persons with false claims fled from
the
scene
in
terror
and
that thereafter
no
one was inclined
to
claim falsely that
he
was head
of a
particular clan
or
held
a
particular kabane.
60
This
ac-
count demonstrates that
the
Yamato kings
of the
fifth century
did
indeed consider kabane-holding clan chieftains
to be
crucial instru-
ments
of
Yamato control in regions beyond the Nara plain.
Be and
kabane.
Although large clans
or
lineage groups
(uji)
headed
by
hereditary chieftains who held
the
highest
kabane
titles awarded
by a
Yamato king were central to the expansion of
Yamato
authority, much
of Yamato's military
and
economic power was generated
by
occupa-
tional groups (be) attached
to the
court
or to its
supporting clans.
These groups were similar
in
some respects
to
clans. Both resided
in
clearly defined areas
and
were ruled
by
hereditary heads holding
kabane that
had
been granted
by a
Yamato king.
But
unlike
a
clan
-
which
was
higher
up in the
control structure
and
whose hereditary
leader
had
long ruled
(and
served
as
chief priest
for) the
residents
of
that particular area
- a
be's head controlled
the
activities
of a
group
engaged
in
performing
a
crucial service or in making a needed product
for the court
or
one
of
its
clans.
Recent historical and archaeological research by Kamada Motokazu
and others permits
us
to conclude that as early as the first years
of
the
fifth century, small
and
medium-sized occupational groups located
in
and around Kawachi (called tomo
and
having hereditary heads)
had
such special duties
as
guarding
the
palace, supplying water
for the
court,
and
carrying
out
custodial chores.
But
with
the
expansion
of
Yamato, the
tomo
spread to areas beyond the Nara plain and came to be
headed
by
officials designated
as
occupational group managers
(tomo
no
miyatsuko).
Such groups seem also
to
have been called be,
a
word
probably introduced from Korea.
In
January 1984
an
important
ar-
chaeological report on an iron sword found at Okadayama and bearing
the three characters
for
"Nukata be"
was
published. Unfortunately,
what
is
left
of the
inscription contains
no
date,
but an
analysis
of
pottery found
at the
site from which
the
sword
was
taken indicates
that
it was
made late
in the
sixth century.
The
Nukata be
has
been
linked with
the
Nukata
koshiro
which, according
to the
Nihon shoki,
60 Ingyo 4/9/9
and
4/9/28, NKBT 67.437-8; Aston, 1.316-17.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
YAMATO EXPANSION 139
was established during the Ojin reign. Moreover, the Izumo fudoki
refers to a Nukatabe no Omi, and other eighth-century records show
that Izumo then had a district named Nukata. Thus the Okadayama
sword inscription, together with fifth-century inscriptions found on
the Suda Hachiman mirror and the Inariyama sword, permit histori-
ans to conclude confidently that a fairly extensive and complex
occupational-group system had evolved by the closing years of the fifth
century.
61
Nashiro
and
koshiro,
special types of
be,
are frequently mentioned in
chronicle reports of Yamato kings who ruled in the fifth century. The
former was a special occupational group bestowed on a queen, and the
latter, on a royal heir. The Ingyo chapter of the
Nihon shoki
refers to a
number of each, suggesting that they had been established in widely
scattered regions of the country by the middle of that century. But
because of skepticism about the validity of evidence found in chroni-
cles compiled at a much later date, historians have not been willing
until recently to state that
nashiro
or
koshiro
existed as early as Ingyo's
day. This skepticism was largely removed, however, by
a
recent discov-
ery of fragments of household registers for the year
721,
which contain
618 names of individuals associated with the Anaho
be,
a
koshiro
type
of occupational group created by Ingyo and bestowed on his son who
reigned (after about 453) from the Anaho palace as King Anko.
62
Early occupational groups were originally established to assist the
court in the conduct of kami ceremonies and to provide personal
services. But with the expansion of the Yamato kings' power in the
fifth century and the spread of occupational groups from the court to
clans in outlying regions, an increasingly large number of these groups
(gradually coming to be referred to as
be)
served the court or a clan by
producing such valued articles as iron swords and bronze mirrors or
by performing technical tasks associated with the construction of huge
burial mounds and complex irrigation systems. Concurrent technologi-
cal revolutions in warfare and agriculture, both arising from an ex-
panded use of advanced techniques introduced from abroad, greatly
augmented the demand for a great variety and volume of goods and
services, which these occupational groups provided. Against the back-
drop of such technological and sociological change, then, we see new
significance in kojiki and Nihon
shoki
references to the increased activ-
ity of numerous occupational groups
{be)
made up of Paekche immi-
grants. Be of this type also bore names that refer to their specialized
61 Kamata, "Oken to be-min sei," pp. 252-8. 62 Inoue, Asuka no ckdtei, p. 31.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
I4O THE YAMATO KINGDOM
occupations: working in iron, raising horses, making shields, and the
like.
The power and prestige of the Yamato leaders, and clan heads all
over the country, were based on the number and strength of the
be
that
they possessed.
Indeed, these occupational groups had become so important that
many clan names came to include the word
be,
as did several clans that
enjoyed special influence at court during and after the reign of
Yuryaku, such as the Mononobe and the Inbe. But the importance of a
strong occupational group to a powerful clan is probably most clearly
seen in the support that the
yugei
(quiver bearers) gave the Otomo, a
clan noted for its military might and influence at the Yuryaku court.
Foreign expansion
The expansion of the Yamato within the Japanese islands during the
middle years of this period was intertwined with its political and mili-
tary involvement in Korean affairs. The roots of this involvement run
back at least to the fourth century, as is suggested by characters in-
scribed on the seven-pronged sword forged in Paekche during the year
369.
But recent studies of relations among northeast Asian kingdoms
reveal the development of an entirely new situation at the beginning of
the fifth century, a situation that Yamato may well have seen as threat-
ening, or as offering opportunities for further expansion.
6
*
Until the middle of the fourth century, Koguryo was the strongest of
the three Korean kingdoms, even considering people in the other two
(Paekche and Silla) to be its subjects. But then, and as we have noted,
Koguryo became embroiled in bitter battles with the Paekche king-
dom to the south. Approximately two years after Paekche had pre-
sented the seven-pronged sword to the Yamato king in 369, Paekche
soldiers (according to the Samguk
sagi)
actually invaded the Koguryo
capital, thereby placing in jeopardy Koguryo's existence
as
an indepen-
dent kingdom.
6
* But by the last decade of the century, Koguryo had
made a spectacular recovery, achieving enough military strength to
repel Japanese invaders in 391, to win battles against Paekche in 394,
and even to undertake aggressive action in north China during 395.
Faced with this comeback by KoguryS, Paekche leaders turned to
63 Sakamoto Yoshitane, Wa no Goo: Kuhaku no geseiki (Tokyo: Kyoikusha, 1984), pp. 11-32.
64 Kawanishi Hiroyuki suggested that even in these early years Paekche had requested military
assistance and that Yamato had supplied it: "Zenki Kinai seiken ron", Shirin 64 and 65
(September 1981); Suzuki, "Ajia shominzoku no kokka keisei," p. 201. The Samguk sagi has
been translated into Japanese by Inoue Hideo in his Sangoku shiki (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1980).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
YAMATO EXPANSION I4I
Yamato for military support, even sending its crown prince to Yamato
as a hostage in 397 - just as Silla had dispatched a princely hostage to
Koguryo in 392 when that kingdom was in dire need of military
support. So at the turn of the fifth century, right after Yamato had sent
an army against Silla, the Korean situation was marked by a deep and
lasting antagonism between two kingdom combinations: Koguryo and
Silla pitted against Paekche and Yamato.
Koguryo and Silla were closely associated with, and frequently sent
tributary missions to, the courts of north China, and Paekche and
Yamato allied themselves with courts of south China. After Paekche
began striking out against Koguryo in the 370s, Koguryo sent tribute
to the northern court of the Former Tsou; and at about the same time
Paekche dispatched a tributary mission to the southern court of East-
ern Chin. The invasion of Silla by Yamato at the turn of the fifth
century served to harden the lines that separated these two northeast
Asian tributary-kingdom systems by increasing (1) Silla's dependence
on Koguryo (in 402 Kogury6 engineered the enthronement of
a
new
Silla king), (2) Paekche's dependence on Yamato (in 405 Yamato had
the crown prince, who had been sent to Yamato as a hostage, en-
throned as the king of
Paekche),
(3) Koguryo's influence in northeast
Asian affairs (in 413 the great King Kwanggaet'o even sent a tributary
mission to the Eastern Chin court of south China), and (4) Yamato's
interest in establishing closer relations with the Southern Sung court
of China (the Southern Sung history reports that ten tributary mis-
sions arrived from Yamato between
421
and 478).
Although the Nihon
shoki
does not mention any of the ten missions
dispatched to the Chinese court of Southern Sung, considerable infor-
mation is included in the official
Sung shu
history. The ten were report-
edly sent by five Yamato kings. But it has been difficult to identify
these five because the compilers of the Southern Sung history used
only one Chinese character to name a king. Finally, and after much
disagreement and meticulous research, scholars now generally agree
that the first three missions (in
421,
425, and 430) were dispatched by
either Ojin or Richu, the fourth (438) by Hanzei, the next three (443,
451,
and 460) by Ingyo, the eighth (462) by Ankd, and the last two
(477 and 478) by Yuryaku: Suzuki Yasutami believes that the dispatch
of Yamato's first mission to Southern Sung may have been recom-
mended by Paekche leaders who felt threatened by close ties between
its two strongest neighbors: Kogury6 and Silla.
6
' But between 429
65 Suzuki, "Ajia shominzoku no kokka keisei," p. 204; and Kiley, "State and Dynasty," pp.
37-40.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
142 THE YAMATO KINGDOM
(when the Paekche court was torn by rivalry between pro-Yamato and
pro-Silla factions) and 455 (when war again broke out between
Koguryo and Paekche), Paekche was not seriously threatened by a
strong Koguryo-Silla alliance and apparently made no appeals to
Yamato for military assistance, although Yamato sent three missions to
Southern Sung during these relatively quiet decades.
Soon after the outbreak of war with Koguryo in 455, Paekche re-
turned to the practice of asking Yamato for military reinforcement. In
461 the king sent his own mother to Japan as a hostage, a sure sign that
his situation had indeed become desperate. According to the memorial
that Yuryaku dispatched to the emperor of Southern Sung in 478,
Yamato had been planning for some years to help Paekche by attack-
ing Koguryo, possibly ever since the outbreak of war between Paekche
and Koguryo in 455. Suzuki even suggests that such a plan may have
been mentioned in the Anko memorial to the Southern Sung in 462.**>
But as powerful as Yamato had become, apparently no sizable military
units were sent to Paekche in these years of disturbed relations among
Korea's three strong kingdoms.
But Koguryo invaded Paekche in 475, defeating its troops and kill-
ing its king. According to the Nihon shoki, the Koguryo king rejected a
proposal to have Paekche destroyed, because "we have heard that
Paekche has long been a royal estate of Japan and, as is well known by
neighboring states, its king serves the Japanese emperor."
6
? It is doubt-
ful that the Koguryo sovereign ever made such a statement, but we
can be sure - on the basis of what the Southern Sung account says
about the two missions received from Japan in 477 and 478 - that the
Yamato court was determined to do something about the defeat of
Paekche and the aggressiveness of Koguryd. This is most clearly re-
vealed in the memorial that Yuryaku sent to the Sung court in 478:
Our land is remote, far across the ocean. From times of old, our ancestors
have clad themselves in armor and helmet, crossed the hills and waters, and
spared no time for rest. They conquered
fifty-five
kingdoms of hairy men to
the east and sixty-six barbarian kingdoms to the west. Crossing the sea to the
north, they subjugated ninety-five kingdoms. The way to govern is to main-
tain harmony and peace, thereby establishing order. Generation after genera-
tion our ancestors have paid homage to your court. Your subject, ignorant
though he may be, has succeeded to the throne and is fervently devoted to
Your Sovereign Majesty. Everything he has is at Your Majesty's disposal. In
order to [send this mission] by way of Paekche, we have prepared ships and
boats.
But Koguryd has defied law and schemed to capture them. Moreover,
66 Suzuki, "Ajia shominzoku no kokka keisei," p. 207.
67 Yuryaku 20 (476) /winter, NKBT 67.496-7; Aston, 1.368-9.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
YAMATO EXPANSION 143
Koguryo has made border raids and committed murder repeatedly. So we
have been forced to delay our mission and missed favorable
winds.
Whenever
we pressed on [with plans to dispatch a tributary mission], Koguryo became
rebellious. My deceased father (Ingyo) became indignant with this marauding
foe that had blocked our route to Your Majesty's court and, motivated by a
sense of justice, mobilized a million archers in preparing to launch a great
campaign [against Koguryo]. But before plans for the campaign could be
fully developed and implemented, my father and brother (Ank6) died, and
during the period of mourning a cessation of military activity was required.
But inaction does not produce victory. So we are again making preparations
for carrying out the wishes of my predecessors. The troops are in high spirits;
civil and military officials are prepared for action; and no one is afraid to
fight. Your Sovereign virtue extends over heaven and earth. If we can crush
this [Koguryo] foe and put an end to our troubles,
we
will continue to be loyal
[subjects].
I therefore implore Your Majesty to appoint me supreme com-
mander of the expedition, give me the status of minister, and award persons
under me with [appropriate] ranks and titles. Thus will we be encouraged to
remain loyal.
68
Yuryaku did not obtain everything he requested: The Sung account
reports that he received only titles and offices that had been awarded
to his predecessors: "King of Yamato, and Pacifying General of the
East who is in Charge of the Military Affairs of Six Kingdoms
(Yamato, Silla, Mimana, Kaya, Chinhan, and Mahan)." The Yamato
section of the Southern Sung history indicates that Yuryaku asked not
only for an appointment as supreme commander of the expedition
against Koguryo but also for one that would put him in charge of
Paekche. But neither request was granted.
Yuryaku was undoubtedly disappointed by the Chinese emperor's
response but was not deterred, when hearing of the death of the cur-
rent Paekche king in the summer of
479,
from having a Paekche royal
prince - apparently a son or grandson of the queen mother who had
been sent to Yamato as a hostage in 461 - placed on the Paekche
throne.
69
Yuryaku might also have tried to implement his grand
scheme for sending a military expedition against Koguryo if he had
not become ill in 479, dying shortly afterward. While on his deathbed
his court became divided over the question of who should succeed
him. And his successors, judging from what we read in the Nihon
68 Sung shu 97:236-258, trans. Ryusaku Tsunoda and L. Carrington Goodrich, Japan in the
Chinese
Dynastic
Histories:
Later Han
Through
Ming Dynasties (South Pasadena,
Calif.:
P. D.
and lone Perkins, 1951), pp. 23-24 (with minor editorial changes).
69 Nihon
shoki,
Yuryaku 23/4, NKBT 67.497-8; Aston, 1.368-9. Hirano Kunio studied Yamato-
Korean relations during the fifth century in "Yamato oken to Chosen," in
Genshi
oyobi kodai,
vol. 1 of
Asao
Naohiro, Ishii Susumu, Inouye Mitsusada, Oishi Kaichiro et al., eds., Itvanami
koza: Nihon rekithi (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1975), pp. 227-72.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
144
THE
YAMATO KINGDOM
shoki, were more preoccupied with internal conflict than with propos-
als for dispatching another expedition to Korea. The expansive fifth
century came to a close, then, at a rather quiet time in Yamato rela-
tions with Korean kingdoms, at a time when Yamato was ruled by
King Buretsu, who was denounced in the Nihon
shoki
for accomplish-
ing nothing and never missing a chance to "personally witness cruel
punishments of all kinds."?
0
Fifth-century archaeological discoveries demonstrate that expansion
into Korea was motivated not simply by an urge to extend control over
foreign territory but, rather, by
a
hunger for material and technological
gain. Myths concerning Jingu's victorious military expedition against
Silla - probably based
on
foreign campaigns organized early in the fifth
century - refer to Silla as a "land of treasure," as a country yielding
"precious treasure," "maps and registers," "gold and silver," and "fig-
ured gauzes and
silks,"
and
as a
kingdom that periodically
sends
"eighty
ships of
tribute."
71
The results of studies by Kito Kiyoaki support the
theory that explosive developments in the use of iron weapons and tools
had created a vast and growing demand for iron ore, for which Korea
seems to have been the principal
source.
But there
was also a
continuing
demand for showy treasures such as bronze mirrors, swords, and bells.
We do not have enough information to know precisely how many of
these materials were brought into Japan by
a
particular channel, but it is
assumed that even though large amounts were received as gifts when
sending or receiving official missions (sometimes linked with the use or
display of military
might),
as much or more
flowed
in
as
articles of trade
or loot. Demands for the services of individuals familiar with building
and administrative techniques might even have been greater than those
for exotic treasures. Immigrant technicians - whether military, agricul-
tural, or administrative - may have arrived as gifts or tribute from
Korean kingdoms. But many were undoubtedly prisoners of war sub-
jected to different degrees of servitude, or immigrants who may not
have migrated voluntarily. ?
2
YAMATO DISRUPTION
The Yamato kings had become extremely rich and powerful during the
fifth century, extending their influence to areas as far away as southern
Korea, but in the sixth century they were plagued by setbacks over-
seas and disunity at home. Instead of being known, as Nintoku and
70 Buretsu, Introduction, NKBT68.8; Aston,
1.399.
71 Nihon
shoki,
Jingu, NKBT 67.330-42; Aston,
1.224-35.
72 Suzuki, "Ajia shominzoku no kokka keisei," p. 208.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
YAMATO DISRUPTION 145
Yuryaku had been, for victorious campaigns in distant places and the
completion of ambitous building projects, Keitai and Kimmei, the
most prominent of the sixth-century kings, are noted for their military
failures in Korea, challenges to their authority in the provinces, and
the roles they played in bitter succession disputes at court. This not-
withstanding developments such as the following prepared Japan for
reform in the seventh century: the growth of power centers outside the
Nara plain, further improvement in Yamato's control system, the
spread of higher forms of Chinese culture, and appointments to high
office of able leaders who were familiar with Chinese technology and
learning. Each is a significant aspect of the sixth-century prelude to
the Asuka enlightenment that began around the time of Empress
Suiko's enthronement in 593.
End of
the glorious
fifth
century
Until recently, historians have tended
to
think of Keitai's enthronement
in 507 as marking the end of Yamato's glorious fifth century, a view
based in part on the commonly accepted reputation of Keitai's predeces-
sor (Buretsu) as "an incomparable bad ruler."" Moreover, the chroni-
cles state that Buretsu died without having named a successor, leading
the kingdom's ministers to back a fifth-generation descendant who
resided somewhere beyond the Nara plain. Such statements about the
selection of Keitai suggest a break in the line of royal descent, as well as
a new locus of power. But it is now felt that the line was not actually
broken then because Keitai's father came from the Wakanoke clan, as
had Yamato kings since the reign of Ingyo early in the fifth century. It
had long been the custom, when resolving a question of succession, to
assign special weight to the clan connections of
a
candidate's mother. A
clan enjoying the signal honor of having one female member after an-
other
give
birth to one king after another
was
referred to
as
a
gaiseki
(in-
law) clan. But it was back in Ingyd's time, not with Keitai, and
Wakanoke replaced Katsuragi as the
gaiseki
clan. Moreover, no evi-
dence has been found to support the view that with the reign of Keitai,
the court's power center moved to a new location. It seems, then, that
the enthronement of Keitai was accompanied by neither a sharp break
in the line of royal descent nor a new alignment of power at court.74
73 Gukansho, chap. 3, NKBT 86.134; Delmer M. Brown and Ichiro Ishida, trans., The
Future
and
the
Past:
A
Translation
and Study of
the
Gukansho,
an
Interpretative
History of Japan
Written
in 1219 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979), p. 24.
74 Inoue, Asuka no
chotei,
pp. 68-77.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
146 THE YAMATO KINGDOM
But serious trouble did arise
a
few
years
later, largely
as a
result of the
rapid growth of two Korean kingdoms (Paekche and Silla) that were
expanding southward toward an area (Mimana) where Yamato had long
exercised considerable influence. The first recorded sign of danger
came in 512 when an envoy from Paekche arrived at the Yamato court
with an official request that four districts of Mimana (K: Kaya) be
recognized as parts of Paekche. After a long debate about how to re-
spond, the Yamato court finally decided to yield. The Nihon shoki
suggests that several officials had serious misgivings about this decision
and claimed that the two men who favored compliance had been
bribed." But the same conciliatory stance was taken the following year
when Paekche asked that still another district be recognized as its terri-
tory. On that occasion the Yamato court even sent troops to force
Mimana to accept Paekche suzerainty. Such consistent support of
Paekche - even handing over territory - may
well
have been motivated
by
a
realistic appraisal of Paekche's military strength, but another factor
was surely uneasiness over Silla's expansion in the direction of
Mimana.
76
Yamato's position in southern Korea continued to deteriorate, and
in 527 the court decided to send a military force of sixty thousand
troops to recapture areas that had been conquered by Silla. But be-
cause the troops had to be diverted to Kyushu for quelling a rebellion,
they did not reach Korea until two years later. By that time the situa-
tion in Mimana had worsened. After his arrival, the Japanese com-
mander (Kenu no Omi) invited the kings of Paekche and Silla to join
him in a conference, but neither accepted the invitation, instead
merely sending representatives. A high-ranking Silla officer eventually
did arrive with three thousand soldiers but then proceeded to plunder
four villages in the Mimana area. After Kenu no Omi had failed,
month after month, to obtain cooperation from either Paekche or
Silla, discontent welled up even among the Mimana people. Finally, in
529 a Mimana king asked the Yamato court to recall its commander.
On his way back to Japan, Kenu no Omi became sick and died, and a
few months after Keitai's death (probably in 531), the Mimana king-
dom was incorporated into Silla.
77
This development, and not the
circumstances of Keitai's enthronement, marks the end of Yamato's
glorious fifth century.
75 Keitai 6/12, NKBT 68.28-30; Aston, 2. 8-9.
76 Keitai 7, NKBT 68.28-30; Aston, 1. 12-13; Inoue, Asuka no
chotei,
pp 82-83.
77 Nihon shoki Keitai 21 to 25, NKBT 68.43-47; Aston, 1. 15-25. See Inoue, Asuka no chdlei,
pp.
101-2, and Lee, A New History of Korea, pp. 41-44.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008