The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 1: Ancient Japan
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YAMATO DISRUPTION 147
A new power base
Before turning to the troubles faced by the court in such outlying
regions as Kyushu and the Kanto, we should note Yamato's new
power base. Following earlier moves from Shiki to Saki around the
year 350 and from Saki to Kawachi-Izumi in roughly 400, this move
was made some time during the sixth-century reign of Keitai, proba-
bly during his troubled last
years.
Keitai's palace and burial mound, as
well as those of his successors, were erected in the southwestern corner
of the Nara plain, at the foot of Mt. Miwa where the Yamato court had
been located during the first century of the Yamato period.
Archaeologists have amassed large amounts of data from sixth-
century finds in that part of the Nara plain, but many interpretative
uncertainties remain. No one seems to be sure which Yamato king was
buried in which mound, and no general agreement has been reached
on the question of why the palaces and mounds were shifted to this
new location. Some historians have suggested that court officials were
afraid that Naniwa and its environs were too vulnerable to attack from
the sea and that military defeats in Korea would be followed by an
invasion from Silla. But it is more likely that the court was subjected
to pressure from such strong clans as the Soga who, as increasingly
powerful supporters of Yamato rulers, undoubtedly insisted that the
court be located near their particular power bases.?
8
Inoue Mitsusada drew a map of the area between Naniwa and Mt.
Miwa showing that the new center was strategically located. Keitai's
Iware palace and burial mound, as well as those of his immediate
successors, were near the town of
Yagi
where Yamato's main east-west
road crossed its main north-south one. The former linked Yagi to the
western provinces of Izumi and Kawachi and to the port of Naniwa
beyond, whereas the latter connected it with the northern part of
Yamato and the northern provinces of Yamashiro and Omi (see Map
2.2).
In addition to enjoying the benefits of overland contact with
neighboring provinces, Yagi had other advantages. It was on the
Asuka River (a part of the Yamato River system that
flowed
by Naniwa
into the Inland Sea); it was in the section of the Nara plain (at the foot
of Mt. Miwa) where the Yamato kings had reigned for the first century
or more of Yamato history; and it was near Soga territory.?'
Archaeologists generally agree that the burial mounds of the last
third of the Yamato period (roughly the sixth century) differed from
78 Shiraishi, "Nihon kofun bunka ron," p. 177. 79 Inoue, Asuka no
chotei,
p. 117.
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148
THE YAMATO KINGDOM
Map
2.2
Last Yamato base. (Based
on
Nihon rekishi
chizu,
1986,
Map
8.)
those
of
earlier centuries: They were smaller, more numerous,
and
built
in
clusters
all
over
the
country.
And yet the
Mise Maru-yama
mound
-
thought
to
have been
for the
burial
of
King Senka
or his
younger brother Kimmei, who
is
thought
to
have died
in
570
- is the
sixth-largest burial mound ever built
in
Japan. Around the middle of
the eighteenth century
it
was opened
up and,
according
to
reports,
proved
to
have
the
longest burial chamber
on
record, measuring
twenty meters long. Later mounds, smaller and more numerous, were
built
in
clusters throughout Japan's main islands,
and
Shiraishi feels
that this was because
(1) the
power
and
authority
of a
Yamato king
were
no
longer sharply differentiated from that
of
royal officials
sta-
tioned throughout the country, (2) the authority of old clan-federation
heads was
in
decline, and (3) the new type
of
clans (which had immi-
grant connections that provided services to the court of
a
more techni-
cal sort
and
which held such high offices
as
occupation group man-
ager) was becoming stronger.
80
80 Shiraishi, "Nihon kofun bunka ron," pp. 176-7; Inoue, Asuka
no
chotei, pp. 118-20.
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YAMATO DISRUPTION 149
Rebellion in Kyushu
Of the problems faced by the Yamato court before and after its base
was moved back to the southwestern corner of the Nara plain, those
associated with the refusal of
a
clan leader of northern Kyushu (a man
by the name of Iwai who was governor of Tsukushi Province) to
comply with court orders to provide troops and supplies for an expedi-
tion against Silla were particularly serious. The Nihon shoki states,
with some bitterness, that Iwai had accepted bribes from Silla and had
actually obstructed the mobilization of troops. Consequently, the army
assembled for the Korean campaign had to be diverted for action
against Iwai.
81
Within a few months Iwai was defeated and killed, but
court leaders were undoubtedly afraid that such rebelliousness might
develop elsewhere. Because the steps taken in Kyushu, after the Iwai
defeat, were taken in other regions and altered the form and functions
of institutions subsequently incorporated into the Chinese legal (rit-
suryo)
system, let us look more closely at the Kyushu situation.
The island of Kyushu has three zones, each bordered by mountains
and seas and having its own special relationship to the continent and
central Japan (see Map 2.3). The northern zone, facing the Genkai Sea
and separated from the middle zone to the southeast by the Tsukushi
Mountains, was dominated by the Munakata clan. As noted earlier,
the kami of Munakata were enshrined on an offshore sacred island (the
"kami body") where archaeologists have discovered offerings that dis-
close early and continuing relations with Korea. But the Munakata
clan was also allied with the Yamato court, as is indicated by early
myths (recorded in both the Nihon
shoki
and the Kojiki) which affirm
familial ties between the ancestral kami of Munakata and the ancestral
kami (the Sun Goddess) of the Yamato kings.
On the southern side of Kyushu is another zone which, facing the
Pacific Ocean, is cut off from the central zone by the Kyushu Moun-
tains.
This is the isolated and agriculturally deficient area occupied in
ancient times by the Kumaso and Hayato peoples. The central zone,
lying between the Tsukushi and Kyushu mountain ranges that cross
Kyushu and separate the three zones, has three fertile plains. At its
southwesterly end are the Tsukushi and Kumamoto plains, and at its
opposite end, northeast of the famous Mt. Aso, is the Oita plain.
82
There were unusual changes and developments in this central zone
81 Keitai 21/6/3 to
21/8/1,
NKBT 68.34-36; Aston, 1.17-18; Inoue, Asuka
nochotei,
pp. 93-102.
82 Toshio Noh and John C. Kimura, eds., Japan: A Regional Geography of
an
Island Nation
(Tokyo: Teikoku shoin, 1983), pp. 29-46.
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150
THE YAMATO KINGDOM
PACIFIC. OCEA.N
Map 2.3 Kyushu plains. (Based on Toshio Noh and John C. Kimura,
eds.,
Japan:
A
Regional Geography
of an
Island
Nation,
p. 30.)
throughout the Yamato period. And it was on its Tsukushi plain that
Iwai accumulated the power that enabled him to disregard the com-
mands of King Keitai. His clan must have made that somewhat ele-
vated land of this well-watered plain more productive by constructing
irrigation systems of the type that had brought rapid economic growth
to Kawachi during the previous century.
Until recently, Iwai's refusal to cooperate with the Yamato court's
military expedition against Silla in 527 has been largely discredited
as
a
myth. But archaeological investigations reveal that such a man actually
did live in Tsukushi at that time and that he undoubtedly had gained
enough independent strength to disregard orders from the Yamato
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YAMATO DISRUPTION 151
court. Before considering the results of these investigations, let us look
at what was written about Iwai in the
Chikugo
fudoki, a gazetteer
compiled in the eighth century and quoted in the Shaku
Nihongi.
He
was buried, according to this source, in a mound located over two
miles south of Kamitsu Yame no Agata (inside the present city of
Yame in Fukuoka Prefecture), a mound that was about 21 meters
high, 180 meters from east to west, and 120 meters from north to
south. The Chikugo fudoki also tells us that sixty stone carvings of men
and shields had been placed on each side of the Iwai burial and that a
kind of shrine
(gatd),
with a stone human figure inside, was built at its
northeast corner. Three stone horses, three stone palaces, and three
stone storehouses were reportedly erected in front of the
gatd.
The
gazetteer also includes an old man's story about Iwai, picturing him as
a strong and cruel man who had built a huge mound for his own
burial. The story ends with details of Iwai's disgraceful flight from the
battlefield at the time of defeat by Yamato troops and of the Yamato
soldiers' becoming so angered by their failure to find him that in
frustration, they knocked off the heads of the mound's stone horses.
83
On the northern side of the present city of Yame, atop a low east-
west hill called the Stone Man Mountain, archaeologists have found
and investigated several ancient mounds. One measures 176 meters
long, no meters wide at its round rear, and 130 meters wide at its
square front. This mound not only is near where the
Chikugo
fudoki
says that Iwai's mound was built, but it also has roughly the same
measurements. Moreover, it is the largest burial mound ever found in
north Kyushu and the third largest in the whole of Kyushu. It has a
40-meter square extension on its northeast corner, precisely where the
gazetteer said that Iwai had built his
gatd.
Stone items found on or
around the mound include flat stone figurines of men (sometimes
shaped as groveling servants and sometimes as soldiers carrying quiv-
ers) that are probably remnants of the stone figures mentioned in the
Chikugo fudokiM Thus historians are now quite certain that Iwai was a
historical governor of Tsukushi who really was powerful enough to
challenge Yamato authority in the closing years of the Keitai reign.
Royal land in outlying
regions
Strong clans were emerging in most regions of Japan in those days,
particularly on the Kanto plain and the Kibi plateau where huge areas
83 Inoue, Asuka
no
chotei,
pp. 95-97. 84 Ibid., pp. 97-99.
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152 THE YAMATO KINGDOM
of land had apparently been opened up (probably with the use of
advanced irrigation techniques introduced from Korea) for the cultiva-
tion of
rice.
Such developments undoubtedly enriched clans in various
parts of the country. But until the outbreak of the Iwai rebellion, the
Yamato court had not faced threatening opposition. It is therefore
significant that both the Nikon
shoki
and Kojiki report that soon after
the court had taken steps to quell the Iwai rebellion, similar adminis-
trative measures were instituted in both the Kanto and the Kibi. One
was to create new royal estates
(miyake)
that were quite different from
those that had been established at earlier dates in other parts of the
country.
Immediately after describing the defeat of Iwai, the Nihon shoki
mentions in an item for the twelfth month of 528 that Iwai's son
presented the Kasuya royal estate to the coun and asked that his life
be spared.
8
s This shows that a royal estate, an old institution, was
being used in a new way. Scholars generally agree that a royal estate,
whether old or new, was
a
piece of land whose inhabitants, buildings,
and produce were possessed by a Yamato king as a hereditary right.
The early royal estates were, however, located mainly in and around
the Nara plain and were administered directly by the Yamato court.
The chronicles state that a fourth-century king, Keiko, had been
granted the Yamato royal estate while he was crown prince. Recent
archaeological investigations indicate that this estate was located
around the present village of Miyake in the Shiki District of Yamato
and was situated on low marshy ground suitable for wet-rice agricul-
ture,
an area drained by several rivers that join the Yamato and where
huge burial mounds were built during the fifth and early-sixth centu-
ries.
By setting up a royal estate in such an area, the court was appar-
ently thinking mainly of increasing its revenues. Studies of other royal
estates mentioned in the chronicles - such as the Yosami in Kawachi,
the Shikama within the present city of Himeji, and the Mamuta con-
nected with the aforementioned Mamuta dikes of Kawachi - disclose
that each was a choice piece of land possessed and managed directly by
the court. Although the Awaji royal estate was made up of fishing
villages, it functioned like other royal estates by supplying fish and
marine products directly to the court.
86
Later royal estates such as those set up in Tsukushi and elsewhere
after the Iwai rebellion were similar to the earlier ones in that they were
productive pieces of land possessed and managed directly by the court.
85 Keitai 22/12, NKBT 68.36; Aston, 2. 17. 86 Inoue, Asuka no chotei, pp. 142-4.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
YAMATO DISRUPTION 153
But they also were different in important respects. First, the later es-
tates were not located in central Japan but in outlying regions of special
economic and strategic value to the Yamato court and, second, they
were obtained and managed through provincial governors (Kuni no
Miyatsuko). In earlier times, most governors seem to have had their
own
estates
(also
called
miyake)
which
were,
as
in the Iwai
case,
primary
sources of gubernatorial income. But the royal estates emerged in dis-
tant provinces after
a Yamato
king had used military force against (or in
support of) a provincial governor: They were presented to a king by
governors who then managed them for the court. Thus the later royal
estates were both sources of income and instruments of military and
political control.
8
?
A Nihon
shoki
item for the second year of the reign (535) of Ankan
(Keitai's successor) contains a list of royal estates established in more
than a dozen provinces.
88
Doubts have been expressed about the accu-
racy of
a
report that so many estates were established in a single year
and during a reign that was only two years long. Historians have
therefore tended to think that the chronicle listed those set up over a
somewhat longer period of
time.
But we now realize that around 535,
right after the rebellion in Tsukushi and the military defeats in Korea,
the court probably did establish numerous royal estates hurriedly as a
means of strengthening its hold on important provinces in that distant
region. This view is supported by the observation that many of the
royal estates listed were located in Kyushu where strong clans might,
if not firmly controlled, complicate the Yamato's efforts to solve the
Korean problem.
In 536, just after the reported establishment of numerous later-style
royal estates in Tsukushi, the Nihon
shoki
states that the court had all
such estates of three Kyushu provinces (Tsukushi, Hi, and Toyo in the
central zone) amalgamated into a single Nanotsu royal estate as a
"provision against extraordinary circumstances." Even the great Soga
no Iname was asked to send grain to Nanotsu.
8
' Evidence of this sort
suggests that the Iwai rebellion of
527,
followed by the Silla seizure of
Mimana in 531, caused the court to establish royal estates in this key
region as instruments of court control.
Royal estates were soon established in other regions outside central
Japan. Particularly significant were the four set up on the Kan to plain
not long after the defeat in Korea and Keitai's death. The circum-
87 Ibid., pp. 144-5. 88 Ankan 2/5/9, NKBT 68.54-55; Aston, 2. 31-32.
89
Nihon
shoki,
Senka 1/51, NKBT 68.58-59; Aston, 2.34-35.
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154 THE YAMATO KINGDOM
stances of this action are outlined in a Nihon shoki item for the first
year of the Ankan reign. After a long dispute over who should be
appointed governor of Musashi (a province including the present city
of Tokyo), a contender named Omi fled to seek support from Yamato.
The court then stepped in with military force, appointed Omi
as
gover-
nor, and had Omi's rival executed. Omi then presented to the court
four districts of his province as royal estates.
90
As a result of recent archaeological investigations, it is now known
that mounds built in Upper Kenu Province (Gumma Prefecture of
today) around the beginning of the fifth century were much larger
than earlier ones. These findings demonstrate that the governor of
Upper Kenu and his clan had amassed considerable wealth and power
by using advanced agricultural methods for coverting virgin land into
rice fields. Because the governor of Upper Kenu supported Omi's
rival for the post of governor of Musashi, and the burial mounds of
Upper Kenu were then larger, it is deduced that the governor of that
province had become strong enough to interfere in political and mili-
tary affairs of the neighboring province of Musashi and that such
interference was checked only after the Musashi governor had asked
for, and obtained, military aid from Yamato. The presentation of royal
estates to the Yamato court by the Musashi governor as soon as Upper
Kenu advances had been blocked suggests that these estates (like those
established in Kyushu) were later-style royal estates used to increaase
the Yamato's control over this important region to the northeast.
91
Policy disputes
The impact of the disastrous military failure in Korea during the year
529,
preceded by a serious rebellion in the heartland of Kyushu, seems
to have rocked the foundations of the Yamato kingdom, for Keitai's
death was followed by a two-year dispute over succession and by a new
clan alignment at court. We do not know precisely when Keitai died
but it was probably in 531 when Yamato was facing military defeat in
Korea. Some scholars think that Keitai was assassinated. It is gener-
ally agreed that his death was followed by a confrontation between the
supporters of two branches of the Yamato ruling clan: the backers of
Ankan and Senka against the supporters of Kimmei. After carefully
weighing the evidence found in reports that are often contradictory,
Inoue concluded that Keitai's death came in 531 (after the Iwai rebel-
90
ic cuiinuucu uiai xs.cii.ai a ucaiu waiiic in 331 ^auci uic iwai icuc
Ankan 1/12/4, NKBT 68.53-55; Aston 2.31. 91 Inoue,
Asuka no
chotei,
pp. 153-6.
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YAMATO DISRUPTION I55
lion of
527
and Kenu no Omi's disgraceful retreat from Korea in 530);
that Keitai had selected his son Ankan as his successor, but in the face
of strong opposition, a two-year interregnum preceded the reign of
first Ankan and then this brother Senka; and that Kimmei did not
become king until 540, not immediately after Keitai's death in 531 as
some sources state.
92
Behind this long succession dispute lay not only bitter rivalry be-
tween clan leaders who supported one or the other of two royal lines
but also differences over the question of how the Korean problem
should be solved. Although numerous clan chieftains were involved in
the dispute, the principal ones were Otomo no Kanamura (great deity
chieftain in the Keitai reign) and Soga no Iname (promoted to great
imperial chieftain in the Senka reign). Otomo no Kanamura, the lead-
ing supporter of Keitai's sons Ankan and Senka, favored a strong
policy toward Silla, whereas Soga no Iname backed the enthronement
of Kimmei and opposed the suggestion that another military expedi-
tion be sent against Silla.
Lines were sharply drawn over the Korean issue in 540 when the
recently enthroned Kimmei asked his ministers how many soldiers
were needed to conquer Silla. In his reply, Great Deity Chieftain
Mononobe no Okoshi blamed Otomo no Kanamura for the sorry state
of Japan's foreign affairs, pointing out that Kanamura had been respon-
sible for the first great mistake, made back in 512, of recommending
that the court yield to Paekche's request for four Mimana districts.
93
Okoshi might well have added - although the Nihon
shoki
report does
not say he did - that members of the Otomo clan had already partici-
pated in two unsuccessful expeditions to Korea: the
fiasco
of 529 and
the expedition to aid Paekche in 539. Okoshi insisted that this was no
time to send more troops, as Kanamura advocated. From the Kimmei
conference of 540 emerged two interrelated decisions: (1) not to send
more troops against Silla but to continue relying on Paekche to protect
Yamato's interests and (2) to remove Otomo no Kanamura from his
position as top minister at court, a position into which Soga no Iname
gradually moved.
The decision to refrain from sending troops against Silla cannot be
construed as a general rejection of all proposals to use military force
outside Japan. Military expeditions, as well as military supplies and
equipment, were subsequently dispatched to Korea at opportune
times in the constantly shifting pattern of relations among the penin-
92 Ibid., pp. 103-6. 93 Nihon shoki Kimmei i (540) 9/5, NKBT 68,65-66; Aston, 2.39.
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156 THE YAMATO KINGDOM
sula's three great kingdoms. It might therefore seem that no new
policy had been adopted. But a study of reports of contact between
Japan and the three Korean kingdoms during the remaining years of
the sixth century suggests that consciously or unconsciously, court
leaders were convinced that their primary attention should now be
given to the task of making Yamato stronger, not to sending armies on
foreign expeditions, at least for the time being. The court seems al-
ready to have adopted the policy recommended in 583, over forty
years later, by a Paekche visitor and court adviser:
In governing a kingdom well, a ruler must do everything possible to protect
and care for his people. Why should he hastily mobilize troops and thereby
cause loss and destruction? He should instead try to make everyone - those
who serve him in high positions as well as farmers - prosperous and want for
nothing. After he has followed this policy for three years, food and soldiers
will become plentiful and the people will come to be treated well. Not fearing
disaster, they will - like the Yamato king himself - become concerned about
the kingdom's difficulties. Then the ruler can build a large number of ships,
line them up in his harbors and on the open sea, display them to visitors, and
arouse fear abroad. Then a wise envoy should be dispatched to summon the
Paekche king.*»
Just as Japan's Meiji leaders adopted, in the middle of the nineteenth
century, the slogan "Rich Country, Strong Army" when faced with the
West's overwhelming military might, Yamato ministers seem to have
agreed after the 540 conference that Yamato should henceforth concen-
trate on efforts to maximize its wealth and control.
New
control techniques
The Nihon shoki reports that Iname and others were sent by Kimmei
to the Kibi region in 555 with instructions to set up the Shirai royal
estate. It is further recorded, in an item for the next year, that Iname
was again sent to the same area to establish the Kojima royal estate.
95
The Kibi plain, like the central zone of Kyushu, was agriculturally
rich and strategically important to maintaining contact with the conti-
nent. But the steps taken in Kibi were different: (1) The highest-
ranking minister, a man who probably had Korean blood in his
veins,
headed both missions; (2) a man by the name of Itsu was later
sent to the Shirai royal estate with instructions to have its farmers
registered; and (3) when registration produced the desired results,
94 Bidatsu 12 (583), NKBT 68.145-6; Aston, 2.98-99.
95 Kimmei 16 (555) 7/4 and Kimmei 17 (556) 7/6, NKBT 68.117; Aston, 2.77, 78.
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