Premodern japan a historical survey pdf

PREMODERN JAPAN

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hane, Mikiso. Premodern Japan : a historical survey / Mikiso Hane, late of Knox College, Louis G.

Perez, llinois State University. — Second edition. pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8133-4970-1 (e-book : alk. paper) 1. Japan—History—To 1868. I. Perez,

Louis G. II. Title. DS850.H36 2014 952—dc23

2014032427

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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http://www.westviewpress.com
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Contents

Preface Introduction

1 THE EARLY YEARS Geographic Setting The Mythological Origins of Japan Japanese Prehistory Japan’s Neighbor: Korea Early Yamato Society: Fourth and Fifth Centuries The Indigenous Cults Social Practices and Conditions Architecture

2 THE ADVENT AND ASSIMILATION OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION The Introduction of Chinese Civilization Buddhism Prince Shōtoku The Taika Reforms Culture of the Seventh and Eighth Centuries Social and Economic Conditions Marriage and Gender Relations Internal and External Foes

3 THE HEIAN PERIOD The Age of Court Aristocracy The Central Government Culture Nara-Heian Buddhism The Rise of Shōen The Emergence of the Warrior Class (Samurai) The Triumph of the Samurai The Rivalry of the Taira and Minamoto Clans

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4 THE KAMAKURA PERIOD The Kamakura Shogunate (1185–1333) The Hōjō Regency Foreign Relations: The Asian Continent The Mongol Invasions and the Decline of the Kamakura Bakufu The Ethos of the Samurai Women and Inheritance Kamakura Buddhism Culture

5 THE ASHIKAGA PERIOD AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE DAIMYŌ Political Developments Ashikaga Rule The Decline of the Shōen The Onset of the Time of Troubles The Rise of the Daimyō and the Warring States The Peasantry Economic Growth The Influence of Zen Buddhism on Culture Other Cultural Developments

6 THE RESTORATION OF ORDER Oda Nobunaga Toyotomi Hideyoshi Hideyoshi’s Domestic Policies The Ninja Azuchi-Momoyama Culture Gender and Sexuality Contact with the West Christianity in Japan The Introduction of Western Things

7 THE EARLY TOKUGAWA PERIOD The Triumph of Tokugawa Ieyasu The Power Structure Administrative Structure The Administration of Justice

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Social Structure The Samurai The Peasants The Townspeople Other Classes Family Hierarchy and Women

8 INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN

Neo-Confucianism The Zhu Xi School in Japan The Wang Yang-Ming School Ancient Learning National Learning Agrarian Egalitarianism The Culture of the Townspeople Prose Fiction Theater Woodblock Printing and Painting Haiku Education The State of Buddhism

9 THE LATE TOKUGAWA PERIOD Political Developments Economic Problems The Pleasure Quarters The Lot of the Peasants Population Control Peasant Uprisings Agricultural Improvements Forestry Intellectual Currents: Reformers and Critics

10 THE FALL OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU Sakoku The Arrival of Commodore Perry The Immediate Consequences

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The Mentality of Sonnō Jōi The Rise of the Anti-Bakufu Forces The Meiji Restoration

Appendix A: The Internet Appendix B: Chronological Chart Appendix C: List of Shōguns Selected Bibliography Index

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Preface

In many ways this revision is decades overdue. My late good friend Mikiso Hane first wrote the early half of a two-volume history (Japan: A Historical Survey) in 1972. Then he revised it somewhat to stand alone as Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey. In 1991 he revised it again. That version has not been revised since. Miki once told me that he intended to bring it up to date “at the turn of the twenty-first century.” He never got around to it; he passed away in 2003.

I rewrote Miki’s modern Japan half of the textbook—twice, in fact. After a decade, I took up the premodern half. You have the results in your hands. Generally speaking, I have tried to retain Miki’s voice wherever I could. His work on religion, the arts, and culture are still magnificent. Students tell me that his prose is still clear and easy to understand after four decades. Unless there has been a significant change in consensus, I have retained his words and interpretations.

A Word About Sources and Citations I have chosen to put source citations and clarifications at the end of each chapter for quick and easy reference and to avoid cluttering up the flow of the narrative. I have retained almost all of Miki’s citations except for those clearly out of date. His translations from Japanese are retained. Miki was a great translator; we owe much to him for access to some great Japanese scholars, Maruyama Masao especially. Translation is a tough job; most of us have tried it, if only because our dissertations required it. In my own case, I always feel like the shade-tree mechanic in that I find leftover parts and pieces after I am done.

I have used the endnotes to cite sources for new quotations I have employed but also to suggest particularly good sources that a student might consult to flesh out what I have suggested. Long ago (in the previous century) when I was an undergrad, I valued most those histories that provided suggested readings right in the footnotes.

Regarding the new bibliography, I have found that recent scholarship has nearly doubled since Miki’s last edition. This is mostly due to the explosion of higher education in the last half century. In former times only wealthy people could afford to send their children to college, and then few would “waste” the effort by allowing them to pursue esoteric topics like Japanese history. The idea of the first child of a Chicano illegal immigrant farm worker family to graduate from high school spending much time in college puzzling out Japanese history was unimaginable. By far the best of the “new stuff” is in what has been called the “subaltern voice.” The influx of women into the profession has profoundly changed it. We must remember

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that Miki was among the very first to include discussions on gender, sexuality, and the “nonpeople” (variously called hinin and eta). As Jim Huffman eloquently noted in Miki’s obituary, he had “led the way for his American peers in making women, workers, and peasants a serious part of the narrative.”1

Because this revision is intended to make Japanese history more readily available to younger scholars, I have chosen to cite only English-language sources. Citations to Japanese-language sources are retained in the endnotes for each chapter to cite sources for Miki’s translations.

To facilitate the use of the bibliography, I have added new subsections (The Arts, Gender and Sexuality, Religion, etc.) for quick reference. When in doubt about a new source, I have repeated the entry in more than one section. I have tried to keep that to a minimum in the interest of space.

Illustrations The folks at Westview Press have commissioned cartographers to delineate changes that I think can best be expressed in line maps. I chose not to bring in new full-color illustrations because they drive up the price for the book beyond what I believe to be reasonable. If one wants to see a plethora of excellent color illustrations, one only has to type in names and places (Hiroshige, Utamaro, Kabuki, Ise, etc.) into a decent search engine, and one has access to scores of examples. Please see the appendix on the use of the Internet at the end of the book.

Names and Transliteration The Hepburn system of transliteration of the Japanese language will be employed. This entails using the “shi” instead of “si,” using “n’” at the end of some words to indicate that sound (the only consonant without a vowel sound), as well as the use of macrons (small horizontal marks, as in “Chōshū”) to indicate elongated vowels. Surnames are written first (e.g., Tokugawa Ieyasu) followed by the “given” or personal name, but we will use the personal name when differentiating between two people with the same surname (e.g., Ieyasu and Nariaki, both named Tokugawa). The only exceptions will be when the person is better known using the Western system (Mikiso Hane or D. T. Suzuki). Also, place names that should be written with macrons that are now more commonly written without (Tōkyō vs. Tokyo or Ōsaka vs. Osaka) will appear in their modernized form. We will employ the new Pinyin style (Beijing) instead of the old Wade-Giles (Peking) for Chinese unless the latter system is used in a quotation or title (Peking duck).

Thanks! I wish to thank all the folks who contributed to this revision. My good friend Betsy Dorn Lublin kindly read the first draft, as did seven anonymous reviewers employed by Westview Press. I also wish to thank (alphabetically) Sydney DeVere

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Brown, Roy Hanashiro, Ethan Segal, James Stanlaw, and Roger Thomas for ideas, clarifications, and kind words of encouragement along the way. Obviously, all the editors at Westview over the decade are appreciated for their patience. I know the publication of textbooks is a vested-interest business, but these folks have served beyond the call of duty.

My students at Illinois State University have also provided me with help and suggested revisions during the last eighteen months. I taught Premodern Japanese History twice during that time, using this textbook. I often asked them what they liked and didn’t like and what wasn’t clear. I have employed their suggestions. This is the only credit they will get.

My long-suffering wife Karla is, as ever, to be thanked for her patience. I’d also like to thank Alexandra Mackey, who tended to Millie and Gabby, giving me some “space” and time to write.

LOUIS G. PEREZ Normal (still!), Illinois

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Introduction

Today Japan is the seventh–most populous country in the world. More than 126 million people are crowded into an area slightly smaller than the state of Montana. The islands that make up the nation are mountainous, and only slightly more than 14 percent of the land is farmed. Although the country is poor in natural resources, it is the world’s third–most productive industrial nation.

Japan’s position in the world was not always as prominent as it is today. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Japan was a significant presence in world affairs. In the first half of the twentieth century, Japan emerged as a major military power in East Asia. However, following defeat in World War II, the country renounced militarism and began concentrating on economic development.

Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, Japan was relatively isolated from the external world, with contact restricted primarily to Korea and China and to the Dutch, although relations with the other European countries did prevail briefly from the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. In a sense Japan was a cultural satellite of China, remaining under its influence for centuries following the introduction of Chinese culture in the fifth and sixth centuries. By adopting, adapting, and assimilating the fruits of Chinese civilization, Japan developed a culture and way of life and established institutions and values that were distinctly its own. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Japan was exposed to Western civilization, and another period of importation and assimilation ensued. Yet the traditional attitudes, ways, and institutions persisted; consequently, contemporary Japan cannot be adequately understood without an examination of its early history.

Before the massive influx of Chinese culture that started in the fifth century, Japan had indigenous beliefs, institutions, and practices; some survived the “Sinification” (made more Chinese, “Sino” is the shorthand for China) process and persisted to the present. Among these were hundreds of indigenous cults that in the medieval period became known as Shintō. Shintō became an animistic folk religion that acknowledges the presence of sacred beings—gods and spirits—in nature. Myths about creator deities and the belief that the imperial dynasty was founded by the descendants of the Sun Goddess (Amaterasu-no-Omikami) were propagated by the clan that gained political hegemony. These beliefs formed the basis of state Shintō, which was used by the leaders of modern Japan to unify the people under the imperial family.

The emperor system came to be intimately associated with Shintō. The ancestors of the current imperial family established their political dominion around

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the late fifth or early sixth century; this family remains the central political entity today. This is not to say that it remained the actual source of power through the ages, but it did persist as an institution to which even the actual wielders of power, the shōgun (military deputy), had to pay at least pro forma honor. Thus loyalty to the imperial court was stressed as a quintessential principle of Japanese behavior by proponents of imperial rule.

Another characteristic of the Japanese that persisted through the ages is a strong sense of group identity, whether it be with the clan, the family, or the community. Thus, individualism in traditional Japan never developed into an acceptable mode of behavior. This suppression of individual interests for the good of the group was reinforced by the advent of Confucianism around the fifth century, which built its moral code around the family system. The emphasis on group interests led to an idealization of values such as submissiveness, obedience, self-sacrifice, responsibility, and duty. The emphasis on group interests also resulted in a parochial outlook with a strong demarcation between the “in-group” and the outsiders. This attitude structured not just the relation of the family, clan, or village to others but also ultimately that of “we, the Japanese,” to foreigners. This insular mentality, a product of the island geography of the country, fostered a pronounced ethnocentrism and a belief in the homogeneity and uniqueness of the Japanese people. This mode of thinking is manifested in the modern age as militant nationalism; traces of nationalism first began to surface from time to time after the seeds of cultural nationalism began to sprout in the Heian period (794–1185).

The Confucian emphasis on preserving the hierarchical order of “superior” and “inferior” persons and the maintenance of proper relationships to ensure social harmony (that is, the “inferior” person should behave in accordance with his or her station in the family and society) came to be strongly embedded in Japanese mores. This social imperative was reinforced by the emergence of the samurai as the dominant force in the late twelfth century. The proper order of things came to be enforced by the edge of the sword, not simply by moral rectitude inculcated by learning, as the Confucian scholars taught.

The Confucian hierarchy based on gender and age came to define the place of women in Japan. Despite some evidence that early Japan may have been a matriarchal, or at least matrilineal, society, the Chinese philosophy emphasized male dominance. The acceptance of the Confucian social philosophy and the ascendancy of the samurai class resulted in a steady decline in women’s social standing, although women were still accorded property rights even after samurai rule was established in the late twelfth century. It was not until the Tokugawa era (1600–1867) that gender discrimination came to be enforced stringently among the samurai class; as noted in Chapter 7, however, relationships between men and women among the townspeople remained less rigid.

The emergence of the samurai, and their ascendancy from the late twelfth to the

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mid-nineteenth century, was a significant factor in the formation of the Japanese way. The militaristic side of Japan emerged as the antipode to the civilian side, which had been nurtured and fostered by the Heian court aristocrats who had adopted the Chinese code of propriety, decorum, moderation, and composure. The samurai favored direct action and decisiveness. The code of the warriors (Bushidō) that came to be idealized in the years of shōgunal rule stressed such ideals as loyalty, self-sacrifice, courage, martial valor, honor, integrity, and other Spartan virtues. Such values functioned as counterpoints to the genteel ways of the court aristocrats as well as to the freer and more hedonistic ways of the townspeople in the Tokugawa era. Likewise, the disdain for materialism fostered by Confucian and samurai value systems was offset by the townspeople’s unabashed pursuit of riches. We shall see that the pursuit of wealth during the Tokugawa era became institutionalized among the merchant class. Contemporary Japan’s economic success is not surprising in light of this tradition. Thus, the Japanese value system, like those of virtually all other societies, evolved in a multifaceted manner from its origins.

In addition to affecting Japan’s social and political institutions, Chinese civilization also influenced Japanese cultural, intellectual, and literary realms, which included the writing system, philosophical schools, and arts and crafts. Most of these influences entered by way of Korea, after having gone through some modification there. Similarly, Korean arts such as pottery, painting, and sculpture evolved radically from the Chinese ideals. Nationalist scholars later asserted that before the advent of Chinese influence, with its emphasis on artificial rules of propriety, decorum, and rectitude, the cultural artifacts of Japan reflected the free and natural sentiments of the people. Here too we can see the two faces of traditional Japan: one that is more naturally Japanese and another that is heavily infused with Chinese culture. The influence of Chinese art and culture and the development of a distinctively Japanese style in art and literature—with aesthetic sensitivity toward nature that is reinforced, some would say, by Zen aesthetics—is discussed in Chapter 5.

Buddhism, which came to Japan at about the same time that Chinese culture began to inundate the country, also shaped the Japanese outlook and culture in significant ways. Although it did not become a state religion (the Japanese, like the Chinese, believe that one can worship many gods and participate in many different religious practices at the same time), Buddhism did eventually permeate the entire land.

A significant economic factor that molded Japanese society and outlook is the near-total reliance on agriculture as a means of subsistence in traditional Japan. Rice culture, which entered Japan in the Yayoi period (circa 250 BCE–CE 250),2 determined the style of farm work through the ages. Working the handkerchief-sized paddies and rugged hillside terraces to produce the necessary crops to feed the

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population taught the peasants patience, diligence, frugality, and discipline. These qualities were later reinforced by the samurai, who bound the peasants to the soil and insisted on a strict adherence to the virtues of frugality, hard work, and obedience to meet the economic needs of the medieval order. These characteristics persisted into the modern age and contributed to the creation of the modern economic “miracles” of the mid-nineteenth century and later the postwar mid- twentieth century.

But the peasants did not always remain docile and submissive: periodically they rose up in protest. Hence the revolutionary tradition is not totally absent from Japanese history. Widespread and large-scale peasant uprisings broke out in the Ashikaga (1336–1573) and Tokugawa years, even when such nonviolent acts as submitting petitions to the ruling class led to certain death.

Despite the resulting stress on Japan’s harmony, propriety, and hierarchical order, the pattern of its political history is one of constant conflict and bloodshed, beginning with the struggle to establish a dynastic order from the third to fourth century CE. This pattern continued through the power struggles in the Heian years, the emergence of the samurai in the outlying regions and the sanguinary power struggle among them, the establishment of military rule by the Minamoto clan, the conflict with the imperial forces, the struggles that continued into the Ashikaga years, and the Age of the Warring States of the latter part of the fifteenth century and throughout most of the sixteenth century. It was not until the Tokugawa family established its hegemony that peace and stability ensued for almost two and a half centuries. While the struggle for power was taking place in the political arena during the entire military era (1180–1868), the peasants continued to work the land, suffering privation, famines, epidemics, and repression. The townspeople were busy perfecting the arts and crafts.

During the years of turmoil and disaster, literature and the arts survived and enjoyed peaks of creative splendor. This is seen in the art and architecture that followed the introduction of Chinese culture and its Japanization in the Heian period. The result was the golden age of literature produced by great Heian women writers like Lady Murasaki and Sei Shonagon and the production of Japanese poems, diaries, essays, and military romances. The profound influence of Zen aesthetics is reflected in painting, architecture, landscape gardening, Nō (sometime written Noh) theater, ceramics, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, the construction of multistory picturesque castles, and the production of fine armor and swords in the Kamakura (1185–1333) and Ashikaga (1336–1573) years. In the Tokugawa era the culture of the townspeople flourished with woodblock prints, haiku, Kabuki theater, puppet theater, novels, and folk art.

Japanese history, like the history of all societies, is an unfolding of multifaceted developments, a montage of political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual elements. But to give a coherent structure to this kaleidoscopic phenomena, some

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sort of framework is required. The most convenient schema in a general historical survey is still a chronological sequence centered on political developments. This historical survey of pre-Meiji Japan is organized in this conventional manner.

NOTES 1. Jim Huffman, “Mikiso Hane: 1922–2003.” Journal of Asian Studies 63 (2004): 571–

572. 2. Instead of the Judeo-Christian system of dating, the following will be used: what used

to be referred to as “BC” (before Christ) will now be “BCE” (before the Common Era); “CE” (Common Era) will replace “AD.”

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1

The Early Years

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING

The Japanese archipelago, consisting of the four main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu and more than one thousand smaller islands, juts into the Pacific Ocean in a convex arc. The total area of Japan is 145,834 square miles, which is slightly larger than Germany and smaller than Zimbabwe. It is about the size of the state of California in the United States. To the north the Russian- administered Kuriles, a large number of small volcanic islands, extend to Kamchatka Peninsula, while to the south the Ryukyu Islands stretch out toward Taiwan.

The Japanese islands are mountainous, with considerable volcanic activity. Offshore on the eastern side are great deep-water trenches, five or six miles below sea level. Along the coast on the same side, the mountaintops reach two miles above sea level. This great range of elevation from sea bottom to mountain peak causes enormous geological strains and stresses, resulting in constant shifts in the rock masses.

The archipelago was created when a portion of Asia broke off the continent. It now sits astride two continental plates that push in opposite directions, creating a tremendous uplift that has scoured the islands, forcing up mountains along its spine. Moreover, the archipelago contains about five hundred volcanoes, and earthquakes, a related phenomenon, are commonplace occurrences, with an average of about 1,500 tremors annually. Since 1596 there have been twenty-three major earthquakes, each resulting in the death of more than a thousand people. The latest, in March 2011, called the Great Tohoku Earthquake, measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and was the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since modern record keeping began in 1900. More than 20,000 were estimated killed by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.1

Seventy-two percent of the country is hilly or mountainous, with an average slope of more than fifteen degrees. But nearly 65 percent of the land with a slope of fifteen degrees or less is tilled. The total area under cultivation, however, amounts to less than 14.3 percent of the landmass. The highest elevations are located in the Gifu Node in central Honshu. A dozen or more mountains measuring 10,000 feet are located in these highlands, known as the Japanese Alps, including Mt. Fuji (12,461

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feet). There are no extensive lowlands in Japan. The typical plain is a small isolated

area in a coastal indentation or mountain basin. The largest of the plains, the Kantō Plain, where Tokyo and Yokohama are located, has an area of only 5,000 square miles, or 3.2 million acres. Other major plains are the Nōbi Plain at the head of Ise Bay, where Nagoya is situated (450,000 acres), and the Kinai Plain at the head of Osaka Bay, where Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe are located (310,000 acres). These are the most important plains, on which six of Japan’s largest cities were built. Other fairly large plains are the Ishikari in southwestern Hokkaido, the Echigo in northwestern Honshu, the Sendai in northeastern Honshu, and the Tsukushi in northwestern Kyushu. This lack of flat land suitable for agriculture has made Japan the fifth–most densely populated country (which includes land-locked Singapore, Hong Kong, or Gibraltar) in the world, with a population of about 126 million. The average for the whole country is 343 persons per square kilometer, but for the Tokyo metropolitan area it is an astounding 5,751!2 About three-quarters of its population is jammed into about 14 percent of its landmass.

Rivers water most of these plains, but they are generally short, swift, and shallow, and therefore not suitable for navigation. The two longest rivers are the Ishikari in Hokkaido (227 miles) and the Shinano in central Honshu (229 miles). The mountain rivers are important as sources of irrigation for the rice fields and for hydroelectric power.

The mountains are unusually susceptible to erosion and landslide. The steep slopes are covered by a thick canopy of conifers that blocks sunlight to the forest floor, inhibiting the natural soil building common to broadleaf deciduous forests. The thin soil often contains large amounts of slick volcanic ash, which does not hold well, particularly after logging or fire has stripped the mountains of their natural vegetative cover. Volcanic and seismic activity routinely shakes the country, making landslides and erosion a natural part of Japanese existence. Because the Japanese have crowded up to the very edge of these mountains, landslides and erosion have tumbled down on small villages with great regularity and great cost in human life.

Japan proper has a remarkably long coastline, about 17,000 miles, or one linear mile of coast for each 8.5 square miles of area. Although the coastline contains few natural harbors, most of the lowlands have sea frontage. Along with the extensive coastline, this has fostered a strong maritime outlook in the Japanese. Virtually all Japanese have grown up within a short distance from the seaside. A large part of the coastline has indentations and irregularities that, together with the many tiny islands along the coastline, make the landscape strikingly beautiful and diverse.

Because the Japanese archipelago extends from 31 to 45 degrees north latitude, there is a marked contrast in the climate between the northern and southern regions. Discrepancies in surface configurations, great differences in altitude, and diversity

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in the effects produced by the Pacific Ocean and the Japan Sea also account for notable differences in climate. A large part of Japan lies at subtropical latitudes. Consequently, in most areas climatic conditions are conducive to plant growth and are not too harsh for human comfort.

The monsoonal air masses affect the climate in a significant way. In the winter great waves of dry, cold polar air descend from the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. In the summer moist tropical and subtropical maritime air masses, originating over the warmer parts of the Pacific Ocean, move into eastern Asia. Thus, although the winter winds blow prevailingly from the northwest, the summer winds blow from the southeast. The winters are colder and the summers hotter and more humid than normal for regions with Japan’s latitude.

During late spring and early summer, a period of abundant rain, high humidity, and cloudiness sets in. This is the so-called bai-u, or “plum rains.” In the late summer and early fall, violent storms and typhoons strike the islands, causing much damage to the rice fields as well as to dwellings and the general landscape. It is not uncommon to have more than a dozen typhoons hit Japan annually, causing tremendous property damage and loss of life.

The two ocean currents washing the shores of Japan also influence its climate. A cold current from the north, the Okhotsk Current, and a warm stream from the south, the Japan Current, converge off northern Honshu. A smaller stream from the Japan Current swings into the Japan Sea from the Tsushima Strait and flows northward as far as Hokkaido.

Japan’s climate is much like that of the US Atlantic Seaboard or the Mississippi Valley in similar latitudes. Temperatures in January range from about ten or fifteen degrees Fahrenheit in northern and central Hokkaido to thirty-five or forty degrees on the lowlands of central Honshu and forty-five degrees in the extreme south of Kyushu. July temperatures in central and southern Japan range from seventy-seven to eighty degrees. August is slightly warmer than July in most areas. High temperatures combined with high humidity make the summers extremely sultry and oppressive.

Japan has a considerable amount of precipitation year round; although it rains more in the warm months than in the winter, the difference in precipitation between summer and winter is not great. Even in the driest cool season, each month sees 2 or 3 inches of precipitation, with several times this amount in the warm months. Where precipitation is heaviest, it may exceed 120 inches annually; while where it is lightest, in the Inland Sea region, it averages 40 inches per year.

Snow falls throughout the main islands, although it is light in the southern regions. In Hokkaido (the island north of Honshu) and all across the Japan Sea side, snow remains on the ground all winter. In the mountainous regions of western and northern Japan, the snow reaches a depth of six or seven feet in January.

The growing season varies from about 120 to 130 days in central and eastern

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Hokkaido to 250 days or more along the extreme southern and eastern littoral. The region around Tokyo has an average growing season of 215 days.

Rice, grown in paddy fields, is the most important food crop produced. Today 55 percent of the cereal acreage consists of rice fields. Barley, wheat, oats, soybeans, potatoes, and a variety of vegetables are also grown. Tea, cotton, flax, and mulberry (for silkworms) constitute important supplementary-income crops for farm families. Because only a little more than 15 million acres is arable, intensive cultivation is practiced, and terraced fields climb the hillsides of the Japanese landscape.

Because Japan is an island nation, the sea is an important source of food. Seafood is the chief source of protein in the Japanese diet. The warm Japan Current yields sardine, mackerel, tuna, bonito, skipjack, albacore, and seabream, while herring, salmon, cod, and crab are fished from the Okhotsk Current. Many edible seaweeds are also extracted from the sea. Japan has led the world in the production of dried sea products, both for human consumption and as rich fertilizers.

Japan is one of the most completely forested countries in the world. About 55 percent of the island is forested and another 8–9 percent is potential forest land. The forests are a source not only of timber but of charcoal, wood fuel, wood pulp, and a variety of foods. Broadleaf forests occupy about 50 percent of the forest land, while coniferous and mixed forests occupy 29 and 21 percent, respectively.

Japan does not have an adequate supply of mineral resources. Because Japan’s coal is of poor quality or is simply too costly to mine economically, a supply of better quality must be imported for heavy industrial use. Petroleum resources are extremely limited: in the early twenty-first century, 99.9 percent of the crude oil consumed came from abroad. Japan’s iron mines supply only a small percentage of the country’s industrial needs. The supply of copper, limestone, and sulfur is adequate, but lead, zinc, and phosphate and potassium materials for fertilizers must be imported.

THE MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF JAPAN

According to Japanese mythology—based upon the first historical accounts, the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters; completed in 712) and the Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan; completed in 720)—sky and heaven gradually separated from the primordial chaos in the universe, and primal deities appeared. They were followed by a series of mated deities, ending with the creative pair, He-Who- Invites (Izanagi) and She-Who-Invites (Izanami). They stirred the sea with a spear and created an islet. Descending upon it, they created many other deities as well as the other islands of Japan.

Izanami died while giving birth to the Fire God and descended into the

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underworld of Yomi (darkness), where putrefaction and pollution prevailed. Longing to see his wife, Izanagi followed her into the land of darkness, but she drove him back because she was ashamed to be seen by him in her state of putrefaction. Returning from the land of darkness, Izanagi cleansed himself, and as he washed his left eye—left being the side of honor—the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu (which means “shining in heaven”), was born, and from his right eye sprang the Moon God. As he washed his nose, the Impetuous-Male-Deity (Susano-o), the Storm God, came into being.

The Sun Goddess and the Moon God ascended to the sky, the former to rule at Takamagahara (Plain of High Heaven) and the latter to serve as her consort. This precedent, like the joint rule of Izanagi and Izanami, helped to establish the custom of dual, mated political leaders. The Storm God was to rule over the earth. When Susano-o, who was an unruly character, visited his sister in the sky, he behaved obstreperously, damaging her rice fields and defiling her house with excrement. In anger Amaterasu shut herself up in a cave, darkening the world. To lure her out, the heavenly gods engaged in dancing and merrymaking. When Amaterasu opened the door of the cave to see what was taking place, the gods compelled her to leave the cavern, tying up the entrance with a strong straw rope (shimenawa), and thus the world was made radiant again. This story may be connected with ceremonies conducted during a solar eclipse or during the winter solstice to revive the waning power of the sun. It was also intended, some maintain, to signify the triumph of light over darkness, peace and order over savagery and destruction.

Susano-o was banished to the earth for his misconduct. He first traveled to Korea, then to Izumo in western Honshu. From Izumo, Susano-o’s descendant, Ōkuninushi, ruled the earth. The Sun Goddess, wishing to extend her authority to the earth, sent several messengers to persuade the Great-Land-Master to abdicate in her favor. After resisting several of Amaterasu’s attempts to persuade him, the ruler of the earth finally agreed to submit to her authority. The Sun Goddess then sent her grandson, Ninigi, to rule the earth.3

Ninigi descended to the earth at Tsukushi in northern Kyushu and brought with him three items that became symbols of the imperial rule: a bronze mirror (a symbol of the Sun Goddess and of purity), a sword (courage) that was used by Susano-o to slay a huge serpent, and a curved-bead necklace (benevolence) that warded off evil spirits.

Ninigi’s great-grandson, Waka-mike-nu, left Kyushu to conquer the rest of Japan. Sailing through the Inland Sea, he entered the Kinki region (the area that encompasses Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara) and established his rule in Yamato in 660 BCE. He then became the first emperor of Japan, Jimmu.4

Among other mythological figures two deserve mention because they came to be popularly regarded as actual historical personages of heroic stature. One is

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Yamato-takeru, who performed great military feats in conquering the rebellious people in the south (the Kumaso) and in the north (the Ezo). The other is the Empress Jingū, who is said to have led an expedition against Silla, a premodern Korean state.

Mythological tales similar to those found in Japan are told in other parts of Asia, especially among the peoples of Korea and Southeast Asia and the nomads of northern Asia.5 Perhaps most anthropologists (and a growing number of historians) are now convinced that Japan’s mythological origin stories owe more to Chinese ideas of ancient origins than to anything native. The interplay between the indigenous religious cults and the Chinese stories centered on magic and imported technologies (more below).6

JAPANESE PREHISTORY

Archaeologists and historians fail to agree about the origins of the Japanese.7 There is a consensus, however, that the early inhabitants came from different areas in several separate waves of immigration. Some of the early inhabitants are believed to have been a Tungusic people who came from the northeastern region of the continent by way of Hokkaido or Korea. It is also thought that people of Malayan origin came from the south—from South China or perhaps from Southeast Asia—by way of Taiwan and the Ryukyus, while others of Mongoloid origin came by way of Korea. Small islands dot the Tsushima Strait from Korea to Kyushu at intervals of less than forty miles. The relatively shallow waters (120–150 feet) make the journey possible during good weather. Skeletal fossils of animals not indigenous to Japan suggest that migration from the continent stopped thousands of years ago.

The Japanese language seems to have links with both the Polynesian and Altaic languages. Some authorities theorize that a language of southern origin was spoken in the Jōmon period (see below), while in the Yayoi period a new language, Altaic in character, entered from the continent.

Until very recently there was no concrete evidence to substantiate the existence of Paleolithic peoples in Japan, but archaeological discoveries since 1947 indicate that this was the case. Tools made of roughly flaked stone dating from perhaps 200,000 years ago have been discovered. Archaeological remains of microlithic artifacts, that is, tools of sharp-edged stone flakes, indicate that Mesolithic peoples were present in Japan around 30,000 BCE.

Among the early inhabitants of Neolithic Japan were, it is believed, ancestors of the Ainu, an indigenous people who inhabit Hokkaido today. (There are at present only about 20,000–30,000 Ainu in existence.) Other scholars would suggest that the progenitors of the Ryukyuan people were also probably related to these ancient Jōmon people.8

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The early stages of the Neolithic age in Japan, known as the Jōmon period, extended from about 4500 BCE to 250 BCE. On the basis of carbon 14 tests conducted on archaeological finds, some authorities now contend that the Jōmon period started around 7000 or 8000 BCE. The term jōmon (cord marking) describes the type of decoration on pottery associated with this age. Jōmon earthenwares are among the earliest pottery in the world. They have designs of high relief made with cord impressions. This era is divided into several periods based upon the changing style of pottery, which became increasingly more complex in later stages.9

Five thousand years ago the Jōmon people, with a population of more than 100,000, lived near the sea coast and gathered shellfish for food. A large number of shell mounds, principally in the Tokyo Bay area, have been found at archaeological sites that had been inhabited by Jōmon people. Those living in mountainous areas hunted game and lived on fruits, nuts, berries, and edible roots. These early folk used fishhooks made of animal bones and ground and chipped stone tools and lived in pit dwellings covered with thatched roofs. The houses were circular, had several supporting pillars for the slanting roofs, and a fireplace of earthenware or stone. Clay figurine fetishes were used to ensure fertility and guard against pernicious forces. It appears from the iconography of these idols that the sun and the spirits of stones were worshipped in this period.

The later years of the Neolithic age are called the Yayoi period (ca. 250 BCE–CE 250) because pottery belonging to this culture was first discovered at a place called Yayoi in Tokyo in 1884. The Yayoi pots, symmetrical and reddish in color, were fashioned on pottery wheels and are less elaborately decorated than Jōmon pieces. The designs are simple and neat, generally consisting of straight lines. Yayoi pottery, fired at a higher temperature, is technically superior to Jōmon pottery, and a greater variety of earthenwares were produced. There were three basic types: plain jars used for cooking, decorated urns for storing food, and more elaborately designed dishes on pedestals in which offerings to the gods were placed.

Yayoi culture is believed to have emerged around the third century BCE in northern Kyushu. It would appear that it was influenced by two different cultural forces, one from the south and the other from the north. Rice cultivation, which was not yet practiced in northern China, came to Japan from the south. It may have been introduced from Southeast Asia or by immigrants fleeing the Han conquerors, who were extending their control into South China. Perhaps it entered from South China by way of southern Korea. At any rate, the introduction of rice cultivation revolutionized the way of life of ancient Japan and established the basis for the economic life of the people until the industrial age.

Although rice cultivation indicates a southern influence, the polished stone implements of Yayoi culture show links with Korea, Manchuria, and northern China. As we have already noted, it is possible that during this period Japan came

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under the influence of people who belonged to the Altaic world. The Yayoi decorative designs resemble ornaments found in areas where the Altaic languages were spoken. Around the second century BCE, bronze and iron implements were introduced from China and Korea. Among the bronze artifacts were swords, halberds, and mirrors used for religious and ceremonial purposes.

The agricultural implements used in the Yayoi period were crude wooden and stone tools such as hoes, rakes, spades, semilunar knives, and adzes. In the later stages of the period, iron implements came to be used for household and agricultural purposes, and the Yayoi men used iron swords, spears, and halberds for weapons. Remnants of looms and fabrics indicate that weaving was also introduced from the continent in this period. Pits and caves continued to be employed, but new styles of construction were common as well. Huts were now constructed above the ground, and wooden posts and beams were used to hold up thatched roofs. The dead were buried in urns, dolmens, and stone cists; a variety of artifacts, many of Chinese origin, were buried with them.

In the Yayoi period, with the population numbering around 600,000, there were two population centers. One was near the present city of Nara in the Yamato Plain and the other was in northern Kyushu near Dazaifu. Evidently, they adhered to different religious cults. The people in Yamato used bronze bells for ceremonial purposes, while those in Kyushu used gems and bronze spears, swords, halberds, and mirrors. Although the swords and halberds are believed to have come from the continent, the bronze bells used in the Yamato region are not found there. These bells were fairly large, some as long as four feet, and were decorated with engravings of farming and hunting scenes.

The ritualistic use of these artifacts was apparently linked with political control. An ancient account states that shields and spears sent to the governors and chiefs were interred in the sacred hills to ensure the protection of the frontiers; thus, the bronze spear became a symbol of divine presence as well as of power. That the possession of ritual symbols endowed the possessor with special authority is seen in the fact that the imperial family traditionally used three symbols—the sacred sword, mirror, and gem—to assert its special authority and legitimacy.

The first written accounts of Japan are found in the historical chronicles of China, specifically in the History of the Kingdom of Wei (a kingdom in North China, CE 220–265), written in CE 297, and in the History of the Later Han Dynasty, compiled around CE 445. These histories mention the existence of more than one hundred communities in Japan and note that a number of envoys were sent from Japan to the Han court in what is the present-day city of Xian (Chang-an) and to the Han governors in Korea. The first envoy is said to have arrived in the Han capital in CE 57. A golden seal presumably given to one of the rulers of northern Kyushu by an emperor of Later Han China in the first century was found in 1784. Its authenticity has been questioned, but many authorities now consider it to be

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genuine. According to the Chinese records, Japan underwent a period of civil strife in

the second century CE, but eventually the nation was unified under a queen referred to as Pimiku. Pimiku (or Himiko in Japanese, meaning “daughter of the sun”) was not a proper name but rather a term applied to female rulers in general. The Himiko mentioned in the Chinese histories was a shaman, a priestess who served as an intermediary between supernatural forces and the people. The History of Wei states that Himiko “occupied herself with magic and sorcery, bewitching the people. Though mature in age, she remained unmarried. She had a younger brother who assisted her in ruling the country. After she became the ruler, there were few who saw her. She had one thousand women as attendants, but only one man.”10

Historians disagree about the location of the land ruled by Himiko. The History of Wei states that Himiko resided in Yamatai, located on an island southeast of Korea. This might indicate that Yamatai was in northern Kyushu, but if the distances given in the History of Wei were followed, it would be located on the high seas. The similarity of the names might signify that Yamatai was actually Yamato in central Honshu, but Yamatai, which means “gateway to the mountains,” was not an uncommon place name.

All sorts of theories based upon mythological, linguistic, and archaeological evidence have been set forth to prove that Himiko’s kingdom was in either northern Kyushu or the Yamato Plain, but neither side has been able to substantiate its contention.11 It would appear that northern Kyushu had much greater contact with the continent, but the History of Wei states that when Himiko died in the middle of the third century a great mound was constructed as her tomb. This, the proponents of the Yamato thesis argued, proves that Himiko ruled in the Yamato Plain, because the practice of constructing large tombs did not prevail in northern Kyushu. In the late 1980s, however, archaeological excavations in northern Kyushu led to the discovery of a fortified town with a large burial mound. This finding has provided the Kyushu school with additional arguments to support its contention.

The hypothesis that Himiko was the ancestor of the Yamato imperial family, or that she was a historical personage, is open to question. If she were, it might not be unreasonable to assume that she was located in Kyushu, because it appears that early clan chieftains contending for power moved from Kyushu to the Yamato region sometime after Himiko’s reign. The fact that the symbols of imperial authority—swords, mirrors, and gems—have been found in abundance in the burial sites of northern Kyushu would tend to uphold the Kyushu theory. However, in 1986 a bronze mirror from the Wei dynasty was discovered in the Yamato region. It is argued that this may be one of the one hundred mirrors that the History of Wei states the Wei ruler presented to Himiko.

It is possible that the Kyushu people had imported new weapons (such as long

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swords and iron armor) and had learned new techniques of warfare (such as the use of warriors on horseback) from the continent and were thus able to overwhelm their rivals in central Honshu.12 At any rate, by the middle of the fourth century, the ruling family that had established its authority in the Yamato region had more or less unified Japan except southern Kyushu and the outlying areas to the north, which were not pacified until the ninth century.

The period from about the third century CE to the early eighth century is known as the Yamato period. It is also referred to as the “age of ancient tombs” because important personages were interred in large burial mounds (Kofun).

JAPAN’S NEIGHBOR: KOREA

Scholars investigating Japanese-Korean historical relations have cited numerous forms of evidence—place names, shrine names, common myths and tales, archaeological finds—to point out that Korean immigrants or invaders with close ties to the three Korean kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla13 played decisive roles in the formative period of Japanese history, not only materially and culturally but also politically. In fact, these historians believe that one of the early emperors, Ōjin, was a Korean chief, Homuda, a member of the Puyo ruling house of Paekche.14

In CE 400 Korea was divided into three kingdoms: Koguryo in the northern half, Paekche in the southwest, and Silla in the southeast, a division that occurred during the second half of the first century BCE and lasted until the second half of the seventh century CE. In the central part of the southern tip was Mimana, or Kaya, a small area with close ties to Japan.

Koguryo quite naturally was under strong Chinese influence and had adopted Confucianism and Chinese institutions and practices. Paekche also had close Chinese ties, mainly with South China. It was frequently beset by its larger and more powerful neighbors and was willing to accept Japanese aid against both Koguryo and Silla. Silla was the least Sinified of the three kingdoms, although later it too began to adopt Chinese culture. Earlier, the southeastern region had maintained close contact with Japan, but with the establishment of the kingdom of Silla relationships became strained.

In the middle of the seventh century, Silla allied itself with Tang China and put an end to the kingdoms of Paekche and Koguryo (in 660 and 668, respectively). Many people from these kingdoms fled to Japan. Some became influential figures in the Japanese court and played significant roles in implementing reforms, known as the Taika Reforms, in the late seventh and early eighth centuries.

Silla managed to free itself from Tang political domination and extended its authority over the entire peninsula, unifying Korea for the first time. Thereafter,

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Korea remained unified except for brief periods. From the end of the eighth century, Silla was plagued with internal disturbances. In 935, order was restored under the Koryo dynasty, which remained in power until 1392. Korea, however, became tributary to the ruling powers of China. When the Mongols conquered China, they also made repeated military forays against Korea and in 1258 finally brought it to its knees. With the expulsion of the Mongols from China in 1368, Korea freed itself from Mongol control but, under a new ruling family, the Yi, entered into tributary relationship with the new Chinese dynasty, the Ming. The Yi dynasty lasted from 1392 to 1910, when Japan annexed the peninsula.

EARLY YAMATO SOCIETY: FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES

The period from the unification of Japan by the imperial family to the time when the country came under the massive cultural, political, social, and economic influence from China and Korea is still a rather obscure era. The conditions that prevailed around the time of unification are matters of conjecture again. Himiko was a priestess who served as the medium conveying to the people the words and laws of the gods. Religious and political functions were regarded as one and the same. Governmental functions were called matsuri—worship of or service to the gods. The act of being possessed by the gods when receiving their words was called noru. The noun of this word is nori, meaning “law”; laws, then, were divine decrees. Religion served as an instrument of political control. Ordinarily the shamans were female, so the rulers were usually women. The History of Wei states that after Himiko’s death a king was placed on the throne, but the people refused to obey him, and civil strife ensued. To restore order, Iyo, a girl of thirteen, was placed on the throne.

After a period in which various clan groups contended for power, the clan that emerged as the founder of the imperial dynasty extended its authority to outlying areas. In administering the land, it either appointed its own officials or allowed the conquered chieftains to continue as governors (kuni-no-miyakko). In areas not under the immediate control of the imperial clan, the head of the uji (customarily translated as “clan”) of each area was allowed to manage its own land. There is ample evidence that many of the uji leaders were women. It is apparent that women continued to predominate in some areas well into the sixth century.

Joan Piggott refers to the uji as “conical clans” because the authority was pyramidical at the top and wider at the bottom. She characterizes the uji as “more than a basic kinship group. It was a specific political structure born of a relationship that was formally recognized by grant of a noble title (Kabane) and a post in the royal retinue.”15 It was a lineage group organized around the main family. Each uji had a chief (uji-no-kami) and worshipped a guardian god (uji-

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gami). Thomas C. Smith’s comments about the relationship of the family to farm tenants seem applicable also to the uji: “one of the distinctive features of the Japanese family is its capacity for almost indefinite expansion to include not only remote relatives within its lines of authority, but persons having no blood or marriage relationship to the family at all.”16

As a member of the ruling elite, each uji controlled its own land and also had under its authority workers organized into associations or corporations (see below). The imperial family, before it gained ascendancy over the other uji, was one of the uji contending for land and power.

Many scholars suggest that immigrants from the Asian continent not only brought with them new technologies such as wet-rice cultivation, iron making, and silk sericulture but also imported their magico-religious ideas. Michael Como suggests that weaving in particular was the province of women. A folk religion centered on the geomancy of early Taoism (yin-yang cosmology) seems to have migrated to Japan along with the women who brought these new skills from the mainland. The folk story of Toyouke-no-hime, who is credited with bringing sericulture to Japan, became the Japanese equivalent of the great Chinese shaman the Queen of the West. The Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, is also conflated with these female immortals. “Absorbed into the very heart of the emerging royal mythology, these and other such figures played a major role in reshaping both the royal cult and the nascent Japanese Buddhist tradition.”17

Joan Piggott concurs and notes that the early history of female-male dual rule was probably also imported from the continent to Japan at the same time. Indeed, the early Japanese myths pair male and female rulers. Ordinarily, if the pair was not a married couple, the woman was the elder. The Izanagi-Izanami creators, the Sun Goddess and Moon God, are such examples. Piggott notes, “The frequent appearance of dual-gender pairs of deities in the mythology of early eighth-century texts likewise suggest a social paradigm of gender complementarity.”18 The dual rulers Himiko and her brother fit into that paradigm nicely, as do the later female emperors like Suiko, Jito, and Kōken, all of whom served jointly with a husband, brother, nephew, or uncle. Piggott characterizes this political system as “gender complimentary and contrapuntal, with the female partner charged with the sacral duties.”19 Cornelius Kiley notes that the Silla dynasty in Korea had similar male- female dual rulers and the Liao in China (907–1125) also traced kingship through both the female and male lines that frequently intermarried to ensure imperial legitimacy.20

The Yamato uji, tied closely to the Hata extended Korean family service community (be), managed to parlay the new technology and related religious system into real political power. By conflating the Queen Mother of the West with Amaterasu, they created a dominant imperial cult. The Yamato owed its capture of

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the throne “to its success in mobilizing groups of skilled immigrants, and supervising the distribution of foreign prestige goods.” These were luxury items such as mirrors, bells, swords, jewelry, and the like granted by the Chinese and in turn distributed to members of the Japanese clan chieftains (kuni-no-miyakko), thereby binding them to the ruling family.21

With the growth of imperial power, the number of kuni-no-miyakko increased. By the middle of the seventh century, just prior to the Taika Reforms, there were perhaps as many as 120 such officials. Around the fourth century the imperial government began to confer titles of nobility (Kabane) upon the chiefs of the leading uji. It seems these titles had been used prior to this, but the imperial family sought to assert its authority over the clan chieftains by assuming the right to confer them officially. With the titles went certain official functions and positions that were hereditary. Without a title one could not occupy a high government position. Among the patriarchal chieftains, those claiming direct descent from the legendary first emperor, Jimmu, or from the founding gods occupied the highest places in the political and social hierarchy. The former were given the title of omi and the latter muraji. The clans of the omi and muraji and the imperial family were the major landowners. Those chieftains who held the title great omi or great muraji were authorized to hold key government positions.

Another institution came into being about the same time as the Kabane system, the hereditary associations or corporations called be. They were under the control of the imperial family and the leading uji. Members of these functional communities were required to perform fixed services for the uji to which they were attached or to supply them with certain commodities. They were not slaves, for they retained their personal freedom.

As imperial power grew, the leading clans themselves were organized into functional corporations to serve the emperor. For instance, the head of the Mononobe family, holding the title of muraji, was responsible for the maintenance of weapons for the imperial family. The head of the Otomobe family, also a muraji, was responsible for the safety of the emperor. There were be for every category of occupation: those engaged in military and religious affairs, rice-field workers, fishermen, sake makers, weavers, grooms, smiths, potters, arrow makers, bow makers, mirror makers, lapidaries, cooks, scribes, and so forth. These classifications eventually came to denote family names, in the same way that words such as “carter,” “cooper,” “miller,” “sawyer,” and “smith” came to be used as surnames in English.

Immigrants from Korea and China, many of whom were skilled artisans, constituted important elements of the corporation system. For instance, toward the end of the third century CE, a considerable number of weavers arrived in Japan from Paekche and were organized into a weavers’ corporation. By the middle of the sixth century, 7,053 households belonged to this community, numbering, it is

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estimated, more than 30,000 members. Many scholars suggest that these immigrant communities incorporated not only their technologies but also their magico- religious systems into their new home. Como suggests that “immigrant and service lineages closely associated with continental technologies and cults shaped both the fables and parameters, in terms of which courtiers and rulers conceived and expressed the visions of all under Heaven.”22 In addition, many of the Korean communities intermarried with Japanese uji families, including with the Yamato imperial house.

By subjugating the uji and making them serve as functional corporations, the imperial family was able to extend its control over the rest of the populace, because the be under the authority of the uji fell indirectly under imperial control. These institutions remained in existence until the Taika Reforms movement was initiated in the seventh century, although they had begun to deteriorate prior to that because of disputes over titles and positions among the leading uji.

THE INDIGENOUS CULTS

As the imperial family extended its authority over several rival families, its ancestral god, the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, became the chief deity of the entire land. Most scholars now believe that her entire religious provenance was invented, using the creation stories of several alternate spirits to cobble together the maximum theological power.23 She was enshrined at Ise, which is still today the sacred city of the native religion known now as Shintō. For purposes of historical accuracy, however, the term Shintō is a relatively recent invention; one could more properly call the religious amalgam “the indigenous cults.”

Each uji had its own tutelary or patron deity, the uji-gami, who was usually the founder of the clan or a prominent ancestral figure. In addition, it was believed that a whole host of kami was present in all things in nature. There were deities identified with the woods, streams, mountains, fields, rain, fire, water, stones, grass, trees, and so on. Some animals, such as snakes and foxes, were also believed to possess supernatural powers and were worshipped out of fear. Worship of the lingam, or phallus, was also practiced. All spirits and deities were referred to as kami, that is, superior beings.

In worshipping the kami, ritual purity was stressed, and purification rites constituted an important part of these native cultic ceremonies. Even today the compounds of Shintō shrines are kept immaculate. Visitors to Shintō shrines usually wash their hands and rinse their mouths with water before entering the sacred grounds, and the Shintō priest waves his sacred wand over their heads to drive the evil spirits away and cleanse the worshippers spiritually.

The ancient imperial court employed an official whose function was to