Biographies CLVIII: Traitorous Ministers

Soga-no-Umako

¶Regicide (shiigyaku: the killing of one's lord or father) is a crime that enrages men and gods alike, and heaven and earth do not permit it. Once a subject who commits regicide appears, anyone at all may justly put him to death. If such a man keeps his head and dies of old age, that must be called mere good fortune. In the histories of foreign lands, instances of subjects murdering their sovereigns never cease from one generation to the next. This is why Ouyang Xiu opened his New Book of Tang with concrete examples, and why the court historians of the Yuan set out their judgments in the two histories of the Liao and the Jin. All of these took the spirit of the Spring and Autumn Annals as their foundation, condemning such deeds so severely that the living are chilled to the heart and the dead are made to tremble in their bones. Our realm, by contrast, has seen its imperial line flourish and prosper to the utmost; its customs and teaching are pure and fair, and for two thousand years there has been no fear of so ill-omened a thing as regicide. Those who dared to commit it were only two: Prince Mayowa and Soga-no-Umako. Is this not simply a manifestation of the virtue of the successive emperors, who reverently worshipped the sun in the morning and the moon in the evening? Prince Mayowa has been attached to the biographies of the imperial princes and recorded plainly according to the facts, so his case is clear of itself. We have not written this in a roundabout way; we have striven to set down the facts in full without defiling them, and so we have compiled these biographies of Traitorous Ministers.

Soga-no-Emishi

¶Soga-no-Umako was a son of the Ōomi Inume. By nature he loved martial strategy, was also gifted in eloquence, and deeply revered the Buddhist Law. In the first year of Emperor Bidatsu (572) he became Ōomi. In the thirteenth year (584), Kafuka-no-omi and Saeki-no-muraji (Note: in the Nihon Shoki both names are missing) went to Paekche and returned with a stone image of Maitreya and a Buddha image, one of each. Umako asked for them, and sent Kuratsukuri-no-Shimedachito and Ikebe-no-Hita out in every direction to seek out a practitioner of the Law. The two reached Harima, where they found Eben, a Koguryŏ man who had returned to lay life, and Umako honored him and took him as his teacher. He also had three women, Zenshin, Zenzō and Ezen, take the tonsure as nuns, and revered them with particular devotion. He ordered Hita and Tattō to supply them with clothing and food, built a Buddha hall to the east of his residence, and enshrined the stone Maitreya there. He summoned the three nuns and held a grand vegetarian assembly (saie). Tattō found a Buddha relic upon the rice of the fast and presented it. Umako tried to crush it with an iron anvil and hammer, but the anvil and hammer shattered instead, and the relic was not damaged in the least. When it was thrown into water, it floated or sank as one wished. Umako, Hita and Tattō were greatly astonished and marveled at it, and practiced the Law with still greater devotion. He also built a Buddha hall at his residence at Ishikawa. Thus the Buddhist Law began to be practiced in this land. In the second month of the fourteenth year (585), he erected a pagoda north of Ōno Hill, held a grand vegetarian assembly, and placed the relic presented by Tattō and the others at the top of the pagoda's central pillar. When Umako fell ill, he had the cause divined, and the diviner said, "It is the curse of the Buddha that your father Inume worshipped." Umako reported the result of the divination to the throne. The emperor issued an edict ordering that the Buddha be worshipped. At that time many people in the country were dying of an epidemic, and Mononobe-no-Moriya petitioned that the Buddhist Law should be destroyed; he went in person to the temple, burned the Buddha image, the pagoda and the Buddha hall, humiliated Umako and his party, and seized and imprisoned the three nuns. Umako wept. In the sixth month Umako reported, "My illness has long failed to heal. It cannot be cured except by the power of the Three Treasures." The emperor issued an edict returning the three nuns to Umako. Umako was overjoyed, treated the nuns with courtesy, and built a new monastery for them to live in. When Emperor Bidatsu died, the assembled ministers delivered eulogies (shinobigoto, words of mourning for the dead) at the mourning palace. Umako delivered his with a sword at his belt, and Moriya laughed, saying he looked "like a sparrow struck by an arrow." Umako resented this. When Moriya's turn came, Moriya's hands and feet shook, and Umako laughed and said, "He should have bells hung on him." From this time the grudge and anger between the two gradually deepened. When Emperor Yōmei took the throne, Umako remained Ōomi. In the fourth month of the second year (587), Emperor Yōmei's illness grew grave, and he issued an edict saying he wished to honor the Buddhist Law. Moriya and Nakatomi-no-Katsumi firmly opposed it. Umako said, "We should simply obey the edict. Who would object to it?" and together with the emperor's younger brother he led the priest Toyokuni into the palace. Moriya was enraged and gathered troops to prepare. Ōtomo-no-Hirabu took up bow and arrows and guarded Umako's residence at Tsukikuma. When Emperor Yōmei died, Moriya plotted to raise Prince Anahobe to the throne. Umako, acting on the command of the Empress Kashikiya-hime, ordered Saeki-no-Nifute, Haji-no-Iwamura and Ikuha-no-Makui to kill Prince Anahobe. Afterward he worked on the other princes and the ministers and laid plans to remove Moriya, and together they led troops to surround and attack him. Moriya's army was strong, and Umako's side fell back three times. Umako, together with Prince Umayado (Prince Shōtoku), swore an oath and prayed for victory. Umako vowed: "All you heavenly kings and great divine kings, aid us and grant us victory. If you do, we will surely build temples and pagodas and cause the Three Treasures to flourish." When the oath was finished, he urged his troops forward and fought. Tomi-no-Ichii shot Moriya dead. When the rebellion was pacified, Umako built Hōkō-ji at Asuka, which was completed in the fourth year of Empress Suiko (596). The empress issued an edict appointing Umako's son Zentoku as superintendent of the temple. (Note: following the Nihon Shoki.)

¶When Emperor Sushun took the throne, Umako remained Ōomi as before. The emperor deeply disliked Umako's arrogance and monopoly of power. In the tenth month of the fifth year (592), someone presented a wild boar, and the emperor pointed at it and said, "There is a man I hate. I wish to cut off that man's head someday, as I would cut off this boar's head," and had many weapons prepared within the palace. When Umako heard of this he was greatly afraid, summoned his followers, and secretly plotted regicide. (Note: according to a note in the original text, it is also said that Ōtomo-no-Oteko, a consort who resented that the emperor's favor toward her had faded, secretly told Umako of the emperor's words and of the weapons being prepared.) Umako falsely announced that tribute (mitsugi) was being brought in from the eastern provinces, and secretly ordered Yamato-no-Aya-no-Koma to kill the emperor. (Note: following the Nihon Shoki.) The people of the palace were greatly alarmed and thrown into uproar, but Umako sent men to restrain them. Only then did people learn that it was Umako's doing, but no one dared to say so. Umako treated Koma with great generosity, gave him rich gifts, and always let him come and go in his own sleeping quarters. (Note: following the examples of the Mizukagami and the Shōtoku Taishi Denryaku.) Koma secretly became intimate with Umako's daughter Kawakami-no-Iratsume and made her his wife in secret. (Note: following the Nihon Shoki.) When this came to light, Umako was furious; he had Koma tied to a tree in the garden with his hair bound to a branch and was about to have him shot to death, and rebuked him for his crime, saying, "Villain, arrogant fool, to kill an emperor so lightly." Koma shouted, "I knew only that there was an Ōomi; I did not know there was an emperor." Umako grew still angrier, took a sword himself and stabbed Koma in the belly, and finally cut off his head. (Note: following the Mizukagami and the Shōtoku Taishi Denryaku.) In the reign of Empress Suiko, Umako's power grew ever more unchecked. When Umako fell ill, a thousand men and women took the tonsure on his behalf. Together with the Crown Prince (Prince Shōtoku) he once received an imperial command to compile the Tennōki and Kokki, and the original records (hongi) of the omi, muraji and tomo-no-miyatsuko families. In the thirty-second year (624), Umako ordered Azumi-no-muraji (Note: the name is missing in the original text) and Abe-no-Maro to petition: "The Katsuragi district (agata) is the ancestral home of your servant's forebears. We have taken our clan name from this district. For this reason I have always wished to be granted this district as my fief households." The empress issued an edict saying: "I am of the Soga line, and the Ōomi is my uncle. There has been no time when I did not follow the Ōomi's words; if it was night, I followed without waiting for dawn, and if day, without waiting for dusk. But if in my own reign I were suddenly to lose this district, men of later ages would surely say, 'A woman ruled the realm and foolishly, lightly lost a district and its towns.' Then not only would I be slandered, but the Ōomi too would bear the name of disloyalty." In the end she did not grant it. In the thirty-fourth year (626) Umako died and was buried at Momonohara. Umako had built his residence beside the Asuka River, dug a pond and raised an island in it, and so he was called the Shima-no-Ōomi, the Island Minister. (Note: following the Nihon Shoki.) His sons were Emishi and Kuramaro. (Note: the note to the Jomei chronicle of the Nihon Shoki says that Kuramaro was also called Omasa, and the original text also writes it as Omasa in another character form.) Kuramaro had four sons: Ishikawa-no-Maro, Himuka, Muraji-ko and Akae. (Note: following the Soga genealogy.) Muraji-ko held the rank of Daishi (Senior Purple) and became Ōomi. (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin.) Ishikawa-no-Maro and Akae each have separate biographies.

Soga-no-Iruka

¶Soga-no-Emishi became Ōomi in the thirty-fourth year of Empress Suiko (626). (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin.) He was commonly called the Toyura Ōomi. (Note: ○ The Sendai Kuji Hongi says, "Soga-no-Shima-no-Ōomi begot the Toyura Ōomi, whose name was Iruka," but this is a mistake.) When Empress Suiko died, Prince Tamura and Prince Yamashiro-no-Ōe were each said to have received her dying edict, and even at the time of the funeral the successor to the throne had not been decided. Emishi wished to decide the matter on his own authority, but, fearing that the ministers would support one candidate or the other and fail to agree, he consulted Abe-no-Maro, invited the court's ministers to his residence and feasted them, and had Maro say: "Now the state has no sovereign. If it is not settled quickly, I fear that disorder will arise. Whom should we set up as successor?" He then cited the contents of the dying edict and had each give his view. None of the ministers dared to answer. When asked again and again, some of the ministers supported Prince Tamura and others supported Prince Yamashiro. Only Emishi's younger brother Kuramaro said, "Today, in this place, one should not speak lightly. One should think the matter over carefully and then give an opinion." Emishi then understood that the assembly's views did not agree. Prince Yamashiro perceived that Emishi's mind was set on Prince Tamura and did not dare to contend. Only Emishi's uncle Marise insisted on the enthronement of Prince Yamashiro to the end. Emishi was angered by his resistance and sent troops to kill him. Then, together with the ministers, he enthroned Prince Tamura. This was Emperor Jomei. Emishi remained Ōomi as before. In the first year of Empress Kōgyoku (642), a great drought struck from summer into autumn. In the districts and towns of the provinces, some places killed oxen and horses to sacrifice to the gods, some moved their markets again and again, and some prayed to the river god (kahaku, the water deity), but none of it had any effect. In response Emishi had the temples recite the Mahayana sutras, set up images of the Buddha, bodhisattvas and the Four Heavenly Kings in the south court of the great temple, and himself took up an incense burner and prayed for rain, but still there was no effect. In this year the Emishi (the people of the northern Koshi region) came to court and were given a meal at court. Emishi (Soga-no-Emishi) also feasted them at his own residence and himself comforted them, but his arbitrary exactions grew ever more severe. He built an ancestral shrine at Takamiya in Katsuragi and had the eight-row dance (hachiitsu no mai) performed (Note: a dance of eight rows, permitted only to the Son of Heaven), and had songs composed and sung. He conscripted people on a great scale from across the country and from the hundred and eighty tribal groups (be), and had two tombs built in advance at Imaki. One was called the Great Mausoleum (Ōmisasagi) and was for himself; the other was called the Lesser Mausoleum (Komisasagi) and was for his son Iruka. Emishi told people, "After I die, I do not want the people to be troubled," but in fact he gathered the people of the milk-nurse households (mibu) of the Kamitsumiya (the palace of Prince Shōtoku) to carry out the work and used them without rest. The Ōiratsume Princess of the Kamitsumiya was indignant and lamented: "The Soga minister monopolizes the government of the state and behaves with much disrespect. Just as heaven has no two suns and the land no two kings, how can he work our people so heavily as he pleases?" From this time resentment arose between the two houses. In the second year (643), prodigies of heaven and earth occurred repeatedly. When Emishi was about to go out, shamans, male and female (fugeki, mediums and priestesses), tied cotton streamers (yū) to tree branches and waited for Emishi to cross the bridge, each rushing to proclaim oracles, so noisily that they could not be understood. In the tenth month, Emishi, citing illness, did not attend court, and privately bestowed the purple cap on his son Iruka, treating him as equal to an Ōomi, and called his second son (Note: the name is missing in the original text) the Mononobe Ōomi, and using the wealth of his grandmother's Mononobe line as capital, he displayed great power. The following year (644), at Emishi's residence at Ōtsu a horned owl bore young, and in the lotus of Tsurugi Pond one stem bore two calyxes. Emishi said, "This is an auspicious sign that my house is about to prosper," wrote it in gold characters, and deposited it in Hōkō-ji. At this time the shamans again proclaimed oracles. The old people said that this was a sign that the age was about to change. Father and son alike grew ever stronger in their rebellious intent, and when in the end Iruka was defeated, Emishi too was put to death. (Note: following the Nihon Shoki.)

¶Soga-no-Iruka, whose personal name was Kuratsukuri and who was also called Hayashi-no-omi, was by nature violent and cruel. During the reign of Empress Kōgyoku, Iruka monopolized the government of the state, and his power and influence exceeded his father Emishi's; high and low alike trembled and were afraid, and shrank from his harshness and severity. The Soga had long been on bad terms with the princes of the Kamitsumiya, and Iruka wished to remove them and set Furuhito-no-Ōe on the throne. Furuhito-no-Ōe was a son of Emperor Jomei, and his mother was a daughter of Umako. In the second year (643) he sent Kose-no-Tokodako (of Shōtoku rank) and Haji-no-Saba (of Daijin rank) to attack Prince Yamashiro-no-Ōe at Ikaruga. The prince and his people fled and hid on Mount Ikoma. When Iruka heard of this, he hurriedly raised troops and ordered Takamuko-no-Kunioshi to pursue them. Kunioshi declined, saying, "I am the one who guards the emperor's residence, and I cannot go outside." Iruka therefore set out to go himself. Furuhito-no-Ōe came hurrying and asked, "Where is the Ōomi going?" and Iruka told him the circumstances. Furuhito-no-Ōe said, "A rat lives if it hides in its hole, and dies if it loses its hole." Iruka then gave up going himself and sent troops to attack and kill Prince Yamashiro-no-Ōe and his people. When Emishi heard of this, he raged and reviled him, saying, "Ah, how utterly foolish Iruka is. Acting violently and without restraint, is this not dangerous?" In the winter of the following year (644), Iruka built three residences on Amakashi Hill, calling Emishi's house the Miyakado (the palace gate) and his own the Hazama-no-Mikado (the Valley Gate), and had his children called princes (miko). Outside the residences he put up palisades and gates and built an armory beside them, placed one water tank at each gate and prepared several dozen wooden hooks (kikō, wooden tools like fire-fighting hooks) against fire. He always had strongmen carry swords to guard him. About this time, Emishi ordered Nagano-atai to build the clan temple of Hokonuki-dera on Ōniho Hill, and also had a residence built east of Mount Unebi, with a castle raised and a moat dug around it and an armory built where arrows were stored. Whenever he went out, he had fifty soldiers surround and follow him. He gathered stout young men and called them the Yamato Wakisarai (the Eastern Attendants). He also summoned men of various clans to wait close at hand and called them Oya-ko-warawa (Parent-and-Child Youths). The Aya-no-atai always guarded the two gates. Emperor Tenji (Prince Naka-no-Ōe) had long deeply hated Iruka, and in the end plotted with Fujiwara-no-Kamatari, put Iruka to death, and sent his body to Emishi's residence. In response, the Aya-no-atai and others gathered their kin and prepared to defend Emishi. Emperor Tenji sent the general Kose-no-Tokodako to explain to them the great principle of lord and subject. Takamuko-no-Kunioshi said to the Aya-no-atai, "We are about to be killed for the sake of our lord's son (Iruka), and the Ōomi (Emishi) too will not be able to avoid battle. For whom, then, should we fight now?" and he threw down his weapons and left. The others followed him and scattered in flight. When Emishi was about to be put to death, he brought out the Tennōki, the Kokki and the treasures and burned them himself. Fune-no-Esaka snatched the partly burned Kokki and presented it to Emperor Tenji. Emperor Tenji permitted the kin of Emishi and Iruka to gather up their bodies, bury them and mourn. (Note: following the Nihon Shoki.)