RSS

(Apologies, no blogpost yet, but check back later. In the meantime check out the episode, above)

Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 77: Cross-strait Relations, Part II
We are still in the early part of the sixth century, in the nominal reign of Ohodo no Ohokimi, aka Keitai Tennou, and last episode we talked about about the island of T’amna—or Tanimura—aka Jeju, as well as linguistic possibilities and the strange archaeology of South Jeolla, including keyhole shaped tombs, similar to those found in the archipelago, but with distinct Baekje features.
This episode we’ll see what the Japanese Chronicles—specifically the Nihon Shoki—have to say about cross-strait relations during this time. Much of this actually comes from the Baekje Annals quoted by the Chroniclers, which I actually trust a bit more than some of the oral histories, but even then we have to be careful about where the Chroniclers decided to bolster Yamato’s reputation. There is a lot about Nimna, and about some of the individuals who seem to have been working between the various states on and off the peninsula.
The Chronicles kicks this reign off with a note about T’amna, or Tanimura, contacting Baekje for the first time, in 509. (By the way, Korean records suggest this date is wrong—that contact happened much earlier in the 5th century, so it is unclear just why it is of such importance, but it does fit the theme, here of a focus on Baekje and the continent.)
Then, in 511 it is noted that an envoy from the Wa was sent to Baekje. His name is given as something like Kuramachi – the name was translated into the language of Baekje and then coming back to us in annals written in Sinitic characters. Unfortunately, we know little else, other than that someone with an ethnic Wa seeming name was claiming to be an envoy in 511.
Perhaps more importantly in this particular section, there is a mention of Baekje families who had been living in the lands of Nimna for the past three or four generations. These families had, quote-unquote, “fallen off” the Baekje registries, and were all moved back to Baekje and replaced on the registers – so it would seem that Baekje, in a sense, was regathering its own. The importance, for us, would seem to be the resurgence of Baekje’s power, pulling back in those who had left its orbit, and more. We’ll also see that this seems to be connected with other events, later on.
A year after Kuramachi’s embassy, there is another one in about 512. This is the year when Hozumi no Omi no Oshiyama, whom the Nihon Shoki names as the “governor of Tari”, or Tari no Kuni no Kami, aka Tari no Kokushu, goes to Baekje with a tribute of 44 horses. Tari, as we’ll see later, is an area—or polity—associated with Nimna, a connection that we will definitely be exploring in more detail, especially in regards to Oshiyama, who shows up again and again in the record of this reign, and whose loyalty to the Yamato court might be more than a bit questionable.
As for the gift, well, horses, of course, had originally been brought the other way (from Baekje to the islands) in the previous centuries, but by now the islands were breeding plenty of their own. The fact that they were from Kyushu—or Tsukushi—however, is interesting. Was Kyushu a large horse-breeding center at this time? Was there something special about Kyushu horses, compared to others? Certainly T’amna horses were highly prized, but that wasn’t until much later. Was it just the fact that they were able to send so many?
About 8 months after Oshiyama presented the horses, Baekje sent an envoy back to the islands—presumably to Yamato—along with Oshiyama, or so it appears. This embassy requested that four provinces of Nimna—Upper and lower Tari, Syata, and Muro—all be ceded to Baekje. After all, they were close to Baekje, geographically, and the people were already co-mingling. Oshiyama concurred with this assessment, and said as much to Ohotomo no Kanamura, who was clearly acting as something of the prime minister these days, who agreed and told the sovereign, Wohodo, that they should indeed acquiesce and hand them over. Wohodo concurred, and ordered Mononobe no Arakai, another powerful noble of the court, to go and make it happen.
That said, not everyone was pleased with this decision, and Monoboe no Arakai’s own wife urged him to reconsider. After all, hadn’t the kami themselves given that land to Yamato? Who was he to go and give them up? Arakai was swayed by her arguments, but found himself in a pickle. He couldn’t just deny the sovereign’s command. And so Arakai feigned that he was ill, forcing Wohodo to choose someone else to deliver the news.
Now when Prince Ohine, the eldest son of the sovereign, Wohodo, heard about all this, he, too, was rather surprised and taken aback. He immediately sent a messenger to stop the envoys before they left, but when the messenger met with the envoys they listened, but decided to follow through. After all, the plan to give up the four provinces was already approved by the sovereign, and he overruled the prince. As it says in the Nihon Shoki it is “better to be beaten with a smaller stick than a larger one”, meaning they would rather incur the Prince’s ire than the sovereign’s—not to mention the fact that the King of Baekje was unlikely to be pleased, either.
When the circumstances of all this got out, rumors started to spread that Oshiyama and Kanamura had been paid off by Baekje to push this whole thing through. Clearly not everyone was happy with the decision, but it seems that what was done was done.
So let’s talk about who these people are and the context around it. First off, we have Hozumi no Oshiyama, whom I mentioned earlier. He’s supposedly the governor of Tari, in Nimna, and he had apparently been sent to Baekje at some point as an envoy, bringing horses from Kyushu. The Baekje annals even given him a Baekje title. So I have to wonder whether he was even a vassal of Yamato, much as I wonder about the envoy mentioned earlier in the Baekje records, Kuramachi. If we don’t make the assumption that Yamato is the only Wa polity operating on the peninsula, it opens up the possibility that these could be envoys from some other group—perhaps even Nimna or Kara, or one of their smaller political units.
Of course, the Japanese side of the story, coming to us through the Chronicles, is that Nimna at this time was under the control of the “Mimana no Nihonfu”, or the Japanese Government Office of Nimna, aka Mimana. Besides the anachronism—Japan still wasn’t known as “Nihon” and at best this would be the “Wa-fu” or “Yamato-fu”—modern scholars have largely moved away from the notion that Nimna was a Japanese colony. It does appear to have been a close ally, and there may have even been a permanent diplomatic office set up to deal with trade and various cross-strait issues. It is even possible that it was largely made up of ethnic Wa people, or that they played a major role in the state, for all that we know. How tied this was to Yamato is another thing entirely. So Oshiyama may have been from Yamato, but he just as easily could have been from Kyushu or from one of the groups of Wa people in Nimna or other parts of the Korean peninsula. His name does appear to be reflective of a Japonic name, so we assume that he was ethnic Wa, regardless of whom he served, and he very well may have been an independent agent, the actual governor of the areas that were being ceded to Baekje. This makes more than a little sense to me, given his title and everything else. It is also possible that some of these titles came at a later point—perhaps even because of his work to help get them turned over to Baekje.
The second individual in our little drama is Ohotomo no Kanamura. He was the Ohomuraji of the Ohotomo, and appears to have been the one pulling the strings in Yamato. He was the one who put Wohodo on the throne, and he seems to be the one who headed up the negotiations; he simply informed Wohodo of his recommendation and received his guidance. We’ve talked about Kanamura before and he will come up again in the narrative. Despite the rumors of bribery that are mentioned, reading ahead we can see that he was still confirmed as Ohomuraji when Prince Ohine eventually came to power as Ankan Tennou, so clearly this whole episode didn’t ruin their relationship that much—or perhaps it is just that Kanamura was that powerful. It is hard to know for certain.
Then there is Mononobe no Arakai—or possibly Arakahi or even Arakabi back in the day. Like Kanamura, he has also been around since at least the previous sovereign, and he has some influence at court. He is one of the Big Three mentioned in bringing Wohodo to power—Kanamura, Arakai, and Kose no Obito, the apparent Oho-omi, though we don’t hear nearly so much from him. While it isn’t always the case, typically the Mononobe are brought in when there is some expectation of violence or martial activity, which makes Arakai an interesting choice, and a possibly telling one, suggesting that this may not have been a simple transfer, and perhaps the sovereign of Yamato’s word alone would not be enough to enforce this secession of these districts to Baekje. After all, we occasionally also hear of a “King of Nimna”, and if that were the case, well, what did they think about all of this? Still, Arakai appears to have declined, feigning illness, and we aren’t given much on the envoy who actually went.
Later on, Arakai will be taking a greater hand in matters across the straits, so that may have also been part of how he wound up connected with this story—and why he is also quite visibly disconnected from the decision to give up these territories.
The fourth person of interest in this little drama is the Imperial Prince Ohine. He’s the eldest son of Wohodo, born to Menoko, the daughter of Kusaka, of the Owari no Muraji. His full name appears to be Magari no Ohine, or possibly Ohoye, and he would later be known as Oshikuni-Oshitake-Kanahi no Mikoto, aka Ankan Tennou. He and his brother would actually succeed their father, Wohodo, before the ascension of their younger half-brother Amekunioshi Harani Hironiwa, aka Kimmei Tennou. More on that whole complicated situation in a later episode.
Key for us, here is that Ohine appears to be the senior Imperial Prince and, despite the Nihon Shoki’s insistence that his mother was not the Queen, he’s effectively made Crown Prince in the following year, 513. That’s the year he betrothed himself—without a middle man—to Princess Kasuga, daughter of the late 5th century sovereign known to us as Ninken Tennou. This was accomplished by spending the night together in classic aristocratic fashion. Later, he moved into the Spring Palace, and while he is never called the Crown Prince, the Spring Palace was typically reserved as the Crown Prince’s estate. So he was definitely a person of some influence, and it is interesting that he apparently had no knowledge of any of this until it was a fait accompli. Now you might think this would put him and Kanamura at odds, perhaps even political rivals, but they appear to have smoothed things over in the end.
Of course, some of this could be the Chroniclers’ own attempts to explain away how Yamato could have given up claim to territory that was supposedly given to them by the kami. I suspect that plays a not insignificant role in everything that was going on, since it was such a big part of Japan’s claims on the continent, whether factual or not.
Now this whole episode is simply the start of things with Nimna and the continent. In 513, the following year, Bakeje sent over two generals, along with Oshiyama, to bring tribute to Yamato in the form of a scholar of the “five classics”, Tan Yangni. Along with the presentation of an apparently ethnic Han scholar, they also brought news and a request. It seems that the land of Panphi had decided to annex the land of Imun, which Aston places northeast of Nimna—back in the reign of Mimaki Iribiko, Imun had requested assistance against Silla. It seems Baekje wanted Imun back under Nimna control--maybe. This is all a bit interesting, unless we consider that perhaps Oshiyama was working for Nimna—possibly even a Nimna official—and it may have been his request, rather than anything from the Baekje court.
Regardless, this goes to show the kind of disorder in parts of the southern peninsula where there wasn’t a clear power or state. The Kara, or Gaya, confederacy was just reaching the status of what we might term a Kingdom, but there were still a lot of independent districts where local elites held much more sway than any nominal overlords. In that situation, much as in the later Sengoku Period in Japan, it’s natural that there would be fighting and different groups attempting to annex territory and strengthen themselves.
The answer to this, in the Chronicles, was to gather up representatives from Baekje, Silla, Ara, and Panphi, and hold a conference of sorts. The Nihon Shoki paints this as all of them coming to the Yamato court to listen, but I wonder if it wasn’t something more like a meeting between equals. If so, it is interesting that both Ara and Panphi are included with Baekje and Silla, perhaps indicating the state of things at the time.
The decision from this conference was that the lands of Tesa—or Taisya—and Imun were to be given, instead, to Baekje. Note that they aren’t given to Nimna, as one might assume, and Nimna isn’t even mentioned—perhaps because they are the stand-in, here for Yamato, but that seems odd. Also, I’m not entirely sure where Tesa is, but the characters for it are “belt” and “sand” and it is later said to be an estuary, so that may be a hint. It is interesting that it is coming up in this context.
These conferences are intriguing. It is certainly possible, with everything going on, that it was not uncommon for multiple representatives to come together to hash things out, especially if the various states are not quite as powerful as they would like to portray themselves as being. It might also have ensured witnesses to any treaty or decision—third party arbiters, in case anyone went back on what they said, later. Or it could have just been something that Chroniclers inserted to make Yamato sound even more important. We’ve mentioned that the texts are somewhat problematic, right?
Anyway, while this was going on, Panphi tried to slip around behind and offer presents—aka a bribe—to Yamato to see if they would rule in their favor and ensure that Imun was confirmed to them, but Yamato refused. Panphi left, not exactly happy with the decision, and the following year, 514, they built castles—or at least defensive earthworks—at several locations, including the estuary of Tesa. They also built beacon towers to warn them of any possible coastal invasion—probably concerned about the Wa, who I’m sure were still well known for taking shiploads of warriors and quickly striking up river. Since many of these lands appear to have been built around various river basins, this gave the Wa access to a lot of the southern peninsula.
It wasn’t just the Wa that they were pushing against, though, as Panphi was also harassing the borders of Silla. Based on the accounts, it looks like a rising state using a militaristic approach to expand their territory and cement their status as a power player. Of course, given how much we don’t know about them, I think you have an idea of how well that worked out, in the end. Still, for a while it seemed to be a viable strategy.
In 515, a joint Yamato and Baekje force set out. It looks like they may have been going to harass Silla, but as they came to Sato island they heard about what Panphi had been up to. The Yamato general, whom we simply know as Mononobe no Muraji—though his given name may have been something like Tchitchi—turned towards Tesa, while the Baekje forces continued on to Silla. Once at Tesa, though, the Yamato general was taken by surprise. The Panphi soldiers looted their equipment and burnt their tents. The Wa soldiers had to flee to the island of Munmora. Eventually, a Baekje general found him and his men and escorted them to Imun, which I assume had been liberated from Panphi’s control. There they presented him with gifts of axe-iron, clothing, and woven stuff—perhaps to help them replenish the supplies they had lost. After all, I struggle to see why they would have otherwise rewarded him for what had happened.
After all of this campaigning, a Baekje general accompanied Mononobe and his forces back to Yamato and thanked Yamato for their assistance and in granting Imun to Baekje. He also brought another scholar, Ko Anmu of Han, whom they asked to trade for Tan Yangni, who apparently had had enough Island time.
This whole thing is a bit hard to interpret. Despite various attempts to place all of these little states and kingdoms on a map, there really isn’t enough evidence for where any of these things are. The main takeaways are that first, the alliance between Baekje and Yamato seems to be going strong, and second, there is plenty of conflict on the peninsula, and not just between the Big Three, as I noted before.
Additional evidence of the new Baekje-Yamato alliance came later in the year 516, when Baekje sent a general and two Wa envoys—Shinato and Ahita—to escort an embassy from Goguryeo to Yamato to cement amicable relationships. This is pretty big—there was earlier talk about envoys from Goguryeo, but it is hard to tell if it was real or just the Chroniclers putting their spin on things. I don’t know whether they went all the way to Yamato or just met with officials at the offices in Nimna, but I like to assume that they went all the way to talk to Wohodo himself—or possibly to Kanamura. Of course, I say Yamato—this is still in the era when the court was said to be in Yamashiro, towards modern Kyoto, rather than in the Nara basin, the actual land of Yamato. The capital wouldn’t move down there for another 10 years, in 526.
Shortly after the capital did move, which happened the following year, 527, another expedition was on its way back to the continent. This one was led by Afumi no Kena no Omi, and the Chronicles say he had some 60,000 men at his disposal. His goal was to travel to the peninsula and try to unite South Kara and the land of Toksathan to the greater Nimna confederacy, as those lands had been invaded and taken by Silla. However, as the ships tried to sail through the Seto Inland Sea and out to the peninsula, they found themselves thwarted in Tsukushi, aka Northern Kyushu. Apparently the local ruler of Tsukushi, named Iwai, had decided to rebel against Yamato, and was not allowing ships to pass. This put the entire operation on hold while the court decided what to do. It does, however, seem that Kena no Omi was able to make it through, and he set himself up in Nimna, in a place called Kusamura, but his supply lines back to Yamato were cut off.
Iwai, it seems, had allied himself with Silla, who was sending him resources—bribes according to the Nihon Shoki, with its distinctively pro-Yamato outlook. Iwai expanded from Tsukushi—the area around modern Fukuoka—and also took over the areas of Hi and Toyo. This would have given him control of most of the Seto Inland Sea passages around Kyushu, with the possible exceptions of the areas of modern Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, though even those may have been under his sway. This would have meant that Iwai controlled all trade between the court and the continent, as ships of that time likely needed to stay within sight of land, and likely put in to resupply when they could. Doing so in enemy territory could be problematic, however.
Hearing of all this back in Yamato, it was clearly a serious concern. Kanamura recommended that the court send none other than Mononobe no Arakai to deal with the threat. In so doing, Arakai was given a battleaxe, a continental sign of military authority, and he was given authority over all of Kyushu and beyond. In fact, the proclamation states that the Yamato court would govern everything up to Anato, aka modern Yamaguchi prefecture, while Arakai would be responsible for everything beyond, with a fairly free hand to run things as he saw fit.
And so Arakai led his troops to Kyushu, and in 528 there was a large battle in Miwi, which appears to be in modern Kurume, where, after a lengthy and bloody battle, he slew Iwai, putting an end to the rebellion. Iwai’s son, Kuzu, capitulated. He gave up the granary of Kasuya to the court and offered his submission. Today there is a modern district of Kasuya in Fukuoka city, which was the ancient jumping off point for missions to and from the continent.
As we did earlier, let’s look at this whole incident and what it tells us. Well, first off, we have mentioned that Yamato’s control appears tenuous, at best. They are first amongst equals, but especially given the apparent disarray since the death of Wakatakeru and this newcomer now on the throne, it seems reasonable that other polities on the archipelago might want to flex their muscle and see what they can get away with.
In addition, Kyushu itself is in an interesting position, especially northern Kyushu. They had long had relations with the people of the southern Korean peninsula. And in the chaos of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, we have that particular link between Kyushu and South Jeolla. In many ways, it may be fair to see Kyushu—or at least the part known as Tsukushi—as just one more of the various states in this cross-strait cultural sphere. There is no reason for me to doubt that they had their own relationships, and while ties with Yamato may have once been strong, it might make sense for an ambitious Silla to make a pact with groups in Tsukushi to help keep Wa troops bottled up while they solidified their own control on the continent.
Later, the Tsukushi no Fudoki would note the location of Iwai’s tomb, about 2 ri south of the Kamitsuma district. Based on descriptions Aston proposes that it may have been a double mound and it was surmounted by stone statues, in lieu of the terracotta haniwa used in the Kinai region. Stone statues were a particular feature of Kyushu era kofun, so that fits with the local culture of the time as we know it.
With Iwai’s rebellion down, Arakai would now seem to be the person in charge—or at least the court representative—of the western edge of archipelago.
Here’s where it might be useful to go back to some of the early stories about Yamato. For instance, the Generals of the Four Roads, who seem to be used as legendary lineage figures for the most part. Still, I have to wonder if some of what we see in the reigns of the first dynasty pertaining to the subjugation of the archipelago, well, was any of that an anachronism from the activities of this current dynasty? How many of the stories that we see as “history” are actually reflective of the later policies implemented by the current dynasty, or even their immediate successors, that they were using to justify their own authority? Just something to keep in mind.
Following suppression of the Iwai rebellion, communication with Yamato’s allies on the peninsula could resume, and in 529 word came to Yamato from Oshiyama with yet another request from Baekje. You see, things were enough of a mess that between Baekje and Yamato any ships sent from Baekje territory would need to avoid the headlands—in other words they had to avoid areas where pirates and rival ships could be lying in wait to take them. This meant they had to sail further out from land, which put them in rougher waters, leading to problems that could ruin the various trade—or rather tribute—goods that they were carrying back and forth. I imagine that further out you did have taller waves, more rocking of the ships, and a greater chance of waves washing over and saltwater getting into and ruining whatever was being transported. And that is besides the inherent danger of a ship capsizing or sinking.
This all speaks to the idea that Baekje clearly did not have the kind of control of the Southwest peninsula that is typically portrayed if you just look at maps of what is depicted as Baekje “territory”. I suspect that they felt more confident if they could transport goods overland to a port closer to the Tsushima.
And so they proposed that they be allowed to use the port of Tasa in the land of Kara. Yamato agreed, which is rather wild when you think about it. What authority did Yamato have to allow Baekje to use a port in the land of Kara. Sure enough, we are told that the King of Kara opposed this whole enterprise. In a sign that they may have anticipated such a reaction, Yamato sent Mononobe no Ise no Muraji no Kasone, Kishi no Okina, and others to turn the port over to Baekje. Sending the Mononobe suggests to me that they expected a little resistance.
Sure enough, Kara resisted, protesting the idea of giving Baekje—which the Chronicles reference as Buyeo for some reason—free reign over their port. They blocked Kasone and kept him from handing it over. And so, Kasone camped out back on Ohoshima and apparently granted Baekje the rights they had asked for in absentia. It is unclear if this translated into actual action that turned over the port, but I assume that Baekje did wrestle it away from Kara. Kara, for their part, broke off friendly relations with Yamato and allied with their enemy, Silla. Silla even went so far as to send a royal princess to be the King of Kara’s queen, and the two of them had several children, leading to one of the few times where we are getting a look at things going on outside of Yamato itself.
You see, Kara’s alliance with Silla seems short-lived. It appears to have started with the 100 warriors who were sent to accompany the Silla princess. After delivering her to the King, they dispersed throughout Kara. Due to their status, they were allowed to continue to dress in their Silla clothes and style, which started to grate on various people in Kara. An individual named Arasateung—or possibly Arishito—railed against this practice, and at one point their garments were secretly sent home.
Well, that pissed off Silla, who took this treatment of their people as an insult to Silla itself. They attempted to recall the royal princess, but she was either pregnant with or had already given birth to at least one of the king’s children. There was no way that the King of Kara was going to hand over the mother to his children. Kara sent back a message saying as much to Silla, at which point Silla went on the warpath. They captured three castles, named something like Toka, Kophi, and Phonamura, and five unnamed castles on the northern frontier.
While this was going on, Yamato sent out Afumi no Kena no Omi to Ara to hold a conference, much as before, with Panphi, to urge Silla, in the name of Yamato’s sovereign, to re-establish Southern Kara and Toksathan. Afumi no Kena no Omi, you may recall, was the one who was initially traveling to the peninsula at a force 60,000 strong, but whose campaign had been put on hold thanks to Iwai’s rebellion—a rebellion egged on by Silla, or so we are told. A few years later, Afumi no Kena was finally trying to make good on his original mandate.
Now, Baekje sent envoys to these talks, as allies of Yamato, and the local Ara officials were there, but we are told that Silla didn’t send anyone of note—nobody who could represent the King of Silla, anyway. They did have some people to listen to what was said, but the Chronicles say that they were fearful of being forced to given up the land that they had already taken. And that is possible. It may also be a misrepresentation. After all, for all that these conferences seem to have been meant to find peaceful outcomes, in the end, these states had armies for a reason, and if they didn’t want to give it up they probably weren’t going to.
Apparently the elites in Ara had a raised hall—they call it a high hall—set up for the ambassador and the talks. The Ara elites were up there on the platform, and we are told that the Yamato ambassador, Afumi no Kena no Omi, ascended, followed by the King of Ara. This last seems odd, and strikes me as questionable. It is probably, once again, the Chroniclers putting their own spin on events, representing Afumi no Omi as the mouthpiece of the Yamato sovereign. In Japan, even during the period when the shoguns ruled, an envoy from the Tennou would often be treated with exceptional respect, with even the Tokugawa shogun taking a subservient position to them, at lest ceremonially. I don’t see why Ara would offer Yamato such an honor in this case, though, so I tend to wonder about it.
In any case, the main issue seems to be that while the Yamato and Ara elite were allowed up in the building the Baekje and Silla envoys both had to wait on the ground, in the courtyard. This is something that the Japanese courtiers would have recognized fairly quickly, as at their own royal court, only certain courtiers—those of the fifth rank and higher, and the Tenjobito, those with special permission because they were serving the royal household in some way—were allowed up in the raised buildings. The others were considered “jige”, and were expected to wait in the courtyard or on the ground. This created a visual difference in rank between the lesser and greater nobility. Here we see this playing out in a similar way, and no doubt the envoys would have felt more than a little slighted by such treatment.
This was even worse as the talks apparently took months, so the envoys had to endure this situation for that entire time and grew quite angry—and we aren’t even told what the outcome of the summit was.
Later in that same year, we have someone identified as the King of Nimna, but who may actually be the King of Kara, or at least their representative, who came to court and addressed Kanamura, telling him that Silla was up to their old tricks. They had been attacking their territory, and they were requesting assistance.
Once again, the Yamato court employed Kena no Omi to try to suss things out. Kena was staying in a place called either Kumanare or Kusamura, and he called the Kings of Silla and Baekje together to talk about just what was going on. Both kings sent envoys, but apparently Kena no Omi did not consider them appropriately ranked. After all, he was from Yamato, and was speaking with the voice of the sovereign. The other Kings should come themselves, or at least send appropriately ranked envoys. So he sent them home. New envoys did come, but this time they brought troops with them. Kena no Omi still refused to treat with them as they weren’t properly ranked but, at the same time, he retreated into a nearby castle just in case things with the armies got hairy. The armies continued to request the word from Yamato, and meanwhile the troops were growing tired and hungry. Eventually, one of Kena no Omi’s men started harassing the soldiers while they were out begging for food, and that turned into a full on riot. Soon, the Silla army was attacking and had captured four towns.
This is why, in 530, and envoy from Nimna came to Yamato to complain about Kena no Omi. His haughty, prideful attitude was just pissing everybody off, and they needed it to stop, and soon. He had apparently been in residence in Kusamura—or possibly Kumanare—for about three years. During that time he had grown particularly fond of the idea of trial by ordeal—particularly the ordeal of scalding water, where guilty people would be scalded and the innocent people would supposedly go unharmed. There must have been a lot of guilty people, because it seems like just about everyone was scalded, many to death, and the body count was starting to pile up with Kena no Omi’s administration.
Hearing all of this, Yamato tried to recall their wayward officer, but Kena no Omi refused to return. He still needed to complete his purpose, he said. But at the same time, he realized that if someone else got back before he had a chance to tell his side of the story it might not look so good for him. And that is why he had Mitsugi no Kishi, an individual whose name seems to be related to the idea of tribute, delayed by sending him out on an errand far out of his way. Still, it didn’t help. Silla and Baekje actually united against Kena no Omi, invading and taking control of much of Nimna. Kena no Omi held out, but Mitsugi no Kishi was able to get back to Yamato.
When Mitsugi no Kishi laid out to everyone what a half-assed job of it Kena no Omi was doing, it was clear. He was arrogant. He’d pissed off everyone. And he wasn’t fit to govern. And so the court sent a new administrator, Medzurako, and recalled Kena no Omi. This time, Kena no Omi could no longer refuse the summons and he headed back, but he was struck ill at the island of Tsushima, where he died. A very probable and yet extremely convenient end.
And it looks like this is a convenient ending for us. There is more to get into, but Wohodo passed away shortly after this, and further conflict took place outside of this reign. And so next episode we can talk about his death as well as the strange circumstances around his successor.
Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts. If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode.
Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page. You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com. It is always great to hear from people and ideas for the show.
Also, as I noted up front, we are starting to put videos up on YouTube. So far these are older episodes, and it does take some labor to convert them—and I have over 70 episodes to go through, so this will likely take some time. Still, if that works for you, you’ll be able to find us and subscribe at Sengoku Daimyo on YouTube—just look for the Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan playlist.
In addition to that, I’m looking for how best to get transcripts out there for you all. I’d like to make sure that our podcasts are accessible, and I know that is an issue without transcriptions available—and some of the original scripts for the first few episodes seem to be missing, so there’s that. If anyone knows of a good Speech-to-Text option (preferably free, but we’ll pay if need be), I’d really appreciate it.
And that’s all for now. Thank you again, and I’ll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.

References

Barnes, Gina L. (2015). Achaeology of East Asia: The Rise of Civilization in China, Korea and Japan
Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryǒ to T’amna*: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean." Korean Linguistics 15:2. John Benjamins Publishing Company. doi:10.1075/kl.15.2.03vov
Bentley, John R. (2008). “The Search for the Language of Yamatai”. Japanese Language and Literature (42-1). 1-43. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/30198053
Soumaré, Massimo (2007); Japan in Five Ancient Chinese Chronicles: Wo, the Land of Yamatai, and Queen Himiko. ISBN: 978-4-902075-22-9
Kiley, C. J. (1973). State and Dynasty in Archaic Yamato. The Journal of Asian Studies, 33(1), 25–49. https://doi.org/10.2307/2052884
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4
Philippi, D. L. (1968). Kojiki. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN4-13-087004-1

Accordion Item 1

References