agi in the south and east; Kudara in the centre
and west, with its capital at the modern Seoul, and Koma in the
north, having Pyong-yang for chief city. This last had recently
pushed its frontier into Manchuria as far as the Liao River, and was
already beginning to project its shadow over the southern regions of
the peninsula, destined ultimately to fall altogether under its sway.
In response to Shiragi's overtures, the King of Koma sent a body of
troops to assist in protecting that principality against any
retaliatory essay on the part of the Japanese in Mimana. But the men
of Shiragi, betrayed into imagining that these soldiers were destined
to be the van of an invading army, massacred them, and besought
Japanese succour against Koma's vengeance. The Japanese acceded, and
Shiragi was saved for a time, but at the cost of incurring, for
herself and for Japan alike, the lasting enmity of Koma. Shiragi
appears to have concluded, however, that she had more to fear from
Koma than from Japan, for she still withheld her tribute to the
latter, and invaded the territory of Kudara, which had always
maintained most friendly relations with Yamato. The Emperor Yuryaku
sent two expeditions to punish this contumacy, but the result being
inconclusive, he resolved to take the exceptional step of personally
leading an army to the peninsula.

This design, which, had it matured, might have radically changed the
history of the Far East, was checked by an oracle, and Yuryaku
appointed three of his powerful nobles to go in his stead. The
Shiragi men fought with desperate tenacity. One wing of their army
was broken, but the other held its ground, and two of the Japanese
generals fell in essaying to dislodge it. Neither side could claim a
decisive victory, but both were too much exhausted to renew the
combat. This was not the limit of Japan's misfortunes. A feud broke
out among the leaders of the expedition, and one of them, Oiwa, shot
his comrade as they were en route for the Court of the Kudara
monarch, who had invited them in the hope of composing their
dissensions, since the existence of his own kingdom depended on
Japan's intervention between Koma and Shiragi.

Owing to this feud among her generals, Japan's hold on Mimana became
more precarious than ever while her prestige in the peninsula
declined perceptibly. Nevertheless her great military name still
retained much of its potency. Thus, ten years later (A.D. 477), when
the King of Ko