existed between the Courts of Yamato and Kudara. Three
years later (512), Kudara preferred a singular request. She asked
that four regions, forming an integral part of the Yamato domain of
Mimana, should be handed over to her, apparently as an act of pure
benevolence. Japan consented. There is no explanation of her
complaisance except that she deemed it wise policy to strengthen
Kudara against the growing might of Shiragi, Yamato's perennial foe.
The two officials by whose advice the throne made this sacrifice were
the o-muraji, Kanamura, and the governor of Mimana, an omi called
Oshiyama. They went down in the pages of history as corrupt statesmen
who, in consideration of bribes from the Kudara Court, surrendered
territory which Japan had won by force of arms and held for five
centuries.

In the following year (513) the Kudara Court again utilized the
services of Oshiyama to procure possession of another district, Imun
(Japanese, Komom), which lay on the northeast frontier of Mimana.
Kudara falsely represented that this region had been wrested from her
by Habe, one of the petty principalities in the peninsula, and the
Yamato Court, acting at the counsels of the same o-muraji (Kanamura)
who had previously espoused Kudara's cause, credited Kudara's story.
This proved an ill-judged policy. It is true that Japan's prestige in
the peninsula received signal recognition on the occasion of
promulgating the Imperial decree which sanctioned the transfer of the
disputed territory. All the parties to the dispute, Kudara, Shiragi,
and Habe, were required to send envoys to the Yamato Court for the
purpose of hearing the rescript read, and thus Japan's pre-eminence
was constructively acknowledged. But her order provoked keen
resentment in Shiragi and Habe. The general whom she sent with five
hundred warships to escort the Kudara envoys was ignominiously
defeated by the men of Habe, while Shiragi seized the opportunity to
invade Mimana and to occupy a large area of its territory.

For several years the Yamato Court made no attempt to re-assert
itself, but in 527 an expedition of unprecedented magnitude was
organized. It consisted of sixty thousand soldiers under the command
of Keno no Omi, and its object was to chastise Shiragi and to
re-establish Mimana in its original integrity. But here an
unforeseeable obstacle presented itself. For all communication with
the Korean peninsula, Tsukushi (Kyushu) was an indispensable basis,
and