ed all taxes for
the space of three years until the people's burdens were lightened,
reference is made only to the be and tomobe belonging to the Throne
itself. Doubtless this special feature of Yamato finance was due in
part to the fact that all the land and all the people, except those
appertaining to the Crown, were in the possession of the uji, without
whose co-operation no general fiscal measure could be adopted. When
recourse to the nation at large was necessitated to meet some
exceptional purpose, orders had to be given, first, to the o-omi and
o-muraji; next, by these to the Kami of the several o-uji; then, by
the latter to the Kami of the various ko-uji, and, finally, by these
last to every household.

The machinery was thorough, but to set it in motion required an
effort which constituted an automatic obstacle to extortion. The
lands and people of the uji were governed by the Emperor but were not
directly controlled by him. On the other hand, to refuse a
requisition made by the Throne was counted contumelious and liable to
punishment. Thus when (A.D. 534) the Emperor Ankan desired to include
a certain area of arable land in a miyake established for the purpose
of commemorating the name of the Empress, and when Ajihari, suzerain
(atae) of the region, sought to evade the requisition by
misrepresenting the quality of the land, he was reprimanded and had
to make atonement by surrendering a portion of his private property.
There can be no doubt, however, that as the population increased and
as uncultivated areas grew less frequent, the arbitrary establishment
of koshiro or of nashiro became more and more irksome, and the pages
of history indicate that from the time of Keitai (A.D. 507-531) this
practice was gradually abandoned.

CRIMINAL LAW

Although the use of the ideographic script became well known from the
fifth century, everything goes to show that no written law existed at
that time, or, indeed, for many years afterwards. Neither are there
any traces of Korean or Chinese influence in this realm. Custom
prescribed punishments, and the solemnity of a judicial trial found
no better representative than the boiling-water ordeal. If a man took
oath to the deities of his innocence and was prepared to thrust his
arm into boiling mud or water, or to lay a red-hot axe on the palm of
his hand, he was held to have complied with all the requirements. The
familiar Occidental doctrine, "the King can do no wrong," recei