reply. The image, indeed, he found to be full of dignity, but he left
his ministers to decide whether it should be worshipped or not. A
division of opinion resulted. The o-omi, Iname, of the Soga family,
advised that, as Buddhism had won worship from all the nations on the
West, Japan should not be singular. But the o-muraji, Okoshi, of the
Mononobe-uji, and Kamako, muraji of the Nakatomi-uji, counselled that
to bow down to foreign deities would be to incur the anger of the
national gods. In a word, the civil officials advocated the adoption
of the Indian creed; the military and ecclesiastical officials
opposed it. That the head of the Mononobe-uji should have adopted
this attitude was natural: it is always the disposition of soldiers
to be conservative, and that is notably true of the Japanese soldier
(bushi). In the case of the Nakatomi, also, we have to remember that
they were, in a sense, the guardians of the Shinto ceremonials: thus,
their aversion to the acceptance of a strange faith is explained.

What is to be said, however, of the apparently radical policy of the
Soga chief? Why should he have advocated so readily the introduction
of a foreign creed? There are two apparent reasons. One is that the
Hata and Aya groups of Korean and Chinese artisans were under the
control of the Soga-uji, and that the latter were therefore disposed
to welcome all innovations coming from the Asiatic continent. The
other is that between the o-muraji of the Kami class (Shimbetsu) and
the o-omi of the Imperial class (Kwobetsu) there had existed for some
time a political rivalry which began to be acute at about the period
of the coming of Buddhism, and which was destined to culminate, forty
years later, in a great catastrophe. The Emperor himself steered a
middle course. He neither opposed nor approved but entrusted the
image to the keeping of the Soga noble. Probably his Majesty was not
unwilling to submit the experiment to a practical test vicariously,
for it is to be noted that, in those days, the influence of the Kami
for good or for evil was believed to be freely exercised in human
affairs.

This last consideration does not seem to have influenced Soga no
Iname at all. He must have been singularly free from the
superstitions of his age, for he not only received the image with
pleasure but also enshrined it with all solemnity in his Mukuhara
residence, which he converted wholly into a temple.

Very shortly afterwards, however,