movement, grew more and
more arrogant and arbitrary. The youthful Emperor unbosomed himself
to Prince Shotoku, avowing his aversion to the o-omi and his
uncontrollable desire to be freed from the incubus of such a
minister. Shotoku counselled patience, but Sushun's impetuosity could
not brook delay, nor did he reflect that he was surrounded by
partisans of the Soga.

A Court lady betrayed his designs to the o-omi, and the latter
decided that the Emperor must be destroyed. An assassin was found in
the person of Koma, a naturalized Chinese, suzerain of the Aya uji,
and, being introduced into the palace by the o-omi under pretence of
offering textile fabrics from the eastern provinces, he killed the
Emperor. So omnipotent was the Soga chief that his murderous envoy
was not even questioned. He received open thanks from his employer
and might have risen to high office had he not debauched a daughter
of the o-omi. Then Umako caused him to be hung from a tree and made a
target of his body, charging him with having taken the Emperor's
life. "I knew only that there was an o-omi," retorted the man. "I did
not know there was an Emperor." Many others shared Koma's comparative
ignorance when the Soga were in power. At the Emperor Yomei's death,
only one person honoured his memory by entering the Buddhist
priesthood. When Soga no Umako died, a thousand men received the
tonsure. The unfortunate Sushun was interred on the day of his
murder, an extreme indignity, yet no one ventured to protest; and
even Prince Shotoku, while predicting that the assassin would
ultimately suffer retribution, justified the assassination on the
ground that previous misdeeds had deserved it.

Shotoku's conduct on this occasion has inspired much censure and
surprise when contrasted with his conspicuous respect for virtue in
all other cases. But the history of the time requires intelligent
expansion. Cursory reading suggests that Umako's resolve to kill
Sushun was taken suddenly in consequence of discovering the latter's
angry mood. The truth seems to be that Sushun was doomed from the
moment of his accession. His elder brother had perished at the hands
of Umako's troops, and if he himself did not meet the same fate,
absence of plausible pretext alone saved him. To suffer him to reign,
harbouring, as he must have harboured, bitter resentment against his
brother's slayer, would have been a weakness inconsistent with
Umako's character. Sushun was placed on th