Chinese origin. Shotoku Taishi himself is
traditionally reported to have been a skilled painter and sculptor,
and several of his alleged masterpieces are preserved to this day,
but their authenticity is disputed.

*The three-legged crow of the sun.

AGRICULTURE

In the field of agriculture this epoch offers nothing more remarkable
than the construction of nine reservoirs for irrigation purposes and
the digging of a large canal in Yamashiro province. It is also
thought worthy of historical notice that a Korean prince
unsuccessfully attempted to domesticate bees on a Japanese mountain.

COMMERCE

Considerable progress seems to have been made in tradal matters.
Markets were opened at several places in the interior, and coastwise
commerce developed so much that, in A.D. 553, it was found expedient
to appoint an official for the purpose of numbering and registering
the vessels thus employed. The Chinese settler, Wang Sin-i, who has
already been spoken of as the only person able to decipher a Korean
memorial, was given the office of fune no osa (chief of the shipping
bureau) and granted the title of fune no fubito (registrar of
vessels). Subsequently, during the reign of Jomei (629-641), an
akinai-osa (chief of trade) was appointed in the person of Munemaro,
whose father, Kuhi, had brought scales and weights from China during
the reign of Sushun (558-592), and this system was formally adopted
in the days of Jomei (629-641). There had not apparently been any
officially recognized weights and measures in remote antiquity. The
width of the hand (ta or tsuka) and the spread of the arms (hiro)
were the only dimensions employed. By and by the Korean shaku (foot),
which corresponds to 1.17 shaku of the present day, came into use. In
Kenso's time (485-487) there is mention of a measure of rice being
sold for a piece of silver, and the Emperor Kimmei (540-571) is
recorded to have given 1000 koku of seed-barley to the King of
Kudara. But it is supposed that the writer of the Chronicles, in
making these entries, projected the terminology of his own time into
the previous centuries. There were neither coins nor koku in those
eras.

COSTUME AND COIFFURE

Up to the time (A.D. 603) of the institution of caps as marks of
rank, men were in the habit of dividing their hair in the centre and
tying it above the ears in a style called mizura. But such a fashion
did not accord with the wearing of caps which were gathered up on the
crown