ING: UTENSILS USED IN THE TEA CEREMONY (CHA-NO-YU)

CHAPTER XV

THE DAIKA REFORMS

THE THIRTY-SIXTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KOTOKU (A.D. 645-654)

AFTER the fall of the Soga and the abdication of the Empress Kogyoku,
her son, Prince Naka, would have been the natural successor, and such
was her own expressed wish. But the prince's procedure was largely
regulated by Kamatari, who, alike in the prelude and in the sequel of
this crisis, proved himself one of the greatest statesmen Japan ever
produced. He saw that the Soga influence, though broken, was not
wholly shattered, and he understood that the great administrative
reform which he contemplated might be imperilled were the throne
immediately occupied by a prince on whose hands the blood of the Soga
chief was still warm. Therefore he advised Prince Naka to stand aside
in favour of his maternal uncle, Prince Karu, who could be trusted to
co-operate loyally in the work of reform and whose connexion with the
Soga overthrow had been less conspicuous. But to reach Prince Karu it
was necessary to pass over the head of another prince, Furubito,
Naka's half-brother, who had the full sympathy of the remnant of the
Soga clan, his mother having been a daughter of the great Umako. The
throne was therefore offered to him. But since the offer followed,
instead of preceding the Empress' approval of Prince Karu, Furubito
recognized the farce, and knowing that, though he might rule in
defiance of the Kamatari faction, he could not hope to rule with its
consent, he threw away his sword and declared his intention of
entering religion.

Very soon the Buddhist monastery at Yoshino, where he received the
tonsure, became a rallying point for the Soga partisans, and a war
for the succession seemed imminent. Naka, however, now Prince
Imperial, was not a man to dally with such obstacles. He promptly
sent to Yoshino a force of soldiers who killed Furubito with his
children and permitted his consorts to strangle themselves. Prince
Naka's name must go down to all generations as that of a great
reformer, but it is also associated with a terrible injustice. Too
readily crediting a slanderous charge brought against his
father-in-law, Kurayamada, who had stood at his right hand in the
great coup d'etat of 645, he despatched a force to seize the alleged
traitor. Kurayamada fled to a temple, and there, declaring that he
would "leave the world, still cherishing fidelity in his bosom," he
committe