Japanese sovereigns are
posthumous. Thus Saimei, during her lifetime, was called
Ame-toyo-takara-ikashi-hi-tarashi-hime.

RELATIONS WITH KOREA

It has been shown how, in A.D. 562, the Japanese settlement in Mimana
was exterminated; how the Emperor Kimmei's dying behest to his
successor was that this disgrace must be removed; how subsequent
attempts to carry out his testament ended in failure, owing largely
to Japan's weak habit of trusting the promises of Shiragi, and how,
in 618, the Sui Emperor, Yang, at the head of a great army, failed to
make any impression on Korea.

Thereafter, intercourse between Japan and the peninsula was of a
fitful character unmarked by any noteworthy event until, in the
second year (651) of the "White Pheasant" era, the Yamato Court
essayed to assert itself in a futile fashion by refusing to give
audience to Shiragi envoys because they wore costumes after the Tang
fashion without offering any excuse for such a caprice. Kotoku was
then upon the Japanese throne, and Japan herself was busily occupied
importing and assimilating Tang institutions. That she should have
taken umbrage at similar imitation on Shiragi's part seems
capricious. Shiragi sent no more envoys, and presently (655), finding
herself seriously menaced by a coalition between Koma and Kudara, she
applied to the Tang Court for assistance. The application produced no
practical response, but Shiragi, who for some time had been able to
defy the other two principalities, now saw and seized an opportunity
offered by the debauchery and misrule of the King of Kudara. She
collected an army to attack her neighbour and once more supplicated
Tang's aid. This was in the year 660. The second appeal produced a
powerful response. Kao-sung, then the Tang Emperor, despatched a
general, Su Ting-fang, at the head of an army of two hundred thousand
men. There was now no long and tedious overland march round the
littoral of the Gulf of Pechili and across Liaotung. Su embarked his
forces at Chengshan, on the east of the Shantung promontory, and
crossed direct to Mishi-no-tsu--the modern Chemulpo--thus attacking
Kudara from the west while Shiragi moved against it from the east.
Kudara was crushed. It lost ten thousand men, and all its prominent
personages, from the debauched King downwards, were sent as prisoners
to Tang. But one great captain, Pok-sin, saved the situation.
Collecting the fugitive troops of Kudara he fell suddenly on Shiragi
and dr