Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty, 650-800

4 Allochthons

4 ALLOCHTHONS During the Kōken years [749–757], several edicts were issued , granting requests by a number of allochthons (shoban) for [new] kabane titles [attached to uji names]. Thus the old kabane titles [the highest ones unobtainable by allochthons] and the new ones became indistinguishable. One could no longer determine whether an uji family was allochthon or authochthon (banzoku wazoku). Everywhere, commoner uji distorted their status, claiming to be offshoots of high nobles ; allochthon residents from the Three Korean Kingdoms called themselves descendants from the kami. —815. Introduction, Shinsen shōjiroku The emperor’s supreme role in the Chinese model of rulership consisted of keeping the realm’s human affairs in sync with cosmic forces, and thus promoting the welfare of all under Heaven. This task required special knowledgeandexpertiseconcerningtheoperationoftheyinandyangsynergies , the flow of cosmic qi (ether; ki in Japanese), and portents and the interpretationofsigns .HowdidthisknowledgecrossovertoYamato?Where did the specialists who controlled it come from? How did Tenmu secure both this culture and the practice, especially since contact with China was discontinued for a whole generation during his and Jitō’s rule? ContinentalKnowledge The application of continental learning in Yamato reached a thus far alltime high in the second half of the seventh century. It had a long history. During Japan’s two prehistoric periods (first Jōmon, then Yayoi) ending around 250 CE, local chiefdoms in a wide region—which included besides the western part of the archipelago, China’s southeastern coastal regions andtheKoreanpeninsula—sharedmanyelementsofmaterialcultureand ritual practice.1 As evidence of cultural commonality, archeology points to pottery patterns and square burial mounds, evidence buttressed further by a few Chinese texts.2 Needless to say, the Kojiki and Nihon shoki’s “historical ” record of this period of prehistory cannot be tapped for exemplars allochthons | 87 that might have inspired later rulers such as Tenmu. The information is too scarce and rudimentary, and, as far as they would be present in Yamato’s chronicles, they would be inserts from a later age. TheNihonshokireportsthatasearlyas205,skilledlaborerswerebrought over from Silla as war captives. In 463, Great King Yūryaku’s military expedition would have returned with “tribute” from Paekche in the form of potters , saddle makers, painters, brocade weavers, fleshers, and an interpreter; and in 493 tanners from Koguryŏ were delivered. These men, however, were not carriers of the kind of knowledge that would be serviceable as a political ideology. Continental culture, which contributed to the ideas through which Tenmu reimagined himself and his rulership, is identifiable as such when wereadaboutthetransferofbooksandlearnedpeople.Theyarrivedsometimes as “gifts” from one ruler on the continent to another on the archipelago , at other times as loot or captives from raids into the peninsula. During thesixthcenturytheinformationregardingthetransferofculturebecomes specific in the record.3 Scholars versed in the Five Classics on loan from Paekche were being rotatedinandoutofYamatoin513,516,and553,theyearwhenBuddhismin the form of Buddhist monks and statues from Paekche officially “arrived.”4 A year later, specialists in divination, calendar making, and medical knowledge as well as herbalists and musicians were brought over or rotated, per requestorcommandoftheYamatorulertothekingofPaekche.Themonks themselves were carriers of all varieties of knowledge including yin-yang, divination, and Daoist magic. Startingin600,theYamatocourtwentstraighttothefountainheadofall thislearningwhenitestablisheddirectcontactwithChina.PriortoTenmu in the seventh century, four missions traveled to the Sui court, followed by six embassies to the Tang capital.5 It was not unusual for members of these delegations to remain in China for protracted periods of time, sometimes thirty years—that is to say, half a lifetime. Tang officials eventually dealt with long-term residents by ordering those who were staying more than nine years to reregister with the Office of Daoist Worship.6 A considerable number of these envoys from Yamato were allochthons who themselves or whose ancestors had come over from Paekche, Silla, Koguryŏ, Kaya, some possibly from China itself. Over time they formed uji such as the Aya, Kawachi no fumi, or Hata. These uji names, however, stand for many rather than one single uji. The Yamato no Aya, for example, split into three groups, totaling ninety-one uji.7 Some, like the Yamato no fumi, were specialized scribes. In the mid-sixth century, the Hata were said 88 | allochthons to have counted over seven thousand households, possibly an exaggerated figure. Nevertheless, their influence was considerable through the culture and knowledge they had brought with them from overseas.8 From the start of Tenmu’s rule, centralization of continental knowledge had a high priority in his blueprint for a bureaucratic state. In 673...