For the first regular episode of the year (excepting our New Year's recap) we take a look at the New Year Traditions at Temmu's court. How did the court celebrate the New Year in the late 7th century?
For more, check out our blogpost: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-141
Rough Transcript:
Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua and this is episode 141: Temmu's New Year's Traditions
The chill winter air meant that most of the assembled crowd had donned multiple layers of robes. Men and women had assembled together, upon the open, rock-covered courtyard, both to see and be seen. To the north and east of the courtyard were the walls and gates of the buildings that made up the royal palace, the rooves of the buildings just visible beyond the gates.
The onlookers stood arrayed around the open lanes that had been created for the event—at one end of the rocky field were targets, while at the other were archers, also arrayed in their finest outfits. While technically they wore hunting robes, cut to allow greater movement in the arm, many of these fabrics had no business being anywhere near a moor or the dirt of open fields. After all, this wasn't just some hunt: They were demonstrating their skills in the center of the State.
At the officials' command, the archers let loose their arrows. The crowd murmured at the soft crack of the bowstring, the faint whisper of arrow as the fletchings cut through the air, and the thud as the arrows struck their targets. Looking downrange, approval bubbled through the crowd: the targets were well-struck. Behind the archers on the field, another group awaited their turn.
The events of the day would be the talk of the court, from the lowest clerk to the highest prince , for days to come. Not just the well-placed shot, but also the grace and poise of the one who had let loose an arrow of particular note. And heaven forbid an arrow miss its target. Even kicking up stones or scraping the earth could have negative social consequences. A particularly good showing could inspire poetry, and beyond the prizes being offered to the winner, could also bring notice to those from more obscure backgrounds.
The new year had just started, and a good performance might be just what was needed to help put the rest of the year on a good footing.
Welcome back! This is the first episode of the new year, 2026, and we are still going through the reign of Ohoama, aka Temmu Tenno, covering the period from 672 to 686.
Before we get started, though, a quick shout out to Suzuki for supporting us on Patreon. It means a lot and helps us keep this thing going. If you would like to support us or our efforts to maintain the website, where we also have the Armor manual, clothing, and a miscellany on various topics, we have information at Sengokudaimyo.com and we will have more information at the end of this and every episode. Support is appreciated as I really do want to try and minimize ads—I don't put any into the podcast myself, though some platforms may place ads around the podcast, which I cannot always control.
Now we've covered a lot this reign, but this episode we are going to cover three things in particular. First off, and perhaps a bit of a tangent, we'll talk about some of the issues with the Chronicles when it comes to reading it,especially in translation. It seems quite clear to me that even the sources that the Chroniclers were using weren't always in agreement with each other on how they spelled certain things or even in properly recording when things happened.
After that we'll cover the major topics of this episode, focusing primarily on the New Year traditions of the court—we'll look at the major events of the first month for each year in the reign, allowing us to see some of the similarities, and differences.
Finally, we'll look at the last year of Ohoama's reign, particularly as he grew ill, because it can be a fascinating question: What did people do when disease struck before we had modern medicine? Here the Chronicles reveal a lot about not only the beliefs of the time, but of their syncretism: how people were willing to reach out to whatever power they could in order to cure disease. Whether it was Yin-yang divination, beseeching the local kami, or attempting to make merit, all of these things were on the table when it came to illness and mortality.
And so, let's get into it.
One of the first things I want to talk about is the problem that we have in trying to read the Chronicles, both in the way they are written and then the translation issue on top of that. Even in Japanese the Chronicles have to be translated out of an ancient form of kanbun—basically a Japanese version of Chinese, using Sinitic characters.
Like any document written by non-native speakers, the Chronicles have their idiosyncrasies that make it different from what someone in Chang'an might be writing at the same time. There are times and places where it is clear that something is meant to be read in the Japanese pronunciation, which itself was different from modern Japanese. Add to this the fact that there are many times that different Sinitic characters sound alike in Japanese—especially in modern Japanese. So any English translation of the Chronicles which doesn't give the actual characters in the source text can add to the confusion.
This is why I like to consult either the Japanese Historical Text Initiative or an electronic version of the National History series text—though even those have issues at times when the characters used in the text don't exist in modern character sets, though that seems to be less and less of a problem.
One example I want to give of the complexities of reading the Chronicles, and the need to dive deeper into the original language and consult multiple versions, is a set of records for Ki no Omi no Abemaro and others. He is our first mention of a member of the Ki family: on the 9th day of the 8th month of 673, the first year since Ohoama's ascension and one year after the Jinshin no Ran, we are told that Ki no Omi no Abemaro and others were given favors and rewards for their service during the war in Iga province. Indeed, Ki no Omi no Abemaro is listed prominently in the records of the Jinshin no Ran and appears to have been one of the generals for Ohoama and the Yoshino faction in general. Less than a year later, on the 28th day of the 2nd month, Ki no Omi no Abemaro died and was posthumously awarded the rank of Daishi, which was 5th from the top in the old system of 26 ranks. A rather respectable rank, to be sure.
Later that same year we get a note that Ki no Omi no KATAmaro—another member of the family, apparently--was appointed, along with a "Prince Mino" as a commissioner for the erection of the Great Temple of Takechi.
Two years later, however, we get a record on the 22nd day of the 4th month of 676 that the sovereign, Ohoama, sent an order to the Governor of Mino telling him to let the children of Ki no Omi no Abemaro, resident in the district of Toki, be removed to the East country and become peasants in that country. On the face of it, this appears to be an incredible fall from grace. Ki no Omi no Abemaro is basically one of the top generals and heroes of the Jinshin no Ran, but his children are so unruly that they are banished to the East and stripped of their noble status? There has to be a story there, right?
Then in 679, on the 3rd day of the 2nd month, we are told that Ki no Omi no Katamaro died. For his service in the Jinshin War he received the posthumous rank of Upper Daikin. That would have been roughly the 7th rank—two below Ki no Abemaro. So was the Ki family back in the good graces of the court? What is going on?
First off, when we go to the original text, we see that Aston, whose translation of the Nihon Shoki we've been working on Ihas made an apparent error in translation. Remember, Aston was translating the Chronicles back in 1896, without the aid of modern computers, along with a lot of other research that has happened since then, and I can hardly fault him for missing things here and there. This is why, if you cannot check the original, you may want to also look at the new translation from John Bentley. Here we can see that he translates the name not as "Ki no Omi no Abemaro", but rather that of "Ki no Omi no KASAmaro". And if we compare Ki no Omi no KaSAmaro with the previous entry on Ki no Omi no KaTAmaro we can see that these are actually the exact same names except for a single character.
Which leads us to the question: Are these the same person, and the scribes simply miswrote one of the characters in the name? It may not even be on the Chroniclers so much as whatever texts they were, themselves, working on. This isn't helped by the fact that we later on see another entry for Ki no KATAmaro, but that one uses character for "KATA", meaning "hard", using the kun'yomi, or Japanese reading, rather than using two phonetic characters in the on'yomi reading. So is this just another way to write "KATAmaro" or is this a different person altogether?
Ultimately, we cannot be entirely sure. It does seem wild that there would be two "Ki no Omi no Katamaro" at court at the same time and nobody otherwise distinguished the two. The question about KaSAmaro and KaTAmaro, and whose kids were sent into exile, is a bit harder to untangle.
And, truth be told, it is ultimately a minor point. We have only a couple of lines here, and maybe these passages will help illuminate something later in the histories, but for now, they are just fragments of the story of what was happening. Parts of the tattered tapestry from which the royal history was ripped out and restitched together, the rest of the story largely discarded, unless it made its way to us through other means.
The Chronicles may be flawed, but they are still our main source for the period, and while we might challenge individual items, we still get a glimpse at how things operated back at this time. For instance, if we look at the events happening around the New Year, we can see some common threads.
The New Year is an important tradition in many cultures. Whether it was a solar or lunar cycle—or some combination—the new year indicated a new cycle, and was often accompanied by associated symbols and rituals. Today in the US it is often celebrated with fireworks and champagne, followed by making resolutions for the new year. In Japan, people will often go to their local shrine or temple for an important first visit, and temple bells will ring out 108 times.
Another tradition is the osechi-ryori, the traditional new years foods. This has grown over time from a tradition of eating a large bowl of rice to various other foods that are seen as auspicious or having special properties, such as the hardening of teeth—a major concern before the era of modern dental hygiene! Then there are traditions such as the Kagami Biraki, or opening of the mirror, and the creation of special mochi, or rice cakes for the purpose.
Of course all of these traditions started somewhere and have evolved over time, so what do we know about the New Year celebrations during the late 7th century? One caveat: in the Chronicles, we only really see what was happening in the court, and the Yamato court at that. There may have been local traditions that others were following that, unless we find documentation about them, we likely would never know. But many of the court traditions were passed down to later generations. These traditions appear to include the giving of gifts; large, celebratory banquets; and the annual archery tournament.
Banquets are some of the first and most common things we see. We see a banquet as Ohoama assumed the throne in 673—which probably was the event that overshadowed anything else they might have done that year. The following year, 674, there doesn't seem to have been much recorded, and I wonder if they were still pulling everything together after the turmoil of Ohoama's ascension. And so it is that in the first month of 675 we really get to see the annual new year's events in their full form.
On the second day of that year, from the Royal Princes on down, all of the public functionaries presented their respects to the sovereign. I suspect that this was a large ceremony, where everyone gathered in the courtyard of the palace together or something similar, not that each person individually went up and presented their respects—I doubt Ohoama would have wanted to sit through all of that. Also, as we've already seen, there were limits on what parts of the palace different functionaries were allowed to enter. So some of these well-wishers may have been "outside", others in the courtyard, and others in the palace building itself, depending on their rank and importance in the bureaucratic hierarchy.
On the following day, all public functionaries, from the initial rank upwards, presented firewood. Aston notes that this is the first mention of what would become a yearly practice. Firewood may not seem like much, but it would have likely been important to keeping things running, especially given how early people were supposed to arrive at the palace and administrative complex each day. This wasn't firewood for a fireplace—they didn't have those—but probably would have been used either for cooking or, I suspect, for the large braziers that burned with wood and pitch to light the darkness, particularly in the winter months. Firewood could also be processed into smaller pieces of coal for other uses.
It is interesting that for the first ceremony, the Chronicles describe the court from the Royal Princes on down, while for the giving of firewood the order is from the initial—which is to say the lowest—ranks upwards. This could indicate the order in which things progressed in these cases.
Several days after that, on the 7th day of the first month, a banquet was given at court for the Ministers—so only the higher ranking functionaries. But ten days later, on the 17th, everyone of rank—the Ministers of State; the Daibu, or high officials; and all of the public functionaries from the initial rank upwards had an archery meeting in the Court of the Western Gate.
Archery and archery contests had been important to the Yamato people for ages—and the same on the continent. Confucius, in his day, suggested that archery was a martial skill that even nobles should cultivate. I believe we've noted before how archery could be used both for warfare and for just feeding your family. As such, it was considered a particularly useful skill for just about everyone to have. It probably also helped that it was a martial skill that noblemen and others could use to show off without actually risking any injury to themselves in the process. I'm just saying. And as we described at the top of the episode, this particular archery contest would, for both participants and spectators, likely have been a chance to show off the top of their game, whether in martial prowess, clothing, or behavior.
And since we are looking at the new year's celebrations, let's keep this going and look at later years in Ohoama's reign. As I go through these you'll start to see the patterns, where the events I've just described will generally recur year after year, but not identically, sometimes with a shuffle in the schedule.
In 676, we see that the Ministers and public functionaries pay their respects on the first day of the new year. On the 4th day, the sovereign granted gifts to the higher level officials, from Royal Prince Takechi, down to the high officials, or Daibu, of Shoukin rank. Their not so secret Santa gifts included robes, hakama, lined garments, obi for their waist, leg straps, and staves, or walking sticks. We are also told that everyone above the rank of Shoukin also got an armrest thrown in, as well. Further gifts or grants were given out several days later, on the 7th, to everyone from Shoukin on up, based on their individual circumstances. Then, on the 15th, we again see all of the functionaries present firewood and then they were all entertained at a court banquet.
The following day they held the annual new year's archery contest, with prizes, at the court of the western gate. Those who hit the target received prizes of different values. In his recent translation of the Nihon Shoki, Bentley references Kuroita on Article 41 of Miscellaneous Statutes, saying that this archery event was apparently a regular new year's occurrence, and even the prizes were noted as varying over time.
The same day they held the archery contest, that year, Ohoama held a banquet at the Shima Palace. Shima was the name given to the Soga Prime Minister, back in the day, so I assume that this was at or near the site of the old Soga residence?
In 677, by comparison, we don't see nearly as much referenced. There is archery at the South Gate, vice the west gate, but that is it. The festivities in 678 similarly only talk about the archery at the south gate. There is also mention of a preparation for worshipping the kami of heaven and earth, for which a purification was held throughout the state. In addition, an abstinence palace, or saiguu, was erected on the bank of the Kurahashi river. Kurahashi appears to refer to a tributary of the Ohara river, in Sakurai. This feels less like a New Year's celebration, however, and more like a sign of merit-making. The Saiguu would have likely been to prepare for a trip to Ise shrine, and three months later Ohoama was preparing to go to the Saiguu, but that is when Princess Towochi suddenly died, and they scuttled the plans.
In 679, the court greeted the New Year with a new decree. Ohoama declared that Princes, Ministers, and public functionaries—anyone in service to the government, basically, were to refrain from paying respects during New Years or other ceremonies to anyone except relatives of the grade of elder brother, elder sister, and above, or to the senior members of the Houses. Princes weren't even to pay respects to their own mothers unless they were, themselves, princesses. Ministers were likewise not to pay respects to their mothers if they were of "mean" rank. In other words, if they were commoners.
These kinds of statutes are interesting. First of all, you ask yourself why? In all likelihood, there were various local traditions and individuals paid respects to their parents as well as to others to whom they owed respect for one reason or another. Here the State is ordering society such that there is a clear hierarchy, at least among the members of the court. Since women often found advancement by marrying up, it was usual for one's mother to have been born a lower rank in society than oneself. And so we see them enforcing the social order. That new order was based on Confucian concepts of hierarchy, and this seems to go along with those same ideas.
What we don't really see is how this was enforced—if at all.
The day after that, the yearly archery competition took place at the West Gate of the palace.
The next year, 680, we see a New Year's Banquet at the Court of the Great Hall. Ohoama himself occupied the Mukai-kodono, which appears to refer to one of the smaller wings. Based on the palace layout that we see in the posthole remains, this probably means that he was set up in the smaller wing, likely in a more intimate space, while most of the other guests were in the large hall, maintaining that crucial separation of sovereign and subjects.
This New Year's archery event included Princes of the Blood all the way down to the rank of Shouken—the very lowest rank in the court—and it was held at the South Gate.
You may be noticing a pattern, that the archery competition is listed as being held at either the south or west gates. The south gate probably refers to the main gate of the later Okamoto—aka the Kiyomihara—palace. The West gate refers to the west gate of the Ebinoko enclosure. We talked about these and the general layout of the palace back in Episode 134, and you can check out that podcast blog post for some images of what things looked like, as well.
These gates were on the north and east sides of a large, rectangular courtyard, which was likely the actual event location. So it isn't as if these were separate areas, just a difference of where things were set up in what was otherwise the same relative space.
The following year, 681, we see similar ceremonies. We see offerings made to the kami of Heaven and Earth, and we once again see a note about various functionaries paying their respects at court. Even though this wasn't mentioned every year, it could have been an annual thing and just wasn't always recorded so the Chroniclers just wrote down what they had records for. There are certainly other things we don't necessarily witness in the records, such as the annual promotions and promulgations. We see irregular promotions, of course, such as on someone's passing, but the regular administration of the government and promotions of people to new positions is not something we really see regularly documented, since it doesn't really shed much light on the sovereign and the royal household. And so we sometimes see things if they get mentioned, but otherwise we only see glimpses. That would change as records became more administrative and the histories were more about simply recording what was happening—though still from a particular angle. At this point, however, we aren't dealing with a single court record, but rather with numerous records, stories, and recollections.
That same year, 681, we also see another banquet, with Ohoama situated in the Mukai no Kodono, while the Princes of the Blood and non-royal Princes were both introduced into the inner reception chamber. Ministers attended in the outer reception chamber. They all received sake and musical performances, and rank advancements were given out. Kusakabe no Kihi no Ohogata was graduated from the rank of Upper Daisen to Lower Daikin, and given the title of Naniwa no Muraji. A few days later, Sakahibe no Muraji no Iwazumi was granted a fief with 60 horses and received presents of coarse silk, floss silk, cloth, and one hundred mattocks—the last one being a rather interesting gift, I have to admit. Of course, in true Chronicles fashion, we have no idea why these gifts were made—we don't even have another reference to Iwazumi around there, but he must have done something.
We are later told that there was the annual archery shoot, and then a decree, possibly unrelated to New Years, that the various provinces were ordered to repair the shrines to the kami of heaven and earth.
The year 682 is an anomaly. There is no mention of a banquet, nor of an archery tournament. I wonder if this may have to do with some of the sad events of that first month. While it started fine—Toneri no Miyatsuko no Nukamushi was raised from Daisen to Lower Shoukin—we are told that on the 18th, Lady Higami, one of Ohoama's consorts, died in the palace. The next day there was an earthquake, and she was buried on the 27th. A prominent illness and death may have put a pall on the ceremonies, and could explain why we don't see any mention of them for that year.
It is also possible that some of this New Year tradition had become so routine that people were no longer commenting on it, and therefore the Chroniclers weren't including references to it.
The following year, in 683, we again see the functionaries paying their respects. We also see the presentation of a three legged sparrow by the Viceroy of Tsukushi, Tajihi no Mabito no Shima, along with others. A three legged sparrow would have been something: it is reminiscent of the three legged crow, often depicted in the sun. It is unclear if it was still alive, but that wasn't the point. They invited the Princes of the Blood down to the Ministers to great hall, the Daigokuden, for a banquet, where the three legged sparrow was displayed.
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Later that month, Ohoama issued a decree in regards to all of the auspicious omens and made presents to everyone, from Shouken rank upwards. There was also a general amnesty—all crimes were pardoned, from capital offenses on down, and all forced labor was remitted, so that people didn't have to provide the normal service. The phrasing for this particular entry is intriguing. Ohoama is mentioned as Yamato Neko Sumera no Mikoto and is specifically called a "God Incarnate". This is one of the rare times that we see the Chronicles explicitly call out the sovereign as a living deity. Of course, they trace the royal lineage back to Amaterasu, but there isn't a lot suggesting that the sovereign is necessarily a deity.
And in reality, this was probably something that was more honorific than anything else. Heck, at times in Japanese history we would see sovereigns selling their calligraphy to help keep the royal palace funded while warriors went around actually being in charge of things. However, this divine language did show up in the 19th and 20th century, especially as the Tennou, now called Emperor in English terminology, once again was recognized as the Head of State, and people would actually pray to him. Not necessarily like praying at a shrine, but out of respect. And remember, a lot of time the Tennou was kept out of sight of regular people and hidden, much like the way that the kami were treated. The concept of the Emperor's divinity was very much tied up in the elevation of the State and the general sense of Nationalism that had gripped Japan in the early half of the 20th century. And so the allies quite explicitly had Emperor Showa renounce his divinity after Japan World War II.
Those studying Japanese history have probably heard of this concept, and so it is interesting to see evidence of it here, as well as the nature of the royal house, where the sovereign is kept at a distance from those of lower rank, unless they are directly serving him. But it was not as though the sovereign was a god in the sense of being all powerful. Even if he were considered a living, visible kami, the kami were not omnipotent, and there was no getting over the fact that our particular sovereign, Ohoama, was getting older. Only a year or so earlier, he had suffered a rather bad illness, so he clearly was not invincible. And it is of course possible that this language was simply royal exaggeration, rather than any attempt to define the sovereign as something more than he was. Still, that concept would continue to play a part throughout Japanese history.
The same day in 683 that Ohoama issued the pardons, we are told that there was a special performance at the Woharida Court of dance and music from Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla—the "Three Countries" of the Korean peninsula, even if only one of them was still going strong. The Woharida palace is thought to have been north, along the banks of the Asuka River. It may have been moved over time—there appears to have been a palace in the Furumiya area, near Toyoura, but there is also evidence of a palace by a shared name over by Ikazuchi-no-oka, on the other side of the river. Excavations at Ikazuchi no oka revealed pottery with the name of the palace, suggesting that this was the site, but even then, that pottery was from the later Tempyo era. Regardless, it seems that the Asuka valley was just chock full of palaces, new and old, though the older ones were not as regularly used for government functions, one assumes.
The following year, 684, we again get told about the annual archery shoot. It took place in the Eastern court this time, with Ministers in attendance. Apparently they had men skilled in archery shooting alongside palace attendants and little people—the word used in Japanese is "Shuju" or "Hikihito". This word is often translated as "dwarf"; it appears to be a derogatory term for anyone considered short of stature, though it is also used to refer more generally to those seen as either lacking wit or to actors and performers.
This isn't the first time we see the term. Back in 675, about 9 years prior, Ohoama had sent orders to a number of regions near the capital, from Awaji to Tamba, to Afumi and to Mino and Wohari, among others, to send as tribute common people who could sing, shuju—or dwarfs—and jugglers. More generally they seem to be referring to entertainers, and it strikes me that could be what is meant here. Either way, the entertainment industry was hardly a lucrative one, and we can see that performers are almost more of a commodity, to be "paid" as tribute, rather than a professional who is "hired" to work. I suspect that, as in many other times and places, individuals who were shorter than average often found work as entertainers in this sense—whether they wished it or not.
The year 685 we don't see any mention of archery, though it probably still happened. Instead the Chronicles focus on the various government officials paying their respects to their sovereign. The rest of the entries for the month are largely concerned with changes to the rank system as of that year.
The year 686, we get the last records of various new years festivals—four months later, the sovereign would grow terribly ill, and he would eventually pass away later that year. However, for those still celebrating the new year in 686, that was all in the future.
The last year of Ohoama's reign started out relatively like others. Ohoama went to the Daigokuden, the Great Hall of Audience, and gave a banquet to the Princes and High Officials. There he decided to have something of a riddle challenge. He would ask riddles, and then offer prizes for the correct answer.
And no, unfortunately we don't have any of the riddles, at least that I have seen. Aston calls these "conundrums" and notes that they are specifically nonsensical questions, and provides examples such as "Why does a horse, after a rapid run, listen to the earth? Why does a dog, when he goes slowly, raise his leg?"
Ohoama's son, Prince Takechi, answered correctly, and so did Prince Ise. Their prizes differed in content, but in both cases were pretty extensive. The winners received ceremonial robes, brocade or purple hakama, numerous bolts of coarse silk, many pounds of thread, hundreds of pounds of flossed Silk, and hundreds of bolts of cloth. I think that makes it quite a bit more lucrative than any of the quiz nights I've ever been to.
Later that month, there was another banquet, this time for nine Buddhist monks of Daikan-daiji. Besides its status as a national temple, this may have also been related to the year before, when Ohoama had fallen ill, and prayers had been offered at Daikandaiji for his recovery. The courthad likewise provided gifts to the temple in the last month of the previous year, and then, at the banquet, gave to the attending monks silk and cloth, based on their rank.
But that wasn't the end of the gifts. The following day the Princes and High Officials all received upper garments and hakama—likely referring to official garments—each getting one suit, each. Then, on the 13th day of the new year, the court invited 20 exceptional individuals to a banquet. These were talented people, professors, divination specialists, and physicians. They were also wined and dined and presented various gifts. On the 16th day, the Princes and High Officials were then invited to a banquet in the Daigokuden. They were given gifts of silk and cloth, based on their rank. Then they held another riddle competition, with correct answers rewarded with gifts of coarse and flossed silk.
This was only a short time after disaster had struck, though a bit removed—two days earlier, in the evening, the royal storehouse at Naniwa had caught fire, eventually burning the entire Toyosaki palace complex to the ground. Some claimed that it was actually started at a private residence, that of Ato no Muraji no Kusuri, and then spread to the Palace. In the end, only the military storehouse was spared.
This would have been quite the tragedy for the government, but it did not halt the festivities happening down in Asuka. The Naniwa Palace appears to have been a major government center for the administration of the state, but it was not the royal court which had been in Asuka for over a decade. Indeed, I imagine that the news probably reached Asuka around the time of the Banquet itself.
And yet, rather than putting a damper on the festivities, they continued another couple of days – presumably everything was already prepared and there was no point in canceling. On the 17th, the court sponsored a banquet in the rear palace, presumably for the Queen and members of the imperial family. Then the following day there was a great revel at the palace. Ohoama took his place in front of the royal muro and made presents to performers, as well as to the singers. As before everything varied according to rank.
Asuka wasn't the only place to get in on the festivities. The same month, the court also sponsored a banquet for the Silla envoys in Tsukushi, sending Prince Kawachi and others.
Regrettably, that would be the last new year that Ohoama would see. In the fifth month, he grew ill, and what we see in the Chronicles after that is an interesting look into how people of the time dealt with sickness.
First, the court had the Sutra of Yakushi expounded at Kawaradera and held a Buddhist retreat in the palace, inviting monks to come and expound Buddhist teachings. Yakushi, or Yakushi Nyorai—Bhaisajyaguru in Sanskrit—was known as the Medicine Buddha, and his name in Sinitic characters was basically "Master of Medicine". It is said that he was responsible for the Eastern Pure Land, and that, as a Bodhisattva, he had made 12 great vows to cure the illnesses of all living beings in the world. For that reason, Yakushi Nyorai was often called upon to cure illness.
In fact, six years earlier, when the Queen, Uno no Sarara Hime, had taken ill, Ohoama erected an entire temple to Yakushi Nyorai, known as Yakushiji. He then had 100 people take vows as priests, and they attributed her recovery to this effort.
In this case, however, it seems that it didn't have quite such an effect, and Ohoama remained under the weather. We are also told that the court sent Palace Attendants, the Oho-toneri, to clean the pagodas of various temples and that a general amnesty was announced for all under heaven, emptying the prisons. All of this points to the idea of making merit in the hope of bringing good karma, and thus healing.
But the following month, Ohoama was still ill. Divination was performed by the Onmyoji, the court diviners, and they claimed that there was a curse from Kusanagi, the sword that is considered one of the three main royal symbols. This is the sword that was said to have been found by Susanowo in the tale of Yamata no Worochi, and which gained its name, Kusanagi, when used by Yamato Takeru, cutting down the grass to save him when his enemies tried to catch him by setting fire to the field where he was hunting. For more on that, check out Episodes 34 and 35.
Given the importance of Kusanagi, I suspect that the idea of destroying it to remove the curse was out of the question, and so it was sent to Atsuta Shrine, where it was enshrined and would largely stay except when needed for enthronement ceremonies.
And yet, even after the sword was taken away, the illness remained. Six days later, on the 16th day of the 6th month, the court sent Prince Ise and officials to Asukadera and asked the monks there to make and oath with the Buddha to make Ohoama whole through the power of the Three Treasures of Buddhism. For their work, the three Buddhist Officers, the Master of the Law, and the Upadhyaya and temple directors, as well as those monks with the rank of "master" each received a donation of one robe and one cover, or "Ohi".
Three days later, the court ordered the hundred officials to go to Kawaradera and perfom the ceremony of lighting lanterns and giving offerings to Buddha. Then they held a great feast and offered repentance for their transgressions. All of this sounds like a continued attempt to make merit for the state, and thus for Ohoama.
We then see the court granting the monks Hounin and Gishou 30 stipend-households to provide for them in their old age, which may be more merit-making, or possibly was related to some of the many other activities so far. There are a few issues with this entry, and Aston and Bentley don't seem to agree on the actual date. Bentley has it on the 28th, but that seems odd as it comes before the entry for the 22nd of the same month. Aston has it as the 20th, but then claimes that there is something odd about the date of the 22nd.
On the 22nd, we are simply told that the district kitchen of Nabari caught fire. Aston notes that this would have been the official government arm in the district gathering food to supply the royal household—rather than being a kitchen in terms of a place to prepare food.
Merit-making continued into the 7th month. We see the Soujou and Soudzu, the primary and secondary prelates of the Asukadera, performing ritual repentance. The following day there is another general amnesty, and Aston specifically mentions performing a Oho-harai, or cleansing.
The day after taxes were halved from the provinces and corvee labor with local conscripted labor was exempted for the year. Then we see the court presenting paper offerings to the Kunikasu Kami in Ki provinces, as well as the four shrines in Asuka and the Great Suminoe—aka Sumiyoshi—shrine.
On the 8th day of the 7th month, 100 monks were invited to the court to read the Golden Light Sutra—Konkoymyou kyou. And on the 15th there was another court issued amnesty.
Despite all of these attempts to make merit and intercede with the Buddha or with various kami, Ohoama's illness continued. We see that the court issued a decree that all things that should occur, great or small, should be reported to the queen and the crown prince—presumably because Ohoama was no longer in a state to be able to do so.
Continuing with their efforts, the court declared that destitute commoners who had been forced to borrow rice seed or money before the 12th month of the previous year would be exempted from repayment. And then the court changed the name of the year to Akami-tori, or Shuuchou. They also renamed the palace in Asuka to "Kiyomihara"—again, go check Episode 134 for more on the palace. "Shuuchou" is the Red Bird, likely referring to Suzaku, though Aston also points out that "Asuka" here is given as "flying bird", as well, and there had been numerous bird-related omens reported throughout the reign.
Although these names would not have been used prior to this point—the 7th month of the final year of the reign—the Chroniclers applied the nengo, Shuuchou, to all of the entries for this year, and the name of the palace is often given as "Kiyomihara" is given to distinguish it from the Later Okamoto Palace, even though it was simply the latter palace with the addition of the Ebinoko enclosure.
The changing of the era name was likely another attempt to change the seemingly inauspicious year, along with all of the merit-making that the court had been undergoing.
And yet they kept going.
The court selected 70 people who were diligent in keeping Buddhist laws and had them take the tonsure, and they sponsored a feast—or festival—in the Royal Muro of the Palace.
At the same time the various princes had a statue of the Boddhisatva of Compassion, Kannon, made for the sovereign and had the Lotus sutra—the sutra where Kannon is first mentioned—read out at Daikandaiji.
Kannon, or Avalokitesvara, was originally seen as a male Boddhisatva, but is often depicted as a woman. They are also known as Guanyin, from which we get Kannon in Japanese. Guanyin is also seen as Goddess of Mercy, and is one of the most popular figures across multiple sects of Buddhism and even outside of the Buddhist faith, where she is still seen as a goddess. In this case, however, it seems clear that the princes were seeking compassion to relieve the sovereign of his affliction.
And yet it persisted.
They had 80 more people take the tonsure, and then 100 more men and women, placed 100 statues of the Boddhisatva, Kannon, in the palace, and then read out 200 volumes of the Lotus Sutra.
And then they made prayers to the kami of Heaven and Earth. And they dispatched Hata no Imiki no Iwakatsu to present paper offerings to the Tosa great shrine. Nothing seemed to be working.
In the 9th month, we see the royal princes and others, down to the various ministers, all gathered at Kawaradera making oaths for the health of the sovereigns. This last ditch effort would go unrewarded. Five days later, and Ohoama would pass away. Of course, they couldn't just say that he died: The Chronicles actually say that he divinely departed. After all, didn't they call him an incarnate kami?
Two days later, the court began the ritual of mourning, raising voices in lamentation, and setting up a temporary palace of interment in the courtyard, south of the palace. Ohoama's body was placed there some thirteen days later, and people mourned his passing.
For the rituals, we see monks and nuns performing ritual lamentation in the courtyard between 3 and 5 am, around the time that court officials would normally be waiting at the gates. Over the next several days, various ceremonies were held and eulogies given. We are told that the court presented offerings of food for the dead for the first time, and over the next several days monks and nuns would offer their laments and then various individuals would provide their eulogies. Finally, on the last day of the ninth month, the eulogies concluded with Nyang-u, a Baekje prince, who pronounced a eulogy on behalf of his father, and then the Miyatsuko of various provinces came and did likewise. There were also performances of all manner of singing and dancing.
With that, the reign of Ohoama would come to an end. The government would continue under his wife, the Queen, and Crown Prince. We'll get into the succession in a later episode. For now I'll just say that he was eventually buried in a large tomb in the modern Noguchi area of Asuka, and you can still go see it.
And while that does bring us to the end of the reign, we still have a few more things that I want to discuss. This episode just seemed a good time to talk about all of the various new years ceremonies, and that seemed to lead naturally into the very last year, but there is still more to discuss. For one thing, we still haven't quite covered the spread of Buddhism and the changes in the structure. There are also various laws and punishments that are worth covering. Finally, there are the Chronicles themselves: we've talked about it all along, but the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki are attributed to this era, as is the start of what would become the capital of Fujiwara-kyo—many works that Ohoama would not live to see to the end, but is largely held responsible for starting.
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Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast.
And that's all for now. Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.
