Podcasts about taishi

いよいよあさって、2024年1月28日(日)に神奈川県・川崎市の宮前市民館で開催される「Out Hedge Vol.10」。2017年12月にスタートしたこのイベントは、シーンの流れに順応しながら少しずつ形を変容させ、唯一のナンバーイベントとしての地位を確立。ついに節目の10回目を迎えることになる。

This episode we continue to try to pull apart the figure known as Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado, aka Prince Kamitsumiya, aka Toyotomimi no Mikoto.  We'll take a look a little more at what we know and talk about just what we might or might not know about the actual figure behind the legend that has been built up. For more, check out the podcast website at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-99 Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 99: The Prince of the Upper Palace. This is the second episode focused on the famous Prince known as Prince Shōtoku Taishi.  Last episode we went over the various stories that are told about this Prince in the various histories as well as some of the temple records.  Of course, it is generally agreed that most, if perhaps not all, of the information on Prince Shōtoku Taishi, which is to say, the Crown Prince of Great Virtue, is at best exaggerated, and at worst is completely made up at a later time by people deliberately trying to appropriate his story.  Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to tell what is pure fiction and what might be some semblance of reality, but we'll give it a try as best we can. I will say that there is a *lot* that has been written about Shōtoku Taishi and his alter egos, Prince Umayado, aka Prince Kamitsumiya, aka Toyotomimi no Mikoto.  A lot more than I have time to truly delve into.  Besides various sources in Japanese, one of, if not the, most extensive look at sources mentioning the Prince is probably by Dr. Hermann Bohner in the 1930s and 1940s—however, his work, which I am told is over a thousand pages in length, is also entirely in German.  I'm not sure anything quite that extensive has been written in English.  Furthermore, other works out there, like Michael Como's own work, “Shōtoku: Ethnicity, Ritual, and Violence in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition”, often speak more to what the stories of Shōtoku Taishi say about developments in Japanese culture over time, focusing on the Cult of Shōtoku and what it said about Japan in general rather than focusing on the individual.  I am not going to have time to read all of the sources and condense them down for you, but I'm not sure that is exactly necessary.  Just be aware that there is a lot of ink that has been spilled over Shōtoku Taishi in one way or another. As for theories on the actual prince, they vary widely.  Some say that there was, indeed, a powerful figure at court known as Prince Umayado or, alternatively, as the Prince of the Upper Chamber, and he may have even been the Crown Prince, in line to inherit the throne had he not tragically passed away before the death of the current sovereign, Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennō.  Others suggest that the portrait we have is actually a composite—the work of many different individuals, all wrapped up in the guise of a single, powerful individual who instituted sweeping changes across the archipelago and single-handedly gave birth to the Japanese state.  Of course, there are also those who accept the story as true—or at least as true as the rest of that period of history. For my part, I believe I'm closer to the ideas proposed in 1999 by Ōyama Seichirō, in his book ‘Shōtoku Taishi no Tanjō', who suggested that there likely was an actual Prince Umayado, but that his story was exaggerated by the compilers of the Nihon Shoki and by later groups promoting the Shōtoku cult. By the way, when I mention the Shōtoku “cult” I want to be clear what I mean—cult in this instance is more like a cult of personality.  It encompasses the various ideas that people held about the Prince, true or otherwise.  However, it should be noted that until more recently it is unlikely that anyone would have claimed to have been a part of any kind of “cult” or group with specific, Shōtoku Taishi related beliefs.  Rather, the Prince's story was, to many of them, simply a fact, even as they consciously or unconsciously embellished the story.  In fact, we often blame the compilers of the Nihon Shoki for adding to the Prince's story, but it is just as likely that they were simply going off of other sources that also recorded these same things. Given all of that, who was the real Prince Umayado? We are told that Umayado's name comes because his pregnant mother gave birth to him as she was wandering around during her pregnancy and suddenly delivered him in front of the office of the horse stables—the Umayado.  He is also known as Prince Kamitsumiya, or the Prince of the Upper Palace.  This was because, we are told, before he was made Crown Prince and given the Crown Prince's quarters as his own, his father had installed him in the “Upper Hall” of the South Palace, in his own complex.  The name Toyotomimi no Mikoto is less obvious, but more similar to the types of names we had seen in previous generations of sovereigns, and likely a kind of titular name, combining various accolades and titles together. That last one gets to a tricky bit about Prince Umayado:  Was he actually of Royal birth, and was he the son of a previous sovereign? As noted last episode, we are told that Umayado's father was Tachibana no Toyohi, himself the son of Ame Kunioshi Hiraki Niwa no Ohokimi, aka Kinmei Tennō, and Kitashi Hime, daughter of Soga no Iname.  We've already noted how the Soga family really wormed their way into the royal line.  Theoretically, sovereigns were supposed to come from a queen that was, herself, of royal blood.  The previous exception to this was Iwa no Hime, daughter of Katsuraki no Sotsuhiko and wife to Ohosazaki no Ohokmi, aka Nintoku Tennō.  However, that seems to have stopped being an issue since about the time of Ame Kunioshi's father Wohodo no Ohokimi, aka Keitai Tennō.  After all, the first two of his sons to succeed him to the throne were the sons of Menoko, herself a daughter of Owari no Muraji no Kusaka—not exactly a name boasting of royal lineage.  To be fair, the Nihon Shoki only claimed that they were holding the throne for their more properly titled brother, Amekunioshi, so take that as you will. Amekunioshi, married three of his own nieces—daughters of his brother, which may have been an attempt to smooth out some of the kinks in the royal line.  He also married at least two—possibly three—daughters of Soga no Iname, and they produced several sovereigns.  One of these, of course, is Tachibana no Toyohi, aka Youmei Tennō, but there was also Hatsusebe no Wakasazaki, aka Sushun Tennō.  Finally there was Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennō, though one could argue that she held her place as much because she had been the consort—or even queen—to her step-brother, Nunakura Futodamashiki, aka Bidatsu Tennō. It should also be noted, though, that both Hatsusebe no Wakasazaki and Kashikiya Hime came to the throne during a period of political violence.  There was the Soga and Mononobe conflict, a genuine fight for the throne which spilled out into the general public.  This all reads as the results of Soga no Iname—and then, later, Soga no Umako—maneuvering to put the Soga family in power to rule the country.  That they succeeded in getting two Soga relatives on the throne—even if Umako then assassinated Hatsusebe when he proved too difficult to control—would seem to indicate that the Soga gambit had been effective, and they had overcome the traditions that previously had been designed to limit who had direct access to the power of the throne.  Of course, there are questions of just how old and how accurate that tradition was—for all we know, the previous “queens” had simply had their lineages updated to ensure that they were of proper royal birth—but I still think it is telling. But how does this relate to Umayado? Well, as I mentioned, his father was Tachibana no Toyohi.  Just like Kashikiya Hime and Hatsusebe, he was also a son of Ame Kunioshi no Ohokimi and one of his Soga wives.  In fact, it wouldn't be surprising had Toyohi taken the throne, given who else did.  However, I wonder if that ever actually happened.  The Nihon Shoki only places him on the throne briefly—about two years—and during that time, there was still a lot of conflict going on.  The idea that there had been a consensus and that Tachibana no Toyohi was chosen as the next Ohokimi already seems a bit questionable.  Then there is also his supposed misasagi, or tomb.  We are told that he was buried at Shinaga, and this tomb has been identified and is still known today, presumably.  Given the records from then until now, while it is possible that the tomb was mistaken at some point over the intervening centuries, I would propose that its identification is probably fairly reliable, especially as it is also said to be the tomb of Prince Umayado, as well.  However, there is a problem, and that is that the tomb is not a round keyhole shaped tomb as would be expected of a royal tomb up to that time.  Instead, it is a square shaped tomb. Why is this notable?  Because the "imperial” tombs up through Amekunioshi, aka Kinmei Tennō, and his son, Nunakura no Ohokimi, aka Bidatsu Tennō, are all round, keyhole shaped tombs; the zenpō-kōen, or flat font and round-backed kofun.  Even through different dynasties, the shape and size of the kofun seem to hold true.  However, that stops with Tachibana no Toyohi.  His tomb is square shaped, which is much more similar to individuals other than the royal family.  However, complicating matters somewhat, it isn't just his tomb where we see this change.  Suddenly we see a bunch of square tombs that are designated as royal tombs.  These include the tombs of Tachibana no Toyohi, aka Yōmei Tennō; Hasebe no Wakasazaki, aka Sushun Tennō; and Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennō.  All of their identified tombs seem to be square tombs, similar to the tomb identified with Soga no Umako, Ishi-butai kofun.  So why the sudden switch? It is not directly stated, but this may have been a part of all of the other changes in court and ritual that were happening.  In succeeding generations we see eight-sided kofun, and even round kofun—and all for verified sovereigns.  So it is entirely possible that it is at Youmei where the tradition of keyhole-shaped royal kofun ended. But I am still rather skeptical about all of this.  I wonder if the shape of Tachibana no Toyohi's kofun indicates it was just the kofun for a powerful member of the Soga lineage, just like Umako's kofun.  However, I must admit, it doesn't directly contradict the sources that say he was Tennō, since the following sovereigns are also recorded as having square-shaped tombs.  Then again, there is a bit of a question on just about all of them as far as how much they reigned and what power they held, vice what power was in the hands of Soga no Umako.  As for the succeeding generations, well, there are other shapes as well.  For instance, there is an octagonal kofun, and an eight sided kofun would actually match up well with a growing belief in Buddhism, where eight is an extremely auspicious number—enough that people in some Asian countries will actually pay more for license plates or phone numbers with multiple 8s in the number, along with other auspicious digits. And there's another factor that might explain why they moved to a less complex kofun shape: I've mentioned in past episodes that the temple building craze of the early 600s really killed off kofun construction.  We see resources that would have gone to venerating important figures, and building their tombs, the likely center of their ritual veneration, instead go to the building of temples.  In many ways, temples became the better and more lasting memorial for any wealthy individual, especially since temples themselves could grow and change with the times, where as a giant mound of earth, cool as it is, was a bit hard to modify, let alone relocate.  I also suspect that the change in various rituals also meant that the previous shape of the kofun, that round keyhole shape, may not have been as important in later periods.  If we assume that shape had something to do with the focus of conducting regular rituals at the site, for which purpose certain families were actually employed in hereditary positions, then moving away from that shape would suggest, to me, that there was a change in the rituals as well.  However, that change was coming much earlier than the temples, should we choose to believe the chronology given to us in the Nihon Shoki.  So it while it explains, in broad strokes, the move away from kofun practice, it doesn't satisfactorily explain everything that we are seeing at this period. And that brings me back to my hesitation to say that Tachibana no Toyohi was ever a sovereign of Yamato.  And the main thing about Tachibana no Toyohi's ascension that gets to me is it all feels rather contrived, and there really isn't much said about him.  I can only think that this was done in order to make sure that Prince Umayado had the necessary pedigree for everything else that people were going to be saying about him.  As awesome as he was, he wasn't going to be nearly so incredible if he didn't have a lineage which put him in line to inherit the throne.  BUT, I could very easily be wrong, especially if some of our sources aren't exactly in order.  We've certainly seen other places where it appears that individuals were either raised up as sovereigns or possibly co-sovereigns, individuals who reigned at the same time, may have had their reigns massaged to conform with the desired narrative.. Which brings up another question:  Was Umayado ever actually named as the Crown Prince?  Was he truly in line to succeed Kashikiya Hime? I'm not sure that is as black and white.  As I've noted before, why would Kashikiya Hime have chosen him over other potential candidates?  Even if his father wasn't sovereign, he was still a royal prince of Soga lineage, but Kashikiya Hime also had her own children, at least according to the Chronicles.  Where were they? I'm not sure, but I am inclined to believe that Prince Umayado may have, indeed, been either the Crown Prince or in a position so close that it didn't warrant a distinction.  That said, it might be interesting to look through some of the early records, such as the Gankōji Garan Engi, and see just how he is referred to, there. There are plenty of the stories about Prince Umayado that I believe we can take as true, even if only in part.  I have no reason not to believe that he was an avid supporter of continental learning, including Buddhism and other teachings.  That was all new and exciting, and with the direction that the Yamato state was tacking at the time it would have been useful and provided the Prince some clout and notoriety.  It is also quite possible that he penned one or more commentaries on various sutras, though how good or insightful it would have been I have no idea, and whether it was his own words or if he perhaps patronized a temple to help write them for him, I couldn't say.  I don't know that there is anything definitive, one way or the other.  I might even go so far as to suggest that he played a role in helping to lay out the seventeen article constitution and championed a version of the continental rank system, but I doubt he just made it up himself out of whole-cloth.  There were no doubt more than a few scribes by this point who had read various works from the continent and were able to help pull the various concepts of good government together.  I doubt he was the one putting pen to paper for all of it, but who knows. Perhaps, though, the most likely case for his existence comes in the form of the temple, Hōryūji, said to have been built on the site of his former estate, and the woven mandala said to have been commissioned by one of his own consorts.  These are compelling to me because they both physically exist, even if in a diminished state.  For Hōryūji we can look at the archaeological evidence, as well as any extant buildings or images.  For the Tenjukoku Shūchō Mandala, though, we only have some of the original fragments, along with some fragments of a later copy, but we also have copies of the inscription that was on the mandala.  It is possible that the transcription we have is somehow not correct, but that would be odd since the object was on display for people to see and remained intact through at least the Kamakura period, one assumes, since that's when they made a copy of it.  Let's examine both of these a little more in depth. Hōryūji temple is said to have been built by Prince Umayado, on his estate, but it was supposedly built for his father, Tachibana no Toyohi.  In fact, Hōryūji was apparently supposed to be *his* temple.  Tachibana no Toyohi, suffering from illness, is said to have vowed to build a temple, but he died before he could complete it.  Prince Umayado's eventual work to build Hōryūji is said to have been an act of filial piety as much as it was one of Buddhist piety, as it was dedicated, originally to Yakushi Nyōrai, a Buddha associated with healing illness, and it was built for his father, the Great King, Tachibana no Toyohi. We see several times the idea of building a temple on a noble family's personal compound.  Soga no Iname is the first to convert his house, or some portion, and Soga no Umako eventually succeeds with Hōkōji, aka Asukadera.  It makes sense that Hōryūji was also built on land donated by an elite member of Society, and everything points to it being Prince Umayado.  In fact, it would be rather odd to build it on land that wasn't already built up in some way.  Even Shitennōji was built, we are told, on a compound that formerly belonged to the Mononobe—a rather large middle finger, or perhaps an inverted V, extended by the Soga to those whom history labelled as the anti-Buddhist faction of the early court.  Nearby Chūgūji, literally the “Middle Palace Temple” was, we are told, built on the site of Prince Umayado's mother's home.  I'm not sure if we can verify that entirely, but the fact that it is known as the “Middle Palace Temple” suggests some connection to an elite's compound and “palace”—the Naka tsu Miya to Umayado's Kami tsu Miya, perhaps.  The two were close and became only closer with time, though they did retain their own characteristics. And so Hōryūji was quite likely built on the site of someone's palace, and if it wasn't the Prince we know as Umayado, then who was it?  At the very least we have some person that may be at least a part of the legion that makes up the legend of Shōtoku Taishi. As for the Tenjukoku Shūchō Mandala, for that we have the inscription from the mandala itself.  We are told that Tachibana no Iratsume asked Kashikiya Hime to commission it for her departed husband, Prince Toyotomimi.  As far as I can tell, this inscription, found in the Jōgū-Shōtoku Ho'o Teisetsu, a biography of Shōtoku Taishi, is considered an accurate transcription of the four hundred or so characters that were on the original curtain. If that is the case, then we have an inscription from shortly after his death attesting to the existence of a Prince Toyotomimi, and it even gives part of his lineage, including mention of Tachibana no Toyohi, whom we are told was, indeed, a sovereign, though we don't know when or for how long.  So that would seem to support the assertions in the Nihon Shoki about Tachibana no Toyohi's status. The biography, at least as it comes down to us, was likely compiled sometime in the 10th or 11th century, which makes a lot of its information suspect, but I generally think we can trust the transcription from the mandala.  Afterall, we have pretty good evidence for the artifact still existing when it was compiled.  The fact that the artifact seems pretty clearly made in the Asuka period—so in the 7th century, not soon after Toyotomimi's death—further adds to the reliability.  That isn't to say they didn't pick and choose what they were going to report in the biography itself, but, for me, there is little reason to doubt this inscription is what was on the actual mandala. On the other hand, we still don't have a lot of information about Tachibana no Toyohi.  He came to the throne, other things largely happened around him, and then he died of illness.  So perhaps Tachibana was a short-lived sovereign after all.  I'm honestly still on the fence about it, but the more I read, the more I come around to the idea, though that still doesn't explain how his son ended up being remembered so well. All in all, I suspect that most of Shōtoku Taishi's story is rooted in truths and facts about this era.  He may, indeed, have been the Crown Prince, or at least a very influential one.   He likely was on top of the craze in Buddhist and Continental learning.  He may have even played some role in helping to govern the country.  Still, how did he come to outshine the others who had almost equal claims on all of this change?  For one thing, there was Kashikiya Hime.  She was smart, capable, and the one actually seated on the throne.  Unfortunately, I suspect that she had two major impediments to taking on the mantle that Shōtoku Taishi donned.  For one thing, she was a woman. Unfortunately, along with continental ideas would come an increase in continental misogyny , though it would take some time to reach the same level, and there would still be female sovereigns ruling alongside male sovereigns for some time.  However, she also was the sovereign, and that likely meant that her reputation, such as it was, was caught up in the push and pull of court politics.  Even within the royal family there were different factions and different people aiming for the throne, and so she may not have had universal support for sainthood.  This may not have been as much of a problem had she, herself, like Prince Umayado, passed away early and young, but she lived and reigned a good long while. And then, besides her, there is the other major mover and shaker of the period, Soga no Umako.  Of just about anyone other than the sovereign, Soga no Umako seems to have been the best positioned to provide the kind of guidance, patronage, and more that was likely making into reality many of the things for which Shōtoku Taishi received credit, including his own temple of Hokoji.  Soga no Umako had an almost bigger problem than Kashikiya Hime, however.  He had led the forces against the Mononobe and their allies, and many of those allies would eventually lick their wounds and come back to power.  Even the Mononobe were still around, if not guiding the government.  Furthermore, listeners who have been reading ahead in the story will likewise already know that it was the Fujiwara family that eventually would control the court for centuries.  In fact, for many students of Japanese history, the Soga are not portrayed as paragons of virtue who helped introduce Buddhism to Japan, but rather as a greedy family that didn't know their place and who went beyond the bounds of what we considered acceptable behavior.  As such, I doubt Soga no Umako was in much of a position to be venerated by large swaths of the population. In the end, it was probably the fact that he died early that allowed Prince Toyotomimi, aka Prince Umayado, to become the venerated figure he is, today.  To quote eminent Gotham lawyer, Harvey Dent:  “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”  Sure enough, Prince Umayado died at a point where likely the public could still imagine all of the good that he could have done.  Meanwhile both Kashikiya Hime and Umako had been through some stuff, and they had done what they needed to gain and maintain power.  It may have been a recipe for their success, but it didn't necessarily make them universally beloved.  I suspect that, in the end, the lack of information about Prince Umayado, along with some key bits of likely true information, allowed people to build him up into what they needed him to be—a culture hero that could embody the ideals that Yamato was adopting and adapting from the continent.  He had the prestige—a royal prince and, perhaps even a Crown Prince.  And he was involved with this new culture that was being imported and updated. Of course, this is largely speculation.  In the end, it is hard to know what are the true facts around this legendary figure.  I think the best we can really say is that there likely was an ur-Shōtoku, an original Prince, who may or may not have been known as either Prince Umayado, Prince Kamitsumiya, or even Prince Toyotomimi—and one or more of those names may even have belonged to different people.  And so we are largely left with a question and with the legend, but in that legend, there is a plethora of information, if not about the actual human being, then about the changes that were happening in the Yamato court and in society as a whole.  Regardless of all of the exact details, the 7th century would be extremely critical in the history of Yamato, setting the path for the future.  One which we will be diving into, episode by episode, as we continue our trek through the histories. But for now, I think I'll leave you here.  For those listening to this when it comes out, I wish you the best in this holiday-filled season, from about November to February, whatever you may be celebrating.  And if you feel like giving, I hope you'll forgive me if I reiterate that I do this out of love of the history, and so we pay for all of the expenses ourselves, so any donations that people like to throw our way are always appreciated.  However, first and foremost, please take care of yourselves and those around you. And so, until next time, then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  Again, if you do like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need this season to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan. 

This episode we start our dive into the reign of Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tenno.  This is going to be a brief overview of her reign so that we can dive more deeply into the individual subjects that come up. For more, check out our podcast blogpost at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-93 Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 93: Time to Shake Things Up. Before we get started, a couple of shout-outs.  First to Anticia, for donating on Ko-Fi.com.  Thanks for your kind words and supporting our operations, including our website and this podcast.  And then to Lowbrow78 and to Parp for supporting us on Patreon.  If you want to join them, we have information on our website as well as at the end of every episode. Here we are, at the cusp of the 7th century.  With the death of Hasebe no Ohokimi, aka Sushun Tennou, we are about to jump into one of the most significant reigns to date: that of Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennou.  I put this right up there with the reign of Waketakiru, aka Yuryaku Tennou, and like that period, we'll need several episodes to get through everything going on here.  In fact, I've been thinking about just how to do this, and I think before we get into it we need to cover the broad strokes and talk about a few things, and then I want to delve into some specifics over the coming episodes. This means we'll cover a lot this episode at a high level.  To start with, we'll talk about the power players of this period, and just who was really running the show—we have three people to pick from based on various interpretations of this era.  And that will have us talking about Shotoku Taishi, and of course Shotoku Taishi's impact vis-à-vis Buddhism, as well as the growth of Buddhism in general.  There is also the general Sinification of the court, which means that we also get to talk about clothing styles and the appearance of a new “17 Article Constitution” as well as the new 12 rank system for court officers.  And then there is everything happening on the mainland.  In 589 the Sui dynasty came to power, followed in 618 by the Tang.  And of course we still have Baekje and Silla going at it, and Yamato just cannot leave well enough alone when it comes to Nimna.  All of that will get covered in even more detail, later.  But don't worry, it isn't all going to be generalities and vague preparations.  We also have a little tidbit for you at the end about earthquakes and the deities that cause them, because *that* is something we can easily cover here. And one more thing:  This is the last reign that we have any documentation for in the Kojiki and the Sendai Kuji Hongi, even though the Kojiki is largely just genealogical information.  That means we are getting close to the end of the “Chronicles”.  We still have a lot of material to get through, though, including assassinations, coups, military expeditions, and even a full blown civil war.  All that to come later, after we get through this period. So let's set the stage, shall we?  This reign is coming at a very tumultuous time.  We've been through several sovereigns or would-be sovereigns in a very short span, starting with Tachibana no Toyohi and then Hasebe, aka Yomei Tennou and Sushun Tennou, not to mention the failed attempt to take the throne early by Hasetsukabe Anahobe and Mononobe no Moriya.  Even Hasebe was killed by his own Oho-omi, Soga no Umako—or at least at Umako's order, if not directly by his own hand.  It's become clear you didn't want to be crossing Umako, and he was the most powerful minister at court at this point.  There wasn't a cabal of Oho-omi and Oho-muraji, there was simply Umako at the top.  However, his rule was not absolute.  He still needed the buy-in of the other ministers, the heads of their own families, as well as the nominal approval of the sovereign and the royal family.  I'm honestly surprised nobody tried to put a dagger in his back, but then again anyone who might try had so far ended up with their successors caught up in probate, and it didn't matter how powerful a position they supposedly occupied. Still, Umako couldn't take the throne himself.  Not even he could get away with that looking like anything more than a power grab.  He had already positioned Soga-descended members of the royal family so that they were in the line of succession, something that really looks like it went against tradition—though how old that tradition was is more than a little sus, as we've mentioned before.  And so, with the death of Hasebe, someone was needed on the throne, but who was available?  The political violence had even extended to some of the heirs, like Prince Hikobito, and it is unclear how many princes were even left at this point. The Chronicles tell us that the ministers therefore turned to Kashikiya Hime, and begged her to take the throne. As a reminder, Kashikiya Hime was the form queen—wife to Nunakura Futodamashiki, aka Bidatsu Tennou.  Beyond that, she was a granddaughter of Soga no Iname, making Soga no Umako her maternal uncle.  Her father was Ame Kunioshi Hiraki Hiro Niha, aka Kimmei Tennou.  During the period following Ame Kunioshi's death, she had attempted to put her finger on the scales of the power struggles that occurred, and she seemed to be a person that people listened to and took seriously in her role, though male heirs were at least initially considered before her. And so, when she was first asked to take the throne after Hasebe, she refused, but eventually the court ministers able to convince her.  Upon coming to power she  almost immediately made Prince Umayado the Heir Apparent, or Taishi—the Crown Prince.  Then we are told that, along with Prince Umayado, aka Shotoku Taishi, she and Soga no Umako, the Oho-omi, ruled the government.  And I hope I don't need to point out how exceedingly strange this wording is.  Technically it isn't unprecedented—in previous reigns we've certainly seen the Crown Prince taking an active role in the government, and the Oho-omi and the Oho-muraji, together, were frequently in positions to advise, counsel, and downright run the government, often skipping over the sovereign altogether.  So nothing here is so far outside the scope, but it is still odd that it was so blatantly stated, and there is good reason to believe that we don't have the whole story. Theories on Kashikiya Hime and her reign vary widely.  Michael Como claims that she was likely a consensus candidate—she was put forward because she was not overly objectionable to any of the other parties involved.  I suspect she had links to both sides of the dispute, so this make some sense, but I also wonder if it doesn't remove her own agency. Speaking of which, there is the possibility that she had very little agency in any of this.  There is the possibility that she was no more than a puppet—a relatively docile sovereign that Soga no Umako, or even Prince Umayado, could control, allowing them to work in the background.  Indeed, one of the things we'll see during this period is the increasing ritualization of the role of the sovereign, to the point that the Oho-omi was a powerful intermediary, receiving missives to the throne and relaying them onward, with ample opportunity to affect just how they were heard.  Often the Chroniclers found ways to deny the true agency of women on the throne, noting them less as sovereigns, and more as regents—often merely keeping the seat warm until an appropriate male heir presented himself and came of age.  That may have been the case at times, but I have a hard time seeing that in Kashikiya Hime.  Maybe when she first married Nunakura that may have been her outlook, but since then she'd seen some things.  She knew how the game worked, and we've seen her actively mentioned supporting one candidate or another, and not always agreeing with Soga no Umako's decisions.  It is possible that this was added later to support her independence in the Chronicles, but I think that the easier answer is that Kashikiya Hime was her own person, and as ruler she was the authority that held sway. Still, there are so many questions, and a lot of those revolve around her choice of successor, Prince Umayado, the Prince of the Horse Stable Door, aka Shotoku Taishi. Shotoku Taishi is one of those legendary figures, somewhere between Yamato Takeru and Abe no Seimei.  So many stories have grown up around this sage prince that it is truly hard to pry fact from fiction, and many wonder if he ever existed at all.  Others suggest that he's an amalgamation of several different historical and legendary figures.  Even by the time the Chronicles were being written his legends had reached cult like status, with numerous Buddhist temples claiming some connection to this founding sage of Japanese Buddhism, however tenuous.  It doesn't stop there, however.   Shotoku Taishi is said to have written one of the earliest national histories, and there are claims that this early history is none other than the Kūjiki, the text that we have in the Sendai Kūji Hongi. Some have speculated that this why that work and the Kojiki both stop here, with the reign of Kashikiya Hime. Of course, in the case of the Kojiki, the real narrative stopped some time ago, with the later reigns containing little more than genealogical lists.  The Sendai Kūji Hongi is a little more interesting. It Is clear that the authors of the Nihon Shoki and the Sendai Kūji Hongi were working from some of the same texts, with possibly one referencing the other, but at the same time there are small differences that suggest different authors with different purposes.  The Nihon Shoki certainly has more details on the official histories, while the Sendai Kūji Hongi contains sections on the genealogical information of the Mononobe and Owari families as well as information on various provincial governors. Personally, I find it highly questionable that the Sendai Kūji Hongi might be written by Shotoku Taishi, but I concede that it, along with the Nihon Shoki, might have both borrowed from an earlier work. Nonetheless, it does stop, and only the Nihon Shoki covers the next couple centuries, though in even greater detail.  We start to see more granular details about many items, though there are still questions. Given all of the swirl around Shotoku Taishi, however, I've had to think about just what tack to take with him, and for now we'll take a look at what the official narrative has to say, and then perhaps add a bit more context.  I'll frequently be referring to him here as Prince Umayado, and we'll focus on him primarily as a prince and a political figure. Given that, there is the question of whether or not Prince Umayado was actually running things. I'm not aware of any tradition that claims he was more than the Crown Prince, and as such a powerful advisor to the throne.  Umako seems more likely as a power behind the throne, but there are certainly clues that Umayado was up there—and of course, in later years, Shotoku Taishi's own shine meant that people were more likely than not to attribute just about anything good from this period to him and his auspices, even if it was just because he suggested it. But that brings us to the question:  Just what happened during this reign that was worth anyone taking credit for?  What happened that we are spending our time talking about it? To start with, the reign was just long.  Kashikiya Hime was taking the throne around 593 and she would reign up until her death in 628.  That was over thirty years, which is a good run for any sovereign, for reasons we've covered before, such as the fact that they are usually coming to the throne when they are older, etc.  Remember, she was probably born in the 530s, possibly 538, and so she took the throne in her late 50s or early 60s and held it until she was about 90 years old. During this period, there was a lot of change going on outside the archipelago as well as inside.  In 589, the Sui dynasty had come to power, uniting the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins.  Their reign officially ended about 618, though that wasn't necessarily a given at the time, and they were certainly a powerhouse as they united the northern and southern dynasties.  The Sui status fell in 618 only because it was replaced by a new dynasty: The Tang dynasty.  This was a dynasty founded by Li Yuan, a cousin of the Sui emperors, with a multi-ethnic background including Han and non-Han parentage, who came from a traditionally Xianbei—or by that time Tuoba—region.  Tang dynasty culture would come to influence all of the cultures on the peninsula and the archipelago, truly becoming the “Middle Country” that various states looked to as a cultural touchstone.  Tang culture spread throughout East Asia. The states on the Korean Peninsula had been absorbing the culture of the riverine courts for some time—honestly ever since the time of the Han commanderies.  As Buddhism percolated through the elite societies of Baekje, Silla, and now Yamato, it was more than just religious transmission.  Sutras had been translated into Sinic characters, and Buddhist learning often went hand-in-hand with texts on a variety of other issues, as there was no formal line drawn between science, philosophy, and religion. And so, as Yamato embraced Buddhism, there were other avenues of studies that also came over the straits, often attributed to the descendants of the Han dynasty, but largely filtered through a Baekje or even Silla lens.  We see this manifest in myriad ways, from the various physical objects left behind in tombs, etc., as well as the clothing, of which we have several indications that the islands were adopting continental practice.  However, we also have passages about the adoption of certain knowledge or technology, as well: everything from philosophy and calendar making to geomancy and even magic and the art of invisibility. And then we see another important development this reign: The first constitution in Japan.  Known as the 17-Article Constitution, it is attributed to none other than Shotoku Taishi himself, making him, in a way, the father of the country.  Granted, the constitution was light on actual details, and more like a collection of moral maxims.  This included things like anti-corruption tenets, suggesting that maybe you shouldn't do things in government just because someone paid or flattered you.  Still, these were not necessarily formative statements.  After all, the Yamato state had customs and traditions, and so these were seen as more guiding principles than the kind of generative formulae that you might find in something like the US Constitution, where they were attempting to deliberately define the legal framework for a brand new nation. Nonetheless, it is seen as the start of a new era for Yamato.  This law may have been loosely worded, but it was, eventually, written down.  It also was quickly followed by a new ranking system.  The kabane system of ranking didn't go away—not even the traditional individual honorifics, like Sukune, although that would have a bit of gap in the record.  The Kabane system remained in use to rank the various families, but then a twelve cap system was instituted to rank individual courtiers.  This was a first.  While certain courtiers certainly had privileges—for example, the heads of certain families—the ranking system, which came to be used, in one form or another, throughout east Asia, was a distinctly continental tradition.  On the face of it, this was about setting up a meritocracy.  Those who were most deserving would stand at the top, overseeing those below them.  Of course in Yamato, “most deserving” usually meant those who came from the right families, so we'll see how that evolves over time. We also see some changes in the way that Yamato was coming to view itself as the center versus the periphery.  Lands that were once sovereign units unto themselves, had gone from simply acknowledging the nominal hegemony of Yamato to finding their subservient position being written into the law.  We see an idea that individual governors—the lords of those regions now part of the larger Yamato state—should not levy their own taxes, but that there should be a single tax on the people.  This is a critical concept, and it would be interesting to see just how well it was obeyed; certainly in later periods it was often the prerogative of local governors to adjust the taxes to take into account their, ahem, overhead.  Nominally this was to cover the costs of local administration, but in many periods it was assessed by those in charge, locally, to help cover their personal costs, and was often set based on what the local administrators thought that they could get away with, as all of the excess went to line their own pockets.  This would make provincial governorships rather lucrative, though being that far from the capital and the seat of power would have its drawbacks.  This is a not uncommon model for tax collecting in different societies, where tax collectors paid themselves out of the taxes they collected. At this point in time, however, the central government was clearly trying to get a handle on this practice, and it makes sense as they were trying to assert more direct sovereignty over the land and the people.  So it would not do to have the people paying taxes to two lords, since there could be only one ultimate sovereign, and they were seated on the throne in Yamato.  This goes along with a continual thread of centralization of state control, another concept that they were likely pulling from the way that continental states were organized. And all of this came along with a healthy dose of Buddhism.  This reign we see the completion of Asukadera, one of the key temples to be set up in this time.  We also get indications of the start of Shitennouji, in modern Ohosaka, the ancient temple of Houryuji, which even today still boasts the oldest wooden building in the world, and the temple of Koryuji, in the Uzumasa district of modern Kyoto.  In addition to this we are told that the elites went on something of a temple-building craze. This temple building craze—and particularly the building of state sponsored temples—would be a new sign of elite status, but it would also pull resources away from previous traditional efforts.  Most notably, the labor going to build, staff, and maintain Buddhist temples would pull people away from the building and maintaining of monumental tombs.  This doesn't mean that they would go away, but the tombs certainly changed, and we would see them become smaller, less prominent, and, ultimately, they would be just about phased out altogether, except for a few particularly prominent examples. In addition to the growing influence of the Buddhist religion, relations with the mainland were also notable.  There are several mentions of different types of “tribute” from Baekje, Silla, Goguryeo, and even various parts of the archipelago. Of course, once more we kick off the regular attempts to “free” Nimna from Silla rule.  However, it should be noted that there isn't a lot of corroborating evidence for any of Yamato's peninsular activities.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that they were successful, and that hardly appealed to those compiling works like the Samguk Sagi, who were, after all, writing to help prop up the Silla kingdom  and their royal family just as the Japanese Chroniclers were doing for theirs.  There is also the possibility that this was something that didn't happen.  Or at least not as it is described.  It is quite possible that the impact of any attempts to chastise Silla were overblown, or even anachronistic.  Long story short, we don't see any lasting gains by Yamato this period, with many of the attempted military excursions being halted or called off for a number of reasons. We also see Yamato racing farther afield.  Although they call them the Great Tang, based on the timing it seems that Yamato made direct contact with the Sui dynasty some time after the latter had one again unified the area of eastern China.  This contact was significant in a time when the Court, in general, was turning to more Sinified continental practices.  It is also significant that Yamato approached these contacts with a certain pride, assuming an equal status in their communications.  This is borne out in the Chinese histories as well. All in all, there is a lot going on here, so we are going to deep dive into many of these topics. That said, there is one thing that I'll cover in this episode as I'm not sure it really fits well into anything else, but it is a fun diversion.  It happened in the summer of 599, about six years into Kashikiya Hime's reign.  Specifically it was the 27th day of the 4th lunar month when the peace of the realm was disturbed by a tremendous earthquake that we are told “destroyed all the houses”. Now Japan is no stranger to earthquakes.  They sit on the Pacific Rim's “Ring of Fire”, and volcanic and geologic activity is largely responsible for the islands' shape and mountainous terrain.  Not only that, but many of the volcanos across the island are still active, even today.  One stat I read suggested that 10% of the world's active volcanoes are in Japan.  We talked about two eruptions that we know about from the early 6th century back in Episode XXX, but still, those are rare enough.  There has been roughly only one significant eruption every hundred years or so, that we know of.  Meanwhile, Japan experiences about 1500 earthquakes each year.  Most of them are probably not even noticed by anyone not looking at a seismograph, of course.  Over the past decade there has been more than one earthquake each year at magnitude 7 or higher, but these are often in particular places.  Quick digression here—but if you hear about an earthquake in Japan, the numbers that they use to calculate the size are often different from what you might find in the US or other countries.  In the US we usually talk about the Richter scale, developed in 1935 by Charles Richter.  It measures the magnitude in a logarithmic scale, meaning that a category 7.0 earthquake is actually 10 times as powerful as a category 6.0.  Likewise a category 8.0 is ten times that of a 7.0, and one hundred times more powerful than a 6.0.  However, this only really provides the local magnitude, and it doesn't tell you other things, such as the type of force—a sharp crack versus rolling waves, for example—or even the duration.  In Japan, there are a few different ways that the Japanese Meterological Agency classifies earthquakes, and one of those is the Seismic Intensity scale, also known as the Shindo scale. The Shindo scale is more concerned with the effects of the earthquake than simply the magnitude, and while there are 10 different classifications, it only goes up to 7, as levels 5 and 6 are broken up into “Weak” and “Strong” intensities.  This can lead to some misunderstanding when looking at a report regarding Japanese earthquakes, as 7 is the highest they go, but they aren't measuring things the same way. However you measure it, there have been significant earthquakes, with a magnitude of 7.0 or higher, or with loss of life and property, over once a year, on average.  The damage and effects are often somewhat localized, but with modern media it is easy to learn about these earthquakes, which can certainly make it seem like they are happening all the time.  On the other hand, back in ancient times, news would take time to travel.  Still, it is remarkable to me that we really haven't seen anything in the Chronicles on major earthquakes up to this point, similar to how it is strange that we haven't really heard about any major volcanos.  There was an earthquake back in the reign of Woasatsuma no Wakugo, aka Ingyou Tennou, and we mentioned it in Episode 56.  It damaged the temporary burial of the previous sovereign, which is why it was considered of note, but otherwise it was largely just a passing mention to a natural phenomenon.  It is possible that we didn't hear about them because the Nara Basin just didn't experience anything that sizeable, or if there was, it just didn't make it into the records.  Meanwhile, the smaller quakes may have been no less common than heavy rains, and equally predictible. Compare that to later in the Nihon Shoki, where the 7th century would see at least 19 of 22 mentions of the word “earthquake”.  While it is possible that was just a particularly active century, I tend to suspect that it meant that from this point on we probably are getting better records, and thus we will get details that might not have otherwise survived if we were just relying on the historical highlights. In this case, it sounds as if the earthquake was particularly destructive, perhaps a level 6 or higher on the Shindo intensity scale.  And, of course, it impacted the Yamato elites.  We aren't told of any deaths, but it was still a traumatic event and the court took immediate action.  No, they didn't issue emergency relief funds, and they didn't provide labor to rebuild all the houses—or at least not that is mentioned.  No, the Court had something more important it needed to do:  and so orders were given to sacrifice to the “god of earthquakes.” This does make some sense.  After all, a large part of the sovereign's portfolio was in regards to the spiritual realm.  Sure, there was the administration of the state, but just about anyone could provide funding or even people to help with physical tasks.  The role of the sovereign, however, was often as the intermediary between Heaven and Earth; between the kami and human beings.   And so it was completely within Kashikiya Hime's responsibilities to try and placate the spirits that had caused this disaster and to prevent future earthquakes. Now the name of the god of earthquakes is not exactly given.  It is sometimes read as “Nawi” or “Nai” no kami, but even then it is just referencing the shaking land, or “Na”.  There are traditions that connect this kami to one that we've heard about before, Takemikazuchi. Takemikazuchi's name lets us know that he is a thunder deity, and it is not difficult to make a connection between the rolling thunder in the sky and the rolling waves of an earthquake.  Takemikazuchi's previous appearance in the Nihon Shoki was back in the Age of the Gods, when Takemikazuchi and Futsunushi came down to help pacify the land, and particularly the land of Izumo.  Today, Takemikazuchi is worshipped at Kashima Jingu, in the old land of Hitachi, and he is, in fact connected with earthquakes. There is an old belief that earthquakes were actually caused by giant catfish, or Namazu—and once again there is that “Na” component possibly making an appearance.  These old stories said that when the Namazu thrashed about, underground, the land would shake.  When this happened, Takemikazuchi found the kaname ishi, a stone at the top of the catfish's head that poked out above ground.  He struck this stone so hard that there is a divot in the rock even up to this day.  That stone sits on the grounds of Kashima shrine.  It may not look like much, but according to the shrine they tried to dig it out and found that it wasn't just a rock, but it was part of a much larger stone that continued deep into the earth.  Today this stone is a focus for worship to help prevent earthquakes. Now the kaname ishi is not only found in Kashima—there is another one a short distance away at the famous Katori shrine as well, where they worship the spirit of Futsunushi.  There are also Kaname Ishi found in Ohomura Shrine, in Iga, as well as another Kashima shrine in modern Miyagi prefecture.  These are all central to eastern Honshu, possibly indicating a common thread amongst all of them. I would note that I don't know when the tradition of the kaname ishi stone, or that story about Takemikazuchi, first came about, or if that is even the original telling of the story.  We do have an entry in the Shoku Nihongi, the successor history to the Nihon Shoki, where there were shrines to the—or an—“earthquake god” in all seven of the home provinces.  I suspect that local deities were often consulted, and different local traditions may have held some shrines, kami, and rituals as more effective than others. Regardless, I hope it has been an interesting diversion.  I know it was something I enjoyed, having recently visited Kashima and Katori shrines and seen their Kaname Ishi in person—I'll have photos up on the website.  Do you know of other earthquake related rituals or shrines?  Please hit me up online, either on Twitter—or whatever the platform is calling itself today---Facebook, or via email, at the.sengokudaimyo@gmail.com.  I'd love to hear if you know of more shrines that specialize in subduing earthquakes. Next time we'll want to start some of our deep dives.  By then I hope to have done a bit more research on some of the various topics so that we can really tie this all together. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan. 

Fresh off the killing of Anahobe and the destruction of the Mononobe, Soga no Umako is riding high as a new sovereign, Prince Hasebe, takes the throne.  Surely things will have finally settled down, won't they have done? For more, check out our podcast page at: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-92 Rough Transcription: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua and this is Episode 92: Death or Taxes, aka Don't Piss Off Umako. Before we get going, a quick recap: we are still in the late 6th century, and since the death of Nunakura Futodamashiki, aka Bidatsu Tennou, things have been a bit crazy.  The number of apparently legitimate heirs was rather impressive.  There were the various siblings of Nunakura, both full and half-siblings, and there were his children and his siblings' children.  On top of that, there were some truly tense politics amongst some of the most powerful families in the realm, particularly the ancient Mononobe and the more recent Soga family, who had tied themselves so closely with the royal family through marriage that at this point just about every possible heir to the throne was in some way a Soga descendant.  The stories of this era have been filled with stories of death, war, and struggles for the throne.  Finally, there is the tension between Buddhism, which was first introduced in the early 6th century, and the established worship of the various kami, which also speaks to the tensions between various sources of spiritual political authority. As we discussed int the last two episodes, when Nunakura passed away, Prince Anahobe tried to take the throne, and he was initially thwarted by Miwa no Kimi no Sakahe, aka Sakahe no Kimi.  Anahobe, possibly with the assistance of his brother, Prince Hasebe, as well as Mononobe no Ohomuraji no Moriya, killed Sakahe no Kimi, pissing off Nunakura's former Queen, Kashikiya Hime.  Next, Nakatomi no Muraji no Katsumi, in support of Mononobe no Moriya, attempted to curse several of the candidates with stronger claims on the throne, and when that didn't work, he just out and out killed Crown Prince Hikobito, getting offed himself in the process.  Throughout all of this, another prince, Tachibana no Toyohi, apparently ascended, briefly, but seems to have died of natural causes.  In the process, however, he provided legitimacy for his own children as Royal Princes and Princesses to also contest for the throne. Moriya's support of Anahobe led to the death of Prince Anahobe, Prince Yakabe, and Moriya and his family—and many of his supporters, as well.  And yet, despite the loss of the Mononobe and Prince Anahobe, the next heir to the throne, with the approval of Queen Kashikiya Hime, was none other than Prince Hatsusebe, aka Hasebe, a full brother to the rebel Prince Anahobe and the focus of this episode.  If this all seems a bit confusing regarding the individuals and different factions, then congratulations, you've been paying attention.  The narrative certainly seems to be missing some key information, likely lost in the attempt to either whitewash some of the more contentious historical records, or simply due to the Chroniclers' attempts to create a more straightforward narrative out of a complex era which probably saw various courts competing to be recognized as the court that was actually making the decisions—something that doesn't exactly fit in with the attempt to tell the story of a relatively unbroken royal line. And yet, despite the chaos, we do see a solidification of power and control in general, as evidenced by the shift in late 6th century tomb structures.  As I may have mentioned in previous episodes, the Yamato area continued to build monumental round keyhole shaped tombs, but that shape of tomb simultaneously declined in nearby regions, which saw more round or square shaped—or even square keyhole shaped—tombs instead.  On the other hand, at the periphery, at the farthest reaches of the archipelago, we continue to see round keyhole shaped tombs in the Yamato style. This is all likely due to a consolidation of Yamato's power and authority.  Previously we had seen that start with the proliferation of the Yamato style tomb, but even from early times those round keyhole tombs were interspersed with other, typically smaller tombs.  The general assumption, based on the size, grave goods, and other archaeological features, is that the round keyhole tomb, at least in a Yamato context, was reserved for the Yamato royal family and only those of the most elite status.  In the Yamato and Kawachi regions, this seems to have held true, but further afield, local magnates adopted the round keyhole tombs for themselves, perhaps even appropriating some of the prestige of that tomb shape for themselves.  Similarly, it is very likely that Yamato did not have the power to stop local rulers from building whatever the heck they wanted, despite the impression given by the Chroniclers that all was hunky-dory as soon as Mimaki Iribiko and Ikume Iribiko sent out people to subdue the four corners of the archipelago. Whether because of an increased military might, or because of a cultural change in accepting Yamato's leadership, more and more lands seem to have been more directly under Yamato's sway, following their customs and accepting their position in the Yamato hierarchy.  To put it another way: in many parts of the archipelago, particularly those closer to Yamato, we do not see continued claims of “kingship” by the local elite.  They have accepted a lower status in the evolving hierarchy, presumably gaining some security and access to resources of the entire Yamato polity in the process, though that isn't entirely clear to me based purely on the archaeological evidence.  But according to our tomb theory, those on the periphery, where Yamato's control remained the weakest, continued to build their own round keyhole tombs, indicating they still considered themselves somewhat independent, even as they remained influenced by Yamato's overall cultural affectations. Into this world, Prince Hasebe ascended the throne.  Prince Hasebe was another half-brother to Nunakura Futodamashiki.  Like his full brother, Prince Anahobe Hasetsukabe, he was a Soga descendant through the maternal line.  We are told that his ascension was endorsed by Kashikiya Hime, his half-sister, and another Soga-descended royal.  He assumed the throne almost immediately following the turmoil that resulted in Anahobe's death and the destruction of Mononobe no Moriya.  This was in 587, and for the next five years, the reign appeared to be similar to any other, but I suspect that things hadn't quite settled, yet.  How could they?  It seems clear that it was way too easy for political violence to break out, and despite the Chronicles' insistence that everything was fine, many of the systemic issues that led to the violence in the first place were still there. To start with, you still had all of those potential heirs to the throne, and no clear succession tradition or precedence.  On top of that, each household, while created to serve the Court, had grown into its own political entity, vying for their own level of power and control.  No doubt some of this was exacerbated as Yamato's influence grew, bringing more people directly under Yamato's authority. I also can't help but notice that there appears to be a lack of any kind of clear justice system.  In fact, laws in general at this time appear to be based on precedent and tradition, likely oral tradition: although we have writing, we don't have a written system of laws just yet.  We have artifacts with writing on them.  We also have records of books coming over from the continent, which presumably people were able to read.  However, what was writing being used for?  It appears to have been used for communication—for example, diplomatic missions, or to send instructions and receive information back from the various lands under Yamato's rule.  David Lurie notes that this was a kind of practical writing, and it wasn't the same as the kind of extensive journaling that we would see later. It makes sense that much of the laws and traditions at this time were probably based on memorized precedent.  Groups like the Kataribe were organized around an oral tradition, and even the Kojiki was based on a tradition of oral recitation that was still in place by the late 7th century.  I suspect that different families maintained their own memories of precedence and tradition, collectively advising on what should be done in any given situation. This isn't exactly the kind of legal system with firm and fast rules, with everyone equal under the law, and some sort of immutable code.  That wasn't solely because it wasn't written down, mind you—there are plenty of cultures with oral traditions that maintain very clear sets of laws.  However, in this case it was not written down and given what we see and what we know about later court, legal precedent was kept in the memories of various individuals in different families, all of whom were competing for their place in the hierarchical structure that had been created.  Therefore, as long as you could get enough people on your side, then you determined what was just and what was not.  And of course it was the winners who wrote—or at least remembered—the history.   Strong leadership may have been able to keep things stable, but during any change things could get messy, as we've seen time and again.  And had Anahobe and the Mononobe been triumphant we'd likely be reading a very different telling of events. Hasebe's ascension didn't really change any of that, other than the person at the head of the system.  Still, things seemed to hold together alright, and with the recent purges, hopefully things would settle out after a while. The reign started with the standard ceremonies.  Soga no Umako was confirmed as Oho-omi, and though other “Ministers and Daibu”, or high officials, were confirmed, nobody else is named.  Hasebe's palace was set up at Kurahashi, presumably in the hills south of modern Sakurai.  His wife was Koteko, daughter of Ohotomo no Nukade. In his first year, Baekje sent envoys that included Buddhist priests and relics, along with various Buddhist artisans.  We'll probably touch on them more at a later date, but for now I'll note that with their coming, Soga no Umako consulted with them on several matters regarding Buddhism, and then he went ahead and pulled down the house of a man named Konoha and started work on another temple.  This one was known as Hokoji, though it is more popularly known to us by its common name:  Asukadera. Asukadera is perhaps the oldest purpose-built Buddhist temple commissioned by the state, and I think we can do an entire episode just on that temple alone.  The Chronicles make out that it was built to commemorate the supernatural support granted to Umako in his battle against Mononobe no Moriya, though it is impossible to know for certain how much of that is true.  What we can say is that this time there were no dissenting voices from the Mononobe nor the Nakatomi, and Asukadera would become one of the major temples of the Asuka period.  Later, when the capital was built up at Heijo-kyo, in modern Nara, the temple was moved to the new capital, and the complex in Asuka dwindled in importance.  Today you can still visit a temple at the site of Asukadera, but it is a shell of its former self, having been rebuilt on a much smaller footprint than before.   You can, however, go and see the original Buddha statue—or at least the reconstructed form of it, as the original icon was severely damaged in a fire at one point. But building up a proper temple and pagoda in the continental fashion would all take time—for now it appears that they were just breaking ground on a new construction, rather than just repurposing a part of an existing house into the temple, as they had seemingly done in the past.  This was going to take some time.  At the same time, it wasn't just buildings that were needed, and we are told that several Buddhists returned to Baekje along with the envoys.  We are told that they were going to Baekje to gain further instruction in Buddhist teachings. This was the nun Zenshin, daughter of Shiba Tattou, and her companions, who had been ordained at the order of Soga no Umako to help staff his first attempt at building a worship site at his house. The following year, in 589, we are told that there were three “inspections” that were sent out along the various circuits, or roadways, of eastern Honshu.  These circuits were regions of Japan, and come from a continental tradition that would be formalized in the law codes of the early 7th century.  Generally speaking there are usually 7 circuits—8 once Hokkaidou comes into the picture—and then the capital region, often known as the home territories around Yamato and the Nara basin.  Kyushu and Shikoku were each covered by their own circuits:  The Saikaidou, or Western Sea Circuit, covered all of Kyushu, and eventually the Ryukyu islands as well, while the Nankaidou, or Southern Sea circuit covered from the south of the Kii peninsula and the island of Shikoku.  Western Honshu was covered by another two circuits—there was the San'indou, the Mountain Yin Circuit, and the San'yodou, the Mountain Yang Circuit.  Yin being related to the dark and the north, the San'indou covered the areas to the north of the Western mountain range along the Japan Sea coast, from the land of Tanba west to Iwami, including the lands of Inaba and Izumo.  In contrast, Yang was related to the south, and so the San'yodou covered the regions from Harima, next to the land of Settsu, part of modern Ohosaka, and stretched along the southern side of the mountains to the Seto Inland sea to the western land of Nagato, part of modern Yamaguchi Prefecture, and included the ancient land of Kibi. Finally, there were the three circuits of Eastern Honshu, which were the subject of the Chronicles entry in 589.  First off was the Tousando, or the Eastern Mountain Circuit.  Whereas western Honshu can be largely divided by the mountains into a northern and southern region, eastern Honshu was a little different, as the Japanese alps created difficulties that meant that the Tousandou covered the inland regions, starting at Afumi, around lake Biwa, out to Kenu—modern Gunma and Tochigi prefectures, north of Tokyo.  It would eventually include the distant regions of Dewa and Mutsu, which covered much of the Tohoku region up to Hokkaido, although those were still largely outside of the area of Yamato influence, and home to those that the Yamato court called Emishi.  The man sent to inspect this region was named Afumi no Omi no Kamafu—fitting given that Afumi was at the western end of the circuit. Next they sent Shishibito no Omi no Kari to inspect the Toukaidou, or Eastern Sea circuit.  This circuit proceeded from Iga, Ise, and Owari, eastward along the Pacific coast to Hitachi, in modern Ibaraki prefecture.  It includes much of modern Tokyo, and is likely one of the more well known, if only for things like the JR Tokaido line.  This route became well traveled in the Edo period both for the daimyo processions of the sankin-kotai as well as the pilgrimages from Edo to Ise, and onward to points even further west. Finally, we have a member of the Abe no Omi heading out to inspect the Hokurikudou, the Northern Land Circuit.  This was largely the area known in the Chronicles as Koshi, along the Japan Sea Coast.  The Abe family may have had some influence in that region, though it is said that they originally came from the land of Iga, just east of Yamato.  However, we aren't given a specific individual's name—Abe no Omi is just the family name and their kabane rank, and could indicate any member of the Abe family.  This may have to do with the actions of Abe no Hirafu in the late 7th century, but at this point in the story it is unclear.  We are provided the given names of the other inspectors, however—Kamafu and Kari—so it stands out that we have nothing for the inspector of the Hokurikudou other than their family name. Other than the mention of the circuits, and the inspections that the court was conducting, this seems to be a fairly mundane entry—though it does link to some later events.  Still, it provides a little more evidence for the expansion of Yamato's direct control.  The idea that there were court inspectors checking up on these territorial circuits suggests that they were a somewhat active part of the bureaucracy of the court.  Previously the court had set up the Miyake, or royal granaries, which were extensions of royal authority in various areas.  Now we see an additional layer of government that would have been going through the areas and making sure that things were being administered as Yamato believed.  It also suggests that there were those in these circuits who were beholden to Yamato in that they were required to produce some kind of evidence for what they were up to. The year after, in 590, the big news was apparently the return to Japan of Zenshin and others, and we are told that they took up residence at a temple in Sakurai – very possibly a reference to Hokoji or Asukadera, the newly-founded temple we just discussed.  Asuka is outside of the modern bounds of Sakurai city, but at this time the name Sakurai may have referred to a slightly larger and more nebulous area.  On the other hand, they could have settled at another temple in the area that just wasn't part of the state funded program.  In that same vein, later in 590 we are told that people went up into the hills to get timber for building Buddhist temples, and many more people, most of them with connections to the mainland, and especially the Korean peninsula, were ordained.  Buddhism was starting to grow more popular and it was being better patronized by the elites, and soon we will start to see more and more temples popping up. In 591, we see the final burial of Nunakura Futodamashiki, aka Bidatsu Tennou.  This was now many years since his death, but that isn't entirely surprising given the fighting and general turmoil that followed his death.  Building a tomb mound was not exactly a simple feat, and if one wasn't already prepared by the time he passed away, then it would have taken a while to prepare it—and even more time if much of your labor force was being split and repurposed in the fights for the throne.  As you may recall, Nunakura died of a disease, so it is unlikely that there had been a lot of preparation for his death, so we can assume that his body, after resting in the palace of temporary interment for a while, was eventually given a temporary burial and then they likely were reburying the bones several years later.  This isn't exactly unheard of, but it does seem that this was an exceptionally long period between death and final burial. The location of his tomb is said to be on the western side of the mountains, outside of the Nara Basin, in the area  of modern Taishi, in the south of Ohosaka.  This seems to have been a new region for royal burials, from what I can tell, but there would be several important Asuka era burials located in this region. Later in that same year, Hasebe and the court indulged themselves in something that was becoming almost a tradition:  Wondering aloud if they should go marching over to the peninsula and re-establish Nimna.  There's apparently no thought the fact that Nimna had not been a going concern for quite some time now, and this may have just been the popular casus belli of the Yamato court.  Of course, all of the ministers were for it, agreeing that it would be just the best if they could go over there and get Nimna started again. And so they set in motion the necessary work of gathering an army.  This wasn't a simple task and would take quite some time to get the word out, gather men together, and then have them all meet down in Tsukushi at the court's outpost down there.  Not only that, but there would need to be boats made, and armor and weapons would have to be ready.  This was quite the undertaking.  We are told that they eventually gathered over 20,000 men, though that could easily be an exaggeration.  They named five generals, or Taishogun.  This is different from the “Shogun” of later years—the Sei-I Taishogun, or General for Subduing Barbarians.  This is just the title of general, Taishogun, and there were apparently five people who were running things—possibly referring to five different forces that were going to go over, or it may have been a political thing to ensure that people of rank were given opportunities.  It is interesting to see the names, as we have heard some of the family names, at least, before. The five generals were:  Ki no Womaro no Sukune, Kose no Omi no Hirafu, Kashiwade no Omi no Katafu, Ohotomo no Kuhi no Muraji, and Katsuraki no Wonara no Omi.  Then various other Omi and Muraji level individuals were placed in charge below them.  They were all stationed in Tsukushi and two men, Kishi no Kana and Kishi no Itahiko were sent to Silla and Nimna respectively, presumably to try to work something out before things got ugly. That was all listed in the 11th month of 591, and preparations were still ongoing by the time of the next entry, in the 10th month of 592. So remember how I mentioned at the top of the episode about how many of the systemic issues that had led to so much war and bloodshed were still a thing?  Yeah—despite the seemingly rosy and downright mundane picture of the last five years, things were apparently not quite as stable as they may have appeared.  And I say that because of what happened in the 10th month of 592. We are told that this was the winter, possibly around late November or December according to our modern calendar—trying to map ancient lunar calendar dates to modern solar dates are a whole thing, trust me.  Anyway, it was during this season that someone brought in a wild boar and presented it to the sovereign.  And there was nothing too sus going on there—it wasn't a white boar or some kind of unusually large animal.  No, what was remarkable wasn't the presentation at all, but what it kicked off, because apparently Hasebe looked at the boar and made an off-hand comment, which Aston translates as: “When shall those to whom We have an aversion be cut off as this wild boar's throat has been cut.” Just in case you didn't get the allusion, he was basically wondering when those people whom he didn't like would be killed—though possibly he meant cut off in another sense, I think it is pretty clear that he wanted some people taken care of, if you know what I mean.  I would liken it to a phrase attributed to King Henry II of England, who is said to have wondered aloud, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest”, which led to several men heading out and eventually killing Thomas Becket, the then Archbishop of Canterbury.  While Henry may not have actually ordered the killing of Thomas Becket, with whom he'd been in something of a power struggle, his words certainly ended up being the catalyst that led to the archbishop's eventual demise. Similarly here, that certainly seems to have been the intent, or at least that is how it was taken.  Word of the sovereign's outburst made it back to none other than Soga no Umako, the Oho-omi himself, who grew more than a little bit worried.  It didn't help that word was also coming that the royal household was apparently stockpiling weapons—more than usual. Soga no Umako came to believe that Hasebe was talking about him, and though there wasn't a particular reason given, it suggests that there were some things going on below the surface detailed by the Chronicles, and we can speculate on a few of them. First off, Hasebe had not been the first choice for sovereign, and he didn't really enter the picture until after the death of his brother, Prince Anahobe. Anahobe had, of course, believed that he should take the throne himself, but then he was killed.  It is possible that Hasebe was appointed sovereign to appease some of Anahobe's supporters against the wishes of those such as Soga no Umako. Second, it is clear that Umako was immensely influential and powerful, and he probably had more influence than the sovereign himself.  Always remember that if someone raises an army and helps put you on the throne, rather than themselves, they usually have the ability to do the same thing in reverse.  Or, as so many parents are fond of saying: I brought you into this world, I can take you out!  So it may be that Hasebe felt threatened by Umako's own power and felt he needed to be dealt with before Soga no Umako decided that he'd rather have someone more pliable on the throne.  Of course, in another time it might have been enough to just demote him, but it is unclear if Hasebe actually had the power to do that—and if he did, would it stick. There is also another option as well—Hasebe may not have said anything at all, and it is possible that this was a story concocted to explain Umako's own reaction.  This is hinted at, somewhat, in another account that basically comes in once again with the tired “blame the woman” trope.  It suggests that Ohotomo no Koteko, Hasebe's consort and the mother to his two children, started the whole thing as a rumor.  According to this account, she was “declining in favor”—although it is unclear just whom else she was competing against.  If that record is correct, she was the one who told Umako about what Hasebe was purportedly saying, knowing that it would cause problems for her husband because she was unhappy with him.  Even if that were true, we don't know whether or not Hasebe actually said what is attributed to him. Again, regardless of what Hasebe actually said, all of this suggests that things were not as solid and stable as they might otherwise appear to be, and suggests just how literally cut-throat the politics of the Yamato court could get. And so, Soga no Umako took this threat quite seriously, and he engaged the services of one Yamato no Aya no Atahe no Koma. We don't know much about Koma.  The Yamato no Aya were one of several Aya families, and their name suggests that they were descended, at least in part, from ethnic Han Chinese weavers—or at least traced their lineage back to the continent with claims to the Han dynasty, just as the Hata family claimed ties back to the Qin dynasty.  They had been in Japan for generations, but are still often associated with various technologies that came over from the continent. There is also a record, we are told, that says Koma's father was Yamato no Aya no Iwai—whose name is suspiciously similar to that of the Iwai in Tsukushi, or Kyushu, who had allied with Silla and tried to block trade and military support between Yamato and Baekje.  It is possible, and even probable, that this was just a coincidence—after all, why would the son of a rebel who had so aggravated Yamato be in the court at all?  But it was considered significant enough for the Chroniclers to mention it at the same time, and that may be because of the relationship back to that other rebel. Now, for Koma to take action, he and Umako would need to act quickly.  Soga no Umako sent a message to the court ministers and claimed that he was sending someone to present the taxes of the Eastern provinces.  As you may recall from earlier in this episode, a few years earlier inspectors had been sent out along the three eastern circuits.  It would have taken them time to survey, compile their information, and collect any taxes owed, and bring that back to the court.  Umako lied to the other ministers and said that the taxes were ready, and he was sending someone to the sovereign to present the taxes. Of course, he was really sending Yamato no Aya no Koma, and in lieu of taxes he brought death—somewhat fitting if you think about it.  Koma killed the sovereign and then, somehow, made his escape.  Unlike some of the other killings we aren't given too many details of the deed itself. What we are given is the aftermath.  For later in that same month, Soga no Umako had Koma himself killed.  And this is where I find it really weird, or perhaps the Chroniclers were just in denial.  They claimed that Soga no Umako had learned that Koma had been having a clandestine relationship with Kawakami no Iratsume, herself a consort of the sovereign and Soga no Umako's own daughter.  Koma had apparently taken her back to his place to live and made her his wife in secret—basically saying that they had carnal relations together as man and wife, though it is not clear whether or not they were consensual.  Umako thought that his daughter was dead, but when he learned that Yamato no Aya no Koma had taken her, he had Koma killed. And that just all seems so very convenient.  So Soga no Umako has enough influence over Koma to get him to assassinate the sovereign, but somehow misses that his co-conspirator in this has eloped with his daughter, and then kills him out of apparently justified rage?  Uh-huh.  Nothing fishy about that at all. I suspect that what happened at the time versus what was later recorded differed slightly.  Assuming that most of it was accurate, I wouldn't be surprised if Umako got Koma to do the dirty deed, and then offed him, possibly so that he would not be immediately implicated.  Even so, what were the laws around such events?  With Hasebe gone, and nobody else in power to challenge him, Soga no Umako was one of the most powerful people around.  He just didn't have the parental qualifications to take the throne himself. And that is probably what saved him from being labeled a rebel, himself.  After all, you don't get much more rebellious than killing the king.  But is it rebellion when it is self-defense?  Here is where the lack of a strict law code likely came down on the side of Soga no Umako, because despite his involvement, nobody seems to have gone after him or taken him to task.  In fact, he would remain a powerful figure in the Yamato court for years to come. There are also several figures who seem to have remained absent from all of this, but it would be interesting to know where they came down.  The first was Prince Umayado, aka Shotoku Taishi.  Did he sanction or even take part in this plot?  Umayado was still somewhat young, so he may not have had much to say at this point.  Then there was Kashikiya Hime, Nunakura's queen.  Presumably, she had been the one to recommend Hasebe to the throne, but we also see her hand in the decision to punish Anahobe and the Mononobe, which we discussed over the last couple of episodes.  She is often kept at arms length in the narrative, however, which may be because of what the Chroniclers already knew.  With the court once more in need of an heir they searched high and low, and the assembled ministers finally settled on the candidate they thought would be the best of all of them:  Kashikiya Hime herself.  It makes sense: Kashikiya Hime, who is known today as Suiko Tennou, clearly knew how the court operated.  She had sanctioned, if not outright directed, the deaths of Anahobe and Mononobe no Moriya. On the other hand, the patriarchal society of the day—and even that of modern day scholars—questioned her fitness for the job.  Many have pointed to the strongman tactics of Soga no Umako, as well as the focus on Prince Umayado, whom she made her Crown Prince and whom, we are told, assisted in all areas of government.  In fact, it often seems as though Umayado and Umako are the ones actually running things, with Kashikiya Hime as a puppet.  On the other hand, perhaps there was something even more complex—a conspiracy between Umako, Umayado, and Kashikiya Hime.  She may have also been something of a compromise candidate, someone that all of the different factions could get behind. We'll explore all of that and more as we get into her reign in the coming episodes, along with the role played by Prince Umayado.  We'll also look more in depth at the spread of Buddhism, and the temple building that would pick up shortly after Kashikiya Hime came to power.  Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan. 

Our new guest Taishi Fukuyama is a co-founder of Qrates - a Tokyo-based global platform and marketplace that focuses on helping artists and labels when it comes to on-demand and crowdfunding vinyl pressing and cassette manufacturing. In addition, they help with distribution and shipping worldwide, making it easier for everyone to create physical products in the music industry. Whether you're just thinking about pressing or already experience in the physical world of the music industry, this chat will share more insights on the current state of records producing and how Qrates can help you do that better. Links » Qrates Artist Toolkit » Stereofox Referral (up to 300$ off) » Qrates FAQ » Stereofox IG (⁠@wearestereofox⁠) » our newsletter at ⁠Stereofox.com⁠ » host (⁠@himynameisivo⁠) » Join our ⁠Discord Server Podcast notes [03:45] Taishi background and Japan's market evolution into the world of streaming [05:00] Turning the disadvantage of the local market into his career advantage [9:15] The physical characteristics of the Japanese music industry [10:30] The ritual of buying a record [13:40] Current state of the record industry and early days of Qrates [15:35] The team and setup behind Qrates [18:00] Qrates explained in a nutshell [20:45] The vinyl versus streaming experience [22:20] Pressing vinyl, things to be careful about and benefits of Qrates [24:10] Shipping and selling with Qrates - how it works and best practices [29:00] Onboarding and growth on and outside of Qrates [32:10] The Qrates team setup and pressing capabilities / issues worldwide [37:35] The rise of cassettes [40:00] Pressing vinyl strategies for artists [42:15] Finding fans and new opportunities on Qrates [47:50] How to be successful when it comes to pressing vinyl

今回は Waffle の創業メンバーCTOであるTaishiさん (@taishi_yade) をゲストにお招きして、毎月2万人以上が174ヶ国から利用する交換日記サービスWaffleを作るまでの話、CTOという立場で大変だった話、Waffleの技術的な話や採用について話しました。 Your co-hosts: Tomoaki Imai, Knot, inc CTO https://twitter.com/tomoaki_imai Yusuke Kawanabe, Software Engineer https://twitter.com/ykawanabe

Hip Hop Dancer in Pakistan, Co-Founder of Anarchy

My guest for today is Taishi Nobukuni. Taishi is a bespoke tailor from Tokyo, ex fashion designer and creative director, and according to his own words "an architect being a carpenter". During this conversation we will be talking about the tailoring scene in Japan, how fashion has been affected, the importance of reaching flow in the process of creating, and more. I hope that our conversation will be as insightful for you as it has been for me!

1. THE IDOLM@STER FIVE STARS - VOY@GER 2. GalaxyP -

A child sits the throne of Great Ming, which goes surprisingly alright… at least for a while. But when the old guard of the imperial regency starts dying off, a combination of naive youthful exuberance and pure political ambition from the power behind the throne will throw everything into chaos on the plains north of Beijing.Time Period Covered:1435-1449 CEMajor Historical Figures:Great Ming:Zhu Qizhen (Emperor Yingzong, the Zhengtong/Tianshun Emperor) [r. 1335-1449, 1457-1464]Grand Empress Dowager Chen [d. 1442]Wang Zhen, Eunuch Lord [d. 1449]Mongol Tribes:Esen, Taishi of the Oirat [d. 1455] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Taishi is a hip-hop artist, specializing in freestyle dance and choreography. He is also part of the hip-hop freestyle dance crew, 'Anarchy.' We speak about the spirit and flavor of hip-hop in Pakistan, about the plight of dancers in the Pakistani entertainment industry, about problematic paradigms of governance as far as influencers are concerned, about cultural heritage and the universality of dance as a means of communication.

Taishi Nakase, an operations research and financial engineering concentrator who hails from Melbourne, Australia, was named Princeton's valedictorian for the Class of 2021. He spoke with PAW about his research into measles vaccinations campaigns, his plans for medical school, and the challenges and lessons of being a Princeton student in this pandemic year.

As museums across Japan celebrate the 1,400th anniversary of the death of Prince Shōtoku Taishi, the legendary figure who brought Buddhism to Japan, the Sainsbury Institute together with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia is currently collaborating with major universities and museums in Japan to create a special exhibit commemorating the event. This Shōtoku Intervention will display the Sainsbury Centre's collection of Japanese Buddhist and Shinto artefacts centred around a rare 13th century Kamakura period statue of a female Shinto deity. To better explain the significance of Shōtoku Taishi, Beyond Japan will be exploring over three episodes the religious, political and historical context of this dynamic period of East Asian history. We hope you enjoy our Shōtoku miniseries. Oliver is joined by our third and final Shōtoku interviewee Bryan Lowe, Assistant Professor of Religion at Princeton University, who will help us get to grips with the tricky task of reading history from mythology in such ancient texts as Japan's Kojiki, or “An Account of Ancient Matters” written in 711 and Nihon Shoki, or “Japanese Chronicles” written in 720. Bryan begins by exploring why texts were written in this time and how some texts like Buddhist sutras were written and read for rituals rather than sharing information, yet we can still glean much about life in those times from the context in which they were written. In taking this approach, we try to make sense of legendary figures such as Prince Shōtoku Taishi, seeing what we can learn about the man the legend is based upon and what the legends themselves tell us. Image credits: [L] Japan, late Heian period - Further Discourses on the Supreme Truth (Abidharmakosha-Bhashya) - 1916.1060 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif by anonymous is marked with CC0 1.0 [R] 聖徳太子 [Shōtoku Taishi] by jun560 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beyond-japan/message

As museums across Japan celebrate the 1,400th anniversary of the death of Prince Shōtoku Taishi, the legendary figure who brought Buddhism to Japan, the Sainsbury Institute together with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia is currently collaborating with major universities and museums in Japan to create a special exhibit commemorating the event. This Shōtoku Intervention will display the Sainsbury Centre's collection of Japanese Buddhist and Shinto artefacts centred around a rare 13th century Kamakura period statue of a female Shinto deity. To better explain the significance of Shōtoku Taishi, Beyond Japan will be exploring over three episodes the religious, political and historical context of this dynamic period of East Asian history. We hope you enjoy our Shōtoku miniseries. Oliver is joined by our second Shōtoku interviewee Chizuko Allen, Professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and researcher of Korea-Japan relations in ancient times, who will discuss the hidden history of the powerful women of Japan's distant past through the First Empress of Japan, Empress Jingū. Through Jingū and other examples, we can see how empresses played a key role in engaging the Japanese state with continental kingdoms and even lead military campaigns, their record superseding that of their husbands in the ancient records of the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. She also discusses how this legacy was appropriated by expansionists in the 16th and 19th century before being buried in the post-war period through modern interpretations (or misinterpretations) of these texts. Chizuko's research profile Read Empress Jingū: a shamaness ruler in early Japan Image credits: [L] Empress Jingu In Korea by Glaurung_Quena is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 [R] Empress Jingu and Takenouchi no Sukune Fishing at Chikuzen LACMA M.84.31.260 by Fæ is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beyond-japan/message

As museums across Japan celebrate the 1,400th anniversary of the death of Prince Shōtoku Taishi, the legendary figure who brought Buddhism to Japan, the Sainsbury Institute together with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia is currently collaborating with major universities and museums in Japan to create a special exhibit commemorating the event. This Shōtoku Intervention will display the Sainsbury Centre's collection of Japanese Buddhist and Shinto artefacts centred around a rare 13th century Kamakura period statue of a female Shinto deity. To better explain the significance of Shōtoku Taishi, Beyond Japan will be exploring over three episodes the religious, political and historical context of this dynamic period of East Asian history. We hope you enjoy our Shōtoku miniseries. Oliver is joined by our first Shōtoku interviewee, Marcus Teeuwen, Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Oslo, who will help us understand the changing faiths of Japan in the 7th century through the Buddhist concept of honji suijaku (本地垂迹), a notion which allowed Buddhist monks to explain the gods, or kami, worshipped in Japan at the time as traces of Buddhist deities. Mark explains that our contemporary understanding of religion as competing bodies which seek to shape how people live their lives with the goal of a happy afterlife does not apply in this period of time, that the worship of deities had much more practical intentions and that politics were at the core of the spread of Buddhism. Mark's research profile Image credits: [L] Faux Fox Populi by 顔なし is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 [R] 東大寺盧舎那仏像 - 奈良の大仏 the colossal Buddha of Nara by Hase don is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beyond-japan/message

2020年4月現在、アジアはどういった状況かを海の向こうコーヒーのTaishi Yasudaさんと一緒にお話しします。 僕が海の向こうコーヒーチームの一員になったので、このPodcastは海の向こうコーヒーとともにやっていき、情報配信していきますので、これからもよろしくお願いいたします。Hiro --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/u5c71u672c-u535au6587/message

東南アジアのコーヒーを輸入するだけでなく、それぞれの産地と積極的に協力関係を築き、環境・コミュニティ・品質を重視したコーヒーを取り扱う、海ノ向こうコーヒーのTaishi Yasudaさんを迎えてコーヒーのお話 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uminomuko_coffee/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/umimuko/posts/2479180242331332 Short Note 最近の活動 コーヒーベリーボーラー 中国桃源郷コーヒー コーヒー栽培のお話 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/u5c71u672c-u535au6587/message

Taishi Fukuyama is a co-founder and COO of Amadeus Code, an AI-powered songwriting assistant. The technology behind this mobile app breaks "centuries of melodies" down into constituent parts and transforms them into data, allowing the tool to generate an endless stream of melody. On this Music Growth Talks episode, Taishi, who's also a contributing writer at WIRED Japan, shared his thoughts on the current state of artificial intelligence in music and explained how his team aims to help songwriters and foster creativity with Amadeus Code. Listen to the full episode to learn why each song needs a story (which can only be created by a human), how you can collaborate with the AI inside the app, and more insights from Taishi Fukuyama. ⏯ Go to http://dottedmusic.com/2019/podcast/mgt132-taishi-fukuyama for the show notes and http://musicgrowthtalks.com to subscribe to the podcast. Become a patron to access a secret podcast feed with patron-only episodes at https://www.patreon.com/andrewapanov

This week, Ryan talks about the rise of artificial intelligence in music and what its implications are for the industry as a whole. Music technologist Taishi Fukuyama stops by to talk about his Amadeus Code platform and how it can help songwriters create new projects. Find out more about Amadeus code by visiting www.amadeuscode.com. Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.”

Brain Sesh with Taishi of Jaguar No Me, Fat White Family, and Cozmik Onion Express

Pues este troll desvalido, se deshace de esta panda de nintenderos un ratito nada más, y en antesala del E3 se marca esta Review de un juego muy interesante, pero ideado para un género de jugadores muy específico, ni más ni menos que el Nobunaga's ambition: Taishi, un juego denso de estrategia donde Aristóteles o el mismo Khan perderían la cabeza echandole horas sin parar. Espero que lo disfruten.

“Faith is the root, works are the fruit.” Taishi came to Eston because it was a more cost effective education than anything offered in Japan. The only thing is that… he was a Buddhist. Sam was praying for an opportunity to go to Bible college, and saw a poster on … The post Taishi Aoki and Samuel Yoo – Poker Face. appeared first on Never Expire: A podcast by Eston College.

In which Terrace House Aloha State gets as meta as a reality television show can possibly be. Taishi becomes the expanding galaxy brain meme. The Facebook Group. The Twitter. The "Aloha, it's beach" shirt. Profit goes to the ACLU. The "Smooch Squad" shirt. The theme song is called "Knock Off" by Ryan Mitchell Grey from the album Ne Plus Ultra, which you should go listen to.

In our penultimate episode, Wez and the pool have interesting balls, Taishi and Chikako spend the night together, and we say goodbye to old and new cast members as the show ends.

This week Taishi and Chikako's relationship comes to a head, as the panel wears amazing t-shirts, a soccer game unnecessarily brings back some old friends, and Tori-chan knows that unzipping is only for after marriage.

This week has the show's biggest confrontation yet, where we see a true Terrace House villain, Taishi is surprisingly admirable, and we provide some show news.

On this extra long episode, we meet Chikako's ex-husband, the panel rags on Taishi for the wrong reasons, and Cheri's character is called into question at the most bizarre house meeting we've ever seen.

Ryo does his job. Taishi and Chika go on a double date. Mariko hates water. This episode of Terrace House is alright, alright, alright. The Facebook Group. The Twitter. The B&GITC Podcast. The "Aloha, it's beach" shirt. Profit goes to the ACLU. The "Smooch Squad" shirt. The theme song is called "Knock Off" by Ryan Mitchell Grey from the album Ne Plus Ultra, which you should go listen to.

This week Chikako and Taishi's double date is a spectacular mess, Ryo and Mariko bring a more communal feel back to the house, and our hosts have some asides about Don Quixote and beer knowledge.

This week is back on track, with some classic dating and confessing! We finally meet Cheri's Russian beau, Taishi confesses too much, and straightforward Mariko and respectful Ryo join the house.

This week we see a hook up that isn't really a secret at all, we say goodbye to Guy and another surprising housemate, and Taishi shows us how he is the Guilty Samurai. Also, we're very sorry about the audio quality of this episode. We'll be reconfiguring our set up to help get back to our normal quality next week!

On this episode Guy and Mila have a refreshingly human conversation, Taishi is extra, Chikako tries too hard to be sexy, and half of the house lives up to the episode title.

As the title would indicate, this week's episode had some problems. Brittany and Chris discuss the inappropriate use of pejoratives, while Cheri is involved with some problematic social dynamics that the show fails to adequately comment on. Also, Taishi remains ridiculous and we still want to see more of Mila.

This week we discuss Taishi's intentions and give our inexpert opinions on Wez's show, while the panel continues to sexualize Chikako and speaks for all of us asking why Anna and Eric are coming back.

In Part 4, Episode 3 we jump into Chikako's romantic past, the panel goes too far, and Taishi needs to slow down (ooh-oo-whooaa-oo-whoa-oo-whoa).

It's a double episode! Two new girls arrive to Terrace House and Taishi is surprisingly only obsessed with one of them! But so is Tokui?? The Facebook Group. The Twitter. The B&GITC Podcast. The "Aloha, it's beach" shirt. Profit goes to the ACLU. The "Smooch Squad" shirt. The theme song is called "Knock Off" by Ryan Mitchell Grey from the album Ne Plus Ultra, which you should go listen to.

Niki and Anna leave the Terrace House. Taishi the Living Meme keeps on truckin. The Facebook Group. The Twitter. The B&GITC Podcast. The "Aloha, it's beach" shirt. Profit goes to the ACLU. The "Smooch Squad" shirt. The theme song is called "Knock Off" by Ryan Mitchell Grey from the album Ne Plus Ultra, which you should go listen to.

Our Director of Entertainment Relations, Amy Lombardi, takes over this week to talk about the resurgence of vinyl and how physical mediums are making a comeback in an increasingly digital world. She sits down with Austin-based manager Jesse Atwell of Triple 8 Management to get the artists's perspective on vinyl, then joins Taishi Fukuyama of Qrates to discuss the growing popularity of vinyl and cassettes. Check out TuneCore at http://bit.ly/2AiKZAg

Part 3 ends with a bang as Cheri calls out Taishi, Guy watches Wez eat, and the intriguing episode title pays off with the most organic coupling we've seen on TH.

This week we see two dates, Torichan is delightfully disgusted with Taishi, and our hosts are the height of professionalism.

Taishi is meme incarnate. Everything you need to find the new show. The Facebook Group. The Twitter. The "Aloha, it's beach" shirt. Profit goes to the ACLU. The "Smooch Squad" shirt.

This week Chris and Brittany talk about first date planning, we see Niki have two very different relationships with Guy and Taishi, and the panel writes some amazing fan fiction about the housemates.

In our longest episode yet, Avian is adorably defensive of Yuya, Anna and Taishi both assume people are into them, and our hosts sort the housemates into their Hogwarts Houses, because once we realized we could we knew we had to.

As we finish the first half of Aloha State, Niki has two very different dates, Yamachan sees Anna as a kindred spirit, and even Taishi doesn't know what he's doing.

This week Anna loses all support, Taishi gives us an "ugh" moment, we see an uninteresting date, and another member decides to leave the house.

In this episode we meet Taishi, discuss Papa Eric, and the housemates raise some pink flags.

Series #135 where we feature eleven tracks brought to you in the mix by our Resident Terry Haynes. Over seventy minutes of the best of the current crop of uplifting and progressive tracks are duly delivered including Airwave, Luminary, Mike Sanders and Stoneface & Terminal. Our ROTW is courtesy of Taishi with 'Glint In The Dark' and our CTOTW is 'Yeke Yeke' by Loverush.

                NEWS Deezer finally launches in the United States Fairlight is going out of business GUEST Taishi Fukuyama - chief marketing officer of Qrates,com, analog on demand  

                NEWS Deezer finally launches in the United States Fairlight is going out of business GUEST Taishi Fukuyama – chief marketing officer of Qrates,com, analog on demand   The post Episode #119 – Deezer Launches In the U.S., Fairlight Going Out Of Business, And Taishi Fukuyama of Qrates appeared first on Bobby Owsinski's Inner Circle Podcast.

The Fall 2010 Numata Lecture at the Institute of Buddhist Studies was delivered by Prof. Kenneth Lee of the California State University, Northridge. Prof. Lee discussed Shinran Shonin's wasan, the Kōtaishi Shōtoku hōsan in devotion to Prince Shotoku, revered as the founder of Buddhism in Japan.

The Fall 2010 Numata Lecture at the Institute of Buddhist Studies was delivered by Prof. Kenneth Lee of the California State University, Northridge. Prof. Lee discussed Shinran Shonin's wasan, the Kōtaishi Shōtoku hōsan in devotion to Prince Shotoku, revered as the founder of Buddhism in Japan.