The Brave of Yamato, Part I

Here we start the story of the Brave of Yamato:  Yamato Takeru.  The archetype for later heroes, and the primary story told about the early conquest of Japan.  In this episode we take a look at his early years and victories and follow him out to the East and his campaign against the Emishi.

For more go to: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-34-the-brave-of-yamato-part-i

Rough Transcript

Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 34: The Brave of Yamato, Part I.

So we are still in the dark period of history, with nothing in the continental records and the Chronicles are still based on oral history and memory, probably from some time in the early 4th century.

Last episode we went over the 12th sovereign, Oho Tarashi Hiko’s, campaign in Kyushu against the Kumaso—not to mention various brigands and so-called “earth spiders”, the Tsuchigumo.  However, Oho Tarashi wasn’t the only one famous for their campaigns during this period.  In fact, it was someone else whose stories were more popular:  Yamato Takeru, the Brave of Yamato.  And we’ll be telling his story this episode.

First, though, a little background.  Yamato Takeru is a complicated figure.  First off, that name is just how he is best known, but his actual name, we are told, was Prince Wo’usu.  Scholars have long debated whether he actually existed—even moreso than the rest of this period—and if he did, how many of the stories about his life and times were actually about the same person, and how many were legends that accumulated into a single person.  For example, there is a story in the Kojiki about Yamato Takeru, the Brave of Yamato, taking on Izumo Takeru, the Brave of Izumo.  So the story goes, Yamato Takeru made it look like he came in peace, and suggested that they go swimming together.  Then, he got out of the water and started putting on his clothes, at which point he grabbed Izumo Takeru’s sword and suggests that they switch swords and have a friendly duel.  Izumo Takeru gets dressed and puts on Yamato Takeru’s sword, but when the duel starts and he begins to draw, he realizes he’s been tricked—the sword is actually just a wooden copy of a sword, and it won’t come out.  As he is fumbling with the false sword, defenseless, Yamato Takeru cuts him down.

If this sounds familiar, you may remember already hearing this as an event that happened two generations earlier, back in the days of Mimaki Iribiko.  But it wasn’t Yamato and Izumo—not exactly.  Rather, it was Izumo no Furune killing his brother for giving up Izumo’s sacred regalia to Yamato.  In fact, that story fits much more neatly with that event than it does with Yamato Takeru, whose account seems to come more out of the blue as just a matter-of-fact statement indicating Yamato’s might and triumph over Izumo.  It does plenty, though, to add to the story of Yamato Takeru as an unbeatable warrior.

It’s possible that other such stories were also accumulated into Yamato Takeru’s repertoire over the years.  There is also some thought that Yamato Takeru’s story may have been particularly appealing to Oama, aka  Temmu Tennou, given his own martial rise to power, which could explain why, in Temmu’s Kojiki, Yamato Takeru’s story dominates and why Oho Tarashi Hiko – whose exploits we talked about last episode and whose story is much more prominent in the Nihonshoki and the Fudoki -- takes a backseat in that particular chronicle.  Takeru, meanwhile, has a special connection to the Grand Shrine of Ise and the royal regalia, and his story has been likened by some to stories of the knights of Arthurian legend.

One other thing to note here, because it doesn’t really come out in translation all that well:  the language used for Yamato Takeru is often that reserved for the sovereign.  Takeru was never—officially—one of the rulers of Yamato, but he is all but treated as such.  This may have to do with the fact that he was one of three of the 80 some-odd children of Oho Tarashi Hiko who were designated as potential heirs: Besides him there was Ihoki no Iribiko no Mikoto, who barely merits a mention in the Chronicles, and then Waka Tarashi Hiko no Mikoto, who would eventually succeed Oho Tarashi Hiko, and later be known as Seimu Tennou.

So with these mysteries planted firmly in our consciousness, shall we dive into the fantastical and romantic story of his life?

Prince Wo’usu was actually born as a twin, with his brother, Prince Oho’usu.  They are both named for the “usu”, a type of mortar.  There is Wo’usu—the Little Mortar—and Oho’usu—the Big Mortar.  And, yeah, I realize it may be difficult to hear the difference in the names, and I’ll try to be clear.  So Wo’usu, aka Yamato Takeru, is considered the younger twin, which may indicate that he was actually the first one out of the womb—it was a common belief in olden times that the first child out of the womb, in the case of twins, was lower in the womb, and therefore precedence went to the child who came out last.

Wo’usu, that little mortar, was perhaps not so little though.  The Chronicles state he had a manly spirit, and he was extraordinarily beautiful.  He was tall, and exceedingly strong.  He and his brother grew up in the royal household, serving their father.

Now, one day, Oho Tarashi Hiko heard about two beautiful princesses, the daughters of the lord of the land of Mino, modern Gifu Prefecture.  Desiring to see these maidens and possibly have them as his brides, Oho Tarashi Hiko sent the elder twin, Oho’usu, to go summon them and bring them back to the court.  Oho’usu, though, instead of bringing them straight back, apparently “made them his wives”—basically he slept with them, with no indication of whether it was consensual or not, though, cue broken record, consent seems to have been a difficult concept for many men in the Chronicles to really grasp.

Then, to top it all off, apparently the Elder Brother, Prince Oho’usu, found two *other* women and delivered them back to his father, instead, claiming they were the sisters he had been sent to collect.  Well, he either rolled a 1 on his Bluff check or Oho Tarashi Hiko rolled a nat 20 on his sense motive, because Dad immediately realized something was up, but didn’t say anything.  The sovereign took the two women, but didn’t marry them—though apparently he did have children by them.  This caused not a little bit of tension between father and son.

In fact, it grew so bad that the elder brother, Oho’usu, made himself scarce during meal times—particularly the evening meals.  Now, this isn’t just a matter of sulking—meals were as much a ceremonial function, and attending was a form of deference to his father, indicating that he harbored no thoughts of rebellion or the like.  And so Oho Tarashi Hiko sent his younger son, Prince Wo’usu, to go and admonish the elder prince about his behavior.

Five days went by, and Oho’usu still hadn’t shown, and so Oho Tarashi Hiko asked his younger son if he had gone to admonish his brother.  The young prince said that yes, in fact, he had entreated with his older brother, prompting his father to dig just a little deeper and ask him what he meant—how exactly had he entreated him?

And this is where the story gets dark, quick—or at least in the Kojiki.  The young prince, who was maybe 16 years old, described what he had done quite simply:  Early in the morning, when the older prince went into the privy, he waited, captured him in his arms, and crushed him to death.  And then he pulled off his brothers limbs, wrapping them in a straw mat, and threw them away.  After describing this grisly scene, one imagines that the prince went back to eating his meal, but the sovereign, his father, was speechless, and not a bit terrified.  Really, there was something not quite right about this child of his, and he needed to do something.

Fortunately, at least for Oho Tarashi Hiko, an opportunity presented itself.  You see the Kumaso were rebelling.  Again.  The Kojiki doesn’t actually talk about the first campaign, Oho Tarashi Hiko’s campaign, but both sources do mention this second rebellion.  It was the perfect excuse to get this wild, murderous child out from underfoot, and so he sent him to Kyushu to deal with the two brothers, the Kumaso Takeru, or Braves of Kumaso.

Now I should point out that the Nihon Shoki’s account of Yamato Takeru is much less sensationalist in many ways.  There is no fratricide—the prince’s elder brother, Oho’usu is certainly on the outs, but he isn’t dead, and there is less concern about the youngest twin’s excessive brutality, at least against members of his own family.

Prince Wo’usu’s young age—only 16 years old, still wearing his hair like a child’s instead of an adults—is not exactly unique to this story.  This romantic idea of the young warrior would echo through the ages: in the Tale of the Heike, the young warrior Taira no Atsumori is talked about in these terms, and even the tragic warrior figure Minamoto Yoshitsune is shown starting his martial career at a terribly young age.

Before setting off across the archipelago, the young prince first made a detour over to the Shrine of Amaterasu, in Ise, where his aunt, Yamato Hime, was apparently still running things.  When she saw her nephew, and heard about his campaign, it is said that she gave him a kinu and mo—that is a woman’s top and skirt.  Why she gave him these things is not quite covered—one presumes she knew that he would be able to make use of them, given the oracular powers at her disposal, but others have suggested that these could have been “priestly” garments, so that the young Prince could act in the role of a female priest, much as Michi no Ushi had done during Iware Biko’s conquest of Yamato when he needed a sacred princess, or Izu-Hime, but none was available.

The Nihon Shoki doesn’t mention this visit to Ise Shrine, but does mention that the prince first went to Mino, where much of this started, to find archers to take with him to help him on his quest.

The Yamato forces made their way to the village of the Kumaso Braves, who were set to give a feast to all of their relations.  There was a large pit-building or muro, and all of the warriors would gather there for the feast.   Young Wo’usu spent several days performing reconnaissance, looking for a way into the festivities.  Finally, on the day of the feast, young Wo’usu let his hair down in the manner of a young girl, and donned the clothing that his aunt, Yamato Hime, had given him.  Disguised in this manner, much like a character out of a Shakespearean play, he mingled with the women and entered the muro with them.  He made sure that the two Kumaso brothers could see him, and soon they were enchanted by this maiden, and they asked her to come sit between them as the festivities continued.  They offered her drinks from their cups and amused themselves with her throughout the night.

At the height of the festivities—and the height of general drunkenness—as the partygoers started to filter out and head home, young Prince Wo’usu made his move.  He reached for the sword that he had hidden at his bosom, and he immediately seized the elder Kumaso’s collar and stabbed him through the chest.  The younger Kumaso brother saw this and tried to run—any remaining guests must have been shocked into silence, because nobody interfered.  Wo’usu ran after him and just as the younger Kumaso no Takeru was rushing up the steps out of the muro, Prince Wo’usu ran his sword upwards, through his backside—that is his buttocks, his posterior.

Well it was clear that the younger Kumaso was done for, but he requested that Wo’usu not move the sword, so that he could speak.  He asked who it was that had slain him and Wo’usu gave his name and that of his father, the sovereign of Yamato.  The younger Kumaso noted that, with his death, there were no more brave and mighty men in the West, but clearly in Ohoyamato there was a man of exceeding Bravery, aka Take, and so Prince Wo’usu became Yamato Takeru.

The Nihon Shoki relates this story in very similar terms, but rather than two brothers it only mentions one leader of the Kumaso:  Kawakami no Takeru, aka the Brave of the Headwaters.  If that name rings a bell, you’re not wrong - this account mingles the stories of the brigands that Oho Tarashi vanquished, who lived at the headwaters of various rivers and who we talked about last episode, with the current campaign against the Kumaso.

Of course, neither Chronicle has the detail of Oho Tarashi Hiko’s campaign, but like a superhero’s origin story, it seems to have been important to the character of Yamato Takeru, even though many other details might not be the same between the various sources.  I find it intriguing, though, that the Nihon Shoki provides both stories, set as two completely separate incidents.  They could have easily included Yamato Takeru’s story in Oho Tarashi Hiko’s campaign—it would have slotted in nicely.  But they explicitly tell them as both equally true *but separate* stories during this same reign.  It isn’t even structured as one of those “alternate stories” as we find back in the Age of the Gods.  I really don’t know what to make of it, but it is interesting, is it not? 

So, after killing the Kumaso brothers—and having his forces subdue the rest of the Kumaso—the newly named Yamato Takeru began his trek back to Yamato.  On his way, he continued to subdue the land, we are told.  He is said to have subdued and pacified all the mountain deities, the river deities, and the deities of the sea-straits.  The Kojiki takes Yamato Takeru back through the San’in region and through Izumo, where he encounters Izumo Takeru, as mentioned earlier in this episode.  The Nihon Shoki, in contrast, takes him through the Seto Inland Sea region to Kibi, where he crossed the Ana Sea—Ana Umi—and made his way back to Naniwa and then on to Yamato.  On his way he slew the malignant “deities”, or so they are called, of the Ana and Kashiwa Ferries.

By the way, if you are looking for Ana Umi on a map, don’t bother—it is gone.  You may recall, back in our episode on Kibi, we talked about how the area in modern Okayama known as Kojima used to be an actual island, with the plains between the Takahashi river in modern Kurashiki over to the Yoshii River largely under water.  This body of water was the “Ana Umi”, similar to how much of eastern Osaka south of the Yodo River was part of Kawachi Bay.

So Yamato Takeru took on the deities in these areas, a theme which will continue in the rest of his story.  In most cases I assume that these so-called deities were really just local leaders, but the legendary retelling turned them into deities and made the stories more fantastical.

Now, with Yamato Takeru back home, Oho Tarashi Hiko started to get nervous again.  After all, the campaign against the Kumaso may have kept his wild son busy for a while, but now he was back, and it seems doubtful that his string of victories had done anything to temper him.  Heck, he was now being called the “Brave of Yamato”.  And so Oho Tarashi quickly looked around and found yet another campaign to send him on.  In this case, off to Azuma, the East—the area we know of as the Kanto Region.

In the Nihon Shoki, Oho Tarashi had already sent out at least one force to investigate the lands of the east.  This was headed up by a young man named Takechi Sukune.  Much earlier, Oho Tarashi Hiko had once intended to go to Kii to worship the spirits of Heaven and Earth, but before heading out, he had a divination performed, and it came back as inauspicious.  And so he sent a proxy in his stead.  This proxy, Ya Nushi Oshio-dake Wogoro, traveled down to Kashiwara and stayed there for 9 years, during which time he married and had a son, who would become Takechi Sukune.  He would later be one of two individuals who would forego an invitation to several days of elaborate feasting so that he could make sure to guard against anyone trying to usurp the throne while the sovereign and his ministers were absent, display exceptional loyalty to the royal family and the state in general.

Presumably, Takechi Sukune was born before Yamato Takeru, since Takechi’s expedition to investigate the north and east is said to have taken place before Yamato Takeru headed out to subdue the Kumaso.  Takechi traveled to the area of Azuma—the Kanto plain areas around modern Toukyou—and up into the north—the Michi-no-oku, the end of the Road.   When he returned he had stories of a land called “Hitakami”, where there lived a group called the Emishi.  There, both men and women tied up their hair and tattooed their bodies, it says—it is unclear exactly where this was, but somewhere in the Touhoku region.  Of course, tattoos shouldn’t exactly be surprising—they were common enough to be remarked on by the Wei chroniclers back in the 3rd century amongst the Wa.  But the Emishi would continue as a separate group, outside of the Yamato political sphere, well past the time the Chronicles were written, and this may reflect an anachronistic image of the people of Tohoku.

Not much is given about Takechi’s actual route.  By contrast, Yamato Takeru’s is given much more explicitly.  In fact, I’ll put up a map at the podcast webpage, sengokudaimyo.com/podcast.

So let’s get into the story of Yamato Takeru’s journey to the east.  As usual this will be a mix of information from the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, and I’ll try to use the version that makes the most sense, but where things are too divergent, I’ll make sure to say something.

Now, the Emishi in the east, or Azuma, were in rebellion, so Oho Tarashi Hiko asked Yamato Takeru to head out and subdue the “twelve roads” of the East.

Though, in the Nihon Shoki, since Prince Yamato Takeru’s older brother, Oho’usu no Mikoto, is still alive, he is actually given the first crack at subduing the East.  In fact, Yamato Takeru insists, noting that he had just had the honor of subduing the Kumaso, so Oho’usu should go take care of the Emishi.  But apparently, even though they were twins, they were not built of the same character, and Oho’usu may have been built for love, but not war.  He hid in fear, so that he could not be appointed to the task.  Because of this, he was sent to govern the province of Mino, which may, at first, seem like a reward.  After all, Mino wasn’t that far away, and it meant he didn’t have to risk his life heading out to fight the Emishi.

In the 8th century, though, this would have most likely been understood as a punishment.  Prince Oho’usu was being effectively exiled from court, which means he was out of the political loop.  Of course, Mino was also the home of the two women he was supposed to have brought back to the sovereign, and whom he married instead, so perhaps there was something else going on.  Either way, he largely departs our story, from here on out.  Yamato Takeru would be the focus of our story.

And of course, with Oho’usu unavailable, Prince Yamato Takeru was sent to subdue the east.  He also sent Misukitomo Mimi Take Hiko, an ancestor of the Kibi no Omi—possibly the Kibi no Take Hiko of the Nihon Shoki—as well as others, such as Ohotomo no Take-hi no Muraji and Nanatsukahagi, an ancestor of the Kume no Atahe.  You may remember that some equate “Kume” with “army” and Nanatsukahagi, who served Yamato Takeru on all his adventures, may have been a stand in for a much larger group of people. 

The sovereign, Oho Tarashi Hiko, also gave Yamato Takeru a giant wooden spear, made of Hihiragi wood, which may have been a symbol of authority.  We’ve seen that there is a tradition of staves and spears being symbols of conquering or claiming territory, after all.

Heading out from Yamato, Takeru made a quick detour to his aunt, once again, in Ise.  There he confided his concerns:  Why was it that he kept getting sent on these dangerous missions?  Was his father hoping that he would die in battle one of these days.  He lamented his lot, and broke down in tears, crying.

His aunt, Yamato Hime, did what she could to console him, and also gave him several items of note.  The first was the sword Murakumo—the sword that legend says the god Susanowo found in the tail of the eight-headed serpent, Yamata no Orochi.  She also gave him a bag, but told him not to open it unless there was a real emergency.

Armed with the gifts of Yamato Hime and with her blessing, Yamato Takeru started out on his journey.  He must have traveled north, rounding Ise Bay, until he came to the land of Owari.  Fans of the Sengoku Period will not doubt recognize this as the land of Oda Nobunaga, in the area of modern Nagoya and Aichi Prefecture.  The countries of Owari and Mino sit on the Noubi plain, which is also home to some of the oldest square keyhole tombs, and may have been the site of the evolution from a square style mound to a square keyhole mound.  Some have suggested that this area may even have been the old country of Kuna, which vied with Yamato in the time of Himiko.  Regardless, they seem to have had their own established their own “state”—such as they were at this point, and connections with Yamato were likely an important part of Yamato’s growth and evolution.

As for Yamato Takeru, he was doing a bit of diplomacy of his own.  He made his way to the house of Miyazu Hime, the ancestor of the eventual Kuni no Miyatsuko of Owari—possibly even a ruler or member of the ruling family of that land.  Though he was already married, with children, he was apparently infatuated with this Owari princess, and wanted to marry her, but he had a campaign to carry on, and so he promised he would marry her as soon as he got back.  Taking his leave he headed out towards the East.

From Owari, Yamato Takeru headed east, likely following the coastline, until he came to either Suruga or Sagami, depending on the Chronicle.  The people of that land came out to greet him and were quite hospitable.  In showing him their hospitality, they told him of a nearby plain, where there was a pond, and it was said that there was excellent hunting.  At their advice, Yamato Takeru went out to look for game and to see what he could find.

As he was stalking through the plain, what did he hear but the crackling of the dry grasses, or perhaps he first smelled the smoke on the wind.  Regardless, he realized that he had been deceived.  While he was out hunting, his hosts had lit fires all around the plain, encircling Prince Takeru.  The fire was already blazing, and Yamato Takeru had to think fast.  First, he opened up the bag he had received from Yamato Hime over in Ise, and inside he found a fire starter kit, and he knew exactly what to do.

Using the royal sword, Murakumo, Yamato Takeru quickly cut down a large swath of grasses, and he then set a back fire, to burn the vegetation between him and the flames that were rapidly advancing.  By doing this, he was able to create a fire break.  He kept  the fire at bay until it died down, and then, it was time to take action.

If this were an action movie, I can already see the trailer shot.  The charred burned ground, looking like a fire-scourged hellscape, and suddenly there is movement.  White eyes, filled with terrible resolve, appear suddenly in a sea of black soot and ash as our hero, Yamato Takeru, rises from the ground, the remnants of deadly destruction falling from his head and shoulders.  With the ancient sword of the Royal House, dug out of the bloody tail of the eight-headed serpent, Yamata no Orochi, clenched tightly in his fist, Yamato Takeru had but one thought on his mind:  Revenge!

Well, the Chronicles may not be quite so florid in their description, but the intent was clear.  Yamato Takeru was not going to take an attempt on his life lying down.  Gathering his forces, Yamato Takeru went after his would be assassins, rounded up their entire clan, and burned them to death in an horrifically poetic act of vengeance.

The place where all this occurred was known as Yaketsu or Yakizu—modernly Yaizu in Shizuoka, in the former country of Suruga, Suruga no Kuni.  And the sword?  Ah, yes, the sword.

I suspect many of you know this already, but this is where the sword, Ame no Murakumo, gained a new name:  Kusanagi, the Grass-Cutter.  Kusanagi is the name by which it is known today, and it is still part of the royal regalia.  Of course, there is a lot of question as to the original and where it is, as the sword—or a copy—has been lost several times over the course of history.  Regardless, whether or not it is the quote-unquote “real” sword is less importance than its meaning and place in the rituals.  But I digress.

And so Yamato Takeru had taken care of his enemies in the most mafia—or perhaps yakuza—sense.  “You try to burn me down?  I will burn your entire family.”  Or something like that.  Remember, this is the same guy who is said to have ripped the arms and legs off of his own brother.  I don’t think he was the kind of person you wanted to mess around with.

From Suruga, he continued along the coastline until he came to the Miura Peninsula at the mouth of what we today call Tokyo Bay.  He planned to have his forces cross the straits there to Awa, on the tip of the Bousou Peninsula.  Looking out over the water, Yamato Takeru even scoffed at how close it was—his men could practically jump over it, he said.  And yet, the fast moving water, or Hashirimizu, proved to be a real problem, and their boats floundered in the rough seas at the mouth of the bay.

At this, Yamato Takeru’s wife and queen, Oto Tachibana Hime, knew exactly what to do.

Wait…  what’s that?  Why am I bringing up this woman—his wife and *queen*, nonetheless—that we’ve never heard of this far into a campaign to subdue the lands of the east?  Good question.

We have no idea.

Seriously, the best explanation we seem to have is that this whole episode is a later addition that was then interwoven with the rest of the narrative.  But where was his wife when Yamato Takeru was looking at marrying Miyazu Hime, in Owari?  Or even in the incident in Suruga?

Also, what is with calling her his “Queen”—in the Kojiki they actually use a term that would seem to indicate that she was the official wife of a sovereign, whereas the Nihon Shoki just mentions her as one of his consorts.

It’s all rather perplexing—it is almost like when your buddy is in town at the same time as your long-running RPG campaign, you let them roll up a new character just for this session, you know?

There is a possible hint in the Hitachi Fudoki, where Yamato Takeru’s wife, Oho Tachibana—or, more appropriately, Opo Tatibana—came down from Yamato to meet him in the area of Afuka, now known as Sukegawa in the city of Hitachi in modern Ibaraki Prefecture.  We don’t know where this fits—if it was on his way north or on his way back south—nor how she got all the way out to the frontier, but it still is another bit of data on her, and I’ll take whatever I can get.

Unfortunately, this is wildly out of context for the crossing of Tokyo Bay over to Awa Province, which happened well before Yamato Takeru ever reached Hitachi, so in some ways it helps reinforce the narrative while, in other ways, it just adds more questions.

Anyway, Oto Tachibana Hime was there, they say, and she knew how to fix the problem.  And if we don’t fix it, this is going to be a short episode, so let’s just go with it.

Apparently, the gods of the water were upset with Yamato Takeru’s dismissive attitude, with his claim that he could just jump across the water.  They needed to be appeased, and Oto Tachibana volunteered for the task.  Here’s where it gets more than a bit dark:  Apparently, to appease them, someone would have to throw themselves into the ocean.  In the Nihon Shoki it is that easy, she just throws herself into the straits and they calm down.  In the Kojiki, however, they lay out various carpets on the water, and she gets on them and sinks with them into the waters, singing a song about the previous events on the burning plain.  Later, her comb would wash ashore and be buried in a tomb in her honor.

This isn’t, of course, the first time we’ve seen this kind of offering to the gods of the sea.  You may remember that one of Iware Biko’s brothers offered themselves up when the seas grew rough as their forces were rounding the Kii Peninsula, and there are other, similar stories as well.  This could be counted as similar to the “hito-bashira”, or “human pillar” concept of human sacrifice that stories would have us believe happened from time to time in ancient times.

Of course, right after that would have no doubt been the wrong time to mention that they could, you know, have gone around the long way.  But the act was done, the seas were calm, and so they crossed over to the end of the Bousou peninsula.

From there, most of the rest of the trip is in the Nihon Shoki.  The Kojiki mostly just leaves it at “He subdued all the unruly Emishi and pacified the unruly deities of the mountains and rivers,” and leaves it at that.  The Nihon Shoki gives us a bit more of a path and some further action.

First, it seems Yamato Takeru headed from Awa to Kazusa, probably following the shoreline in his ships.  We are told that he hung a large mirror at the front, likely as an indication of his status, much as the ruler of Toyo had bedecked her ship during Oho Tarashi Hiko’s campaign in Kyushu.  The Yamato forces came to Ashi no Ura, possibly on the Pacific Ocean side of the Bousou Peninsula, and then up to Tama no Ura, thought to have been in Shimousa—though at the time, both Kazusa and Shimousa were probably still a part of the area that would become the country of Fusa. 

From there he continued until he reached the land of the Emishi: Hitakami—though we aren’t given details on just where that was, though we can make some assumptions—possibly up somewhere north of the modern city of Sendai, though possibly much further south as well.  As you may recall, there was a natural point, about half to two thirds of the way up Tohoku, where the Yayoi culture had not quite reached, and which was the “frontier” even into historical times.  That could have been the frontier we are discussing, in which case the Emishi may have been a name used for the epi-Joumon era people still living in the Northeast areas of Honshu.  Of course, it is also possible that the term “Emishi” had a wider meaning, and could have just referred to anyone in the northeast who didn’t fall under later Yamato’s political hegemony.  Certainly the term “Emishi” would be one that was used for people of this area well into the historical period.

Now, I’m not really sure that I’ve properly covered it, but the Nihon Shoki provides a detailed description of the Emishi, but it is so full of dehumanizing invectives driven by a jingoistic sense of ethno-centric Yamato supremacy that it really isn’t worth laying it all out here, as it would be impossible to pull out fact from fiction.   It may be useful to note that the tension between the Emishi and the Court would continue for centuries after the Chronicles were written, and if it is true that they were related to the original Jomon population, with a different language and way of life, it would have been easy to see them as outsiders, as the “Other”.  It is even possible that these Emishi were the ancestors of, or at least related to, the populations that would late evolve into the modern Ainu communities, though it is still rather complicated.  The term “Emishi”, you see, rather than being one adopted by a singular group, seems to have been—or at least become—a catch-all term by the Yamato court for all of the groups in the northeast that did not follow the Court’s norms nor fit neatly within their political order.  While this included the proto-Ainu groups, it also included others who simply rejected the Yamato court or who were rejected by it.  Furthermore, the Ainu are not simply an outgrowth of the epi-Jomon culture of the archipelago, but seem to have combined and evolved with elements of Okhotsk and Nivkh cultures, so one cannot simply state that the Emishi were the early Ainu.

And yet, this is still where we find our historical narrative runs into some thorny modern ground.  In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ainu were seen as direct descendants of the Emishi, and Yamato Takeru’s conquest was used as an historical reality to reinforce Japanese state claims of hegemony over the Ainu.  Views of the Ainu as primitive, and requiring external “civilization” were not that far off from the views expressed in the Chronicles , and given the resurgence of the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki in popularity around the same time, it is easy to see how such views, seen by many as historical reality, would continue to contribute to the dehumanization of actual people, not just some historical group in the past.

And so I just want to add a word of caution, here, not to attribute to the Chronicles any sense of historical objectivity.  Unfortunately, though, we just don’t have the story from the other side, so we’ll just have to remind ourselves that every story has at least two sides, and possibly more.

With that said, let us return to our discussion of the northern country of HItakami.

Now, wherever it happened to be, the port of Take—Take no Minato—was where the Yamato forces first encountered the Emishi in the form of two chieftains:  Shima tsu Kami and Kuni tsu Kami, which seem to be indicating that the leaders of the Emishi were named the “God of the Islands” and the “God of the Land”, or something like that.

These Emishi chieftains were prepared to resist, but apparently the mere sight of Yamato Takeru’s ship, with its huge mirror on the front, just took the fight right out of them.  They flung away their weapons and bowed their heads, and then asked Yamato Takeru if he was some kind of god.  Well, it seems that before Winston and Ray’s little heart to heart in Ghostbusters, Yamato Takeru already understood that if somebody asks if you are a god, you say yes!  Indeed, he told them that he was the son of a Deity himself, and the Emishi were in awe.  They ran out into the waves to help the boat to shore, and then apparently bound their own hands behind themselves and submitted for punishment.  In return, Yamato Takeru magnanimously pardoned them, except for the chieftains, whom he took as his personal attendants—basically he had them enslaved.  Which pretty much sets up the general tone of Yamato-Emishi relations for centuries to come.

Later, Yamato Takeru would have the enslaved Emishi gifted to Ise Shrine upon his death.  Yamato Hime initially accepted them, but she reported that they fought and argued—more negative comments about the Emishi and their “Savage” nature.  And so she sent them to the Royal court to make it their problem.   They settled them around the court, near the base of Mt. Miwa, but then they were blamed for cutting down all the trees on the holy mountain—another exaggerated accusation, no doubt, though perhaps they did cut down trees in an area that they did not realize was off-limits.  It seems unlikely that, given their status and position, they could have done too much without someone noticing.

Nonetheless, the Chronicles claim they were sent out of the Home Provinces, and eventually they were the ancestors of the “Saheki-Be”.  “Saheki”, in this case, uses the kanji for “assistant chief”, but it is a word we often find as leaders in non-Yamato groups, such as those referred to as “tsuchigumo”—and possibly the Emishi was well.  The term actually shows up quite a bit in the Hitachi Fudoki, when discussing the indigenous people of that area.  The Saheki-be was apparently quite prolific, with branches of the family in Harima, Sanuki, Iyo, Aki, and Awa.

And with all of that, I think we shall close out this episode. To recap what we’ve covered, we saw Yamato Takeru’s strength and ruthless efficiency from an early age, as he quickly—at least according to the Kojiki—dealt with his brother by crushing him to death and tearing off his arms and legs.  A worried father, Oho Tarashi Hiko, then sends his wild son off to deal with two Kumaso chiefs, whom the young prince kills by sneaking into their party as a woman and assassinating them both, gaining him the nickname “Takeru”, or “Brave”.  He proceeds to take out the Brave of Izumo on his way back, tricking him with a wooden sword, and finally returning home. 

But soon, his father is sending him out again, and now Yamato Takeru is getting the hint that his father might be hoping he *won’t* make it back, but that doesn’t stop him from continuing on.  He stops to see his aunt, Yamato Hime, from whom he picks up the sword, Murakumo, and then stops by Miyazu Hime in Owari, to tell her to wait for him.  Then, in Suruga, he uses Murakumo and the Firestarter to save himself from a deadly trap.  The sword get’s a new name, Kusanagi, and Yamato Takeru gets another notch on his belt, as it were.

Crossing the mouth of Tokyo Bay to Awa Province proves difficult, probably because Yamato Takeru pisses off the kami of the straits, but his wife, Oto Tachibana Hime, comes out of nowhere and drowns herself to calm the waves.  Yamato Takeru seems to give this little thought before he is off again, sailing around Awa and past the coast of Fusa all the way up to Hitakami, which may or may not be somewhere around modern Sendai, but that will work well enough for our purposes.  There, he puts a mirror on the bow of his ship and everyone is so impressed that they give up any plans for fighting.  Yamato Takeru makes slaves of the Emishi leaders, which is where we have stopped.

Whew.  That was quite a tour.

And there is almost as much—or more—material to focus on for Yamato Takeru’s return journey, so rather than trying to squeeze it all into one episode we’ll allow ourselves some time to really savor what we have here.

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That’s all for now.  Thank you again, and I’ll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.