A History of the Japanese People. Kikuchi Dairoku
troops' delight at having disposed of a formidable foe so easily, and in this verselet he spoke of one Yemishi being reputed to be a match for a hundred men.
Whether this couplet really belongs to its context, however, is questionable; the eighty warriors killed in the muro may not have been Yemishi at all. But the verse does certainly tend to show that the Yemishi had a high fighting reputation in ancient times, though it will presently be seen that such fame scarcely consists with the facts revealed by history. It is true that when next we hear of the Yemishi more than seven and a half centuries have passed, and during that long interval they may have been engaged in a fierce struggle for the right of existence. There is no evidence, however, that such was the case.
On the contrary, it would seem that the Japanese invaders encountered no great resistance from the Yemishi in the south, and were for a long time content to leave them unmolested in the northern and eastern regions. In A.D. 95, however, Takenouchi-no-Sukune was commissioned by the Emperor Keiko to explore those regions. He devoted two years to the task, and, on his return in 97, he submitted to his sovereign this request: "In the eastern wilds there is a country called Hi-taka-mi (Sun-height). The people of this country, both men and women, tie up their hair in the form of a mallet and tattoo their bodies. They are of fierce temper and their general name is Yemishi. Moreover, the land is wide and fertile. We should attack it and take it." [Aston's translation.] It is observable that the principal motive of this advice is aggressive. The Yemishi had not molested the Japanese or shown any turbulence. They ought to be attacked because their conquest would be profitable: that was sufficient.
Takenouchi's counsels could not be immediately followed. Other business of a cognate nature in the south occupied the Court's attention, and thirteen years elapsed before (A.D. 110) the celebrated hero, Prince Yamato-dake, led an expedition against the Yemishi of the east. In commanding him to undertake this task, the Emperor, according to the Chronicles, made a speech which, owing to its Chinese tone, has been called apocryphal, though some, at any rate, of the statements it embodies are attested by modern observation of Ainu manners and customs. He spoke of the Yemishi as being the most powerful among the "eastern savages;" said that their "men and women lived together promiscuously," that there was "no distinction of father and child;" that in winter "they dwelt in holes and in summer they lived in huts;" that their clothing consisted of furs and that they drank blood; that when they received a favour they forgot it, but if an injury was done them they never failed to avenge it, and that they kept arrows in their top-knots and carried swords within their clothing. How correct these attributes may have been at the time they were uttered, there are no means of judging, but the customs of the modern Ainu go far to attest the accuracy of the Emperor Keiko's remarks about their ancestors.
Yamato-dake prefaced his campaign by worshipping at the shrine of Ise, where he received the sword "Herb-queller," which Susanoo had taken from the last chieftain of the Izumo tribesmen. Thence he sailed along the coast to Suruga, where he landed, and was nearly destroyed by the burning of a moor into which he had been persuaded to penetrate in search of game. Escaping with difficulty, and having taken a terrible vengeance upon the "brigands" who had sought to compass his destruction, he pushed on into Sagami, crossed the bay to Kazusa and, sailing north, reached the southern shore of Shimosa, which was the frontier of the Yemishi. The vessels of the latter assembled with the intention of offering resistance, but at the aspect of the Japanese fleet and the incomparably superior arms and arrows of the men it carried, they submitted unconditionally and became personal attendants on Yamato-dake.
Three things are noticeable in this narrative. The first is that the "brigands of Suruga" were not Yemishi; the second, that the Yemishi offered no resistance, and the third, that the Yemishi chiefs are called in the Chronicles "Kami of the islands" and "Kami of the country"—titles which indicate that they were held in some respect by the Japanese. It is not explicitly recorded that Yamato-dake had any further encounter with the Yemishi, but figurative references show that he had much fighting. The Chronicles quote him as saying, after his return to Kii from an extended march through the northeastern provinces and after penetrating as far as Hi-taka-mi (modern Hitachi), the headquarters of the Yemishi, that the only Yemishi who remained unsubmissive were those of Shinano and Koshi (Echigo, Etchu, and Echizen). But although Yamato-dake subsequently entered Shinano, where he suffered much from the arduous nature of the ground, and though he sent a general to explore Koshi, he ultimately retired to Owari, where he died from the effects of fatigue and exposure according to some authorities, of a wound from a poisoned arrow according to others. His last act was to present as slaves to the shrine of Ise the Yemishi who had originally surrendered and who had subsequently attached themselves to his person. They proved so noisy, however, that the priestess of the shrine sent them to the Yamato Court, which assigned for them a settlement on Mount Mimoro. Here, too, their conduct was so turbulent that they received orders to divide and take up their abode at any place throughout the five provinces of Harima, Sanuki, Iyo, Aki, and Awa, where, in after ages, they constituted a hereditary corporation of Saeki (Saekibe).
These details deserve to be recorded, for their sequel shows historically that there is an Yemishi element in the Japanese race. Thus, in later times we find the high rank of muraji borne by a member of the Saekibe. Fifteen years (A.D. 125) after the death of Yamato-dake, Prince Sajima was appointed governor-general of the fifteen provinces of Tosan-do (the Eastern Mountain circuit); that is to say, the provinces along the east coast. He died en route and his son, Prince Mimoro, succeeded to the office. During his tenure of power the Yemishi raised a disturbance, but no sooner was force employed against them than they made obeisance and threw themselves on the mercy of the Japanese, who pardoned all that submitted.
This orderly condition remained uninterrupted until A.D. 367, when the Yemishi in Kazusa made one of the very few successful revolts on record. They killed Tamichi, a Japanese general sent against them, and they drove back his forces, who do not appear to have taken very effective measures of retaliation. In 482 we find the Yemishi rendering homage to the Emperor Kenso, a ceremony which was repeated on the accession of the Emperor Kimmei (540).
But, though meek in the presence of peril, the Yemishi appear to have been of a brawling temperament. Thus, in 561, several thousands of them showed hostility on the frontier, yet no sooner were their chiefs threatened with death than they submitted. At that time all the provinces in the northeast and northwest—then included in Mutsu and Dewa—were in Yemishi possession. They rebelled again in 637, and at first gained a signal success, driving the Japanese general, Katana, into a fortress where he was deserted by his troops. His wife saved the situation. She upbraided her husband as he was scaling the palisades to escape by night, fortified him with wine, girded his sword on herself, and caused her female attendants—of whom there were "several tens"—to twang bowstrings. Katana, taking heart of grace, advanced single handed; the Yemishi, thinking that his troops had rallied, gave way, and the Japanese soldiers, returning to their duty, killed or captured all the insurgents.
No other instance of equally determined resistance is recorded on the part of the Yemishi. In 642, several thousands made submission in Koshi. Four years later (646), we find Yemishi doing homage to the Emperor Kotoku. Yet in 645 it was deemed necessary to establish a barrier settlement against them in Echigo; and whereas, in 655, when the Empress Saimei ascended the throne, her Court at Naniwa entertained ninety-nine of the northern Yemishi and forty-five of the eastern, conferring cups of honour on fifteen, while at the same time another numerous body came to render homage and offer gifts, barely three years had elapsed when, in 655, a Japanese squadron of 180 vessels, under the command of Hirafu, omi of Abe, was engaged attacking the Yemishi at Akita on the northwest coast of the main island.
All this shows plainly that many districts were still peopled by Yemishi and that their docility varied in different localities. In the Akita campaign the usual surrender was rehearsed. The Yemishi declared that their bows and arrows were for hunting, not for fighting, and the affair ended in a great feast given by Hirafu, the sequel being that two hundred Yemishi proceeded to Court, carrying presents, and were appointed to various offices in the localities represented, receiving also gifts of arms, armour, drums, and flags.*
*It is related that these flags had tops shaped like cuttlefish.
An interesting episode is recorded of this visit. One of the Yemishi, having been appointed