16. The White Bear (ca. 300 – 600 AS)
If the centuries after the apogees of power under Agyenim, Artadeva and the Late Chu mostly see a deterioration and fragmentation of empires, the reverse process was occurring on the islands east of China. By this time, the Four Islands of Nihon were divided in dozens of warring kingdoms. Each of them was centered on a fortified city (almost always on water, fish still being the stock of their diet) surrounded by tributary villages and ruled by a king or queen [1] that also served as priest. Pig breeding was spreading, and the swine were very prized plunder in war.
We don't have direct historical testimonies of this age, as writing didn't yet exist in Nihon; we have to rely on archaeology and on histories written by Chinese and Korean scholars. We know that rice, soy and millet were cultivated, and that sporadic contacts with China and Goryeo occurred, possibly introducing Chu writing in the islands. As the former Chu empire was devastated by rebellion and invasions, many civil servants sought shelter in Nihon, selling their skills and knowledge to one or another kingdom.
The most powerful polities in Nihon were located in the southern reaches of Honshu (Kibi, Izumo, Kenu) or on Kyushu (Hi, Chikushi). However, we also find Hitachi farther north on Honshu's eastern coast [2]. The southern centers were more influenced by the continent, while Hitachi retained cultural elements from the northern Emishi people, such as the worship of bears (
kuma-kami).
The reasons for the rise of Hitachi are debated. It’s often pointed out that a kingdom in southern Honshu could never have held large territories for long, since it would be exposed to attack from all directions, while Hitachi had its back to the ocean and could point all of its resources forward.
For countless centuries, the Nihonese people had lived on hunting, gathering and fishing in extremely abundant waters; now the introduction of agriculture had allowed the southern kingdoms to grow in the scattered plains and basins. Population had almost doubled in size over the last two centuries, and now it rested just below the carrying capacity of the islands. Hitachi, on the other hand, was located in a colder, rockier region where rice had never grown in large amounts. People here were considered barbarous by their southern neighbors: they lived in reed huts, wrapped their food in leaves, and men sported bushy beards.
Curiously, this apparent defect could have been their greatest asset. Presumably, the Kagutsuchi eruption of 320 AS hit cruelly Nihonese agriculture, while it had a much milder effect on fishing. There’s evidence of unrest and raiding; trees felled in this period bear traces of stunted growth, and the bones of a whole generation show signs of malnutrition. The sudden change of weather also raised religious issues.
Okazaki, the half-mythical queen of Hitachi, ordered a thousand sacrifices to restore warmth. This was a modification of the ancient
hitobashira custom, in which people were buried alive under important buildings to ensure their stability, apparently now applied to the nation as a whole.
The apparent effectiveness of the ritual strengthened of the central power under Okazaki and her successors. In the years after Kagutsuchi, her blessing of fishermen, foragers and raiders was considered necessary for successful expeditions, and she took the personal responsibility of allocating food among families. This in turn made the favor of the queen the most disputed resource in Hitachi; noble families even offered to the gods of earth some of their less valuable children.
The disturbance of fish migrations had allowed algae to grow more plentiful, and so in that century a bread-like meal prepared with boiled seaweeds, known as
kuroi, became one of the most common food in the Islands. Again, Hitachi fishermen profited from this.
The later fate of Nihon was influenced by events on the mainland. In Goryeo, the Mahan Confederation had grew increasingly powerful and increasingly centralized – not to mention no longer elective, to the point of ruling most of the peninsula out of Pyeongyang under the
han [3]. Chinese administrators fleeing the fall of the Chu dynasty were employed, curbing the power of the old aristocracy. Mahan culture was at once militaristic and refined, respected in the region for both gold and iron. Thanks to this Chinese infusion, it was also steeped in Mohist philosophy, all the pacifism of the original teachings long purged.
Over the 4th century AS, the influence of Hitachi grows and spreads westward; as population increased, food gathering required more and more blessings; sacrifices had become so frequent that prisoners had to be taken from nearby kingdoms; purchased at first, then captured in ritualistic wars. The western states increasingly resented Hitachi, but none felt confident enough to mount a war. Then, in 349 AS [215 AD], Han Kyeonggeon offered to coordinate a joint attack against the feared eastern kingdom – perhaps to restore his prestige after a failed campaign against Goguryeo.
Preaching the sanctity of the Islands and the overthrow of the Korean influence, queen Shirokuma rallied the villages around Hitachi to its defense. Those villages had been saved from famine with the fish and
kuroi purchased with holy blood, and protected from robberies by her soldiers. A vast army marched west under a banner depicting a white bear. Though the very existence of the army has long been believed a myth – especially by Chinese and Korean scholars – recent discoveries seem to support its existence, including one of the original banners.
Shirokuma's strategy appears to have been appealing to the satellite villages which had lost much of their autonomy with the strengthening of the kingdoms. They feared oppression less from a faraway imperial court than from a nearby royal palace. Her control area grew quickly – especially after the Korean attempt to supply soldiers to Izumo was foiled by a storm in 353 AS [219 AD]. By the end of the decade, Korean influence in Nihon was confined to the coast of Kyushu. Kyeonggeon and his heir focused on bringing this island under their rule, and the later
han eventually lost interest in the other ones.
Each of the Nihonese states was ruled by a clan with its own ancestral deity or
kami. With the unification under Hitachi underway, these hundreds of deities now had to be incorporated in a coherent belief system, which bore some resemblance to the proto-Daoism of southern China. The empress took the title of “servant of all
kami”, which made her a necessary intermediary between the clans and the gods. As she claimed direct divine heritage, her imperial name would go down as Ichihiko, the one daughter of the Sun.
The government of Nihon wasn't established along Chinese lines as that of Mahan. Rather, each clan would keep administrating its own lands while acknowledging political and religious submission to the court of Hitachi. Villages had a right to appeal to the imperial court for injustices. In fact, we don't really know how much direct control the earliest empresses had on Nihon outside the Hitachi province, and the claims of complete supremacy by certain recent historians seem too ideologically motivated to be reliable.
Empress Ichihiko appears for the spring religious ceremonies.
Except for scattered fishermen, there was no significant contact between the mainland and the Island for almost half a century. Our next source on Nihon is Ho Seung'eun, a Mohist philosopher who was sent as envoy to Nihon in 400 AS [266 AD] by Han Bangmun. His impressions are collected in the
Saeyugi (“Journey to the East”), which would remain for centuries one of the most popular texts of Korean literature. Leaving from Kyushu, he landed in the harbor of Osaka, and traveled northeast to Hitachi.
He describes a quickly growing population building many new villages in the mountain valleys, sustained mostly by fishing in rivers, but also by
kuroi rations carried by a special class of messengers. Buildings were mostly in wood and bamboo, though the largest cities had temples built from massive limestone blocks. Human sacrifices were practiced on these temples every spring, the offers picked through an elaborate system of lotteries and sacred games. Despite this bloody practice, the population was mostly peaceful, if wary of foreigners.
According to Seung'eun, the provinces were administered with great autonomy by the tributary clans, except the regions around major harbors such as Izumo and Osaka, which were controlled more directly by representatives of the empress. There was a caste of scholars whom he met several times, and who studied Chinese and Korean texts. Except for these – both written in the Chinese
niu tsung characters [4] – there was no written language in all Nihon.
Over a century later, most of the Korean peninsula had been united under the Mahan. Generations of
han ruled there harshly, with the constant threat of the Goguryeo remnant in the north. This still held sacred sites such as Mount Baekdu, leading to great resentment. The far south produced most of the food, in form of rice and fish, and was entrusted to a complex hierarchy of ministers, while the less fertile north was ruled via military governors. A class of slaves, derived from prisoners of war and bankrupt commoners, was employed in great public projects like irrigation channels and paved roads.
The great harbor at Gyeong'won [Incheon] was built in this period, to assist exchanges with China. The new culture that had arose under the Huo rule was fascinating to Korean scholars; silk weaving was introduced, and Annamite spices were exchanged with iron from the northern mines for the pleasure of the royal family. The infusion of Chinese culture had lasted for many generations; but towards the end of the 6th century the ports grew quieter, and Goryeo closed in itself, much like their kin in the east.
Ruins of a temple complex near Osaka.
[1] From what I found, Yayoi era Japan was at least partially matriarchal, with children raised in the mother's household and female rulers until the 8th century AD.
[2] While a city with this name existed (and exists) OTL, Hitachi as described here is largely a product of butterflies. You might see Okazaki as an alternate Queen Himiko.
[3] No relation to the Chinese Han people or state: it's a term for “ruler” of Central Asian origin, cognate of
khan.
[4] The “bird and worms” seal script developed in Chu during the Warring States period.
In the next installment: kingdoms rise and fall in the far north.