Sakimori
Sakimori ( Japanese 防 人 ) were border guards on Kyūshū in Japan from the 7th to 10th centuries.
term
Sakimori means 'defender' in the spelling 防 人 , but this is a jukujikun , i.e. H. the characters are only read in this combination and chosen here in such a way to describe a Japanese term with an existing Chinese concept, as there was a correspondingly written type of army ( Chinese 防 人 , Pinyin fángrén ) already in Tang China . The Japanese term is made up of saki 'cape' and mori 'protection; protect, guard 'together. Hans A. Dettmer translates the term as 'coast guard'.
Sakimori are similar to the Hinamori ( 夷 守 'barbarian guardian ' ) and Shimamori ( 島 守 'island guardian' ), which previously existed to secure the Japanese borders, the first term being mentioned in the Weizhi Dongyi zhuan from the 3rd century. Sakimori should not be confused with the chinpei ( 鎮 兵 'pacification soldiers ' ) of the Chinjufu , who were established by 737 at the latest , who served in northern Japan and whose task was not exclusively to protect the borders in the sense of border protection, but also to subjugate the Emishi and thus expand the imperial borders .
history
After the Nihon Shoki , they were first established in the course of the Taika reforms in 645. More likely, however, is a list after Japan's devastating defeat at the Battle of Hakusukinoe in 663, after which the imperial court feared an invasion of Kyushu by Tang China and its Korean ally Silla - Japan itself was allied with Silla's rival Baekje . It is certain that after the battle of Hakusukinoe Kyushu, as well as the offshore islands of Tsushima and Iki , with the establishment of the military government of Dazaifu , placed under special military administration and extensive fortress construction began.
In the course of this, soldiers were sent to North Kyushu and the islands for defense and the Sakimori no tsukasa ( 防 人 司 ) authority was established in Dazaifu . Contemporary sources describe that the soldiers were called in from all provinces of Japan - however, only troops withdrawn from Eastern Japan are verifiable . The soldiers served far away from home for three years, but were able to bring their families, slaves and cattle with them. Her work week was nine days, followed by a day off. In addition to their guard and other military activities, they had to ensure their own supplies through rice and arable farming .
As can be proven from tax records, in the middle of the 8th century, for reasons of cost, people began to draw soldiers from the provinces to be guarded themselves.
After all, at the beginning of the 10th century the Sakimori are no longer detectable.
Sakimori-uta
The sakimori are known from poems ( uta ) in the anthology of poems Man'yōshū compiled in 759 . The poems of the sakimori and their relatives differ both stylistically through their simplicity from those of the court nobility, linguistically through the fact that they were written in the dialects of Eastern Japan instead of the Western Japan in which the capital was located, and through their choice of topics, which reflects the longing for report on their homeland and their work. But they also show that poetry and the writing of such poetry was popular not only in the upper class, but also in the common people.
The songwriter Masashi Sada adapted one of these poems in 1980 in his Ode Sakimori no uta .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f 井上 辰 雄 : 防 人 . In: 日本 大 百科全書 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved August 19, 2018 (Japanese).
- ↑ Hans A. Dettmer: The Yōrō-Codex: The Commandments. Introduction and translation of the Ryō no gige (= publications of the East Asia Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum . Volume 55 ). Book 1. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-05940-4 , p. 72 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ A b c Karl F. Friday: Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan . Stanford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8047-2696-5 , pp. 20–25 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ The East . Vol. 25. East Publications, 1989, pp. 42–44 ( limited preview in Google Book search).