Soga (clan)

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The Soga ( Japanese 蘇 我 氏 , Soga-shi ) was a clan from the Yamato region in Japan (now Nara Prefecture ), whose leaders achieved influential political power in the 6th and 7th centuries that even rivaled that of the imperial family. According to the Nihon Shoki and the Kogo Shūi , two historical works from 720 and 807, respectively, they were responsible for finances, foreign policy and the rise of Buddhism, among other things. As a result, they were instrumental in shaping the political and cultural development of Japan at that time.

Pedigree of the Soga

uji-kabane system

The uji - kabane system or Shisei system ( 氏 姓 制度 ) describes the political organization at the Yamato court. The uji , such as the Soga, were essentially widespread extended families or groups, who were assigned various areas of responsibility at the Yamato court from the economy, the military sector or ritual issues. The translation into German is mostly clan / family or family. The chiefs primarily responsible for serving the Yamato emperors held hereditary ranks ( kabane ) which indicated their position in the emperor's entourage. They supervised and coordinated some of the groups, called be or tomo , that performed various services for the imperial court. In this sense, the uji were more of a political institution than just an organized tribal group.

Clan history

origin

The Shinsen Shōjiroku , a summary of genealogies of the nobility from the 9th century, traces the origins of the clan back to Takenouchi no Sukune . He was chancellor and probably also a lover of the mother of Ōjin -Tennō, who presumably conquered the Wa empire (Japan) as part of a Korean invasion around 389 . The previous elites were soon integrated into the court. However, some historians suggest that a 5th-century official named Soga no Manchi, who is the first Soga mentioned in a historical document, is the same person as an official from the Korean Kingdom of Baekje .

The Soga, which did not appear at the Yamato court until around the middle of the 5th century , were a branch of the imperial family and were responsible for supervising the import and export as well as the storage of the various tribute payments made by -be ( guild-like professions) were produced. These consisted for the most part of immigrant Chinese craftsmen and rice farmers. As a result, of the various Yamato clans, they were undoubtedly the most familiar with the situation in China and Korea. It is therefore not surprising that it was they who later introduced Chinese administrative methods and Buddhism to the country.

Ascent

After Soga no Iname ( 蘇 我 稲 目 ; † 570), son of Soga no Komas ( 蘇 我 高麗 ), prevailed in a political debate in 540, he was appointed the first of the Soga clan to be the highest minister ( Ō-omi ). He managed to marry two of his daughters to the emperor Kimmei-Tennō .

After the king of Baekje sent Buddhist sutras and representations as well as a golden Buddha statue as gifts to the court of Yamato in 552, the emperor asked his highest dignitaries, Soga no Iname and the Ō-muraji named Mononobe no Okoshi, whether they should introduce Buddhism should or not. The Soga did not have an independent identity like the established clans, whose (legendary) history stretched far into the past, or like those whose ancestral headquarters traditionally comprised a certain area. Iname saw Buddhism as a means to expand his political power. His goal was to break the prevailing omnipotence of Shintoism and at the same time destroy the reputation of the Nakatomi allied with the Mononobe . For the ruling families, who based their claim to power on the descent from gods ( kami ), Buddhism posed a danger as it attributed greater power to Buddha than to any local deity. However, this debate was decided at a later date.

At the beginning of the reign of Bidatsu-Tennō , who succeeded Kimmei after his death in 571, Iname's son, Soga no Umako ( 蘇 我 馬 子 ; † 626) took over his post, but could not really establish himself as the leading clan at court ( gaiseki ) enforce. After Bidatsu died in 585, power struggles broke out over the succession. The two main parties revolved around the two people Umako and Mononobe no Moriya . Umako won the upper hand with military force and put his candidate Prince Anahobe, the fourth son of Kimmei with a daughter of Iname, on the throne as Yōmei -Tennō. Umako thus gained control of the imperial court. Yōmei's main wife gave birth to four sons, whereby the succession was secured and the Soga now definitely achieved the status of the gaiseki clan. The first son later became the eminent Prince Regent Shōtoku Taishi .

When Yōmei fell ill, the power struggle broke out again in 587 under the leadership of Mononobe no Moriya . Again Umako prevailed in a battle. The 12th son of Kimmei, with a Soga woman as mother, was used as Sushun -Tennō. This victory made the Soga clan final and dominant in government for the next 60 years. In addition, the question of the acceptance and spread of Buddhism - within and as a tool of the ruling class - was finally clarified.

Decline

When Umako learned of Sushun's plans to organize a coup, he had him murdered in 592 and replaced by his niece, Suiko . She was the first empress in Yamato history. Suiko ruled for over 30 years until 628, longer than any other emperor for the next 1200 years. Suiko's nephew Umayado no toyotomimi no mikoto , known posthumously as Shōtoku Taishi ( 聖 徳 太子 ; * 574, † 622), led the government for her from 593 as regent and heir to the throne.

His death in 622 and shortly thereafter Soga no Umako's withdrawal from political life led to bitter political rivalry in Yamato State. Ultimately, the son, Soga no Emishi ( Japanese蘇 我 蝦 夷, *?; † 645) 626 received the title of Ō-omi . Since Empress Suiko had not appointed a successor as regent for the late Prince Shōtoku Taishi, there were two possible successors - Prince Tamura, the grandson of Emperor Bidatsu, and Prince Yamashiro no Ōe , the son of Shōtoku, who had the better chance. However, since Soga no Emishi preferred a ruler who was supposed to have only symbolic power, he had Yamashiro and his supporters murdered, and Prince Tamura was made Emperor Jomei .

After Jomei's death (641) the same debate about the succession broke out. But again Emishi had no success and Jomei's wife ascended (642) as Kōgyoku-Tennō the throne. Shortly thereafter, Emishi's son Soga no Iruka ( 蘇 我 入 鹿 ; † 645) took over the administrative business and led a strict regiment. After Yamashiro's sister publicly criticized him, he had about 23 offspring of Shōtoku, including Yamashiro, commit suicide. This led Nakatomi no Kamatari , a court bureaucrat, Naka no Ōe , the son of Emperor Jomei, and a clan leader, who was a son of Soga no Ishikawa Maro, to band together to organize a coup, the Isshi Incident .

His opponents had several motivations for overthrowing Soga: the tyrannical and ruthless behavior of the Soga ministers, the failure of the Soga, the effective and comprehensive use of newly acquired Chinese techniques to increase political control, the constant rivalry with the Soga and the Shōtoku's son is murdered. In addition, Nakatomi no Kamatari in particular intended to drive the Soga out of their supremacy, through which they could exercise administrative control, and thus implement a centralized policy and administrative reforms recommended by Shōtoku Taishi.

While Empress Kōgyoku received 644 Korean ambassadors, they broke into the audience room, killed Iruka, also murdered Emishi and burned down his house and all its document collections. This ended the rule of the Soga. The family finally disappeared into the darkness of history in the 8th century.

When later Nakano no Ōe to Tenchi-Tennō (668-671), he gave Nakatomi no Kamatari the honorable family name Fujiwara , when he was already dying. This family dominated the country's political life for the following period.

Introduction of Buddhism

When Kimmei took office (538), the related royal house of Baekje sent around 200 sutras, plus a monk, a nun and a special mantra reader. Furthermore a "Lord God Carver" and a temple builder. Silla also sent a Buddha image. This was followed by 552 more sutras, Buddhist representations and a golden Buddha statue as a gift to the Kimmei-Tennō.

The delivery of a bronze Buddha and a stone relief from Maitreya by a private person from Baekje is guaranteed for 584 . As already described above, the emperor asked his dignitaries, the ō-omi Soga no Iname and “Nakatomi no Muraji”, whether one should introduce Buddhism or not. Besides political motives, Iname argued that Buddhism was accepted in all western Asian countries and that there was no reason why Yamato should be an exception. Nakatomi was against it, as he believed Buddhism would anger the native kami .

Iname prevailed over two other influential clans of the time, the Nakatomi, heads of the Shinto priests, and the Mononobe, a warrior clan. Iname was allowed to keep the statue and built a temple for it. Shortly afterwards, however, an epidemic devastated the country, which the Nakatomi and Mononobe saw as the revenge of the kami . Kimmei then had the statue thrown into a canal and burned the temple down. A year later the priests Tonei and Dōshin, the first Buddhist priests in Yamato, arrived from Baekje and spread the religion.

After Bidatsu ascended the throne, the clan quarrel broke out again. This time under Soga no Umako. In the meantime 577 priests, architects, carpenters and sculptors arrived from Korea. Another epidemic broke out and Bidatsu, on the advice of Mononobe no Moriya, in 585 banned Buddhism. Around this time the Soga returned to Buddhism and rebuilt a family temple after their first had been destroyed in the previous iconoclasm . The way in which the rulers of China at the time, the Sui Dynasty (581–618) and the Tang Dynasty (618–907), made use of Buddhism as a state instrument, inspired the elites of Yamato. His rituals and universal spiritual appeals supported the absolute ruler and the development of Buddhist doctrines formed the moral basis of a united kingdom.

In 587 the political conflict between the clans came to an end and then Umako had the temple Hōkōji, later known as Asuka-dera , built in 588 . As a result, Buddhism gained momentum. In the crucial year 593 , Suiko ordered the courtly elite to support Buddhism and Shōtoku Taishi began promoting it as the new regent.

Priests and master craftsmen (architects, carpenters, wall painters, sculptors, wood carvers, ...) who came from the Korean peninsula helped with their expert knowledge in the construction and furnishing of the 64 temples that were built during the Asuka period , including the three famous temples Hōkōji, Arahaka-ji (original name Shitennō-ji ) and Ikaruga-ji (renamed Hōryū-ji after the reconstruction in the 7th century ).

Reforms

There were two periods in the history of Japan that were marked by reforms that were fundamentally influenced by contact with other cultures. The later one was after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when the country was led towards industrialization according to the western model. The first began around 587 when Soga no Umako gained control of central power in Japan and continued into the 7th century. The reunification of the Chinese Empire in 589 and the appointment of the Suiko-Tennō in 593 can also be seen as further starting points for this first phase.

Umako used Chinese administrative methods to expand state power and supported the introduction and dissemination of Chinese ideas, particularly Buddhism . The Yamato elite were amazed at the power and achievements of the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties ruling at the time. On the one hand, they wanted to build a powerful state based on the Chinese model; on the other hand, there was also an increasing interest in Chinese art and knowledge. In 600 an official embassy was sent to the Chinese court for the first time in more than 100 years. So far, most of the Chinese knowledge and ideas have come to Japan via Korea, especially the Kingdom of Baekje. From then on, however, there was extensive direct contact between Japan and China.

Buddhism was a key factor in reforming the country. Many of the immigrant priests brought with them Chinese knowledge of Confucian teachings and of the Chinese legal system, literature, and history, which contributed significantly to the Enlightenment of the period.

Shōtoku Taishi was one of the central figures who started the reform. During his reign, the leaders of the Yamato family came to realize that Buddhism can serve as a pillar of government and an orderly society. In 603 he introduced a system of 12 court ranks ( Japanese冠 位 十二 階kan'i jūni kai ) , following the example of Baekje and Goguryeo , another kingdom of Korea . This supported the emperor in increasing the control over the civil servants through the transfer of ranks with a certain status and through performance-oriented promotions. However, the system did not initially prevail over the prevailing uji-kabane system .

In addition, Shōtoku Taishi 604 introduced the 17-article constitution ( Japanese十七 条 憲法jūshichijō kempō ). It corresponded to a list of moral rules and regulations for the officials of the court. The constitution was influenced by Confucianism , Taoism, and Buddhism . The first three articles provided the ideological basis for Articles 4-17, which dictated how officials should serve the emperor according to Confucian and Buddhist teachings.

In 607-608 diplomatic exchanges with the Chinese court of the Sui dynasty continued. The goal was to build good relations with the reunited Chinese empire in order to have an ally against the warring Korean kingdoms if necessary and to study the methods of the mainland in order to strengthen one's own state. The people who came to China in the course of this exchange, some of whom stayed for more than 20 years, were the leading figures in the later reforms in Yamato.

After the Soga clan had almost disappeared from the political scene from 645 onwards, two further events made a major contribution to the reform of the country: First, the adoption of the Taika reforms and, second, the civil war in 672 ( jinshin no ran ) after which the new rulers were very successful in establishing a strong and powerful country.

Credibility of the Nihon Shoki

It is possible that the authors of the Nihon Shoki , one of the most important sources for today's knowledge of the Soga, deliberately exaggerated the negative aspects and deeds of the Soga. The work was written at a time when people were more against the Soga. On the one hand, some of the activities of the Soga remain unclear; on the other hand, the statement that after the coup in 645 the Soga were wiped out is incorrect. For example, Soga no Akae served as Ō-omi during the Taika reform .

The main actors

literature

  • John W. Hall (Ed.): The Cambridge history of Japan. Volume 1: Delmer M. Brown (Ed.): Ancient Japan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1993, ISBN 0-521-22352-0 .
  • Jan Carter Covell, Alan Covell: Korean Impact on Japanese Culture. Korean impact on Japanese culture. Hollym International Corp., Elizabeth NJ 1984, ISBN 0-930878-34-5 .
  • John Whitney Hall: The Japanese Empire (= Fischer-Weltgeschichte Bd. 20 Fischer-Bücherei ). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1968.
  • John Whitney Hall: Government and local power in Japan. 500 to 1700. A study based on Bizen province. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1966.
  • David J. Lu: Japan. A documentary history. Sharpe, Armonk NY et al. 1997, ISBN 1-56324-906-5 .
  • Japan. An illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, Tokyo 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X .
  • Kodansha encyclopedia of Japan. 9 volumes. Kodansha, Tokyo et al. 1983.
  • Joan R. Piggott: The Emergence of Japanese Kingship. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2832-1 .
  • George Sansom: A History of Japan. Volume 1: To 1334. The Cresset Press, London 1958.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ the events are legendary in Buddhist tradition in Nihon Ryōiki .
  2. ↑ The clan has traditionally controlled the gunsmiths' guild, on which their power relied.
  3. ↑ The name Shōtoku is first mentioned in writing in Kaifūsō 751, almost 130 years after his death.
  4. ↑ Legendary in Nihon Ryoiki I, 5

See also