Chapter IV. Founding The Empire.
We have now come to the time when the movements which resulted in the establishment of the empire of Japan took place. The events are still overlaid with myth and legend, which could only have been transmitted by oral tradition. But they have to do with characters and places which are tied to the present by stronger cords than those of the divine age. What the events really were which are involved in the myths of the preceding chapter it is impossible to predicate. That the celestial invasion of the island of Kyūshū means the coming thither of a chief and his followers from the continent by way of Korea seems most reasonable. The inter-mixture of Izumo with these legends may mean that another migration of a kindred race took place to that part of the Main island. The easy access to both Izumo and Kyūshū from Korea makes these migrations the natural explanation of the landing of the Japanese upon these fertile and tempting islands.
Without settling the difficult ethnographical questions which are involved in this problem, we propose [pg 052] to follow the Kyūshū invaders into the Main island. We will note the slow and laborious steps by which they proceeded to establish a government, which through many changes and emergencies continues to this day.
The Prince, whom we will continue to call Jimmu,[47] had an elder brother, Prince Itsu-se, who seems, however, to have been less active and energetic than the younger. At least, even from the first it is Prince Jimmu who is represented as taking the initiative in the movements which were now begun. The two brothers consulted together and resolved to conduct an expedition towards the east. It will be remembered that their grandfather had established his palace on Mount Takachiho, which is one of the two highest peaks in Kyūshū, situated in the province of Hyūga, nearly in the middle of the southern extension of the island of Kyūshū. It was from this place that the two brothers started on their expedition. It was no doubt such an expedition as the Norse Vikings of a later day often led into the islands of their neighbors. They had with them a force composed of the descendants of the invaders who had come with their grandfather from the continent. They marched first through the country called Toyo, which was a luxuriant and fertile region on the northeast part of the island. Thence they marched to the palace of Wokada, situated in [pg 053] a district of the island of Tsukushi, lying on the northwest coast facing Tsushima and the peninsula of Korea, and bordering on the straits of the Inland sea. Here they remained a year and probably built the boats by which they crossed the Inland sea.
From Tsukushi they crossed to the province of Aki in the Main island on the coast of the Inland sea, where it is said they remained seven years. The progress seems like that of the hordes of the Goths in the early ages of European history. It was not merely a military expedition, but a migration of a tribe with all its belongings, women and children, old men and old women, and household and agricultural effects. The military band under Prince Jimmu and his brother formed the vanguard and protection of the tribe. During their seven years' sojourn in Aki they were compelled to resort to agriculture as well as fishing for their support.
Then they skirted along the north coast of the Inland sea to Takashima in the province of Kibi. Thence they crept with their awkward boats eastward among the luxuriant islands. They met a native of the coast out in his boat fishing and engaged his services as a guide. He conducted them to Naniwa, which now bears the name of Ōsaka, where they encountered the swift tides and rough sea which navigators still meet in this place. Finally they landed at a point which we cannot recognize, but which must have been in the neighborhood of Ōsaka at the mouth of the Yodo river.
Here their conflicts with the natives began. The whole region seems to have been occupied by tribes [pg 054] not unlike their own, who had probably come thither from the settlements in Izumo. The first to dispute their progress was Prince Nagasuné (Long Legs), of Tomi, who raised an army and resisted the landing of the invaders. It was in the battle that ensued at this place that Prince Itsu-se, the elder brother, received a wound in his hand from an arrow shot by Prince Nagasuné. The reason given reveals a curious superstition which seems to have prevailed from this early time. The Japanese prince on receiving the wound exclaims, “It is not right for me, an august child of the Sun Goddess, to fight facing the sun. It is for this reason that I am stricken by the wretched villain's hurtful hand.” Prince Itsu-se, after a few days, died from the effects of the wound. He is buried on mount Kama in the province of Kii.
It is needless to recount all the legends which cluster around this invasion of the central provinces of Japan; about the wild boar which came out of the mountains near Kumano, before which Prince Jimmu and all his warriors fell down in a faint; about the miraculous sword which was sent down from the heavenly plains to aid him in subduing the Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains; about a crow eight feet long which was sent to guide him in his expedition, and about the deities with tails who in several places were encountered. To our conception they seem meaningless, and do not in any measure contribute to the progress of the story. They bear evidence of a later invention, and do not belong legitimately to the narrative.