Two events specially memorable in this reign were the transfer of the shrine of the Sun goddess to Ise, where it has remained ever since, and the abolition of the custom of junshi, or following in death. The latter shocking usage, a common rite of animistic religion, was in part voluntary, in part compulsory. In its latter aspect it came vividly under the notice of the Emperor Suinin when the tomb of his younger brother, Yamato, having been built within earshot of the palace, the cries of his personal attendants, buried alive around his grave, were heard, day and night, until death brought silence. In the following year (A.D. 3), the Empress having died, a courtier, Nomi-no-Sukune, advised the substitution of clay figures for the victims hitherto sacrificed. Nominally, the practice of compulsory junshi ceased from that date,* but voluntary junshi continued to find occasional observance until modern times.
*Of course it is to be remembered that the dates given by Japanese historians prior to the fifth century A.D. are very apocryphal.
WRESTLING
The name of Nomi-no-Sukune is associated with the first mention of wrestling in Japanese history. By the Chronicles a brief account is given of a match between Nomi and Taema-no-Kuehaya. The latter was represented to be so strong that he could break horns and straighten hooks. His frequently expressed desire was to find a worthy competitor. Nomi-no-Sukune, summoned from Izumo by the Emperor, met Kuehaya in the lists of the palace of Tamaki and kicked him to death. Wrestling thereafter became a national pastime, but its methods underwent radical change, kicking being abolished altogether.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
It is believed by Japanese historians that during the reign of Suinin a local government station (chinju-fu) was established in Anra province of Mimana, and that this station, subsequently known as Nippon-fu, was transferred to Tsukushi (Kyushu) and named Dazai-fu when Japan's influence in Mimana waned. The first general (shoguri) of the chinju-fu was Prince Shihotari, and the term kishi—which in Korea signified headman—was thenceforth incorporated into his family name. To the members of that family in later generations was entrusted the conduct of the Empire's foreign affairs. But it does not appear that the Imperial Court in Yamato paid much attention to oversea countries in early eras. Intercourse with these was conducted, for the most part, by the local magnates who held sway in the western regions of Japan.
It was during the reign of Suinin, if Japanese chronology be accepted, that notices of Japan began to appear in Chinese history—a history which justly claims to be reliable from 145 B.C. Under the Later Han dynasty (A.D. 25-220), great progress was made in literature and art by the people of the Middle Kingdom, and this progress naturally extended, not only to Korea, which had been conquered by the Chinese sovereign, Wu-Ti, in the second century before Christ and was still partly under the rule of Chinese governors, but also to the maritime regions of Japan, whence the shores of Korea were almost within sight. China in those ages was incomparably the greatest and most enlightened country in the Orient, and it had become the custom with adjacent States to send emissaries to her Court, bearing gifts which she handsomely requited; so that while, from one point of view, the envoys might be regarded as tribute-carriers, from another, the ceremony presented the character of a mere interchange of neighbourly civilities. In Japan, again, administrative centralization was still imperfect. Some of the local magnates had not yet been brought fully under the sway of the Yamato invaders, and some, as scions of the Imperial family, arrogated a considerable measure of independence. Thus it resulted that several of these provincial dukes—or "kings," as not a few of them were called—maintained relations with Korea, and through her despatched tribute missions to the Chinese Court from time to time.
In these circumstances it is not surprising to find the Chinese historians of the first century A.D. writing: "The Wa (Japanese) dwell southeast of Han* (Korea) on a mountainous island in midocean. Their country is divided into more than one hundred provinces. Since the time when Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) overthrew Korea, they (the Japanese) have communicated with the Han (Korean) authorities by means of a postal service. There are thirty-two provinces which do so, all of which style their rulers 'kings' who are hereditary. The sovereign of Great Wa resides in Yamato, distant 12,000 li (4000 miles) from the frontier of the province of Yolang (the modern Pyong-yang in Korea). In the second year of Chung-yuan (A.D. 57), in the reign of Kwang-wu, the Ito** country sent an envoy with tribute, who styled himself Ta-fu. He came from the most western part of the Wa country. Kwang-wu presented him with a seal and ribbon." [Aston's translation.]
*It is necessary to distinguish carefully between the Han dynasty of
China and the term "Han" as a designation of Korea.
**The ideographs composing this word were pronounced "I-to" at the time when they were written by the Hou-Han historians, but they subsequently received the sound of "Wo-nu" or "wa-do."