The Soga clan dominated the Japanese court after crushing the Mononobe clan in 587.
They basically controlled who got to be emperor.
In 592, the head of the Soga, a man named Soga no Umako, suspected that he was on the
emperor’s “People I need to get rid of because they are too powerful” list.
Soga no Umako resolved the issue by having the emperor assassinated.
Oh, did I mention the emperor was Umako’s own nephew?
Yeah, he was.
And if that wasn’t enough to convince you of the Soga’s power,
afterwards, he put his niece, Suiko, on the throne.
He also gave the new empress a regent, her nephew, a smart young man by the name of
Shotoku Taishi.
Prince Shotoku had both Imperial and Soga blood.
Aunt and nephew were like co-rulers.
She tended to handle religious affairs while he handled state affairs.
Psst.
Hey guys, stick around until the end of the video for a special message.
Prince Shotoku is a beloved figure in Japanese history.
They had all kinds of totally true stories about him, like he could speak the moment
he was born.
Thing is, some historians actually question his existence, believing that he may have
been a combination of different people rather than one man.
At the beginning of Empress Suiko’s reign, the ruling Yamato family was losing control.
The strongest clans, especially the Soga, almost ran the Imperial court and passed the
time by engaging in power struggles.
Outside of the capital, clans in the provinces increasingly fought over land and resources.
Some even refused to pay taxes to the central government.
A few historians speculated that the instability was due to a growing population that increased
competition for resources.
Prince Shotoku sought a way to deal with these issues, and decided that there were two problems.
One, the position of emperor did not have enough authority.
And two, these clans were too firmly embedded in the government structure.
Oh, and three, freaking Soga no Umako.
Prince Shotoku enacted reforms to try and strengthen the emperor’s authority.
He had initial help from Soga no Umako, of all people.
Umako probably thought that since he basically controlled who would be emperor, a more powerful
emperor meant a more powerful Soga clan.
Around this time, after more than 150 years of polite discussion, China reunified under
the Sui Dynasty.
The Sui took steps to increase the power of their own central government.
They had a strong central military and exerted more control over regional officials.
They also tried to create a government based on merit instead of heredity.
Having a strong Chinese state again had a huge effect on the region.
Prince Shotoku thought the Sui had some pretty good ideas.
The Korean kingdoms had already copied the Sui model, and Shotoku wanted to do the same.
Many times, he sent people to Sui China to learn their ways.
Some students even stayed in China for decades until Trump deported them for overstaying
their visas.
The students of these missions brought home valuable information,
and anchor babies.
An interesting event happened that we should talk about, Shotoku and Empress Suiko once
sent an emissary to China and addressed the Chinese emperor this way:
“From the child of heaven in the land of the rising sun
to the child of heaven in the land of the setting sun.”
The land of the rising sun was Japan.
The land of the setting sun was China.
Now, this introduction may seem fine to you and me, but it irritated the Chinese emperor.
The wording was deliberate, it implied a conversation between equals, two children of heaven.
Remember that China saw all other countries as inferior.
Here was an inferior vassal state that spoke as if they were equal to the Chinese emperor,
like his kid just called him by his first name.
My name is Dad!
Call me Dad!
The letter revealed to us how Japan began to see itself.
It was a message that Japan no longer accepted a subordinate role to China.
Prince Shotoku made two major reforms.
In 603, he created the Cap Rank system.
In 604, he wrote the Seventeen Articles Constitution.
The Cap Rank system was supposed to replace the older kabane system, which I discussed
in an earlier video here.
The new system created 12 ranks in the court.
Each rank came with its own color.
My sources differ on this, which is frustrating.
Some say that they wore a different colored cap depending on their rank.
Others say, no, all the caps were purple, it was the color of feathers on the caps that
changed.
This new system was important because it was supposed to be based on merit.
In the older kabane system, your rank passed on to your children, allowing power to linger
within a family.
With the new system, court ranks were no longer hereditary.
Well, mostly.
The highest court officials still had hereditary ranks.
But the point was to make court appointments based on your performance instead of your
daddy.
In 604, Prince Shotoku wrote the Seventeen Articles Constitution.
Now, “constitution” may be a bad translation, and some historians have dropped the word
“constitution.”
When you think of “constitution,” you think of a document of law, with punishments
for violations.
This was not that.
It was more like a list of ethical principles, based on Confucianism and Buddhism.
It was Shotoku saying, “Hey, you doofuses, this is how good government officials should
act.”
Shotoku wrote about a harmonious relationship between ruler and subject and stressed the
authority of the emperor, all Confucian ideals.
Shotoku wanted to create a government that placed the emperor at the top, like the Sui
emperor.
So how effective were these reforms?
About as effective as the age verification on adult websites.
If the goal was to shift power away from the clans and towards the emperor, it didn’t happen.
The clans were still too strong and had independent control over their lands.
The Soga’s grip on the court remained and they blocked any threat to their authority.
However, Shotoku got the ball rolling on this idea of a strong central government with an
all-powerful emperor.
Later reformers would continue dribbling his ball towards the basket.
Prince Shotoku did find success in another ball:
his mission to popularize Buddhism.
He was a devout Buddhist and is often called the father of Japanese Buddhism.
You could say he made and pumped this second ball himself.
Empress Suiko was receptive.
Suiko probably liked Buddhism because it welcomed female rulers, unlike the patriarchal Confucianism,
which only supported male rulers.
Buddhism flourished under Shotoku and Suiko, with huge temples popping up all over the
place.
You could say, aunt and nephew passed the Buddhism ball back and forth down the court,
avoiding the Yamato Shinto’s, and scored a three pointer.
Prince Shotoku died after 30 years as regent.
It was said that when he died, the common folk all mourned his death, saying the sun
and moon had lost their brightness.
Hey guys, how's it going?
I have an announcement today.
I'm pregnant.
No.
I have a Patreon!
So if you hadn't notice, I don't have any ads on this channel because YouTube refuses
to monetize me.
No, they didn't refuse, but they're reviewing channels right now and it's been about a hundred
years.
So hopefully the channel will be monetized in a few...
decades.
In the meantime, we have Patreon.
If you didn't know, Patreon is a service that allows you to give me a few bucks a month.
You know, just skip one coffee a month to support an independent artist, and in return,
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the channel to something bigger and better.
It also allows us to have more of a connection, because, you know, within our private Patreon
circle family thing,
I'm much more likely to talk to you,
to interact with you,
to reveal more personal information,
like my social security number, whatever you want.
Link in the description, hope to see you there.