The Site Library
This is a library for visitors to my HomePage. Here you will find some descriptions of Kataoka Jinja, old stories, episodes of Japanese history , etc. It is a challenge for me to put them into English, so the title of the series is ' THE CHALLENGE ! '.

THE CHALLENGE ! (1) @@@ The Prince Arima Affair(renewed on June 25)
The Prince Arima Affair occurred in the 7th century. We can find some elegiacs in Manyoshu( the ancient anthology) and some brief descriptions in Nihon shoki (the Chronicles of Japan) compiled at the Imperial court of 720.

Introduction
* 'Tenno ' means the emperor and ' Kogo ' means the empress, but, when Kogo succeeds to the throne, she is also called ' Tenno '. Tenno was given another name after death.
* The family tree of the ancient imperial house ( 7th century) :-
Jomei Tenno ( the 34th Emperor ) and the Empress Takara had three children; Prince Nakano-oe, Prince O-ama and Princess Hashihito. Takara had a younger brother who was named Prince Karu. His son was Prince Arima. The second wife of Prince Karu was Princess Hashihito.
Developments
In 641 when Jomei Tenno died, Takara Kogo succeeded to the throne and became the 35th Emperor. She was Kogyoku Tenno. At this time, naturally Prince Nakano-oe could have succeed to the throne if he had just said 'yes', but he didn't. He stayed as the Imperial Prince.
In 645 Prince Nakano-oe and his faithful man, Kamatari Nakatomi ( or Nakatomi no Kamatari ) assasinated the minister Iruka Soga ( or Soga no Iruka : He was the head of Soga clan.) who had exercised his authority at will. This coup d'etat is one of the famous affairs in the Japanese History called "Taika no kaishin "( the revolution of the era ofTaika ) . This time Kogyoku Tenno resigned from the throne and her brother, Prince Karu succeeded. He became Kotoku Tenno ( the 36th Emperor ) while Nakano-oe remained as the Imperial Prince.
In 654 Kotoku Tenno died. The next year the former Emperor, Kogyoku, succeeded to the throne again. She was called Saimei Tenno( the 37th Emperor ). It was the first time that one person took the throne twice. Nakano-oe was still the Imperial Prince.
In 658 the Affair occurred. According to Nihon shoki, the progress of the case is as follows;-

On Oct. 15 Saimei Tenno went to the hot spring resort in Kinokuni (now Wakayama Pref. ) with her court and Nakano-oe.
On Nov. 3 at the empty capital a man named Soga no Akae whispered to Prince Arima:
" I think Tenno has made three serious mistakes. One is that she ordered the construction of huge storehouses and deprived people of their properties. Two is that she ordered the excavation of a long canal and wasted the official provisions. Three is that she ordered the gathering of enormous stones to build a hill with them."
Hearing this Prince Arima looked pleased to know that Akae's thoughs were the same as his. He said,
" It may be time to use my soldiers."
Two days later Prince Arima visited Akae's house to talk with him. When they were talking with each other , a leg of Prince's armchair crashed down. He thought it must be an ominous sign. He asked Akae to wait for another chance and went back to his house.
That night Akae ordered his man, Shibi, to besiege Prince's house. Then he sent a messenger to the occasional court at Kinokuni resort to tell them that Prince Arima had conspired against the government.
.On Nov. 9 Akae arrested Prince Arima and his men, Oishi, Kusuri and Konoshiro. They were sent to Kinokuni. The guard of the Prince, named Yonemaro, offered to follow them.
Prince Nakano-oe himself examined them. He asked Prince Arima,
" Why have you attempted treason?"
Prince Arima answered,
" Only the gods and Akae know that. I know nothing."
On Nov.11 Prince Arima was executed at Fujishirozaka. On the same day Konoshiro and Yonemaro were killed. Oishi and Kusuri were banished. At that time Prince Arima was 19 years old and Prince Nakano-oe was 20 years old. Similar affairs occured in ancient Japan. This and Prince Ohtsu affair are the most famous two. In both affairs the tragic heroes were very young, able and above all, " handsome !", so they have remained in peoples' hearts ever since.
Comments
.In those years Tenno and her court also had serious problems regarding relations with countries on the Korean peninsula.
In 661 they set out for Kyushu to fight with Shilla ( Shiragi inJapanese, the kingdom in the eastern part of the Korean pininsula) . On May 9 Saimei Tenno died at the occasional court in Kyushu. Nakano-oe became the Emperor at last. His Tenno name was Tenchi (the 38th Emperor ).
In 662 Japan attacked Korai ( Japanese name, the kingdom in the northern part of the pininsula. Japan supported Paekche, (Kudara in Japanese) in the southwest part of the pininsula).
In 663 Japan lost the battle to the allied forces of China and Shiragi at Hakusukinoe Bay in Korea.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@The poem of Prince Arima ( from Manyoshu )
On the way to Kinokuni they passed through the beach of Iwashiro. There the Prince prayed to the gods of the road for good luck. He served foods to the gods putting them on small chinquapin leaves and he wrote:
At home, with holly vessels I would serve,
Now on the journey, only chinquapin leaves have I

ie ni areba ke ni moru ii wo
kusamakura tabi ni shi areba shii no ha ni moru
Afterwards people thought that it must have been Prince Nakano-oe who had ordered Akae to egg Prince Arima on to attempt treason. He needed to clear all obstacles to the throne out of the way. The biggest one was Prince Arima. It was his destiny to be killed.@This is another poem by him:-.
Passing through Iwashiro beach,
I place marks on the pine branch,
If the gods of the road bless me,
I will see them again,
On the way to my home.

iwashiro no hamamatsu ga e wo hikimusubi
masakiku araba mata kaeri mimu
Whenever they journeyed the ancient people used to pray to the god of the district or the road for good luck, binding the blades of grasses or branches of trees. But all of Prince Arima's prayers were for nothing................... (Some descriptive and grammatical@mistakes were corrected by Mrs. Glenda Murray.)
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