In the second year of his reign, the Emperor Yomei was seized with the malady which had killed his father. In his extremity he desired to be received into the Buddhist faith to which he had always inclined, and he ordered the leading officials to consider the matter. A council was held. Moriya, o-muraji of the Mononobe, and Katsumi, muraji of the Nakatomi, objected resolutely. They asked why the Kami of the country should be abandoned in a moment of crisis. But Umako, o-omi of the Soga, said: "It is our duty to obey the Imperial commands and to give relief to his Majesty. Who will dare to suggest contumely?" Buddhist priests were then summoned to the palace. It was a moment of extreme tension. Prince Umayado (Shotoku) grasped the hands of the o-omi and exclaimed, "If the minister had not believed in Buddhism, who would have ventured to give such counsel?" Umako's answer is said to have been: "Your Imperial Highness will work for the propagation of the faith. I, a humble subject, will maintain it to the death." Moriya, the o-muraji, made no attempt to hide his resentment, but recognizing that his adherents in the palace were comparatively few, he withdrew to a safe place and there concentrated his forces, endeavouring, at the same time, to enlist by magic rites the assistance of the Kami against the disciples of the foreign faith. Meanwhile the Emperor's malady ended fatally. His reign had lasted only one year. At the point of death he was comforted by an assurance that the son of Shiba Tachito would renounce the world to revere his Majesty's memory and would make an image of the Buddha sixteen feet high.