Korea -- History; Korea -- Social life and customs
All being ready, the doughty queen regent set sail from the coast of
Hizen, in Japan, in the tenth month A.D. 202, and beached the fleet
safely on the coast of Shinra. The King of Shinra, accustomed to meet
only with men from the rude tribes of Kiushiu, was surprised to see so
well-appointed an army and so large a fleet from a land to the
eastward. Struck with terror he resolved at once to submit. Tying his
hands in token of submission and in presence of the queen Jingu, he
declared himself the slave of Japan. Jingu caused her bow to be
suspended over the gate of the palace of the king in sign of his
submission. It is even said that she wrote on the gate “The King of
Shinra is the dog of Japan.” Perhaps these are historic words, which
find their meaning to-day in the two golden dogs forming part of the
mikado’s throne, like the Scotch “stone of Scone,” under the coronation
chair in Westminster Abbey.
The followers of Jingu evidently expected a rich booty, but after so
peaceful a conquest the empress ordered that no looting should be
allowed, and no spoil taken except the treasures constituting tribute.
She restored the king to the throne as her vassal, and the tribute was
then collected and laden on eighty boats with hostages for future
annual tribute. The offerings comprised pictures, works of elegance and
art, mirrors, jade, gold, silver, and silk fabrics.
Preparations were now made to conquer Hiaksai also, when Jingu was
surprised to receive the voluntary submission and offers of tribute of
this country.
The Japanese army remained in Corea only two months, but this brief
expedition led to great and lasting results. It gave the Japanese a
keener thirst for martial glory, it opened their eyes to a higher state
of arts and civilization. From this time forth there flowed into the
islands a constant stream of Corean emigrants, who gave a great impulse
to the spirit of improvement in Japan. The Japanese accept the story of
Jingu and her conquest as sound history, and adorn their greenback
paper money with pictures of her foreign exploits. Critics reject many
elements in the tradition, such as her controlling the waves and
drowning the Shinra army by the jewels of the ebbing and the flowing
tide, [2] and the delay of her accouchement by a magic stone carried in
her girdle. The Japanese ascribe the glory of victory to her then
unborn babe, afterward deified as Ojin, god of war, and worshipped by
Buddhists as Hachiman or the Eight-bannered Buddha. Yet many temples
are dedicated to Jingu, one especially famous is near Hiōgo, and
Koraiji (Corean village) near Oiso, a few miles from Yokohama, has
another which was at first built in her honor. Evidently the core of
the narrative of conquest is fact.
At the time when the faint, dim light of trustworthy tradition dawns,
we find the people inhabiting the Japanese archipelago to be roughly
divided, as to their political status, into four classes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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