Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/537
the country of Eight Great Islands.’ On his accession to the throne, the Emperor Mommu (A.D. 697–707) declared: ‘As long as Emperors shall beget sons, We shall, each in succession, govern the Country of Eight Great Islands’; and the same Emperor also said: ‘We shall reduce the realm to peace, and bestow Our loving care upon Our beloved subjects.’
Such, briefly, is the principle by which each Emperor has been guided on his accession to the throne. Latterly the phrase ‘O-Yashima-Shiroshima Sumera-Mikotot’ (the Emperor reigning over and governing the Country of Eight Great Islands) has come to be used as a regular formula in Imperial proclamations. Herein we may trace the source of the text of the Constitution contained in Article I.: ‘The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors which shall remain unbroken to all time.’
From the beginning of the Empire the changes which have taken place in the legal system may be divided into three periods. Of these, the first, extending from the date of Jimmu-Tenno’s accession to the throne (B.C. 660) to that of Ko-toku Tenno (A.D. 645), was the era of a stringent legal system, which for the following 1,300 years contained no provisions for dealing with any foreign element. At this time ancestor-worship was religiously carried on, and was one of the Government’s most important concerns. A special pontifical office existed in the central Government, but locally pontifical functions were discharged by general administrative Governors.
Offices of Government, both central and local, were then almost exclusively filled by succeeding members of various clans, according to their genealogical importance and social standing. Even the ranks of the military profession were recruited entirely from the members of two or three clans and from their retainers, while other clans, again, monopolized the chief industries. The head of a clan had absolute and unlimited power over all his followers. The finances of the Imperial Court were derived mainly from the revenues of its territory and from contributions or gifts from clansmen and foreign countries, but later a few trifling taxes were imposed.
About this time agriculture began to be carried on. The private possession of land was common, and this led to the evil of absorption of property by the wealthier and more powerful clans. The provisions of the criminal code dealt chiefly with offences against ecclesiastical rites, and as a rule penalties were light. A ceremony of purification came into vogue whereby the polluted bodies of offenders might be cleansed and then blessed by the deity.
The second period extends from the accession to the throne