Soga no Umako and Soga no Emishi

[Luke Roberts]

Hi Everyone,
I was just reading an article about the recent interesting archaeological finds of kanji writing on roof tiles from Asukadera, and the article mentioned Soga no Umako as its patron. I have often been perplexed by the name Umako and the name of his son Emishi. They don’t sound like real names, and indeed sound like insults. They end up being the “bad guys” in the narrative arc of the Nihon shoki, and I wonder if the writers of the Nihon shoki had changed actual names to these as a form of posthumous punishment or insult. As an Edo scholar I am a complete novice about early history, and this is just a casual question, but if anyone can enlighten me on this I would be grateful.
Yours, Luke Roberts

[guel...@waseda.jp]

Hey, Luke!

Where is the insult? Shoutoku taishi was called Umayado toyotomimi no
miko and
on the day of his death his pony whinnied and refused to eat and
drink.

Even as an Edo scholar, you have seen some of these haniwa horses; to
associate you
with horses brings you quite near to heaven.

Best wishes,

Niels

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[Luke Roberts]

Haha! Shōtoku Taishi’s moniker means something like “The prince who lives near the stables.” Naming an elite person by an address or residence or more mysteriously “the gate!” is pretty common in Heian (although I do not know about Asuka), so that feels very different than the only name being “horse’s kid” or “barbarian.” Horses per se would not be an insult but rather the implied boundary transgression. I could well be wrong because taboo’s are different over time and culture, but it feels that way to me. The best way to investigate would be to compare these names to other Asuka/ early Nara era names. David Eason offlist kindly sent the following link to Nara era names:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/奈良時代の人物一覧
Most look very different, and the closest might be 小野 馬養, 坂上犬養 and 三野浪魚 yet even these do not make me think of insult because they are not transgressive.
Best wishes, Luke

[Lowe, Bryan Daniel]

Dear All,

Emishi does not strike me as an uncommon name at all—there are lots of examples in Shōsōin documents of 毛人 in personal names. The most famous is likely Saeki no Imaemishi 佐伯今毛人 (Joan Piggott writes about him a little in her dissertation). 

Umako seems less common, but there is one Shōsōin document that contains 馬子真浄, which I take to be two first names (that is my impression at least without looking at it more carefully). But there are los of people named 馬養 and 犬養 as you suggest.The one that comes to mind immediately is Kami no Umakai 上馬養, another administrator at the Office of Sutra Transcription that Joan Piggott discusses in her dissertation.

For what it’s worth, Japanese wikipedia speculates that the name Umako may have to do with his birth year in the twelve or sixty year Chinese cycles. I can’t speak to the plausibility of this claim, though 550ish strikes me as potentially early to be aware of those methods of calculating years. But I’m sure an expert on such matters can speak with more authority about the plausibility.

Best,

Bryan

***********************************************

Bryan D. Lowe, Assistant Professor

Department of Religious Studies 

Asian Studies Program

Graduate Department of Religion

Vanderbilt University                  

2301 Vanderbilt Place

VU Box #351585 

Nashville, TN 37235-1585

Phone: 615-322-0095

Fax: 615-343-1327

[Katherine Saltzman-Li]

Dear Luke, If you’ll be on campus tomorrow and feel like meeting for lunch, it would be a pleasure. If tomorrow doesn’t work, we’ll find another day. All best, Kate

[Katherine Saltzman-Li]

My apologies for the last email! K. Saltzman-Li

[schumacher.mark]

Hello Luke-san

According to the Nihon Shoki, Shōtoku's "virgin" mother bore him suddenly and unexpectedly while on her routine inspection of the imperial horse stables. Hence his moniker “The prince of the stable door.” Some Japanese and foreign scholars claim that Shōtoku legends are fabricated. New Japanese high-school textbooks issued in 2014 have thrown into question the existence of Prince Shōtoku (see 27 March 2013 edition of the Asahi Shimbun). Also see http://www.japancrush.com/2013/stories/japanese-history-textbooks-re-evaluate-historical-figures.html. 

Other Japanese Names for Prince Shōtoku
Umayado 厩戸皇子 ・ Umayado no Ōji 厩戸皇子王子 (Prince of the Stable Door); Toyosatomimi 豊聡耳 ・ Kamitsumiyaō 上宮王 ・ Kamitsumiya no Umayado no Toyosatomimi no Mikoto 上宮之厩戸豊聡耳命 ・ Umayato Toyotomimi Taishi 上宮厩戸豊聡耳太子 ・ Jōgū 上宮 ・ Jōgū Taishi 上宮太子 ・ Jōgūō 上宮王 (King Jōgū) ・ Jōgū Hōō 上宮法皇 (Dharma Emperor) ・ Jōgū Hōō 上宮法王 (Dharma King) ・ Jōgū-ō Taishi 上宮皇太子. Jōgū (literally "upper palace") refers to an elevated chamber inside the imperial palace of Emperor Yōmei. Shōtoku was Yōmei's second son and reportedly lived in this elevated chamber. OTHERS: 豊耳聡聖徳, 豊聡耳法大王, 法主王

bye now
mark in kamakura

[Elisabeth de Boer]

A virgin mother? Kume Kunitake thought that the legend of Shotoku’s birth was influenced by the nativity story (birth in a stable of a child that ushers in a new religion), but I did not know there were even more points of agreement.  The story of the birth of Jesus was known in Japan through Nestorian Christianity, so students from Japan could have become familiar with it.

Best wishes,

Elisabeth de Boer

[Mikael Bauer]

It might be much more feasible to look at the similarities between the account of Shotoku's birth and the Birth stories of the Buddha, for example, the length of pregnancy, ability to speak (early), etc...many of these elements were in fact not just used for Shotoku Taishi but also to describe others, for example, Nakatomi no Kamatari's birth in the 8th century Toshi Kaden (history of the Fujiwara).

Mikael Bauer Ph.D. (Harvard)
Lecturer in Japanese Studies/ Programme Manager of Japanese Studies
Michael Sadler building, room 4.23

School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (LCS)
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
UK
office tel.: 01133430210

有明の  月もあかしの  浦風に  波ばかりこそ   よると見えしか


http://www.leeds.ac.uk/site/custom_scripts/people_profile_details.php?profileID=1421

http://leeds.academia.edu/MikaelBauer
 
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/about/people.html

http://www.ukabs.org.uk/ukabs/conferences/2014-conference/

---

From: pm...@googlegroups.com <pm...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Elisabeth de Boer <emde...@kpnmail.nl>
Sent: 20 August 2015 12:53
To: pm...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [PMJS] Soga no Umako and Soga no Emishi

 

[Mikael Bauer]

Just one clarification:  I mean the 8th century description of Kamatari's birth, obviously he was born way before, in 614. But the following century the story of his birth is described in terms of Shotoku Taishi's, whose birth account in turn quite possibly borrows  from the Buddha's Birth Stories.

Mikael Bauer Ph.D. (Harvard)
Lecturer in Japanese Studies/ Programme Manager of Japanese Studies
Michael Sadler building, room 4.23

School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (LCS)
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
UK
office tel.: 01133430210

有明の  月もあかしの  浦風に  波ばかりこそ   よると見えしか


http://www.leeds.ac.uk/site/custom_scripts/people_profile_details.php?profileID=1421

http://leeds.academia.edu/MikaelBauer
 
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/about/people.html

http://www.ukabs.org.uk/ukabs/conferences/2014-conference/

---

From: Mikael Bauer
Sent: 20 August 2015 13:03
To: pm...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [PMJS] Soga no Umako and Soga no Emishi

 

[Elisabeth de Boer]

Sorry, I meant to write that the nativity story was known in China (not Japan) through Nestorianism…

[Joan R Piggott]

Hello to all,

A few days ago, when it began, I asked Prof. Toshio Araki  (Kodaishi, Senshu University, umak...@yahoo.co.jp) in Japan if he might contribute his thoughts on this thread to PMJS. 

Wherever possible, I’d like to see our Japanese colleagues contributing to our discussions, across the language barriers that may exist. 

Prof. Araki spent a year at Cornell University and would, I think, welcome your questions and thoughts in either English or Japanese. 

He is most interested in questions of monarchy and trade in the classical age. Lately he has been writing about such topics as

Kôken-Shôtoku Tennô and issues concerning female monarchs in classical Japan. In addition he and his graduate students at Senshu University 

have been conducting and publishing their research on travellers between China and Japan during the classical age. Some of you may know their <Kentôshi no mita Chûgoku to Nihon, 

shinhakken 'Ishinsei boshi' kara nani ga wakaru ka?>, published in 2005. Fortunately it is in the library here at USC. Araki-Sensei also leads the research group known as the Kodai Ôken Kenkyûkai.

Best,

Joan Piggott

University of Southern California  Los Angeles

***

荒木敏夫です。

さて、過日、ルークさんの疑問を添えて、メールをいただきましたが、

届いていたのを見落としたようです。

結果、返事が遅れましたことをお詫びいたします。

疑問の件は、すでにどなたかが回答されているかもしれませんが、そのことだけでを

論じている論文は、私の記憶ではないはずです。

それでも論文の中で、馬子・蝦夷の名について、言及されている方々は少なくありません。

ルークさんのような疑問は、門脇禎二さんが、かつて『大化改新論－その前史の研 究－』その他

で指摘され、二人を貶めるための日本書紀編者の意図的変改か、と話題になりました。

名前の剥奪・変改は、奈良時代に称德女帝が宇佐八幡神託事件に関連して、和気清麻呂を

別部穢麻呂と変改した例なども参考とされ、そうしたことはあり得るものと理解されています。

しかし、馬子・蝦夷の例は、数は多くはないですが、他に名前としている例もあり、

また、馬（午）や蝦夷の語そのものに否定的な意味を読み込むのは無理であることから

この語を使うことで、人を貶める意味を見いだすことはできない、とするのが現在では、

学界の大勢を占めていると思います。

ルークさんの「名」に着目した疑問 は、大変重要な着眼点です。名前が、どのような漢字を

使用しているか、だけでなく、どのように呼（訓）んでいたか、にまで検討を及ぼすと、より、

難しい問題が出てきます。

それでも、名前（命名）が、時代をより鮮明に浮き彫りにすることのあることを、私たちは、

心得ておくべきでしょう。

***

On Aug 1, 2015, at 4:46 PM, Luke Roberts <luke...@history.ucsb.edu> wrote:

[Ross Bender]

Professor Araki notes the famous change of Kiyomaro's name to Kitanamaro (from "Pure Maro" to "Dirty Maro"). Some other interesting examples are found in Shoku Nihongi, Tenpyō Hōji 1.7.4 after the suppression of the Tachibana Naramaro conspiracy:

Prince Kibumi changed to “Kuna Tabure” 久奈多夫礼 “lunatic”

 

The deposed former Crown Prince Funado 道祖王 changed to “Matohi”  麻度比 “misguided”

 

Kamo no Tsunotari changed to “Noroshi” 乃呂志 “foolish”

In the case of the two Princes, the name change was necessary so that they could, as commoners, be punished by death with the heavy stick.

Ross Bender

https://independent.academia.edu/RossBender

Kuna Tabure久奈多夫礼. “lunatic” 黄文王

 

 Matohi 麻度比. “misguided” The deposed former Crown Prince Funado 道祖王

 

Noroshi 乃呂志 “foolish” Kamo no Tsunotari

 

[Luke Roberts]

I’d like to express thanks to everyone on list and to Prof. Araki for your thoughtful and wide ranging comments. I have learned alot from these exchanges.
Best wishes, Luke Roberts