古代天皇制의 성립과 변질

The Establishment of the Emperor System and Its Changes in Ancient Japan

The development of Japanese kingship went through three stages. The first stage was the primitive stage during which the kingship began to be formed. In this stage the ceremony and the governing were not distinguished, and the political action took the form of religious ceremony as is found in the case of Queen Himiko of Yamatai. The kings or queens could exercise their rulership over their people by relying on their religious authority as a chief priest through incantation. The second stage of Japanese kingship can be characterized by the continuing process of institutionalization accelerated by the introduction of the ritsuryo code and institution from China and Korea. With the introduction of new techniques and the system of rulership the kings centered in the Yamato area began to have control over powerful local chieftains. The hereditary system of kingship was established in this stage. The new name of the king called tenno was coined, and its authority was strengthened by the enactment of various titsuryo codes and the publication of national histories such as the Kojiki and Nihonshoki. In the third stage of Japanese kingship the emperor and the imperial family lost its public authority. During the late ancient period many powerful political sector emerged among court families and Buddhist temples, and the imperial family became one of these powerful sectors. This had been caused by Japan’s failure to develop powerful public authority which was able to overwhelm the aristocracy. Instead it aimed at coexisting with the aristocracy based on the clan system. When the principle of kingly people and land which was the backbone of the ritsuryo system deteriorated, the authority of kings was weakened and went through the process of formalization.