Hata no Kawakatsu
Hata no Kawakatsu, or Hata no Miyatsuko no Kawakatsu, was a semi-legendary statesman active during the Asuka period in Japan. He is recorded as serving under Empress Suiko and Empress Kōgyoku in the Nihon Shoki, and appears as a noteworthy figure in narratives surrounding Prince Shōtoku.
Later legends present Kawakatsu as the reincarnation of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, in addition to being the ancestor of the Hata clan and the founder of sarugaku. He is also credited with the construction of Kōryū-ji in Kyoto, and is enshrined as the deity Ōsake Daimyōjin at the in Akō.
Family
Kawakatsu belonged to the Hata clan, an immigrant group that settled in Japan during the fourth and fifth centuries. They were particularly influential within the of what is now Kyoto, and played a significant part in the formation of Japan's political and religious institutions. Furthermore, the Hata were renowned for being skilled weavers, brewers and construction workers, credited with the introduction of technologies such as sericulture.Various origins have been attributed to the Hata clan over time, with the Nihon Shoki recording that Yuzuki no Kimi, alongside 120 members of his clan, settled in Japan from Baekje during the reign of Emperor Ōjin. Alternatively, the Shinsen Shōjiroku states that the Hata were descended from Emperor Qin Shi Huang, linking the name Hata to the Qin dynasty. Despite this, it is agreed by most modern scholars that the Hata clan was of Korean origin, having arrived in Japan from Silla.
Although little is known concerning Kawakatsu's direct family, the noh playwright Zeami Motokiyo claimed to be a distant descendant of his, even referring to himself as Hata no Motokiyo. In his work the Fūshikaden, Zeami goes on to assert that the leaders of the can trace their ancestry back to Hata no Ujiyasu, a descendant of Kawakatsu, who inherited the art of sarugaku and performed alongside his brother-in-law Ki no Gonnokami. Together the two are also credited with establishing the three performances of .
Much like Zeami, the musicians of Shitennō-ji likewise claimed to be descendants of Kawakatsu, and by extension Qin Shi Huang.
Career
Nihon Shoki
The Nihon Shoki makes only sparse references to Hata no Kawakatsu, providing no record of his birth or death, but acknowledges him as a high-ranking courtier who served Empress Suiko and Empress Kōgyoku. He is first mentioned in the eleventh year of Empress Suiko's reign as founding a temple called Hachioka-dera, also known as Kōryū-ji, after receiving a statue of the Buddha as a gift from Prince Shōtoku.In the eighteenth year of Empress Suiko's reign, Kawakatsu was tasked with escorting a group of envoys from Silla, aided by another servant named Haji no Muraji Usagi. Together with Hashihito no Muraji Shiofuta and Abe no Omi Ōko accompanying a group from Mimana, the envoys were brought before the south gate of the imperial court.
Kawakatsu was also responsible for putting an end to the self-destructive worship of a "faddish deity", named, in the third year of Empress Kōgyoku's reign.
It is said that the people of that time then made a song, saying:
The Nihon Shoki further states that the "Insect of the Everlasting World" resembled a silkworm, over four inches in length and about as thick as a thumb. It had a green coloration with black spots, and lived on tachibana and hosoki trees. Based on this description it is theorized that the insect in question may have been the caterpillar of a Swallowtail butterfly, specifically P. xuthus, given that they feed on both Citrus and Zanthoxylum.
Shōtoku Taishi Denryaku
Kawakatsu is acknowledged as having close ties to Prince Shōtoku in the ', compiled in the tenth century, which records his name as Hata no Miyatsuko no Kawakatsu'.It is written that, when Prince Shōtoku was sixteen years old, Kawakatsu served as the head of his army during the Battle of Shigisan. In an effort to secure victory, Prince Shōtoku commanded Kawakatsu to carve statues of the Four Heavenly Kings out of Chinese sumac. Raising the statues over his head, Prince Shōtoku then vowed: “If I am granted victory, I will build a temple in honor of the Four Heavenly Kings who protect the world.” This temple being Shitennō-ji.
During the battle, Kawakatsu was also responsible for beheading the rebel Mononobe no Moriya:
When Prince Shōtoku was thirty three years old he addressed Kawakatsu about a dream he had, in which he traveled north to a beautiful village and attended a feast held by Kawakatsu's relatives. Kawakatsu himself confirmed that his village was exactly as the prince observed in his dream, and so the two departed for the village the following day.
The building was later converted into a temple and given to Kawakatsu, in addition to 30 chō of rice fields in front of the temple and 60 chō'' of mountains and fields behind the temple. He also received items such as Buddhist statues and banners that had been donated by the King of Silla.
According to another biography produced in 1666, Prince Shōtoku's horse, the, was chosen from among a thousand horses that were gathered as a gift from Hata no Kawakatsu.
Legends
Fūshikaden
While Hata no Kawakatsu was merely presented as a courtly figure in the Nihon Shoki, the Kōryū-ji traditions asserted his identity as the semi-divine reincarnation of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. This is reflected in the Fūshikaden, a treatise on noh drama written in the early fifteenth century by Zeami Motokiyo, which provides a legendary account of Kawakatsu's life, alongside other narratives concerning the origins and transmission of sarugaku. According to the Fūshikaden, Kawakatsu not only served under the emperors Kinmei, Bidatsu, Yōmei and Sushun, in addition to Empress Suiko and Prince Shōtoku, but was also the supernatural progenitor of the Hata clan.Following this, the Fūshikaden also credits Kawakatsu and Prince Shōtoku with the founding of sarugaku:
Kawakatsu, wishing to leave no trace of his manifestation, is then said to have set out from Naniwa Bay, in the province of Settsu, aboard a "hollow ship". Entrusting himself to the wind, he sailed across the western sea and eventually arrived at Sakoshi Bay in the province of Harima.
Taikō Daimyōjin is also identified as Ōsake Daimyōjin, a deified form of Hata no Kawakatsu enshrined at the in the town of .
Ikishima
A local legend from Sakoshi speaks of how Kawakatsu arrived at the bay by boat in 644, fleeing prosecution from the Soga clan. After his death, the Ōsake Shrine was subsequently built to appease Kawakatsu's spirit, with the nearby island of, which belongs to the precincts of the Ōsake Shrine, claimed to be his final resting place.Shōyoshō
In a legend from the Shōyoshō, a Muromachi period work on Prince Shōtoku, Kawakatsu is noted as one of the two sons of. The account describes Sake no Kimi as a great grandson of the first Chinese emperor, who received his name because he grew up in a jar. Having fled China, Sake no Kimi arrived in Japan at Naniwa Bay in Settsu where he was awarded the name Hada by Empress Suiko. He is then said to have begot two sons, with the older, Toshiyuki, being ennobled, and the younger, Kōkatsu, becoming a servant.Hata no Sake no Kimi is himself an important figure in the Hata clan's history, recognized in the Nihon Shoki as being made chief of the Hata in the fifteenth year of Emperor Yūryaku's reign. Under Sake no Kimi's leadership the silk produced by the Hata workmen piled up so high that he was given the title of Uzumasa.
Legacy
Kōryū-ji
Hata no Kawakatsu is credited with founding Kōryū-ji, Kadono-dera, Hata no Kimi-dera and Hachioka-dera ), a Hata clan temple located in the. Said to be the oldest Buddhist temple in Kyoto. The Nihon Shoki records its construction as occurring in the year 603, after Kawakatsu received a statue of the Buddha as a gift from Prince Shōtoku. Temple tradition identifies this gift with a statue of Maitreya housed in its collection.According to the Kōryū-ji Engi and Kōryūji Shizai Kōtai Jitsurokuchō however, the temple was instead built in the year 622, as a memorial to Prince Shōtoku. This appears to correspond with another report in the Nihon Shoki, that in the year 623 a Buddha statue, presented by envoys from Silla and Mimana, was installed at the Hata Temple in Kadono. Furthermore, the Jōgū Shōtoku Hōō Teisetsu lists Kōryū-ji as one of the seven temples built by Prince Shōtoku himself.
Ōsake Jinja
Kawakatsu is enshrined as Ōsake Daimyōjin, also called Ōsake-no-Ōkami, at the in Akō, he additionally serves as the central deity of the shrine's autumn festival, the "Sakoshi Boat Festival". According to the historical documents of the shrine, the festival was traditionally held on the 12th of September, the date Kawakatsu was believed to have drifted ashore the nearby island of, however the festival is now held on the second weekend of October.An is also present in Kyoto, formerly belonging to the precincts of Kōryū-ji before it was relocated during the Meiji Restoration. Although it does not enshrine Kawakatsu, instead venerating Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Yuzuki no Kimi and, it is said that the shrine was initially established by one King Kōman, a supposed descendant of Qin Shi Huang and ancestor of the Hata clan, to worship the deity Ōsake Myōjin. Additionally, the Engishiki records the shrine's name as Ōsake Jinja, with the enshrined deity being referred to as Ōsake-no-Kami.
The Japanese scholar Peter Yoshiro Saeki, in his work Uzumasa wo Ronzu, argued that Ōsake was derived from the Chinese name for King David, citing this, among other things, as proof that the Hata were of Jewish descent. This is widely dismissed as ahistorical in modern scholarship however, as Dàpì is only used to render the name David in modern Chinese, and the case for Jewish ancestry among the Hata lacks any significant textual or DNA evidence to support it.
Meishukushū
Zeami Motokiyo's successor and son-in-law, Konparu Zenchiku, also viewed Kawakatsu as an important figure in his conception of the deity Okina, as developed in his incomplete work the Meishukushū. The text serves chiefly as an explication of the nature and significance of Okina, a name referring to the central role played in , interpreted by Zenchiku as a primordial deity who was the source of all the gods and buddhas. The Meishukushū identifies numerous figures as manifestations of Okina, such as Sumiyoshi Daimyōjin and Ariwara no Narihira, but places particular emphasis on Shukujin ; a god worshiped among outcast groups; inhabitants of the shuku, presented in the Meishukushū as a clan deity of the.According to Zenchiku, Okina came into being at the creation of the world to protect the imperial throne and aid the Japanese people. Kawakatsu in-turn served as one of the many incarnations of Okina, and performed Okina-sarugaku at the command of Prince Shōtoku with the intention of establishing peace in the realm. As a result, Zenchiku assigned spiritual significance to Kawakatsu's actions, stating of his involvement in the Battle of Shigisan:
Additionally, the Konparu lineage claimed descent from Kawakatsu, citing as proof their inheritance of three treasures that had supposedly been handed down from Kawakatsu himself: A demon mask carved by Prince Shōtoku, a painting of Okina as performed by Kawakatsu, and one of the Buddha's relics. In the Meishukushū, this mask was further explained by Zenchiku as representing the dual-nature of Shukujin, who manifests as both the benevolent deity of song and dance, Okina, and the "raging spirit" of Hata no Kawakatsu.
Though never explicitly mentioned in the Meishukushū, it has been suggested by Hattori Yukio that Zenchiku implicitly equated the Tendai deity Matarajin with his notion of Shukujin. Matarajin was chiefly enshrined at the backdoor of temples, where sarugaku performances took place, and so merged with the figure of Okina as a protector of the performing arts. Hattori thus argued that the original function of sarugaku was to entertain and placate Matarajin, whose violent disposition was projected on to the stories surrounding Kawakatsu. A connection between the two figures is further evidenced by Matarajin's role in the annual "Ox Festival" held at Kōryū-ji, wherein a priest wearing a white mask, flanked by four monks dressed as demons, rides a black ox while reciting saimon aimed at eliminating disease. Moreover, it has been proposed that Matarajin was a deity worshiped by Korean immigrants such as the Hata clan, and that Matarajin's identification with Okina was facilitated by his association with such groups.