ved
imperative recognition in Japan, and seems to have been extended to
the Crown Prince also. There were no other exemptions. If a man
committed a crime, punishment extended to every member of his family.
On the other hand, offences might generally be expiated by presenting
lands or other valuables to the Throne. As for the duty of executing
sentences, it devolved on the mononobe, who may be described as the
military corporation. Death or exile were common forms of punishment,
but degradation was still more frequent. It often meant that a
family, noble and opulent to-day, saw all its members handed over
to-morrow to be the serfs or slaves of some uji in whose be they were
enrolled to serve thenceforth, themselves and their children, through
all generations in some menial position,--it might be as
sepulchre-guards, it might be as scullions.

Tattooing on the face was another form of penalty. The first mention
of it occurs in A.D. 400 when Richu condemned the muraji, Hamako, to
be thus branded, but whether the practice originated then or dated
from an earlier period, the annals do not show. It was variously
called hitae-kizamu (slicing the brow), me-saku (splitting the eyes),
and so on, but these terms signified nothing worse than tattooing on
the forehead or round the eyes. The Emperor Richu deemed that such
notoriety was sufficient penalty for high treason, but Yuryaku
inflicted tattooing on a man whose dog had killed one of his
Majesty's fowls.

Death at the stake appears to have been very uncommon. This terrible
form of punishment seems to have been revived by Yuryaku. He caused
it to be inflicted on one of the ladies-in-waiting and her paramour,
who had forestalled him in the girl's affections. The first instance
is mentioned in the annals of the Empress Jingo, but the victim was a
Korean and the incident happened in war. To Yuryaku was reserved the
infamy of employing such a penalty in the case of a woman. Highly
placed personages were often allowed to expiate an offence by
performing the religious rite of harai (purification), the offender
defraying all expenses.

ARCHITECTURE

As Chinese literature became familiar and as the arts of the Middle
Kingdom and Korea were imported into Japan, the latter's customs
naturally underwent some changes. This was noticeable in the case of
architecture. Lofty buildings, as has been already stated, began to
take the place of the partially subterranean muro. The annals ma