of the Right,"
and "minister of the Interior," were new in Japan.** Hitherto, there
had been o-omi and o-muraji, who stood between the Throne and the two
great classes of uji, the o-omi and the o-muraji receiving
instructions direct from the sovereign, and the two classes of uji
acknowledging no control except that of the o-omi and the o-muraji.
But whereas the personal status of Kurayamada was only omi (not
o-omi), and the personal status of Kamatari, only muraji (not
o-muraji), neither was required, in his new capacity, to take
instructions from any save the Emperor, nor did any one of the three
high dignitaries nominally represent this or that congeries of uji. A
simultaneous innovation was the appointment of a Buddhist priest,
Bin, and a literatus, Kuromaro, to be "national doctors." These men
had spent some years at the Tang Court and were well versed in
Chinese systems.

*The left takes precedence of the right in Japan.

**The offices were borrowed from the Tang system of China a remark
which applies to nearly all the innovations of the epoch.

The next step taken was to assemble the ministers under a patriarchal
tree, and, in the presence of the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and
the Prince Imperial, to pronounce, in the names of the Kami of heaven
and the Kami of earth--the Tenshin and the Chigi--a solemn
imprecation on rulers who attempted double-hearted methods of
government, and on vassals guilty of treachery in the service of
their sovereign. This amounted to a formal denunciation of the Soga
as well as a pledge on the part of the new Emperor. The Chinese
method of reckoning time by year-periods was then adopted, and the
year A.D. 645 became the first of the Daika era. But before
proceeding to really radical innovations, two further precautions
were taken. In order to display reverence for the foundations of the
State, the sovereign publicly declared that "the empire should be
ruled by following the footsteps of the Emperors of antiquity," and
in order to win the sympathy of the lower orders, his Majesty
directed that inquiry should be made as to the best method of
alleviating the hardships of forced labour. Further, a solemn
ceremony of Shinto worship was held by way of preface.

Then the reformers commenced their work in earnest. Governors
(kokushi) were appointed to all the eastern provinces. These
officials were not a wholly novel institution. It has been shown that
they existed previously to the D