ands, sent many settlers to Japan,
and during the reign of the Empress Gemmyo (708-715), they were
transferred from the six provinces of Suruga, Kai, Sagami, Kazusa,
Shimosa, and Hitachi to Musashi, where the district inhabited by them
was thenceforth called Koma-gori. Thus, Japan extended her
hospitality to the men whose independence she had not been able to
assert. Her relations with her peninsular neighbour ended humanely
though not gloriously. They had cost her heavily in life and
treasure, but she had been repaid fully with the civilization which
Korea helped her to import.

THE THIRTY-EIGHTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR TENCHI (A.D. 668-671)

It will be observed that although the thirty-seventh sovereign, the
Empress Saimei, died in the year 661, the reign of her successor,
Tenchi, did not commence historically until 668. There thus appears
to have been an interregnum of seven years. The explanation is that
the Crown Prince, Naka, while taking the sceptre, did not actually
wield it. He entrusted the administrative functions to his younger
brother, Oama, and continued to devote himself to the great work of
reform. He had stood aside in favour of Kotoku sixteen years
previously and in favour of the Empress Saimei six years previously,
and now, for seven years longer, he refrained from identifying
himself with the Throne until the fate of his innovations was known.
Having assumed the task of eradicating abuses which, for a thousand
years, had been growing unchecked, he shrank from associating the
Crown directly with risks of failure. But in the year 668, judging
that his reforms had been sufficiently assimilated to warrant
confidence, he formally ascended the throne and is known in history
as Tenchi (Heavenly Intelligence).

Only four years of life remained to him, and almost immediately after
his accession he lost his great coadjutor, Kamatari. Of the four men
who had worked out the "Daika restoration," Kuromaro, the student,
died in China a year (654) after the demise of the illustrious
priest, Bin; Kamatari barely survived until success came in sight,
and Prince Naka (Tenchi) was taken two years later (671). It is
related that in the days when the prince and Kamatari planned the
outlines of their great scheme, they were accustomed to meet for
purposes of conference in a remote valley on the east of the capital,
where an aged wistaria happened to be in bloom at the most critical
of their consultations. Kamatari there