rice collected for public
purposes, there were abuses. This rice, so long as it lay in the
official storehouses, represented so much idle capital. The
provincial governors utilized it by lending the grain to the farmers
in the spring, partly for seed purposes and partly for food, on
condition that it should be paid back in the autumn with fifty per
cent, increment. Subsequently this exorbitant figure was reduced to
thirty per cent. But the result was ruin for many farmers. They had
to hand over their fields and houses or sell themselves into bondage.

Thus, outlaws, living by plunder, became a common feature of the
time, and there arose a need for guards more capable than those
supplied by the system of partial conscription. Hence, in the reign
of Shomu, the sons and brothers of district governors (gunshi)
proficient in archery and equestrianism were summoned from Omi, Ise,
Mino, and Echizen, and to them was assigned the duty of guarding the
public storehouses in the provinces. At the same time many men of
prominence and influence began to organize guards for their private
protection. This was contrary to law, but the condition of the time
seemed to warrant it, and the authorities were powerless to prevent
it. The ultimate supremacy of the military class had its origin in
these circumstances. The Government itself was constrained to
organize special corps for dealing with the brigands and pirates who
infested the country and the coasts.

It has been well said by a Japanese historian that the fortunes of
the Yamato were at their zenith during the reigns of the three
Emperors Jimmu, Temmu, and Mommu. From the beginning of the eighth
century they began to decline. For that decline, Buddhism was largely
responsible. Buddhism gave to Japan a noble creed in the place of a
colourless cult; gave to her art and refinement, but gave to her also
something like financial ruin. The Indian faith spread with wonderful
rapidity among all classes and betrayed them into fanatical
extravagance. Anyone who did not erect or contribute largely to the
erection of a temple or a pagoda was not admitted to the ranks of
humanity. Men readily sacrificed their estates to form temple domains
or to purchase serfs (tera-yakko) to till them. The sublimity of
these edifices; the solemn grandeur of the images enshrined there;
the dazzling and exquisite art lavished on their decoration; the
strange splendour of the whole display might well suggest to th