Taika Reform (645): Japan Remakes Itself on the Chinese Model

The Taika Reform was a programme of political changes in seventh-century Japan that began with a palace coup in 645 and a reform edict issued at New Year 646. Its leaders, Prince Naka no Ōe and Nakatomi no Kamatari, destroyed the powerful Soga clan and set out to turn Japan into a centralised state modelled on Tang China. Although many reforms took decades to carry out, the Taika Reform is traditionally seen as the starting point of Japan’s classical imperial state.

Background: the Soga ascendancy

In the sixth and early seventh centuries the Yamato court in the Asuka region was dominated by great clans (uji), each controlling its own land and dependent workers. The most powerful were the Soga, who had championed Buddhism and married their daughters into the royal family. Under Soga no Umako and Prince Shōtoku, the court issued the Seventeen-Article Constitution and sent embassies to the Sui.

By the 640s the Soga leaders Soga no Emishi and his son Iruka seemed to overshadow the throne. In 643 Iruka attacked Prince Yamashiro no Ōe, Shōtoku’s son and a possible heir, who killed himself together with his family. To critics, the Soga were behaving as if they were sovereigns themselves.

At the same time news was arriving from China. Students and monks returning from the Sui and from the early Japanese missions to Tang China described a unified empire with law codes, population registers and state-controlled land. The Tang’s growing pressure on the Korean kingdoms also made a stronger Japanese state seem urgent.

The Isshi Incident of 645

Prince Naka no Ōe, son of the reigning Empress Kōgyoku, and the court official Nakatomi no Kamatari formed an alliance against the Soga. The Nihon Shoki, Japan’s official chronicle completed in 720, says they became friends after Kamatari picked up the prince’s shoe when it flew off during a game of kemari (court football). They also won over Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawa no Maro, a member of a rival branch of the Soga.

On the 12th day of the 6th month of 645, corresponding to 10 July 645, a ceremony was held at the Itabuki Palace in Asuka to present tribute from the three Korean kingdoms. As Ishikawa no Maro read the memorial, the assassins hesitated. Naka no Ōe sprang forward and struck Iruka with his sword, and his companions finished the attack before the empress. Naka no Ōe then occupied the temple of Asuka-dera as a base.

The next day Soga no Emishi, isolated at his residence, killed himself and set fire to the house; according to the Nihon Shoki, one historical record was rescued from the flames while another was lost. The coup is known as the Isshi Incident, from the name of the year 645 in the sixty-year cycle. The coup’s victors soon removed other rivals. Prince Furuhito no Ōe, the Soga-backed candidate for the throne, was accused of plotting and killed later in 645, and in 649 Ishikawa no Maro himself was accused of treason and took his own life.

A new reign and the Reform Edict

Empress Kōgyoku abdicated in favour of her brother, who became Emperor Kōtoku (reigned 645–654). Naka no Ōe became crown prince and Kamatari a chief adviser with the title of Inner Minister. The new reign period was named Taika, “great change”, traditionally counted as Japan’s first era name. Two men who had studied in China for many years, Takamuko no Kuromaro and the monk Min, were appointed national scholars to advise on reform. The court moved to Naniwa, in present-day Osaka, where a large new palace was built.

On the first day of 646 the court proclaimed the Reform Edict. According to the Nihon Shoki it had four articles:

• abolition of private ownership of land and of dependent communities held by royals and clans, with officials paid stipends instead;
• organisation of a capital region, provinces and districts, with barrier stations and post horses;
• household registers, tax accounts and a system of periodic land allotment to households;
• a new, uniform system of taxes in produce and labour.

Other orders followed, including one limiting the size of tombs and funerals by rank, which is often linked to the end of the great burial-mound tradition.

How much changed, and when?

Historians now treat the edict’s text with caution. The Nihon Shoki was compiled decades later, after the Taihō Code of 701, and the edict uses some terms from that code. Wooden tablets (mokkan) excavated from seventh-century sites show, for example, that districts were written with a different character before 701 than the one used in the edict. Most scholars conclude that the compilers updated the wording to make the reform look more complete than it was.

Some twentieth-century historians went further and doubted that a reform programme existed in 645 at all. Excavations at Naniwa, which revealed a very large palace of the mid-seventh century laid out on Chinese lines, have since strengthened the view that the Kōtoku court did attempt ambitious change. The changes were nonetheless real. Over the following decades the court built up provinces and districts, took censuses and tightened control of land. The first nationwide household register was compiled in 670 under Naka no Ōe, who reigned as Emperor Tenji from 668. After the succession war of 672, his brother Emperor Tenmu pushed centralisation further. The process culminated in the Taihō Code of 701, closely modelled on the Tang Code and Tang administrative statutes.

Key people

Prince Naka no Ōe (626–672) led the coup and dominated government for more than two decades, first as crown prince and from 668 as Emperor Tenji. He also led Japan’s failed intervention in Korea that ended in defeat at the Battle of Baekgang in 663.

Nakatomi no Kamatari (614–669) was the coup’s chief planner and Naka no Ōe’s lifelong ally. On his deathbed he received the new surname Fujiwara; his descendants, the Fujiwara clan, dominated the Japanese court for centuries.

Empress Kōgyoku (594–661) witnessed the assassination and abdicated two days later, the first recorded abdication of a Japanese sovereign. She returned to the throne as Empress Saimei from 655 until her death in 661. Emperor Kōtoku (596–654), her brother, presided over the first reforms but later fell out with Naka no Ōe, who moved the court back to Asuka in 653, leaving Kōtoku isolated at Naniwa.

Soga no Iruka (died 645) was the head of the Soga clan’s main line and the coup’s target. Later tradition cast him as a would-be usurper, a portrayal that relies heavily on the victors’ account in the Nihon Shoki.

Timeline

• 643: Soga no Iruka forces the death of Prince Yamashiro no Ōe.
• 645, 10 July: Soga no Iruka is assassinated at the Itabuki Palace.
• 645, July: Soga no Emishi dies; Empress Kōgyoku abdicates and Emperor Kōtoku succeeds; the era name Taika is adopted.
• 645, end of year: The court moves to Naniwa.
• 646, New Year: The Reform Edict is proclaimed.
• 668: Naka no Ōe becomes Emperor Tenji.
• 670: The first nationwide household register is compiled.
• 701: The Taihō Code completes the ritsuryō system.

Why it matters

The Taika Reform marked a decisive turn from rule by clans to rule by a sovereign’s bureaucratic state on the Chinese model. Its ideals shaped Japanese government through the Nara and early Heian periods, and the rise of Kamatari’s Fujiwara descendants shaped Japanese politics for half a millennium.