CW: This episode deals with some aspects of suicide as historical phenomena. For all the history, here we have a real story for you, and I think you'll enjoy it. It is the romance of Saho Hime, the wife of the 11th sovereign, Ikume Iribiko. Filled with love and betrayal--a truly epic story, especially for what we typically find so far in the Chronicles. We also discuss Saho Hime's son, Homutsu Wake, as well as other aspects of the story, and of course, we do try to look at how it fits into the actual history of this time. For more go to: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-31 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 31: The Romance of Saho Hime. And first off, thank you to Samuel for contributing to help the show. If you’d like to join Samuel and help us keep this going, you can buy us a coffee, or more, over at ko-fi.com. That’s K-O-dash-F-I.com/SengokuDaimyo. Now, this episode should be coming out around mid-December, and I’m sure that many people are preparing or already in the festive holiday mood. Well, today’s topic is probably about as festive as a piping hot bucket of fried chicken. So let’s settle in with our kotatsu, make sure the holiday KFC order is in, and we can go over a story of love and betrayal, and why listening to that one little pig about straw as a building material may not have been the best choice ever. Content warning up front—this episode deals with fighting and war, but also touches on accounts of suicide as well. And on that cheery note, shall we begin? First off, just a quick recap from last episode: Mimaki Iribiko, aka Sujin Tennou—the 10th sovereign and also the August Founde— had passed away and his son, Ikume Iribiko, aka Suinin, had succeeded him to the throne. While it is unclear just how much of the archipelago really recognized his authority, it does seem that Yamato had friends across the water, with Princely ambassadors arriving, primarily through ports on the Japan Sea coast, at Tajima and Koshi. In fact, it seems like someone down at Shimonoseki, the entryway to the Seto Inland Sea region, may have been asserting their own rights and status, possibly controlling access through that crucial waterway. That would certainly have been something that Yamato would need to deal with, but for now I think we can safely classify that as an SSP: Some-other Sovereign’s Problem. Besides, there was plenty going on in Yamato that needs to be dealt with. To start with, there would have been the burial arrangements for the previous sovereign. Curiously, we aren’t given quite the level of details for his tomb as we are given for that of his aunt, Yamato Totohi Momoso Hime , which is said to be Andonyama Kofun, in Tenri, less than a 30 minute walk north from the ruins of the palace found near Makimuku station, and perhaps 10 minutes more to Hashihaka Kofun, where is aunt—or possibly even Queen Himiko—might be buried. Now a few things here about Mimaki Iribiko’s purported tomb. First of all, while this is a Round Keyhole shaped kofun, like Hashihaka, and of a similar length, it does have at least one difference, and that is the number of terraces. You see, the mound for Hashihaka isn’t just a random pile of stone and earth in the desired shape, but it was a terraced construction, like a step pyramid. This isn’t immediately obvious when you are looking at it today, as much of the definition has eroded away and been covered in vegetation so that it can be hard to make out, but at the time it would have been quite obvious to an observer. Hashihaka was made with four terraces, and then a small, round mound was built on the back end of the tomb, considered a fifth level, where the pit was dug to place the actual coffin. Andon’yama is similar, but it is only three terraces and a mound, so one level less than Hashihaka, which seems a bit odd—just as we had questions about the big to do over Himiko’s—um, I mean Mimaki Iribiko’s aunt’s—tomb, why would it also be larger than his? In fact, Hashihaka Kofun is larger than the next several purported imperial tombs. On top of that, Andon’yama is also thought to be about a century or so later than Hashihaka, having been dated to the first half of the fourth century. In fact, there are at least three tombs that, according to Kishimoto Naofumi, anyway, appear to have been erected between Hashihaka and Adon’yama. Two of these have slight differences in shape, which Kishimoto attributes to a subsidiary line of Yamato kingship. The other one, Nishitonozuka, Kishimoto attributes to Himiko’s likely successor, Toyo. It is possible that one of these other kofun is actually Sujin’s tomb, and that Andon’yama has been misidentified. After all, I doubt the chroniclers were meticulously measuring and cataloging all of the features of these ancient tomb mounds, themselves, and so may have ...
