Japan and Western Europe, III.

The article compares the social histories of Japan and Western Europe. The territorial organization was to replace the gentilician order, had been prepared by augmenting the imperial property. Domains were added to it which had been confiscated after rebellions and crimes, half of them being voluntary donations, half compulsory appropriations. Especially did these added domains come from the previously described colonies of newly instituted Be, which were settled not only in recently conquered districts, but also in the old provinces. The constitution of such a namesake group was a form of confiscation. To accomplish this revolution, the crown had to break the power of the strongest clans, which had grown dangerously to the disadvantage of numerous smaller clans. These great powers were at this time the Monono-Be, the Otomo, the Soga and the Nakatomi. The Soga were ministers of finance as managers of the "Houses of the King," to borrow the term from the pharaonic administration, and had become wealthy. They had about the same office as the biblical Joseph. The State maintained warehouses, where the dues for the government, the Church, and the imperial privy purse were preserved, and the Soga, as the managers, had to take care of the foreign guests of the State.