The was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

aristocratic kin group (''uji'') of the

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

, known for its military opposition to the

Soga clan The was one of the most powerful aristocratic kin groups Uji (clan), (''uji'') of the Asuka period of the early Japanese state—the Yamato period, Yamato polity—and played a major role in the spread of Buddhism. Through the 5th and 7th centur ...

. The Mononobe were opposed to the spread of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, partly on religious grounds, claiming that the local deities would be offended by the worshiping of foreign deities, but also as the result of feelings of

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

and a degree of xenophobia. The

Nakatomi clan was a Japanese aristocratic kin group (''uji''). Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Nakatomi," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 39 retrieved 2013-5-5. The clan claims desce ...

, ancestors of the

Fujiwara Fujiwara (, written: 藤原 lit. "''Wisteria'' field") is a Japanese surname. (In English conversation it is likely to be rendered as .) Notable people with the surname include: ; Families * The Fujiwara clan and its members ** Fujiwara no Kamatari ...

, were also Shinto ritualists allied with the Mononobe in opposition to Buddhism. The Mononobe, like many other major families of the time, were something of a corporation or guild in addition to being a proper family by blood-relation. While the only members of the clan to appear in any significant way in the historical record were statesmen, the clan as a whole was known as the Corporation of Arms or Armorers.

History

The Mononobe were said to have been descended from

Nigihayahi no Mikoto Amenohoakari (天火明命, Amenohoakari-no-mikoto) is a god of sun and agriculture in Japanese mythology. His descendants are called ''Tenson-zoku''. He is identified with the deity , ancestor of the Mononobe clan, who was among the first to ...

, (饒速日命), a legendary figure who is said to have ruled Yamato before the conquest of

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the '' Nihon Shoki'' and '' Kojiki''. His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Isonokami Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in the hills of Furu in Tenri, Nara prefecture, Japan. It is one of the oldest extant Shinto shrines in Japan and has housed several significant artifacts. Isonokami shrine was highly regarded in the ancient era, and ...

Yamatohime-no-mikoto is a Japanese figure who is said to have established Ise Shrine, where the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami is enshrined. Yamatohime-no-mikoto is recorded as being the daughter of Emperor Suinin, Japan's 11th Emperor. Traditional historical view Leg ...

, the daughter of

Emperor Suinin , also known as was the 11th legendary Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Less is known about ''Suinin'' than his father, and likewise he is also considered to be a "legendary emperor". Both the ''Kojiki'', and t ...

. He then began using the name Mononobe. In the 6th century, a number of violent clashes erupted between the Mononobe and the Soga clan. According to the '' Nihon Shoki'', one particularly important conflict occurred after the

Emperor Yōmei was the 31st Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 用明天皇 (31)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Yōmei's reign spanned the years from 585 until his death in 587. Traditional narrative He was cal ...

died after a very short reign.

Mononobe no Moriya was an '' Ō-muraji'', a high-ranking clan head position of the ancient Japanese Yamato state, having inherited the position from his father Mononobe no Okoshi. Like his father, he was a devoted opponent of Buddhism, which had recently been intr ...

, the head of the clan, supported one prince to succeed Yōmei, while

Soga no Umako was the son of Soga no Iname and a member of the powerful Soga clan of Japan. Umako conducted political reforms with Prince Shōtoku during the rules of Emperor Bidatsu and Empress Suiko and established the Soga clan's stronghold in the govern ...

chose another. The conflict came to a head in a battle at Kisuri (present-day Osaka) in the year 587, where the Mononobe clan were defeated and crushed at the

Battle of Shigisan A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

. Following Moriya's death, Buddhism saw a further spread in Japan.Read more in the article on

for recent findings on a possible sponsorship for Buddhism by the Mononobe. In 686, the Mononobe reformed as the Isonokami clan, named thus due to their close ties with

Isonokami Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in the hills of Furu in Tenri, Nara prefecture, Japan. It is one of the oldest extant Shinto shrines in Japan and has housed several significant artifacts. Isonokami shrine was highly regarded in the ancient era, and ...

, a

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

which doubled as an imperial

armory Armory or armoury may mean: * An arsenal, a military or civilian location for the storage of arms and ammunition Places *National Guard Armory, in the United States and Canada, a training place for National Guard or other part-time or regular mili ...

Family Tree

Nigihayahi-no-mikoto (饒速日命), legendary figure who is said to have ruled Yamato before the conquest of

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the '' Nihon Shoki'' and '' Kojiki''. His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Okoshi (尾輿) 　┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Mikari (御狩) Moriya (守屋) Nieko (贄子), his daughter married

　┃ Me (目) 　┃ Umaro (宇麻呂) 　┃

Isonokami no Maro was a Japanese statesman of the Asuka period and early Nara period His family name was Mononobe no Muraji, later Mononobe no Ason and Isonokami no Ason. He attained the court rank of and ''sadaijin'', and posthumously . In 672 Maro supported ...

(石上麻呂), changed his surname and founded the Isonokami clan (石上氏) Descendants of Mononobe no Futsukuru (物部布都久留), see above tree. Futsukuru (布都久留) 　┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Itabi (木蓮子) Ogoto (小事) 　┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Masara (麻佐良) Yakahime (宅媛), consort of

Emperor Ankan (466 — 25 January 536) was the 27th legendary Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 安閑天皇 (27)/ref> according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this ...

　┃ Arakabi (麁鹿火) 　┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Iwayumi (石弓) Kagehime (影媛)

Notes

References

*Sansom, George (1958). ''A History of Japan to 1334''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

History

Family Tree

Notes

References

See also