Kudara no Konikishi
| Kudara no Konikishi clan 百済王 |
|
|---|---|
| Parent house | Fuyo |
| Titles | Various |
| Founder | Zenkō |
| Founding year | circa 691 |
The Kudara no Konikishi (Japanese: 百済王) was a Japanese clan whose founder Zenkō (善光 or 禅広) was a son of King Uija, the last king of Baekje in southwestern Korea.
Kudara was an uji or clan name that represented their country of origin. Konikishi or Kokishi, which literally means "king", was a special kabane that was given only to the former royal families of Baekje and Goguryeo: the Kudara, Shōna (肖奈) and Koma (高麗) clans.
The founder Zenkō came from Baekje to Japan as a hostage, along with his elder brother Hōshō in 643. Even though Japan sent Hōshō back to Korea for a failed campaign to revive Baekje, Zenkō remained in Japan. The former royal family members were treated as "barbarian guests" (蕃客) and were not incorporated into the domestic political system of Japan for some time. They enjoyed privileged treatment while they were obliged to serve to the emperor in a symbolic fashion.
They were finally assimilated into Japanese bureaucracy in 691. They were given the name "Kudara no Konikishi" sometime after that. This event has drawn scholarly attention and a couple of theories have been proposed to explain the reason why they were given the peculiar name at that particular time. One theory associates the event with the enforcement of the Asuka Kiyomihara Code in 689: the law system entailed clarification of their legal status. However, while be subjects of the Japanese emperor, they still needed to represent Baekje kingship by the special name. Japan applied to herself the Chinese ideology of emperorship that required "barbarian people" who longed for the great virtue of the emperor. It was, however, difficult for Japan to keep the concept in concrete form in real international politics. Silla, which had acted as a vassal state in the 670s, changed its attitude and brought tension with Japan. In response, Japan treated Kudara no Konishiki as a "barbarian king" to reaffirm Silla's vassalage.
In 790, Emperor Kanmu issued a rescript that treats the Kudara no Konikishi clan as "relatives by marriage". It was related to the fact that the emperor's mother Takano no Niigasa belonged to the Baekje-originated Yamato clan, who at that time claimed its root in the Baekje royal family.
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