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                    3.LETTER OF PROMISE OF KUWADA NOBUKANE,1164
                                   (SK,I; originally a Gon Shuin doc., now lost.)
THE Kuwada formed a branch of another distinguished family, the Okura, which, as will be seen
in No. 5, became later related by marriage to the Tomo. The Okura had descended from the Han
imperial stock of China, some members of which were naturalized in Japan toward the end of the
third century;1 their descendants continued worthily to serve the central government; a branch of
the family is said to have migrated to Satsuma in the latter half of the eighth century, and held for
several generations the post of gun-zhi, or kori magistrate, at Ichiku,2 there finally marrying and
being merged into a Koremune family.3 The Okura also flourished, as we shall see, further north
in Satsuma under the names the Kajiki, the Koriyama, the Oyamada, the Tazhiri, etc.4 It is not
strange, therefore, to see an Okura serving the Niita temple in the capacity in which we find
Nobukane. It should be added in this connection that the powerful families of the Harada, the
Akitsuki, and the Takahashi, whose warriors became conspicuous later in northern Kyu-shu, were
also of the Okura stock.
  It is of interest to find that a layman living apparently in Satsuma held the headship of Go-dai
in; twenty-nine years before, it will be recalled (No.1), the same post was being held by a Bud-
dhist priest at Iwa-shimidzu. Probably the in-su in 1164 had a function similar to that of the man-
dokoroin 1135; it is even not impossible that Nobukane was a successor to Massanobu.
  Nobukane had been, it is said here, the shu-in of the Shinto temple of Niita. The shu-in, keeper
of the seal, of this institution is said to have at first been changed annually at the festival of the
temple, when a special envoy was despatched from Kyoto-some say from the Hachiman temple at
Iwa-shimidzu-who was vested with the exclusive power to use the seal. This inconvenient custom
had now been discontinued and a permanent shu-inhad been appointed, as we may infer from the
present document. Soon the office, together with the headship(in-su) of Go-dai in, was to pass into
the hands of a Koremune, whose successors, making Shu-in their family-name, wielded great power
in and out of the temple; of them we shall read more anon.
  We saw above (No.1) that the temple held domains in Iriki in ; we now see that one of them
was at Ichiino, an old district in the in known for its hot springs.
  It would appear that some dispute had arisen about this domain-not unlikely between the Niita
temple and the Iwa-shimidzu. temple, the latter of which claimed control over the former (cf. No.
1); and that, in order to defend its claims, the Niita temple had sent the shu-in Nobukane to Kyoto
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with the legal documents relating to the domain. The judicial decision which had been anticipated
was not taken. Probably supposing that the documents might yet be needed at Kyoto, he left them
with "the priest in charge during absence" (probably of Iwa-shimidzu), and returned home. This
conduct did not please the officials of the Niita temple, and Nobukane was made to promise that he
would go and bring back the documents.

"KUWADA NOBUKANE, formerly shu-in of the Niita temple, respectfully presents
  "A letter of promise.5
"The origin of this letter of promise is as follows:-The official documents relating to
Ichiino-Ura,6 the domain of the temple, were about the middle of the fifth month of
last year [June 1163] carried personally [by me] to Kyoto, in anticipation of an
official action;7 but, as there was no special action, the aforesaid official documents of
Ura were presented to the reverend priest who was in charge in absence.8 As it is said
that [I] cannot escape an accusation by officials for returning without personally
carrying back the documents [I] will repair to the hon-ke9 at Kyoto [and recall the
documents] and restore them, as before, to the temple. Thus [do I promise].
  "Cho-kwan 2y. 6m. 1d. [21 June 1164]
                                                       ". . .10
                              "Kuwada, formerly shu-in, at present in-su of Go-dai
                                                        In (monogram)."




  1 Ni-hon sho-ki, X. Even so late as 731 some Okura had retained Ikimi, the honorary title of a
Chinese origin. For a genealogy, see Zoku gun-zho rui-zhu, VII, 911-925.
  2 Shimadzu koku-shi, I, etc, Ichiku should not be confused with Iriki; the latter is situated in-
land, northeast of the former, which faces the sea on the west coast.
  3 The Ichiku genealogies.
  4 The Kawakami genealogies; sho-ke kei-dzu; etc.
  5 This is one of the not many examples of the class of documents called oshi-gaki. The origin of
the term is not definitely known. An oshi-gaki, as in the present example, is a letter containing a
promise of the performance of an act under a stated condition; not a contract, because purely one-
sided, and yet not so formal and solemn as needed to be accompanied by an oath.
  6 The present name is Ichiino, not Ichiino-Ura; it was a larger district of the latter name split
into the later Ichiino and Ura-no-myo.
  7 Presumably a judicial act. If a dispute lay between Niita and Usa, or Go-dai in and Mi-roku
zhi (see No.1), or between Niita and Iwa-shimidzu itself, it would be adjudged at Iwa-shimidzu;
if between the temple and the sho, at the imperial ccurt.
  8 Ru-su, "in charge in absence," sometimes, as in this instance, refers to official headquarters estab-
lished in or near the capital, whose business, however, was local and was actually managed at a
given locality by a deputy. The ru-su office merely directed and supervised his work from Kyoto.
  9 Hon-ke, literally, the principal house, meant either the main house or institution from which
branches had sprung, or, more commonly, the high personage who lent his influence to a domain as
its titular lord, thereby giving it an immune status and deriving from it an income. Here the term is
used in the first sense, as the temple at Iwa-shimidzu had come to be considered the chief and center
of many a Hachiman temple in the country, including those at Niita and Usa, though, in origin,
neither of these was its offshoot.
  10 The four characters that appear here are not legible in SK.




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