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To the Uji bridge, Nenoi Yukichika was sent with three hundred men; to the Seta bridge, Imai Kanehira with five hundred. The names of these men and of their brothers, Higuchi Kanemitsu and Tate Chikatada, are immortal in Japanese history.
The new seeds which he carried home were successfully planted in three places, one of which, the Uji district near Kioto, bears still the name of producing the best tea in the world. The southern Zen spread with marvelous rapidity, and with it the tea-ritual and the tea-ideal of the Sung.
It is thus seen that the great uji of Soga was closely related to all the Imperial personages who figured prominently on the stage at this period of Japanese history. The Emperor Yomei was the fourth son of the Emperor Kimmei and a nephew of the o-omi, Umako.
She had been given the uji of Minamoto in order to legalize this union, and she bore to Yoshifusa a daughter who became Montoku's Empress under the name of Somedono.
Several instances of that kind have been noted, especially in the case of foreign artists or artisans migrating to the island from Korea or China. But nothing higher was within reach, and for the hereditary Kami of an uji no reward offered except a gift of land, whatever services he might render to the State. Such a system could not but tend to perfunctoriness in the discharge of duty.
He could not muster more than three hundred men, and in a short time Yoshitsune rode into the city at the head of a large body of cavalry. Yoshitsune had approached by way of Uji. He was not at all deterred by the fact that the enemy had destroyed the bridge. His mounted bowmen dashed into the river* and crossed it with little loss.
All that could not thus trace their genealogy were attached to the various uji in a subordinate capacity. It is not to be supposed that one of these families consisted simply of a husband and wife, children, and servants. There were great uji and small uji, the former comprising many of the latter, and the small uji including several households.
The vanquished general fled to Echigo to seek succour from his family's old-time vassal, Nagao Kagetora, already renowned under the name of Kenshin. Norimasa bestowed the office of kwanryo as well as the uji of Uesugi on Kenshin, who thenceforth became known as Uesugi Kenshin, and who thus constituted himself the foe of the Hojo.
The original form of government under the Yamato seems to have been feudal. The heads of uji were practically feudal chiefs. Even orders from the Throne had to pass through the uji no Kami in order to reach the people. There was none. Men's minds were still deeply imbued with the conviction that by the Tenjin alone might the Throne be occupied.
Then followed a measure which seems to have been greatly needed. It has been already explained that a not inconsiderable element of the population was composed of slaves, and that these consisted of two main classes, namely, aborigines or Koreans taken prisoners in war, and members of an uji whose Kami had been implicated in crime.
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