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Prince Otsu is said to have inaugurated a pastime which afterwards became very popular the composition of Chinese verses. The most important legislation of the Empress Jito's reign related to slaves.* In the year of her accession , she issued an edict ordering that interest on all debts contracted prior to, or during the year prior to Temmu's death should be cancelled.
The eating of flesh was prohibited, but whether this veto was issued in deference to Buddhism or from motives of economy, there is no evidence to show. One very noteworthy feature of Temmu's administration was that he never appointed to posts in the Government men who did not give promise of competence. The same plan was pursued in the case of females.
It has been shown that in the so-called "code" of Shotoku Taishi prominent attention was directed to the obligations of decorum. This principle received much elaboration in Temmu's reign. A law, comprising no less than ninety-two articles, was enacted for guidance in Court ceremonials, the demeanour and salutation of each grade of officials being explicitly set forth.
The former had been nominated by his father, Temmu, but was instructed to leave the reins of power in the hands of his mother, Jito, for a time. He died in the year 689, while Jito was still regent, and Takaichi, another of Temmu's sons, who had distinguished himself as commander of a division of troops in the Jinshin campaign, was made Prince Imperial.
Thus, during the last five years of the Emperor Temmu's reign namely, from 681 we find no less than nine sumptuary regulations issued.
But in spite of all Temmu's precautions to accomplish the centralization of power, success was menaced by a factor which could scarcely have been controlled. The arable lands in the home provinces at that time probably did not exceed 130,000 acres, and the food stuffs produced cannot have sufficed for more than a million persons.
The death of the Empress Shotoku without issue and the consequent extinction of the Emperor Temmu's line furnished an opportunity to these loyal statesmen, and they availed themselves of it to set Konin upon the throne, as will be presently described. In this crisis of the empire's fortunes, the Fujiwara family acted a leading part.
At Temmu's obsequies mention is made of an "ornamented chaplet," the first reference to the use of flowers, which constitute such a prominent feature of Buddhist obsequies. But there is no evidence that Buddhist rites were employed at funerals until the death of the retired Emperor Shomu . Thereafter, the practice became common.
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