taishi

Updated: June 20, 2025

In theory at least, from the earliest times, the poor and unfortunate had been considered as entitled to pity; and the duty of showing them all possible mercy was insisted upon in the oldest extant moral code of Japan, the Laws of Shotoku Taishi.

Lafcadio Hearn - Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation

The Soga-uji held absolute power in every department of State affairs. One of the most remarkable documents in Japanese annals is the Jushichi Kempo, or Seventeen-Article Constitution, compiled by Shotoku Taishi in A.D. 604. It is commonly spoken of as the first written law of Japan. But it is not a body of laws in the proper sense of the term.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Prince Tamura then ascended the throne he is known in history as Jomei but Soga no Emishi virtually ruled the empire. Jomei died in 641, after a reign of twelve years, and by the contrivance of Emishi the sceptre was placed in the hands of an Empress, Kogyoku, a great-granddaughter of the Emperor Bidatsu, the claims of the son of Shotoku Taishi being again ignored.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

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.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era