564 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



culminated in a joint attack upon the Yamato by sea and land, 

 which resulted in their total expulsion from the peninsula. The 

 people of Quelpart, of Japanese or closely kindred stock, kept up 

 for several centuries a quasi-independent existence as the kingdom 

 of T'am-na but eventually gravitated toward Korea, geograpliical 

 propinquity proving stronger than the ties of race and culture. 



At the time, no doubt, this loss of the continental portion of their 

 territory must have seemed a catastrophe of the direst sort. In the 

 long run, however, it proved of incalculable benefit.^" For while 

 receiving just as formerly the culture stimuli emanating from the 

 continent, the Yamato no longer had to dissipate their energies m 

 efforts to retain hold of regions on the mainland which were stead- 

 ily growing farther apart from them in feeling and culture. Thus, 

 able to give their undivided attention to their home problems, they 

 set to work in earnest to obliterate the last remaining frontiers 

 within the Japanese islands themselves. 



FURTHER CONSOLIDATION OF THE INSULAR DOMAIN 



The independent communities still surviving in the west, of which 

 those mentioned as existing in southern Kyushu were the chief, were 

 absorbed in short order. The last rising of the old independent 

 stock of southern Kyushu took place at the end of the seventh cen- 

 tury, barely a generation after the expulsion of the Yamato from 

 their last foothold on the continent. But the separatist tendencies 

 of the region, fostered bj^ its geographical configuration, have been 

 manifest throughout its history, the last instance being that of the 

 famous " Satsnma rebellion " of 1877. 



The subjugation of the still unconquered Ainu of the north and 

 east presented a far more serious task. The mass of the people of 

 western Japan, hardly touched by the new cultural influences from 

 the continent, save in so far as these facilitated their exploitation by 

 their rulers, had long since sunk to the status of abject predial 

 serfdom and had lost such military virtues as they may once have 

 possessed. The aristocracy, we know, were splendid warriors, 

 gorgeousl}^ equipped and accustomed to fighting on horseback with 

 longbow and sword. When called out en masse they no doubt 

 proved a most effective if somewhat undisciplined militia. But aside 

 from the personal guards of the rulers and great nobles, recruited 

 largely from the Ainu and the pre- Yamato populations of southern 

 Kyushu, there was no standing army and consequently no force 

 ready at all times to take the field on short notice against the 

 sudden incursions of the unconquered aborigines. These fierce 



«" llara, op. cit., pp. 122 ct seq. 



