ABSTRACT
Early Japanese society was organized by clans. Eventually one of the clans succeeded in creating a measure of unity among them all by conquering and welding together a part of Honshu at the eastern end of the Inland Sea. That region, including one of Japan’s few arable river valleys, came to be called Yamato. The chief of Yamato became Japan’s first “emperor.” (The Japanese have always preferred “emperor” to “king”) According to legend, the first emperor of Japan was named Jimmu Tenno, and we are even given a very precise date for his accession to the throne, February 11,660 b.c.e. As we have seen in Chapter 15, he was believed to be descended from the sun goddess, Amaterasu. One account holds that with the help of his many wives he produced seventy-seven sons, who became the chiefs of the various clans. Thus could all of the Japanese nobility claim some measure of divine descent.
