Kudara no Konikishi clan

Kudara no Konikishi clan
百済王
Parent house Baekje
Titles Various
Founder Seon Gwang
Final ruler Fujiwara no Takatoshi
Founding year 691
Dissolution 11th century
Ruled until 807

The Kudara no Konikishi (Japanese: 百済王) was a Baekje-origin clan in Japan whose founder Seon Gwang (善光 or 禅広, pronounced Zenko in Japanese) was a son of the last king of Baekje, King Uija.

Kudara was an uji or clan name that represented their country of origin. Konikishi or Kokishi, which literally means "king", was a special kabane that was given only to the former royal families of Baekje and Goguryeo including Shōna (肖奈) and Koma (高麗) clans.

The founder Seon Gwang came from Baekje to Japan along with his elder brother Hōshō in 643. Even though Hōshō returned home to lead a failed campaign to revive Baekje, Zenkō remained in Japan. The former royal family members were not incorporated into the domestic political system of Japan for some time. They enjoyed privileged treatment because of Baekje's and Japan's shared royal blood line that originated in the Korean peninsula.

They were finally assimilated into Japanese bureaucracy in 691. They were given the name "Kudara no Konikishi" sometime after that. This event has drawn scholarly attention and a couple of theories have been proposed to explain the reason why they were given the peculiar name in that period. Today it is associated with the enforcement of the Asuka Kiyomihara Code in 689 because the law system entailed clarification of their legal status.

In 790, Emperor Kammu issued a rescript that treats the Kudara no Konikishi clan as "relatives by marriage". It was related to the fact that the emperor's mother Takano no Niigasa belonged to the Baekje-originated Yamato clan, who at that time claimed its root in the Baekje royal family.[1]

Another theory attempts to interpret the rise and fall of the Kudara no Konikishi clan in the context of domestic politics rather than political ideology: This clan fell under the influence of the southern family of the Fujiwara clan after Kudara no Konikishi Myōshin married Fujiwara no Tsugutada around 754. The emperor's rescript of 790 aimed to support Myōshin's appointment as Lady in Waiting (尚侍), the highest post among court ladies, despite her humble origin. She helped the clan's other female members enter the imperial court. Their prosperous days ended in 807 when Fujiwara no Takatoshi, the son of Tsugutada and Myōshin, fell from power in an imperial succession dispute. They decline from the latter half of the 9th century to the early 10th century and disappeared from the political scene.

Notable members of the Kudara no Konikishi clan include:

Notes

  1. Tanaka Fumio 田中史生: Kanmu chō no Kudara no Konikishi shi 桓武朝の百済王氏, Nihon kodai kokka no minzoku shihai to toraijin 日本古代国家の民族支配と渡来人, pp. 72-109, 1997.

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