Noble Blood - The Isshi Incident

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

During the reign of Empress Kogyoku in 7th century Japan, two clans — the Soga clan and the Nakatomi clan — were rivals for power. But the Nakatomi clan would ally with the Empress's son, Naka no Oe, and together they would plot one of the most influential assassinations in Japanese history. Support Noble Blood:  — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Merch! — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.

But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, The cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hey, this is Dana Schwartz, host of Noble Blood. A bit of housekeeping. Thank you so much to everyone who came out on my tour to see me, to hear me talk. about immortality, a love story, my new book. It was just amazing getting to meet so many listeners. I just, I had the best time. So thank you so much. If you want to support the show, there are

links in the episode description to our Patreon, our merch, if you want it, and my books. But again, the best support is just listening to the show. So thank you so much. One brief content warning before this episode. This episode does contain acts of violence and and minor descriptions of gore. When Empress Koghoku woke on the morning of July 10th, 645, she had no reason to suspect that anything was wrong. I imagine she went through her normal morning routine, had breakfast, got dressed, had some member of her staff review her schedule,

just another day in the life of a Japanese empress in the 7th century. The day's main event was set to take place that afternoon. It would be a reading of the memorials for the Three Kingdoms of Korea to be presented to the Japanese Imperial Court. As the Empress departed her chambers for the palace's main assembly hall, she likely didn't notice the subtle glances that were being shared between the palace guards as they locked the gates securely behind her. When she entered the hall and took her seat before the imperial court, her eyes probably drifted over the room,

subconsciously cataloging those she knew in attendance. And while she likely caught sight of her son, Nakanoiae, she almost certainly did not see the discreetly hidden spear that he had taken great lengths to stow near his seat well before he entered. the hall that day. The empress may have looked over to one of her closest advisors, Sogonu Irica, and might have wondered why the typically paranoid man, who almost always carried a sword, for once had come to an event unarmed. But if the empress did spare her advisor a passing thought, it was quickly dismissed as the ceremony's speaker came forward and, and began his address to the crowd.

The weighty tenor of the speaker's voice carried across the hall with ease, and after his opening remarks, the Empress settled in for what was sure to be another lengthy court ceremony. Though, as I'm sure you've figured out by now, Empress Kogoku's afternoon was about to take a rather drastic turn.

It started with a stutter. Up until this point, the speaker had seemed relatively confident before the crowd, but strangely, the more he spoke, the more he began to stumble over his words. Before long, the staccato stop and start of his speech became almost as distracting as the visibly shaking hand he used to repeatedly wipe the sweat dripping from his brow. When asked if something was wrong, the speaker who was named Kurayamada assured the crowd he was merely nervous to be speaking in front of someone as important as the Empress. But the panic in his eyes told a different story, especially when his eyes kept flitting back to the similarly panicked-looking soldiers

standing fully armed at the back of the hall. In truth, the speaker Kuriyamada had been approached days earlier by the Empress's son, who confided in him his plans to use the ceremony to facilitate the assassination of his political rival, Soga no Urica, the advisor. By some miracle, all the moving parts of his plot had been going perfectly to plan. The gates had been locked, the guards had been armed, and at long, long last, they were finally entering the hall with express orders to strike down Soga no Urica, while Kiyuramata kept the hall's attention going with his speech.

Except when they were finally faced with the man they were tasked to kill, the guards froze. Maybe they feared the repercussions of their attack, or perhaps they had even been hit with a last-minute stroke. of humanity. But whatever the reason, as the speaker Kuriamada stumbled over his words in the final paragraphs of his speech, the guards could only look at each other with mounting fear as their plot dissolved before their eyes in real time. From the audience, the empress's plotting son Nakanoia's eyes shot back and forth between the unmoving guards and the distressed speaker, until finally he decided to take matters into his own hands. In one fluid movement, Nakanoe Oya stood from his seat, unsheathed his hidden spear, and launched forward, striking

Sogana Urka in the vulnerable flesh between his neck and shoulder. For a moment, time stood still, until, with a sickening jerk of his arm, Nakanoe Oye wrenched the weapon from his rival's shoulder and pandemonium took hold in the hall. Between horrified gasps and shrieks of terror, the still conscious Sogonautraka stumbled at the feet of the empress. In an act of sheer desperation, moments from death, he begged the Empress to take action to investigate this ultimate treachery committed by her son against the imperial court. When the Empress had woken up that morning, there had been no reason to think it would be anything but a normal day. But as she cast her eyes upon the blood-stained blade in the palm of her son's hand, her closest advisor's blood,

pooling rapidly on her palace floors, she was suddenly all too aware of the fact that her following actions would not just spell the fate of her son and the legacy of her reign, but the future of her nation as a whole. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.

The event that we know today as the Ishi incident has come to serve as one of the most definitive moments in classical Japanese history. But what could easily be construed as a petty power struggle between two men was in fact the culmination of over a century's worth of political and religious infighting that was happening within Japan's imperial court. Within the court, the primary source of power, of course, came from the emperors, and later empresses, who would come to inherit Japan's crucial.

prasantamum throne. But aside from the imperial family, the 6th and 7th centuries were defined by the introduction of Buddhism and the heavy influence of two rival clans, the Nakatomi clan and the Soga clan. If you choose to visit Japan today, you would no doubt be greeted with the plethora of Buddhist iconography that have come to decorate the country through temples and statues over the past centuries. But before Buddhism ever came to Japan, Shintoism was the country's primary religion. And to some things up in the absolute broadest possible terms, Buddhism focuses primarily on the self and detachment from earthly possessions. Shintoism is a polytheistic religion, which centers on spirits and deities known as kami. Kami could take the form of spirits or

animals found in nature, but some ancient Japanese clans often cited Kami as the origin of their ancestral lineage. In the case of the Nakatomi clan, their ancestral ties to Kami made them an indispensable asset to the imperial court when performing certain religious rights, which solidified their place at the side of the imperial family. So naturally, when Buddhism made its first appearance in Japan in the 6th century, the Nakatomi clan was more than a little concerned. They framed their dislike of the new religion by arguing that it corrupted traditional Japanese values, but more than likely their primary issue was more political than spiritual in nature. The introduction of Buddhism made the Nakatomi clan's place in court, which relied almost entirely on

their status within the Shinto religion, all but obsolete. Meanwhile, the Soga clan were ardent supporters of this new religion making its way through Japan. Although the Soga did not have as direct an effect on court life as the Nakatomi did, their influence came through their clan's daughters, who they made sure to one way or another marry into the imperial family. Through these marriages, the Soga clan inserted themselves in court as global envoys for the throne, which in turn meant they were likely the first to hear about the introduction of Buddhism through their relations with their Chinese and Korean counterparts. Predictably, the Soga clan were thrilled at the prospect of this new religion.

They saw it as a symbol of progress and globalization. But similarly to the Nakatomi, they also most likely weren't so naive as to only align with the theology purely on a spiritual level. For the Soga clan, the introduction of Buddhism was a way to pry the Nakatomi away from the nearly impenetrable space they had held next to the Chrysanthemum throne. If Shintoism no longer had a place in court, then neither did the Nakatomi. Ultimately, despite the many objections from the Nakatomi clan, by the 7th century, Buddhism had fully taken root in Japan, and the Soga clan had all but ousted the Nakatomi from their position in court. Unsurprisingly, this did not quell the feud between the two families, especially

when in 643, the newly powerful Soga began referring to themselves as sovereigns, and using state resources to erect lavish tombs for themselves. More importantly, since the death of Japan's first Empress, Empress Sweko in 628, the Soga had been essentially controlling who ascended the throne. and predictably their choice of rulers often skewed toward those that they would most likely be able to control. So despite what most historians believe to have been Emperor Suiko's wish to have her successor be a man named Prince Yamashiro, the Soga insisted that the Empress actually wanted to be followed by a man that history would come to know as Emperor Jomey, who after his death, once again at the insistence of the Soga clan,

would be succeeded by his wife, Empress Kogoku, the Empress at the beginning of this story. There are a lot of names, I know, and it's probably made even worse because my pronunciation, even though I try my best, is probably a mess. But if nothing else, just remember that for the first half of the 7th century, the Soga clan were the puppet masters of the Japanese imperial court, and the Nakatomi clan were not content to sit idly by and watch their centuries-long political rivals

continue to pull the strings. But given their lesser status at court, they could do little more than watch as the Soga clan continued to acquire more power through their ties to the throne. That was until 643, when the leader of the Soga clan, Sōgunnoamishi, ordered his son to orchestrate an attack on Prince Yamashiro, who had been the Nakatomi clan's choice to succeed Emperor Suiko nearly 20 years prior. Bestowing honorary titles and constructing tombs was one thing,

but the assassination proved to be the final straw for the next. Nakatomi clan. For decades, they had silently succumbed to the lesser court life after the introduction of Buddhism, but the untimely death of Prince Yamashiro installed a sentiment within the Nakatomi clan, which would be echoed in the events that were to follow. If you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself. By the summer of 645, tensions with the summer of 645 tensions with within the Nakatomi clan were reaching a boiling point. In the wake of Prince Yamashiro's death, the Nakatomi were itching to take revenge against their long-standing political rivals, and in July of that year, it appeared that they would

finally be given their chance for vengeance. Together Nakanooya, who was the Empress's son, and the head of the Nakatomi clan, Nakatomi Kamatari began planning the assassination of the man who had killed Prince Yamashiro, this legitimate claimant to the throne. The assassin Wassoga no Iruka, the empress's key advisor. The formal court ceremony for the reading of the memorials of the Three Kingdoms of Korea provided the perfect backdrop for their revenge. Together, the two powerful men enlisted the help, of Nakanoi's kinsmen, Kuriyamata, who was set to be the speaker at the ceremony. The plan was simple. On the day of the ceremony, palace guards under the control of the Nakatomi

would ensure Soga no Urukha arrived at the hall unarmed. After securing all the exits, the guards would arm themselves and then wait for Kuryamada to begin his speech, so that Uriqa and the rest of the Soga a clan would remain distracted until they could go in for the kill. Though we all know the saying about best-laid plans. Before we continue, I think it might be worthwhile to note that the majority of what we know about the Ishi incident, and specifically the source that I am citing the majority of this story from, is from an English translation of an 8th century Japanese text known as the Nikon Shoki, which, in addition to reading more like a clunky historical diary than the

typical narrative format that we've come to expect from historical texts in the West, has some, let's say, awkward and possibly over-exaggerated quotes thrown into its accounts. This isn't to say that the events recounted aren't true, but between the shifts in language that have no doubt occurred since the age. 8th century, and the inherently questionable translations that have stemmed from them since then, I think it's best to take what direct quotes that I might repeat here with a grain of salt. But back to our story. The day of the ceremony, Nakana Oye, the son of the Empress, walked into the chamber and took his seat, subtly checking to make sure the spear that he had hidden

nearby, remained well concealed and within his grasp. As he watched his mother take her seat before the crowd, elsewhere the Nakatomi guards were sealing each of the 12 exits before moving to quietly arm themselves for the gruesome task they had in store. Gathering the swords and bows and arrows laid out for them, at the sound of Kuriyamata's speech beginning, another conspirator from the Nakatomi clan rushed forward to hurry the men along, saying, up, up, make haste to slay him. At the sound of the hall's door opening, I imagine Nakanoia did his best not to look back and watch his guards quietly filing into the room.

At long last, after not only weeks of planning, but decades of political power struggle, the end of the Saga clan was within reach, until, of course, it wasn't. In exchange for their services, Nakanoi and Nakatomi Kamatari made sure to offer the palace guards a handsome reward. But in the end, it appeared that no amount of money would tempt the guards into taking the life of one of the Empress's closest advisors, not even at the request of her son. With the speaker nervous and his decorum slipping almost as rapidly as the end of his speech was approaching, Nakanoi took his hidden spear

and rose to enact the retribution that no one else would. With a determined cry and a swing of his blade, the hall descended into chaos. Screams of fear and outrage poured from those of the Soga clan left standing, but they did nothing to staunch the gaping wound left in Soga No Urica's neck and shoulder. The man's robes darkened from the free-flowing blood

running down his chest, but somehow Uricam remained conscious. Using what was left of his energy, Soga No Orca dragged himself in front of the Empress and begged, quote, She who occupies the dignitary is the child of heaven. I, her servant, am conscious of no crime, and I beseech her to deign to make examination into this.

In her shock, Empress Kagioku shifted her gaze from the dying Iroka to her son, saying, I know not what has been done. What is the meaning of this? To this, Nakanoi bowed at his mother's feet and defended his actions by presenting them as for the good of the throne. To the Empress, though, his words carried little weight. His attack in the end may not have been strong enough to actually end Iroquois' life in one fell swoop, But the moment he had stood and raised his spear, the Empress knew that her son had all but ended her reign. Without another word, Empress Kogoku stood from her seat and, with one final look cast between the two men, left the hall and secured what was left of Sogunoorka's fate.

Because when the door closed behind her, the empress no doubt heard the flurry of rising panic, as her son and his men wasted no time in finishing what they had started and actually killing the man they had intended to kill. In the aftermath of Sogonorca's assassination, life in the imperial court shifted almost overnight. This, in large part, has to do with this period in Japanese history's perspective on the sanctity of the Chrysanthemum throne. In the eyes of the public, the throne was seen as a position meant to be pure and untouched by, quote, pollution, whether it be spiritual or physical. But an act such as the brutal murder of Soganaurica in front of the empress herself would have been considered, pollution of the utmost degree, which was why within two days of the attack, Empress Kogiyoku abdicated the throne. From the outside, the obvious choice for Kiyoku's successor would be her

son, Nakanoi. But the head of the Nakatomi and Nakanoi's co-conspirator, Nakatomi Kometari, managed to convince the young prince that it would be more beneficial for his political career. should he wait to take the throne not so soon after facilitating an attack within the empirical court. It was with this in mind that Empress Kogoku's brother ascended the throne, becoming Emperor Shetoku. Meanwhile, outside the imperial court, the Soga clan was floundering in the fallout of Iroka's death. In the days following his assassination, members of the Nakatomi clan took it upon themselves to lay waste to the rest of the Soga clan, and their leader, who was Aruka's father, Soga Nonamishi, knew that it was only a matter of time before they came

for him as well. In the grief of his son's assassination and the inevitable destruction of his family line, Soga Noamishi ultimately decided to take his life into his own hands. Only a day after his son's murder, with the threat of the Nakatomi clan looming heavily over his head. On July 11, 645, Amishi calmly set fire to his home and locked himself inside, effectively drawing a definitive and dramatic end to the reign of the Soga clan. That was the gruesome story of the Ishi incident, but stick around after the sponsor break to hear a little more about Empress Kogoku after her abdication.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings.

I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know,

The cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network.

It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging

your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it, written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It stands to reason that Empress Koggioku's story would end with her reign in July of 645. And in a way it did, but not entirely. Let me explain. The reign of Empress Kogoku may have ended with the Ishii incident, but following the death

of her initial successor, her brother a decade later, Empress Kogoku would once again ascend to the Japanese imperial throne, only this time under the name Empress Sime. Who doesn't love a good rebrand? Empress Simei's second reign was marked with much less political turmoil than her first. And this one only ended at her death in 661. This time, she was finally succeeded by her son, the assassin Nakanoi, who became Emperor Tenji. And after over 15 years since conspiring together to create the Ishi incident, Tenji would award his close political advisor Nakatomi Kamatari with his own clan name,

making him Fujiwara no Khamatari, head of the new Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara's would go on to hold power within the imperial court from the 7th century well into the 1800s, and to this day are considered to be one of the most powerful ancient families in classical Japanese history. It's strange to end the episode on this note, because I want to make clear, I don't think a second. Assassinations and murder are good ideas, but in this one specific case, it did really work out for the people who planned it. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimmin-Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman.

The show is produced by Rima Il Kali with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodom.

My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there.

Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human