Ono no Imoko

Who They Were

Ono no Imoko (小野妹子) was a politician and diplomat of the Asuka period (538–710), the era when Japan was consolidating a centralised state under the Yamato court and looking outward to the continent for models of government, religion and writing. He served Empress Suiko as an official envoy to the court of the Sui dynasty in China, making two journeys there in the first decade of the seventh century. He belonged to the Ono clan, a family noted for linguistics and scholarship, and he was the father of Ono no Emishi.

His name is attached to one of the most quoted documents in Japanese history: a letter from Prince Shōtoku to the Sui emperor that opened with the words "The Son of Heaven where the sun rises [Japan], to the Son of Heaven where the sun sets [China], may good health be with you." Imoko carried that letter. The Chinese court did not receive it as a courtesy.

Life and Career

Imoko enters the historical record when Empress Suiko appointed him an official envoy — a kenzuishi (遣隋使), an imperial embassy to Sui China — in 607. His rank at the time was listed as Greater Propriety, the fifth rank. He travelled to the Sui court and delivered the letter from Prince Shōtoku.

Emperor Yang was angered at being addressed in that way. The offence lay partly in Sui being called the land of the setting sun, and partly in the use of "Son of Heaven" for both rulers, which implied that the Japanese and Chinese sovereigns were equals. China at this time held that any land not engaged in the Sinocentric tributary system was Huàwài zhī dì (化外之地), "lands outside of civilization," and that the Emperor of China was the only legitimate emperor of all lands under heaven. A Japanese ruler claiming the same Chinese characters for his title subverted that principle and the Chinese theocracy built on it.

Emperor Yang was probably more interested in diplomatically distancing Japan from Goguryeo, and in securing Japanese support against the other powerful kingdom in Northeast Asia, than in matters of decorum. Despite the insult he sent his own envoy, Pei Shiqing (裴世清), back to Japan with Imoko. Goguryeo had for years raided and assaulted Chinese borders; the Sui campaign to subjugate the kingdom to the north failed, and the dynasty later collapsed under the political fallout of the Goguryeo–Sui War and other causes.

In the autumn of 608 Imoko was appointed envoy to Sui a second time, and he accompanied Pei Shiqing on the return trip to China. He came back to Japan from that second mission in 609, after which he largely disappears from the historical record.

Imoko is often cited as an official who rose under the Twelve Level Cap and Rank System, a merit-based ranking scheme implemented by Prince Shōtoku in 603. Having entered the record at the fifth rank of Greater Propriety, he was later promoted to the top rank of Greater Virtue, largely on the strength of his missions to the Sui court.

Why They Matter

Imoko's missions sit at the point where Japan began dealing with China as a state with its own sovereign rather than as a subordinate. The 607 letter is the clearest surviving statement of that position: the two rulers are named with the same title, and the geography of sunrise and sunset is used to place Japan and China side by side. The Sui court read the letter as an affront, and the exchange is remembered for exactly that reason.

The embassies also had practical consequences. Emperor Yang's decision to send Pei Shiqing back to Japan with Imoko kept the channel open even after the insult, and Imoko's second mission in 608–609 carried the relationship further. For Japan, these contacts were part of a broader programme of importing continental institutions, and Imoko's own promotion under the Twelve Level Cap and Rank System shows the new merit-based order rewarding service of this kind.

The Name in Japanese

The name is written 小野妹子. In kana it is おのの いもこ, and in romaji it is Ono no Imoko. The particle の between the family name and the given name is a possessive, so the name means, roughly, "Imoko of Ono."

小 — read o here. It means "small" or "little." In this name it is not a description but the first element of the clan name.

野 — read no here. It means "field," "plain" or "open country." Together, 小野 (Ono) is a place-derived surname: "small field." The Ono clan took its name from this.

の — written in kana, read no. This is the possessive particle linking the surname to the given name. It is normally written in hiragana rather than as a kanji, which is why the name is 小野妹子 and not 小野之妹子.

妹 — read imo here. It means "younger sister." On its own the character is normally read imōto, "younger sister."

子 — read ko here. It means "child." On its own it is read ko.

The given name 妹子 (Imoko) is an old-style name built from 妹, "younger sister," plus 子, "child." Names ending in 子 were common for both men and women in this period; the later association of 子 with women's given names is a much more recent convention, so a modern reader should not mistake Imoko for a woman's name. The reading imoko is also irregular against the modern readings of the two characters, which is typical of Asuka-period names.

Legacy

The Ono family's reputation for linguistics and scholarship outlasted Imoko by centuries. His descendants include the waka poet Ono no Komachi, the poet and scholar Ono no Takamura, and the calligrapher Ono no Michikaze. Through them the family name 小野 remained attached to literary and scholarly achievement in later Japanese history, long after the diplomatic missions that first brought Imoko into the record.