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'Harmony Is to Be Valued' — The Twelve Cap-Ranks and the Seventeen-Article Constitution

Under Empress Suiko, Prince Shotoku established the twelve cap-ranks (603) and the Seventeen-Article Constitution (604) — a system promoting people by merit rather than birth, and a code of conduct for officials beginning 'Harmony is to be valued.' The frameworks that gave ancient Japan the idea of a 'state.'

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Under Empress Suiko, Prince Shotoku established the twelve cap-ranks in 603 — promoting officials by merit rather than birth — and the Seventeen-Article Constitution in 604, a moral code for officials beginning ‘Harmony is to be valued, and discord avoided.’ Based on Buddhist and Confucian ideals, these frameworks began uniting Japan’s clans under the emperor, laying groundwork for the later Taika Reform and ritsuryo state.

Kondo of Horyuji — the world's oldest wooden building, representing the Asuka era when Shotoku established the cap-ranks and constitution

Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Asuka-period birth Buddha — the constitution drew on Buddhist and Confucian ideals; Buddhist art from when Buddhism became the state's guiding principle

Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Shitennoji, Osaka — built by Prince Shotoku, center of his cult that upheld the ideal 'harmony is to be valued'

Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

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Key Figures

Empress Suiko

Japan's First Empress Regnant

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