Assassination of Soga no Iruka

Date: July 10, 645 • Location: Sakurai, Japan

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 645.

In a plot to eliminate the Japanese Soga clan, Prince Naka no Ōe assassinated Soga no Iruka (depicted), beginning the Isshi incident.

The Soga clan was one of the most powerful aristocratic kin groups (uji) of the Asuka period of the early Japanese state—the Yamato polity—and played a major role in the spread of Buddhism in Japan. Through the 5th and 7th centuries, the Soga monopolized the kabane or hereditary rank of Great Omi and was the first of many families to dominate the Imperial House of Japan by influencing the order of succession and government policy.