Soga no Himuka (蘇我日向)

SOGA no Himuka (date of birth and death unknown) was a Japanese government official in the late 7th century. His farther was SOGA no Kuramoro. His Azana (a courtesy name) was Musashi.

In 644, when the Prince NAKA no Oe (who later became the Emperor Tenchi) got engaged to the daughter of SOGA no Ishikawamaro, the elder brother of Himuka, he snatched her on the night. In 649, Himuka made a false accusation about Ishikawamaro's conspiracy to murder the Prince NAKA no Oe and led a punitive force. Ishiwakamaro eventually killed himself. Ishiwakamaro's innocence later became apparent, and the Prince NAKA no Oe assigned Himuka to Dazai no Sochi (the administrator) of Tsukushi Province, but it was widely called as Kakushi Nagashi, which literally means 'a false relegation'.

While they wanted to pretend Himuka was charged of the incident and relegated to Tsukushi, it was nothing but an extraordinary promotion that somebody with obscurity and no rank was assigned to Dazai no Sochi which had an important role in diplomacy. Therefore, those excuses from the Prince NAKA no Oe and "Shoki" (the Chronicle) are not convincing at all.

[Original Japanese]