The were a mythical people of ancient

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

mentioned in the ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'', believed to have lived in the south of

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

until at least the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the c ...

. The last leader of the Kumaso, Torishi-Kaya was killed by

Yamato Takeru , originally , was a Japanese semi-legendary prince of the Yamato dynasty, son of Emperor Keikō, who is traditionally counted as the 12th Emperor of Japan. His name written in kanji can vary, in the '' Nihon Shoki'' it is spelled 日本武尊 ...

in 397. The name of

Kumamoto Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture to the northeast, M ...

originates from the Kumaso people.

Origins

Scholars such as Kakubayashi Fumio, ''"although information is extremely limited"'', concluded that they were of Austronesian origin based on some linguistic and cultural evidence, theorising that the word ''kaya'', present in personal names or titles, such as Torishi-Kaya, has the same root as

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Taga ...

''" kaya"'', meaning "ability; capability; competence; resources; wealth" and Malay and Indonesian ''" kaya"'', meaning "rich, wealthy, having wealth". The ''So'' present in Kumaso was also theorised to have the same origins as ''tsuo, tsau, thau, sau, tau, tao'' supposedly meaning "people" in Austronesian languages.

Overview

William George Aston William George Aston (9 April 1841 – 22 November 1911) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, author and scholar-expert in the language and history of Japan and Korea. Early life Aston was born near Derry, Ireland.Ricorso Aston, bio notes/ref> He dis ...

, in his translation of the '' Nihongi'', says ''Kumaso'' refers to two separate tribes, ''Kuma'' (meaning "bear") and ''So'' (written with the character for "attack" or "layer on"). In his translation of the ''

'',

Basil Hall Chamberlain Basil Hall Chamberlain (18 October 1850 – 15 February 1935) was a British academic and Japanologist. He was a professor of the Japanese language at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during th ...

records that the region is also known simply as '' So district'', and elaborates on the Yamato-centric description of a "bear-like" people, based on their violent interactions or physical distinctiveness.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/kj012.htm#fn_173 (The people called '' tsuchigumo'' by the Yamato people provide a better-known example of the transformation of other tribes into legendary monsters. ''Tsuchigumo''—the monstrous "ground spider" of legend—is speculated to refer originally to the native pit dwellings of that people.) Geographically, Aston records that the Kumaso domain encompassed the historical provinces of Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma (contemporaneous with Aston's translation), or present-day Miyazaki and

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

prefectures. The last leader of the Kumaso, Torishi-Kaya, aka Brave of Kahakami, was assassinated in the winter of 397 by Prince

of Yamato, who was disguised for this as a woman at a banquet.

Legacy

The word Kuma ('Bear') survives today as

('source of the bear'), and Kuma District, Kumamoto. Kuma District is known for a distinct dialect, Kuma Dialect.

People of the Kumaso mentioned in the Nihongi

*Torishi-Kaya (aka Brave of Kahakami): a leader of the Kumaso *Atsukaya: a leader of the Kumaso *Sakaya: a leader of the Kumaso *Ichi-fukaya: Emperor Keikō married her 82 AD and in the same year put her to death, since she was involved in the assassination which killed her father. *Ichi-kaya: younger sister of Ichi-fukaya''Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697'', translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by

. Book VII, page 196. Tuttle Publishing. Tra edition (July 2005). First edition published 1972.

References

{{Ethnic groups in Japan Tribes of ancient Japan

Origins

Overview

Legacy

People of the Kumaso mentioned in the Nihongi

See also

References