Yamataikoku

Yamatai or Yamatai-koku is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period The Chinese text '' Records of the Three Kingdoms'' first recorded the name as () or (; using reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations) followed by the character for "country", describing the place as the domain of Priest-Queen (died ). Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated where Yamatai was located and whether it was related to the later .

History

Chinese texts

The oldest accounts of Yamatai are found in the official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories for the 1st- and 2nd-century Eastern Han dynasty, the 3rd-century Wei kingdom, and the 6th-century Sui dynasty.

The c. 297 CE ''Records of Wèi'' (), which is part of the '' Records of the Three Kingdoms'' (), first mentions the country ''Yamatai'', usually spelled as (), written instead with the spelling (), or ''Yamaichi'' in modern Japanese pronunciation.

Most ''Wei Zhi'' commentators accept the () transcription in later texts and dismiss this initial spelling using () meaning "one" (the anti-forgery character variant for 一 "one") as a miscopy, or perhaps a naming taboo avoidance, of () meaning "platform; terrace." This history describes ancient Wa based upon detailed reports of 3rd-century Chinese envoys who traveled throughout the Japanese archipelago:

Going south by water for twenty days, one comes to the country of Toma, where the official is called ''mimi'' and his lieutenant, ''miminari''. Here there are about fifty thousand households. Then going toward the south, one arrives at the country of Yamadai, where a Queen holds her court. his journeytakes ten days by water and one month by land. Among the officials there are the ''ikima'' and, next in rank, the ''mimasho''; then the ''mimagushi'', then the ''nakato''. There are probably more than seventy thousands households. (115, tr. Tsunoda 1951:9)

The ''Wei Zhi'' also records that in 238 CE, Queen Himiko sent an envoy to the court of Wei emperor Cao Rui, who responded favorably:

We confer upon you, therefore, the title 'Queen of Wa Friendly to Wei', together with the decoration of the gold seal with purple ribbon. ...As a special gift, we bestow upon you three pieces of blue brocade with interwoven characters, five pieces of tapestry with delicate floral designs, fifty lengths of white silk, eight taels of gold, two swords five feet long, one hundred bronze mirrors, and fifty catties each of jade and of red beads. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:14-15)

The ca. 432 CE '' Book of the Later Han'' () says the Wa kings lived in the country of Yamatai ():

The Wa dwell on mountainous islands southeast of Han oreain the middle of the ocean, forming more than one hundred communities. From the time of the overthrow of Chaoxian orthern Koreaby Emperor Wu (B.C. 140-87), nearly thirty of these communities have held intercourse with the Han ynastycourt by envoys or scribes. Each community has its king, whose office is hereditary. The King of Great Wa amatoresides in the country of Yamadai. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:1)

The ''Book of Sui'' (), finished in 636 CE, records changing the capital's name from ''Yamadai'' (, ) to ''Yamato'' (Japanese logographic spelling ):

Wa is situated in the middle of the great ocean southeast of Baekje and Silla, three thousand ''li'' away by water and land. The people dwell on mountainous islands. ...The capital is Yamato, known in the Wei history as Yamadai. The old records say that it is altogether twelve thousand ''li'' distant from the borders of Lelang and Daifang prefectures, and is situated east of Kuaiji and close to Dan'er. (81, tr. Tsunoda 1951:28)

Japanese texts

The first Japanese books, such as the '' Kojiki'' or '' Nihon Shoki'', were mainly written in a variant of Classical Chinese called ''kanbun''. The first texts actually in the Japanese language used Chinese characters, called ''kanji'' in Japanese, for their phonetic values. This usage is first seen in the 400s or 500s before to spell out Japanese names, as on the Eta Funayama Sword or the Inariyama Sword. This gradually formalized over the 600s and 700s into the ''Man'yōgana'' system, a rebus-like transcription that uses specific kanji to represent Japanese phonemes. For instance, ''man'yōgana'' spells the Japanese mora ''ka'' using (among others) the character , which means "to add", and was pronounced as in Middle Chinese and borrowed into Japanese with the pronunciation ''ka''. Irregularities within this awkward system led Japanese scribes to develop phonetically regular syllabaries. The new kana were graphic simplifications of Chinese characters. For instance, ''ka'' is written in hiragana and in katakana, both of which derive from the ''Man'yōgana'' 加 character (hiragana from the cursive form of the kanji, and katakana from a simplification of the kanji).

The c. 712 '' Kojiki'' (, "Records of Ancient Matters") is the oldest extant book written in Japan. The " Birth of the Eight Islands" section phonetically transcribes ''Yamato'' as , pronounced in Middle Chinese as and used to represent the Old Japanese morae ''ya ma to₂'' (see also Man'yōgana#chartable). The ''Kojiki'' records the Shintoist creation myth that the god '' Izanagi'' and the goddess ''Izanami'' gave birth to the '' Ōyashima'' (, "Eight Great Islands") of Japan, the last of which was Yamato:

Next they gave birth to Great-Yamato-the-Luxuriant-Island-of-the-Dragon-Fly, another name for which is Heavenly-August-Sky-Luxuriant-Dragon-Fly-Lord-Youth. The name of "Land-of-the-Eight-Great-Islands" therefore originated in these eight islands having been born first. (tr. Chamberlain 1919:23)

Chamberlain (1919:27) notes this poetic name "Island of the Dragon-fly" is associated with legendary Emperor Jimmu

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