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was a stateIn Japanese, the character 国/國, read as ''koku'' (in on'yomi) or ''kuni'' (in kun'yomi), can be translated as "country" or "province" which was located in and around modern-day Fukuoka City, on the
was a stateIn Japanese, the character 国/國, read as ''koku'' (in on'yomi) or ''kuni'' (in kun'yomi), can be translated as "country" or "province" which was located in and around modern-day Fukuoka City, on the Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese island of Kyūshū, from the 1st to early 3rd centuries. Much of what is known about it comes from ancient records of both China and Japan.
According to the '' Book of the Later Han'', in 57 CE, Emperor Guangwu of Han granted Nakoku an imperial seal, patterned after the Chinese jade seals, but made of gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
: the king of Na gold seal.
In return, that same year, Na sent envoys to the Chinese capital, offering tribute and formal New Year's greetings. This seal was discovered over 1500 years later, by an Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
farmer on Shikanoshima Island, thus helping to verify the existence of Nakoku, which was otherwise known only from the ancient chronicles. Engraved upon it are the Chinese characters (''Kan no Wa no Na-no-Koku-ō'', "King of the Na state of the Wa (vassal) of Han".
A reference is found in vol. 30 of the Chinese ''Book of Wei'' from the '' Records of the Three Kingdoms'', titled "The Account of the Easterners: A Note on the Wa" ( zh, 東夷傳‧倭人條), to the continued existence of Nakoku in the 3rd century, naming the officials and stating that it contains over 20,000 homes. This section is known in Japan as the .
Some believe that Nakoku may also correspond to Na-no-Agata (), a principality which preceded Fukuoka City.
See also
* ''Na'' and ''Wa'' (倭) *names of Japan
The word ''Japan'' is an endonym and exonym, exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese language, Japanese names for Japan are () and (). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji .
Since the third ce ...
Notes and references
*Much of the content of this article is derived from that on the corresponding article on the Japanese Wikipedia. Transcriptions of the relevant portions from the ancient texts can be found there as well. *Frederic, Louis. "Nakoku." ''Japan Encyclopedia''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. {{Yamatai Former countries in Japanese history Yayoi period States of the Wajinden Wajinden