Ōkimi (, also read as ''Daiō''), or Ame no shita Siroshimesu Ōkimi (, Chi Tenka Daiō), was the title of the head of the

Yamato Kingship The was a tribal alliance centered on the Yamato Province, Yamato region (Nara Prefecture) from the 4th century to the 7th century, and ruled over the alliance of Nobility, noble families in the central and western parts of the Japanese archipe ...

, or the

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

title of

Wakoku Wa-koku (倭國, literally "Wa-nation") was the name used by early imperial China and its neighbouring states to refer to the nation usually identified as Japan. There are various theories regarding the extent of power of the early kings of Japan. ...

(Old Japan).Okimi (Kotobank)
See "日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ) - 大王（尊称） �kimi (honorific title). It says there were 3 usages for Okimi. The first is "the title for a King of

Yamato kingship The was a tribal alliance centered on the Yamato Province, Yamato region (Nara Prefecture) from the 4th century to the 7th century, and ruled over the alliance of Nobility, noble families in the central and western parts of the Japanese archipe ...

". "これらの大王は ....ヤマト政権の王の称号として用いられた". This term was used from the

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

through the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

ancient Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Japanese Paleolithic, Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the fi ...

Etymology

The title (''Ōkimi'' or ''Daiō''), which is an honorific title for the head (king) of the Yamato Kingship, was established around the 5th century and was used until the 680s. It was established when the compilation of the

Asuka Kiyomihara Code The refers to a collection of governing rules compiled and promulgated in 689, one of the first, if not the first collection of Ritsuryō laws in classical Japan. This also marks the initial appearance of the central administrative body called ...

started. There are several theories upon whether the title holder in the early period is a king of the unified kingship or not. ''Ōkimi'' in Japanese reading is created by adding the prefix ''ō'' or ''oho'' which indicates greatness and particular nobleness, to the title "kimi" (lord), which indicates a master or nobleman. Another theory states that ''Ōkimi'' is only an honorific form of ''kimi'', a title with Japanese origins, while ''Daiō'' is based on a king title which originated from China; the title of

kango Kango is a town in the Estuaire Province of Gabon, Central Africa, lying on the Komo River and the N1 road. It has a station near the Trans-Gabon Railway, where the railway bridges the Gabon Estuary. Kango is a small town with a population ...

(Chinese word). There are several instances of the use of ''Ōkimi'', which is understood as a courtesy title of Emperor or royal family.Okimi 2,3 (Kotobank)
See "日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ) - 大王（尊称） �kimi (honorific title). It says there were 3 usages for Okimi. The second is the title of the substantial ruler of Japan, used in around 6th century. And the third is: A) after the establishment of the title "Tennō", was written like and was read as "ōkimi". B) Title of a member of the royal family during 2nd to 5th century. They were called "ōkimi" and written usually as (male) or (female).

Title of ''King of Japan'' in Chinese documents

''King'' as a title in ancient China

The

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

title "" (''Ō, Wang'') originally designated a Master of ''Chūgen'' (,

Zhongyuan Zhongyuan (), the Central Plain(s), also known as Zhongtu (, lit. 'central land') and Zhongzhou (, lit. 'central region'), commonly refers to the part of the North China Plain surrounding the lower and middle reaches of the Yellow River, centere ...

) in Inner China. In the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military ...

period, (''Wang'') was the title of the sole

Son of Heaven Son of Heaven, or ''Tianzi'' (), was the sacred monarchial and imperial title of the Chinese sovereign. It originated with the Zhou dynasty and was founded on the political and spiritual doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. Since the Qin dynasty ...

who rules the

Tianxia ''Tianxia'', 'all under Heaven', is a Chinese term for a historical Chinese cultural concept that denoted either the entire geographical world or the metaphysical realm of mortals, and later became associated with political sovereignty. In anc ...

. However, some great powers in the region of the

Yangtze civilization Yangtze civilization () is a generic name for various ancient Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures from the Yangtze basin in China, a contemporary civilization by the neighboring Yellow River civilization. Cultures Upper Yangtze * Pengtoushan ...

did not want to stand in subordinate positions of the nations of the Yellow River civilization in

North China North China () is a list of regions of China, geographical region of the People's Republic of China, consisting of five province-level divisions of China, provincial-level administrative divisions, namely the direct-administered municipalities ...

, such as

Chu Chu or CHU may refer to: Chinese history * Chu (state) (c. 1030 BC–223 BC), a state during the Zhou dynasty * Western Chu (206 BC–202 BC), a state founded and ruled by Xiang Yu * Chu Kingdom (Han dynasty) (201 BC–70 AD), a kingdom of the H ...

, Wu and Yue. Some of their monarchs titled themselves ''Wang''. When China entered into the

Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...

, the monarchs of the great nations among the states of North China who were originally subjects of the Zhou King, but achieved territorial statehood, called themselves sole ''Wang'' of the Tianxia in place of the Zhou King. Thus, there were numerous claims to the throne in mainland China. Thereafter, Ying Zheng (), the King of Qin (Emperor Shi Huang), who unified China for the first time in 221 BC, adopted the title "Emperor" (, ''Huángdì'') instead of title "King", which had been degraded. The King title ''Wang'' became the title granted to subjects of the Emperor, or that assigned to heads of neighboring states who recognized the authority of the Qin Emperor as Master of Tianxia, with a connotation of a subordinate rank. The latter usage was established thereafter. The monarch of

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...

stood on even ground with the Emperor of Qin, therefore his title was

Chanyu Chanyu () or Shanyu (), short for Chengli Gutu Chanyu (), was the title used by the supreme rulers of Inner Asian nomads for eight centuries until superseded by the title "''Khagan''" in 402 AD. The title was most famously used by the ruling L ...

, not ''Wang''.

Early title of ''King of Japan''

The first appearance of King title related to old Japan is (''Kan no Wa no Na no kokuō'', King of Na in Wa of Han) engraved on the gold seal which was bestowed on the king of

Nakoku 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 Japanese island of Kyūsh ...

by the emperor

Guangwu Emperor Guangwu of Han (; 15 January 5 BC29 March AD 57), born Liu Xiu (), courtesy name Wenshu (), was a Chinese monarch. He served as an emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty by restoring the dynasty in AD 25, thus founding the Han dy ...

of Han in 57 AD. The word ''Wakoku ō'' (King of Wa) appears in the article dated to the first year of ''Eisho'' (107 AD), in the record of Emperor An in the ''

Book of the Later Han The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Lat ...

''. The full title, as written in the record of emperor An, is: "

Suishō was a king of Wa (Japan). He is the earliest Japanese person whose name appeared in a Chinese history. He is mentioned in Volume 85 of the ''Book of the Later Han'', which was compiled in 445 C.E. Although Suishō is the earliest figure in Japan ...

, the king of Wa, and other". If "Wakoku ō" refers to the King of

as a head of the states union, other than a head of small regional state, this description shows the establishment of the

. In addition,

Himiko , also known as the , was a shamaness-queen of Yamatai-koku in . Early Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom (220–265) and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler ...

(c. 180 AD–c. 247 AD) was authorised as the unified Queen of Wakoku (whose capital was Yamatai koku) by the Wei dynasty. There is a theory that the government that existed during Himiko's rule was an early form of the

, though this has been disputed.

Establishment of the ''Daiō (Great King)'' expression

The kanji letters of the title (''ōkimi'', great king) was first appeared in the inscription of the iron sword unearthed from Inariyama kofun,

Saitama prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 Square kilometre, km2 ( ...

. On the other hand, on the iron sword which is a silver inlaid sword, unearthed from the Eta Funayama kofun,

Kumamoto prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, 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 t ...

, there was the inscription. It was difficult to read this inscription. In 1934, Toshio Fukuyama deciphered the inscription and he read it partially as . From this reading, Fukuyama identified that ''Daiō'' () in this script is the Emperor Hansho. But in 1978, on the iron sword, unearthed from Inariyama kofun,

, the inscription was discovered. When Toshio Kishi and other researchers tried to decipher this inscription, they re-examined the reading of the script on the sword from the Eta Funayama kofun. They found the script can be read as . is read "Wakatakeru", and it is the Japanese name of the

Emperor Yuryaku The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

. This ''daiō'' inscribed on the sword might be Yuryaku, and this is the first used example of ''Chi Tenka Daiō'', in the late 5th century. In ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

'', compiled in the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 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 capita ...

, there are the scripts "" (''Daiō, fūshi''...) in the first Enthronement record of Ohosazaki no Sumeramikoto (

Emperor Nintoku , also known as was the 16th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Due to his reputation for goodness derived from depictions in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, he is sometimes referred to as the . While his existence ...

), but it is not certain that this ''Daiō'' had been used from the days of Emperor Nintoku, who ruled some 200 years before the compilation of the ''Nihon Shoki''. However, the expression of ''Daiō'' appears in the Ōjin record, and after that, it appears in the Ingyō record, Yūryaku record, Kenzō record and Keitai record, among others. There is the inscription (according to Toshio Fukuyama) on the

Suda Hachiman Shrine Mirror The in Hashimoto, Wakayama, 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 Okhots ...

(Portrait of person Mirror), owned by

Suda Hachiman Shrine Suda Hachiman Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Wakayama Prefecture formerly Kii Province. It was founded in 859. The Suda Hachiman Shrine Mirror was found there. It is a National treasure of Japan. The Shrine is dedicated to Hachiman.https://www.mlit ...

Wakayama prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

, in which the words and appear. From this inscription, in the year ''Mizunoto Hitsuji'' (, ''Kibi'') See "

Sexagenary cycle The sexagenary cycle, also known as the gānzhī (干支) or stems-and-branches, is a cycle of sixty terms, each corresponding to one year, thus amounting to a total of sixty years every cycle, historically used for recording time in China and t ...

". ''Kibi (Mizunoto Hitsuji)'' is the name of year (year of "Water Goat"). There are 60 names of year according to Sexagenary cycle (''Kanshi''). Named year exists in each 60 years. See also ja:Mizunoto Hitsuji or French article. when the mirror was made, the title ''Daiō'' is supposed to have been used. But there are various interpretations of what year this ''Mizunoto Hitsuji'' year was. In several theories, it is: 383, 443, 503, or 623 AD. Among these years, 443 (

Emperor Ingyō was the 19th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Both the ''Kojiki'', and the ''Nihon Shoki'' (collectively known as the ''Kiki'') recorded events that took place during Ingyō's alleged ...

) or 503 (

Emperor Buretsu (489 – 7 January 507) was the 25th legendary Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 武烈天皇 (25)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this Emperor's life or reign, b ...

) are considered most likely. If it is 443, the expression Daiō was used in around the age of Ingyō, in the middle 5th century. However, the characters in the inscription are difficult to interpret. In addition, the content of the inscription itself has various interpretations. The exact years when the expression ''Daiō'' started to be used are unclear.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Japanese monarchs History of Nara Prefecture Royal titles Asuka period Kofun period Pages with unreviewed translations