Yamatai
The "land " Yamatai (Japanese邪 马 台 国, - koku or Yamaichi邪 马 壹 国, - koku ) was the first written mention merger of 32 kuni (国, here: district [ Note 1 ]) of the Wa (Ch. Wo) on the Japanese archipelago. Yamatai stood until 248 under the suzerainty of "Queen " Himiko. [Note 2] It was first described in an itinerary that is part of Weizhi Dongyi zhuan (Chinese魏志东 夷 传, W.-G. Wei -chih Tung- i- chuan, Japanese魏志东 夷 伝, Gishi tōiden, dt " reports on the Wei: Description of Ostbarbaren " ) is. Inaccuracies and the interpretation of this travelogue generations of researchers busy. To date, the question is discussed, where exactly Yamatai could have located and whether it is a precursor to, if not identical with the later nucleus of the Japanese state, Yamato. Besides the investigation of historical sources and archaeological evidence for the localization question have become relevant again.
Historiography sources
The Wei Zhi (魏志, Wei Zhi ), comprising 30 books, is one of three parts of the historical work Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms (Chinese三国 志/三国 志, Pinyin Sanguo Zhi ), which in turn to the historiography, the 24 dynastic histories, heard. In the Wei Zhi is found in the section on " Ostbarbaren " (Tung -i chuan ) is a travelogue of the commandant Taifang (Chinese带 方) for Wa - confederation under the rule Himiko in Yamaichi (Chinese邪 马 壹, W. -G. Hsieh -ma -i). It reads:
" Where the people are in the midst of the great sea southeast of [ the commandant ] Tai -fang [ ... ]. Where To reach from the commandant [ Tai -fang ] out, you go to the following lakes, the seashore. At the [ Kor. ] Han States over, only to the south, then east, to reach their [ie, Where the ] northern coastline, the country Kou - hsieh - Han, more than 7000 li [ of the commandant's Tai -fang removed].
For the first time you cross an ocean and then reached [ by ] more than 1000 li, the country Tuei -hai [ ... ]. Further south, a sea crossing [ ... ] you get [ by ] a thousand li to the land of I- ta [ ... ]. Again, a sea crossing is reached after more than a thousand li the land Mo -lu [ ... ]. To the southeast of the country traveling can be reached in five hundred li the country I -tu [ ... ].
To the southeast to get [ after ] a hundred li to the land Nu [ ... ]. After traveling east can be reached within a hundred li the country Pu -mi [ ... ]. To the south, you get twenty days traveling to water to land T'ou -ma [ ... ]. To the south you secure ten days in travel on water, on land of a month the country Hsieh -ma- i, where the Queen has her residence [ ... ]. "
Even if one can calculate on the basis of topographic conditions an average value for the distance specified li (Chinese里), brings us to this description to a point in the ocean, somewhere south of Kyūshū. [Note 3] This uncertainty has led to accept two types of errors in the text corpus. Firstly, the distance information has been questioned in connection with transcription problems, on the other hand, the direction information, the distances were assumed to be correct sizes. Depending on what premise one assumes, one arrives at two localization theories: the Kyushu or the Kinai theory.
The theory Yamatai have been in Kyushu, decomposes into two camps, one of which is south, the other north- Kyushu postulated as the Wa territory. For the proponents of Kinai theory, which is the situation in the Kinki region Yamatais, the question arises whether Yamatai has a reference to the historical province of Yamato.
Kyushu - theory
The Yamatai research began with the historian Matsushita Kenrin (松下 见 林, 1637-1704 ) and his work ISHO Nihonden (异 称 日本 伝, 1688). Based on the Nihongi he assumed that it was at Himiko to Jingū - Kogo. In addition, he participated in as a dominion of the regent Yamato. It is likely that Kenrin to the scholars Urabe no Kanetaka (卜 部 兼 方, 1192-1333 ), the author of the Shaku Nihongi (釈 日本 纪) refers. Urabe lists in Shaku Nihongi, Chinese sources in summary, different names for the Nihon - koku on. Among the returning to the Hou Hanshu term " Yeh -ma- t'ai " and dating from the Sui Shu term " Yeh -mi -tui ". Since the labels on t'ai or Tui end, Kenrin came to the conclusion that there must be at Yamaichi, which he found in the Japanese annals a ( write ) errors. He replaced then the sign ichi (壹) by tai ( Kyūjitai :台, modern:台). Thus, from Yamaichi up in the 1960s Yamatai or Yamato.
In the distant past has first Takehito Furuta (古 田武彦, * 1926) subjected to the search of a proof of the Kyushu - theory Kenrins representation of an assay. Furuta recognized the changes Kenrins and rejected the designation Yamatai, so the obvious identity with the province of Yamato was obsolete. At the same time ensure that the competing Kinai theory was weakened.
Kinai theory
It was the Neo-Confucian scholar Arai Hakuseki, who took the view first, Yamatai have located in Kinai area. He was based in part to the similarity of names of Yamatai and Yamato, on the other hand he accepted that a direction specifying the directions were incorrect. He assumed that the path portion of Fumi (Chinese Pu -mi ) existed a copying error and you travel instead to the south, had to turn to the east. In this way, the route across the water by Toma (Ch T'ou -ma) was declared by Yamatai.
Motoori Norinaga, who accepted the accuracy of direction information, criticized at Hakuseki that a further one-month stage to land after crossing does not seem plausible, since Yamato from probably controlled port of Naniwa (now Osaka ), was not so far away. Therefore took Norinaga Central and South Kyushu as likely. The Gold Seal in 1784 by a farmer on Shika -no- shima found suggested also that Yamatai lay in Kyūshū, since the localized in the plane of Fukuoka kuni Na represents a stage in the itinerary.
It was not until the early 20th century could Naitō Torajirō show that a confusion of direction information in the Wei Zhi were not rare. Also contributed archaeological finds, such as bronze mirrors, to the revival of Kinai theory.
Recently, Barbara Seyock has argued that neither erroneous distance, still wrong direction information, but rather a not quite correct geographical idea for Kinai theory talk. Dating back to the principles of Kangnidokarte 1402 Hu Wei had made in the 17th century maps, the Japan rotated 90 degrees to show to the mainland. If you put this map Directions from the Wei Zhi based one actually enters the Kinai region of central Japan. However, it must be considered that lie between the creation of this card and the Wei Zhi about 1500 years. So remains to be seen whether further and older cards can corroborate this assumption.
Archaeological findings
Because of the bronze mirror found in the Yamato area many archaeologists proposed at the beginning of the 1930s that the Kinai theory was correct. Masukichi Hashimoto (1880-1956), however, criticized the randomness of the finds, which had not been systematically excavated. He argued that originating from China artifacts could have been placed at a later date. Excavations of the past 70 years have bronze mirror from the late Yayoi period, so the lifetime of Himiko, brought to light both the North Kyushu, as well as in the Nara level. Thus, different cultural centers remain on Kyūshū, as in the Kinki region as possible sites Yamatais in the discussion.
Richly endowed and only in the past 10 to 15 years found Kofun indicate the presence of a higher-ranking person. The exploration of these findings could provide future localization.
Talk about a found in Tenri hill grave with stone and wooden coffin chamber, and the 2001 at the excavation site Katsuyama found in Sakurai keyhole Kofun, which can be dated to the late dendrochronologically Yayoi period for the Kyushu - theory.
Significant for the Kinai theory could be a grave mound at Akasa - imai in Mineyama. It is the largest grave construction from the Yayoi period. In addition to a decorated with vermilion wooden coffin was found there also a headdress and comma-shaped curved beads that of the 29 kuni suggest a female leader of a.