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 Eastern Han 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 .

Chinese texts

thumb|Text of the Wei Zhi (ca. 297)

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.

Pronunciations

Modern Japanese Yamato () descends from Old Japanese Yamatö or Yamato<sub>2</sub>, which has been associated with Yamatai. The latter umlaut or subscript diacritics distinguish two vocalic types within the proposed eight vowels of Nara period (710-794) Old Japanese (a, i, ï, u, e, ë, o, and ö, see Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai), which merged into the five modern vowels (a, i, u, e, and o).

During the Kofun period (250-538) when kanji were first used in Japan, Yamatö was written with the ateji 倭 for Wa, the name given to "Japan" by Chinese writers using a character meaning "docile, submissive". During the Asuka period (538-710) when Japanese place names were standardized into two-character compounds, the spelling of Yamato was changed to , adding the prefix ("big; great").

Following the ca. 757 graphic substitution of ("peaceful") for ("docile"), the name Yamato was spelled ("great harmony"), using the Classical Chinese expression (pronounced in Middle Chinese as , as used in Yijing 1, tr. Wilhelm 1967:371: "each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony.")

The early Japanese texts above give three spellings of Yamato in kanji: (Kojiki), (Nihon Shoki), and (Man'yōshū). The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki use Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings of ya "night" or ya or ja (an interrogative sentence-final particle in Chinese), ma "hemp", and to "rise; mount" or do "fly; gallop". In contrast, the Man'yōshū uses Japanese kun'yomi readings of yama "mountain" and ato "track; trace". As noted further above, Old Japanese pronunciation rules caused yama ato to contract to yamato.

The early Chinese histories above give three transcriptions of Yamatai: (Wei Zhi), (Hou Han Shu), and (Sui Shu). The first syllable is consistently written with "a place name", which was used as a jiajie graphic-loan character for , an interrogative sentence-final particle, and for "evil; depraved". The second syllable is written with "horse" or "rub; friction". The third syllable of Yamatai is written in one variant with "faithful, committed", which is also financial form of , "one", and more commonly using "platform; terrace" (cf. Taiwan 臺灣) or "pile; heap". Concerning the transcriptional difference between the spelling in the Wei Zhi and the in the Hou Han Shu, Hong (1994:248-9) cites that was correct. Chen Shou, author of the ca. 297 Wei Zhi, was writing about recent history based on personal observations; Fan Ye, author of the ca. 432 Hou Han Shu, was writing about earlier events based on written sources. Hong says the San Guo Zhi uses ("one") 86 times and ("platform") 56 times, without confusing them.

<blockquote>During the Wei period, was one of their most sacred words, implying a religious-political sanctuary or the emperor's palace. The characters and mean "evil; depraved" and "horse", reflecting the contempt Chinese felt for a barbarian country, and it is most unlikely that Chen Shou would have used a sacred word after these two characters. It is equally unlikely that a copyist could have confused the characters, because in their old form they do not look nearly as similar as in their modern printed form. Yamadai was Fan Yeh's creation. (1994:249) </blockquote>

He additionally cites Furuta that the Wei Zhi, Hou Han Shu, and Xin Tang Shu histories use at least 10 Chinese characters to transcribe Japanese to, but is not one of them.

In historical Chinese phonology, the Modern Chinese pronunciations differ considerably from the original 3rd-7th century transcriptions from a transitional period between Archaic or Old Chinese and Ancient or Middle Chinese. The table below contrasts Modern pronunciations (in Pinyin) with differing reconstructions of Early Middle Chinese (Edwin G. Pulleyblank 1991), "Archaic" Chinese (Bernhard Karlgren 1957), and Middle Chinese (William H. Baxter 1992). Note that Karlgren's "Archaic" is equivalent with "Middle" Chinese, and his "yod" palatal approximant ' (which some browsers cannot display) is replaced with the customary IPA j.

<!-- Mandarin or contemporary Chinese pronunciations have no relations at all -->

{| class="wikitable"

|+Pronunciations

|colspan="1" | &nbsp;

|colspan="4" align="center" | Chinese pronunciations

|colspan="2" align="center" | ref: Japanese pronunciations

|-

| Characters (ja)

| Modern Chinese

| Middle Chinese

| Early Middle Chinese

| "Archaic" Chinese

| Old Japanese

| Modern Japanese

|-

| ()

| yémǎtái

| yæmæ<sup>X</sup>doj

| jiamaɨ'dəj

| jama:t'ḁ̂i

| yamatai ?

| yamatai

|-

| ()

| yémóduī

| yæmatwoj

| jiamatwəj

| jamuâtuḁ̂i

| ?

| yamatai

|-

|

| dàhé

| daj<sup>H</sup>hwa<sup>H</sup>

| daj<sup>h</sup>ɣwa<sup>h</sup>

| d'âiɣuâ

| ? (yamato<sub>2</sub>)

| dai-wa (yamato)

|}

Roy Andrew Miller describes the phonological gap between these Middle Chinese reconstructions and the Old Japanese Yamatö.

<blockquote>The Wei chih account of the Wo people is chiefly concerned with a kingdom which it calls Yeh-ma-t'ai, Middle Chinese i̯a-ma-t'ḁ̂i, which inevitably seems to be a transcription of some early linguistic form allied with the word Yamato. The phonology of this identification raises problems which after generations of study have yet to be settled. The final -ḁ̂i of the Middle Chinese form seems to be a transcription of some early form not otherwise recorded for the final -ö of Yamato. (1967:17-18) </blockquote>

While most scholars interpret as a transcription of pre-Old Japanese yamatai, Miyake (2003:41) cites Alexander Vovin that Late Old Chinese ʑ(h)a maaʳq dhəə represents a pre-Old Japanese form of Old Japanese yamato<sub>2</sub> (*yamatə). Tōdō Akiyasu reconstructs two pronunciations for – dai < Middle dǝi < Old *dǝg and yi < yiei < *d̥iǝg – and reads 邪馬臺 as Yamai.

The etymology of Yamato, like those of many Japanese words, remains uncertain. While scholars generally agree that Yama- signifies Japan's numerous yama "mountains", they disagree whether -to < -tö signifies "track; trace", "gate; door", "door", "city; capital", or perhaps "place". Bentley (2008) reconstructs underlying Wa's endonym *yama-tǝ(ɨ) as underlying the transcription 邪馬臺's pronunciation *ja-maˀ-dǝ > *-dǝɨ.

Location

thumb|right|240px|Proposed locations of [[Yamataikoku: Kyūshū and Kinai]]

thumb|right|190px|Map illustrating the path from the [[Daifang Commandery|Daifang to Yamatai, and its distances in the Wajinden.]]

:See Yamatai-koku Kinai theory and Yamatai-koku Kyushu theory

The location of Yamatai-koku is one of the most contentious topics in Japanese history. Generations of historians have debated "the Yamatai controversy" and have hypothesized numerous localities, some of which are fanciful like Okinawa (Farris 1998:245). General consensus centers around two likely locations of Yamatai, either northern Kyūshū or Yamato Province in the Kinai (Kinki) region of central Honshū. Imamura describes the controversy.

<blockquote>The question of whether the Yamatai Kingdom was located in northern Kyushu or central Kinki prompted the greatest debate over the ancient history of Japan. This debate originated from a puzzling account of the itinerary from Korea to Yamatai in Wei-shu. The northern Kyushu theory doubts the description of distance and the central Kinki theory the direction. This has been a continuing debate over the past 200 years, involving not only professional historians, archeologists and ethnologists, but also many amateurs, and thousands of books and papers have been published. (1996:188) </blockquote>

The location of ancient Yamatai-koku and its relation with the subsequent Kofun-era Yamato polity remains uncertain. In 1989, archeologists discovered a giant Yayoi-era complex at the Yoshinogari site in Saga Prefecture, which was thought to be a possible candidate for the location of Yamatai. Some scholars, most notably Seijo University historian Takehiko Yoshida, interpret Yoshinogari as evidence for the Kyūshū Theory for a reason of the site's scale and location which near Wei. On the other hand, many others support the Kinki Theory based on Yoshinogari clay vessels and the early development of Kofun, and the continuity of locations with the Yamato polity in the Kinki region. (Saeki 2006).

The recent archeological discovery of a large stilt house suggests that Yamatai-koku was located near Makimuku in Sakurai, Nara (Anno. 2009). Makimuku has also revealed wooden tools such as masks and a shield fragment. A large amount of pollen that would have been used to dye clothes was also found at the site of Makimuku. Clay pots and vases were also found at the site of Makimuku similar to ones found in other prefectures of Japan. Another site at Makimuku supporting the theory that Yamatai once existed there is, the possible burial site of Queen Himiko at the Hashihaka burial mound. Himiko was the ruler of Yamatai from c. 180 C.E.- c. 248 C.E.

  • Yamatai, depicted as an isolated island somewhere in the Pacific, is the setting of the 2013 video game Tomb Raider and its 2018 film adaptation. Queen Himiko is a key part of the plot.
  • Yamatai appears as a historical setting in the 1990s video game Legend of Himiko.
  • Yamatai and its queen Himiko are the main villains in the Steel Jeeg anime series.
  • Yamtaikoku is the setting of the 2020/22 limited time event of the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, prominently featuring Queen Himiko.
  • Yamatai and Himiko are central elements of the "Dawn" segment of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix manga.
  • Queen Himiko and the Yamatai Kingdom are the subjects of the song "Himiko" by Japanese EDM group Wednesday Campanella.

References

Sources

  • .
  • Aston, William G, tr. 1924. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697. 2 vols. Charles E Tuttle reprint 1972.
  • Baxter, William H. 1992. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Chamberlain, Basil Hall, tr. 1919. The Kojiki, Records of Ancient Matters. Charles E Tuttle reprint 1981.
  • Edwards, Walter. 1998. "Mirrors to Japanese History", Archeology 51.3.
  • Farris, William Wayne. 1998. Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures: Issues in the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan. University of Hawaii Press.
  • Hall, John Whitney. 1988. The Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 1, Ancient Japan. Cambridge University Press.
  • .
  • Hong, Wontack. 1994. Paekche of Korea and the Origin of Yamato Japan. Kudara International.
  • Imamura. Keiji. 1996. Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia. University of Hawaii Press.
  • Karlgren, Bernhard. 1957. Grammata Serica Recensa. Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
  • Kidder, Jonathan Edward. 2007. Himiko and Japan's Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai. University of Hawaii Press.
  • McCullough, Helen Craig. 1985. Brocade by Night: 'Kokin Wakashū' and the Court Style in Japanese Classical Poetry. Stanford University Press.
  • Miller, Roy Andrew. 1967. The Japanese Language. University of Chicago Press.
  • Miyake, Marc Hideo. 2003. Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction. Routledge Curzon.
  • Philippi, Donald L. (tr.) 1968. Kojiki. University of Tokyo Press.
  • Pulleyblank, EG. 1991. "Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin". UBC Press.
  • .
  • .
  • Wang Zhenping. 2005. Ambassadors from the Islands of Immortals: China-Japan Relations in the Han-Tang Period. University of Hawaii Press.
  • Hakkutsu sareta Nihon rett, 2010. Makimuku: were the huge buildings, neatly lined up, a palace? A discovery enlivens debate over the country Yamatai .