The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 1: Ancient Japan
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JOMON AND YAYOI PERIODS 277
mentioned in the
Wei
chih.
Materials discovered in 1899 in a burial urn
from a dolmen grave site include bronze swords, spears, halberds,
glass beads, and fragments of thirty-odd Han mirrors dating from the
middle to late Former Han.«
The Tateiwa site at Iizuka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, is rich in
objects imported from the continent and preserved in burial urns.
Though the site includes strata from the entire Yayoi age, its most
significant findings are from the middle period. There are thirty stor-
age pits containing carbonized cereal grains, indicating that Tateiwa
was the location of a farming village where both rice and millet were
grown. The village was also a center for the production and distribu-
tion of stone tools made from local materials. Iron agricultural tools
were produced there as well, and later, iron was forged and bronze
items cast. The village was clearly prosperous: Its chiefs had the eco-
nomic and political power to obtain the continental goods that have
been found in burial urns at the
site.
Moreover, the spread of continen-
tal articles to the environs of Tateiwa suggests that the village was the
nucleus for regional trade and development.^
Some thirty-nine burial urns, mostly from the later years of the
middle Yayoi period, were discovered at Tateiwa in the mid-1960s.
Significant findings include weapons of bronze and iron, iron wood-
working tools, and a set of tubular glass beads. The skeleton of a
young man was found in one of the urns. On his right forearm were
fourteen bracelets made of
gohoura
shells, a spiral conch shell common
to the south-seas region. Ten mirrors cast in the late Former Han were
also found at the site, six of them in a single urn. These findings
indicate that goods were exchanged with people of the south seas as
well as with the Chinese and the Koreans at Lo-lang.
Though the people interred in the urns at Tateiwa were not buried
as grandly as were the chiefs of the later Burial Mound period, the
quality of the grave goods suggests that they were powerful leaders.
For instance, one urn contains six especially fine mirrors. Three of
them are decorated with a pattern of concatenated arcs and the others
with concentric rings. Both types are inscribed with poems written in
Chinese characters - poems that the Yayoi people, still illiterate,
could not read. The poems include selections from the Ch'u tzu, a
33 Nakayama Heijiro, "Sugu Okamoto shutsudo no kyohen kenkyu," Kokogaku zasshi 18 and
19 (1928-29); Umehara Sueji, Sugu Okamoto
hakken
no kokyo ni tsuite, Chikuzen Sugu
shizen
iseki no kenkyu: Kyoto leikoku daigaku kokogaku kenkyu hokoku, 11 (Kyoto: Kyoto teikoku
daigaku, 1930).
34 Okazaki Takashi, "Ketsugo," in Tateiwa iseki, pp. 384-386, 400.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
278 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
collection compiled in the Former Han dynasty and enlarged in the
Later Han.35
The discovery of large numbers of Chinese mirrors at middle Yayoi
burial sites in northern Kyushu indicates that mirrors functioned as
symbols of political and religious authority. This contention is sup-
ported by the way in which mirrors were buried and by evidence
found in Japanese folklore.
The inclusion of a large number of mirrors in a single burial urn
was peculiar to northern Kyushu in the Yayoi period. Mirrors were
not generally used as grave goods at this time in other regions of
Japan, even in the Kinai, where the practice became common in the
Burial Mound age.
36
Nor does the northern Kyushu practice parallel
that of the Korean peninsula. Though mirrors have been found at
Lo-lang, none are from the Former Han, and seldom was more than
one mirror found in a single Lo-lang burial plot. By contrast, one urn
at Tateiwa contained six Former Han mirrors, and more than thirty
apiece have been found in single urns at Sugu Okamoto and at
Mikumo. This suggests that the people buried in the urns were
community leaders whose political authority was symbolized by the
large number of imported mirrors that they had obtained and had
taken to their graves.
37
Mirrors such as those found at Tateiwa were probably used in sha-
manistic ritual.
38
Legends recorded in the eighth-century Japanese
chronicles Kojiki and Nihon shoki point to the ritual importance of
mirrors in shamanistic sun worship. When Amaterasu, the kami
(deity) of the sun, shut herself up in a dark cave and refused to show
her face, a mirror was used to lure her out.
3
? In a later Nihon shoki
episode, Amaterasu declared the mirror to be a symbol of
herself.*
0
Moreover, some of the clay images
(haniwa)
found at Burial Mound
grave sites include representations of shamans holding mirrors. Be-
cause the leaders of
Yayoi
communities derived their authority in part
from their shamanistic role, the mirrors found at northern Kyushu
35 Mekada Makoto, trans., Shih ching: Ch'u tz'u, vol. 15 of Chugoku koten bungaku taikei
(Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1969).
36 Tanaka Migaku, Kokyo, No. 178 of
Nihon
no
bijutsu
(Tokyo, Shibundo, 1981), p. 18.
37 Okazaki, "Ketsugo," p. 396. 38 Tanaka, Kokyo, p. 18.
39 Nihon shoki, bk. 1 of Sakamoto Taro, Ienaga Saburo, Inoue Mitsusada, and Ono Susumu,
eds.,
Nihon koten bungaku taikei (hereafter cited as NKBT) (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1967),
vol. 67, pp. 112-17; trans. W. G. Aston, Nihongi:
Chronicles
of Japan from
the
Earliest
Times
to
A.D.
697 (hereafter cited as Aston) (London: Allen & Unwin, 1956), pt. 1, pp. 43-49; Kojiki,
NKBT 1.80-81, trans. Donald L. Philippi, Kojiki (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press,
and Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1969), pp. 83-85.
40 Nihon shoki, bk. 2, NKBT 67.152-3; Aston, 1.83.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
JOMON AND YAYOI PERIODS 279
gravesites probably symbolized that authority, as well as the wealth
sufficient to obtain foreign goods.
Like mirrors, bronze weapons also had ritual value. Several Nihon
shoki
tales emphasize the sacred character of spears. When the kami
Izanagi and Izanami thrust their "jewel-spear of heaven" into the
ocean, the brine that fell from its tip formed the islands of Japan.-*
1
Amaterasu's grandson, dispatched from heaven to Japan, also was
given a spear to "rule the land" and to "subdue it to tranquillity.
"4
2
The sizes and shapes of spears cast in middle Yayoi Japan, moreover,
suggest that they had a ritual function. These, in contrast with the
small spears imported from Korea in the early Yayoi period, ranged in
length from fifty to ninety centimeters, too large and unwieldly for
combat. Some were placed in graves as ritual objects that symbolized
authority and power, but the longest were buried elsewhere, as if for
some religious purpose.«
The findings at Tateiwa indicate that as the Yayoi period pro-
gressed, iron articles began to replace both bronze weapons, no
longer very functional, and common stone weapons and tools. This
development raises two questions: When were iron goods first manu-
factured in Japan, and where did the material come from - from
imported ingots or from Japanese materials?** Some of the iron arti-
cles found at Tateiwa, such as ring-handled knives and daggers, were
apparently imported from Lo-lang. But long halberds, some more
than fifty centimeters, have no continental prototypes, suggesting
that they were made in Japan, perhaps from imported ingots. In
other words, the manufacture of iron articles may have begun in the
middle Yayoi period. The blacksmiths, like the later artists and tech-
nicians who played such an important role in seventh- and eighth-
century Japan, may have been immigrants from the continent.«
Other findings at northern Kyushu sites indicate that the Yayoi Japa-
neses first imported continental goods and then used imported materi-
als to make their own copies. For instance, both continental and
native glass products have been found at Tateiwa, Sugu Okamoto,
and Mikumo. Native products were probably first made in the mid-
dle Yayoi period, using recycled glass, that is, broken objects melted
41 Nihon shoki, bk. 1, NKBT 67.80-81; Aston, 1.11.
42 Nihon shoki, bk. 2, NKBT 67.140-41; Aston, 1.69. Also see Mizuno Seiichi, Higuchi
Takayasu, and Okazaki Takashi, Tsushima, Genkai ni
okeru
zettd:
Tsushima
no kokogaku-teki
chosa, vol. 6 of
Toho kokogaku
sokan
otsu shu
(Tokyo: Toa kokogakkai, 1953), p. 28.
43 Tateiwa iseki, Charts 2 and 3 following p. 192; Okazaki, "Ketsugo," p. 392.
44 Ibid., p. 392. 45 Ibid., p. 393.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
28O JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
down and reused.
46
The manufacture of iron articles may have a
similar history.
The Tateiwa community was probably supported first by the grow-
ing of rice and millet, later by the maufacture and distribution of stone
tools,
and later still, by the forging of iron implements and the casting
of
bronzes.
The leaders of Tateiwa - and other communitites like it in
northern Kyushu - maintained contacts with Lo-lang in order to ob-
tain valuables such as mirrors, which they used as symbols of their
authority. Thus it seems that community leaders had mustered consid-
erable wealth and political power: enough, perhaps, to extend their
authority over small regions the size of a present-day district.
4
? The
process of political consolidation, based in part on the control of conti-
nental imports and technology, led to the formation of the petty states
that characterized the late Yayoi period.
Late Yayoi: diplomatic exchanges with China
By the first century
A.D.,
the small states of northern Kyushu had
begun to establish diplomatic contacts with China. The increased
trade that resulted stimulated the flow of goods and technology to
those already in power. In addition, rulers who were recognized by the
Chinese court rose in authority and stature among their own people.
Thus foreign relations played an important part in stabilizing the
political situation in
Yayoi
Japan and contributed to the further consoli-
dation of political power.
Diplomatic contacts between the Yayoi states and the Chinese court
are recorded in Chinese sources and substantiated by archaeological
findings. According to an item dated
A.D.
57 in the
Hou
Han
shu
(The
history of the Later Han, written about 445), Emperor Kuang-wu
presented a seal and a ribbon to the ruler of the Wa state of Na,
thought to have been located near present Fukuoka City.
48
In 1784 a
gold seal, inscribed with the motto "the king of Na of
Wa
of Han," was
discovered underneath a boulder at Shikanoshima in Fukuoka.
4
' The
46 Ibid.
47
Ibid.,
p. 400.
48 "[Representatives
of] the
country
of Na in Wa
brought tribute
to the
court
in the
Chien-wu
era
(A.D.
25-55)
and the
second year
of
the Chung-yuan
era
(A.D.
57).
The
messengers called
themselves ta-fu
[a
title indicating
a
middle-ranking official]. [They came from]
the
extreme
southern
sea
[coast]
of
Wa." See
Fan
Yeh, Hou
Han
shu
(Peking: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1955),
vol.
85,
p.
2821.
49 Kamei Nammei, "Kin'in
no ben," in
Kin'in iseki chosadan, Shikanoshima (Fukuoka:
Fukuoka shiyakusho, 1975).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
JOMON AND YAYOI PERIODS 28l
seal, with a knob in the form of a serpent, is nearly square and mea-
sures about 2.35 centimeters across.'
0
There is strong evidence of this seal's authenticity. When measured
with a ruler from the beginning of the Later Han dynasty, the surface
of the seal is just about one ts'un square - in other words, a standard
linear unit in the Chinese measuring system of that
time.
*»
The inscrip-
tion on the seal corresponds to that on seals given to the rulers of other
independent states.*
2
Although the serpent-shaped knob is rather un-
usual, seals with similar knobs were presented to "barbarian" states
south of China in the Han, Wei, and Chin dynasties.
53
According to the Hou Han
shu,
the seal and ribbon were presented
to the delegation from Na in return for tribute offered to the court.
That is, the Chinese regarded Na as a tributary state. In the official
Chinese view, states outside the Chinese empire owed homage to the
emperor, and if they sought to establish diplomatic relations with the
court, they had to do so as tributaries, not as sovereign states. The
exchange of goods and delegations was seen in this light: Foreign
states offered tribute to the Chinese court in return for gifts and for
recognition of the legitimacy of
the
foreign ruler and of the state
itself.
Thus the Chinese empire obtained foreign goods without compromis-
ing its view of itself as superior and self-sufficient. Foreign rulers, on
the other hand, obtained valuable Chinese objects that could be used
as symbols of power or distributed among followers as inducements or
rewards. In addition, recognition by the great Chinese empire un-
doubtedly bolstered a ruler's legitimacy and strengthened his claims to
hegemony over neighboring territory.
The gold seal was probably not the Chinese emperor's only gift to
the king of Na, who no doubt received bronze mirrors and other
valuable articles as well. In fact, the northern Kyushu sites have
yielded quite a few mirrors dating from the Wang Mang interregnum
and the beginning of Later Han.
According to records dated between 1781 and 1789, a number of
such mirrors were found at the Ihara site at Maebara, Itoshima Dis-
trict, Fukuoka Prefecture. The mirrors and several swords were dis-
covered in a jar thought to have been a burial urn.s* Rubbings of the
mirrors reveal that all were cast in the same pattern: Raised borders
marked off a square surrounding a single knob, and images of four
mythological beasts (the deities of the four directions: the azure
50 Okazaki Takashi," 'Han Wa Nakoku 6' kin'in no sokutei,"
Shien
ioo (January 1968): 90-99.
51 Ibid. 52 Ibid., p. 272. 53 Ibid., p. 271. 54 Aoyagi and Kashima, Ryuen hoki ryuko.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
282 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
dragon, the white tiger, the red sparrow, and the tortoise with a ser-
pent wound around it) were arranged around the square. The
eighteenth-century records note that the swords, made of iron, had
been badly damaged by rust and that three
magatama
also were discov-
ered at the site.
Additional Chinese mirrors made in the same periods have been
unearthed, along with other late Yayoi articles, at the Sakura no Baba
site (Karatsu, Saga Prefecture). A coffin made from two burial urns
joined at the mouth contained twenty-six barbed bronze bracelets,
three comma-shaped bronze ornaments, small jewels, a fragment of an
iron sword, and two mirrors.
55
On both mirrors, raised lines mark off
a square surrounding a central knob; one of the mirrors is also deco-
rated with patterns of floating clouds and images of the four direc-
tional deities. The designs indicate that the mirrors were imported
from China in or about the first century
A.D.
The ornaments, however,
were probably made in Japan. The bracelets were modeled on orna-
ments made from
gohoura
shells,
and the comma-shaped articles resem-
ble the
suijigai,
another south-seas shellfish. The only weapon is the
iron sword; there are no bronze swords or spears.*
6
The findings at Shikanoshima, Ihara, and Sakura no Baba mark the
beginning of the late Yayoi period. Artifacts such as the gold seal and
Later Han mirrors allow us to surmise that the period began sometime
between the latter half of the first century A.D., when the seal was
presented to the king of Na, and the early years of the second cen-
tury. 57 During these years, the Japanese manufactured most of their
own bronzes, and except for mirrors, bronze imports were rare. Tools
were commonly made of iron, and weapons made of iron began to
replace those of
stone,
first in northern Kyushu and then elsewhere in
Japan. Political leaders consolidated their control over substantial terri-
tory and represented themselves as "kings" to foreign observers. The
states of "Wa" became part of the Chinese tribute system of trade and
diplomatic relations.
This discussion of continental influence during the Jomon and
Yayoi periods has been based largely on the results of archaeological
investigations at northern Kyushu sites. The rich store of continental
imports from the early and middle Yayoi periods has come primarily
55 Haraguchi Shozo, "Saga-ken Sakura no Baba iseki," in Nihon kokogaku kyokai, Nikon noko
bunka no
seisei
(Tokyo: Tokyodo, i960), vol. 1.
56 Okazaki, "Nihon kokogaku no hoho," p. 38.
57 For a discussion of the Later Han mirrors found at Tateiwa, see Okazaki Takashi, "Kagami to
sono nendai," in Tateiwa iseki, pp. 336-49.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE "COUNTRY" OF YAMATAI 283
from northern Kyushu; there are few Han mirrors, for example, at
contemporary sites in the Kinai. Eventually, however, continental in-
fluence began to spread northward: Late Yayoi sites in the Kinai have
yielded an abundance of Chinese mirrors or their Japanese imitations.
Other items, such as bracelets made of south-seas shells or their
bronze and stone replicas, were also carried to the Kinai, and in the
Burial Mound period, such items were transmitted as far as the Kantd
region of eastern Japan.
THE "COUNTRY" OF YAMATAI IN THE LATE YAYOI
PERIOD
According to Chinese records compiled in the late third century, Japan
(the land of
Wa)
was composed of a number of small states, thirty of
which maintained relations with the Chinese court. One of these
states,
Yamatai, maintained hegemony over its neighbors. Yamatai and
other "Wa" states are described in detail in the
Wei
chih,
compiled by
Ch'en Shou-yii (233-97) as part of the San-kuo
chih
(History of the
Three Kingdoms).
58
The
Wei chih
account of the Wa people appears in
a chapter on "eastern barbarian" peoples that also describes the Puyo
of northern Manchuria, the eastern Okcho of northeast Korea, and the
Samhan (three Han tribes: the Mahan, Pyonhan, and Chinhan) of
southern Korea. The chapter provides valuable data on the political
organizations, social systems, and customs of these people.
In his introduction to the chapter, Ch'en Shou-yii explained that the
Chinese sometimes dispatched embassies, accompanied by interpret-
ers,
to countries to the east. His source for his description of Yamatai
and its neighbors was the report of such an embassy. The Wei chih
account also describes tributary missions from Wa to the Wei court.
Though several of Yamatai's subordinate states have been located,
no general agreement has been reached on the location of Yamatai
itself.5
9
Scholars have spent much time and effort on this question, as a
satisfactory answer would help determine how far the third-century
Japanese had progressed in the process of political consolidation that
58 Ch'en Shou-yii, San-kuo chih, vol. 30, pp. 854-8, trans. Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan in
the
Chinese
Dynastic
Histories,
pp. 8-20. Also see Ikeuchi Hiroshi, Man-Sen shi
kenkyu,
josei
hen
(Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1951); Inoue Hideo, Kodai Chosen (Tokyo: Ninon hoso
shuppan kyokai, 1972); Yi Pyong-su,
Han'guk
kodaesa, trans. Kim Sa-yop, Kankoku kodaishi,
2 vols. (Tokyo: Rokkd shuppan, 1979).
59 Since the end of the Edo period, many theories have been advanced concerning the Wei
account of the Wa people and Yamatai. Leading theories are summarized in Saeki Yusei,
Yamatai koku kihon
ronbunshu,
vol.
1
of
Sogen gakujutsu sosho
(Osaka: Sogensha, I98i);andin
Mishina Shoei, Yamatai koku
kenkyu soran
(Osaka: Sogensha, 1970).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
284 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
preceded the formation of a unified Japanese state. The two regions
favored for the location of Yamatai are the Kinai, where Japan's cen-
tral government was finally established, and northern Kyushu, the
most advanced region in the early and middle Yayoi periods and the
closest to the Asian continent.
[Translator's
note:
Recent archaeological findings at the northeastern
Kyushu site of Yoshinogari, located in the town of Kanzaki in Saga
Prefecture, conform in several important ways to details of the Wei
chih
account. Some scholars have concluded, therefore, that Yoshino-
gari is probably the nucleus of
one
of the "countries" that the Chinese
mentioned. Until the excavation at Yoshinogari, the largest-known
Yayoi villages were in the Kinai region; indeed, the absence of Kyushu
sites analogous to the Kinai sites was one of
the
Kyushu theory's main
weaknesses. The village and its adjacent burial mound occupy an area
of more than twenty-five hectares, making Yoshinogari the largest
Yayoi community discovered so far and thereby eliminating one draw-
back of the Kyushu theory. In addition, archaeologists have found the
first physical evidence to corroborate certain details in the Wei chih
account: postholes that seem to be those of
a
stockade and two watch-
towers, perhaps like the ones that appear in the description of the
compound of Yamatai's ruler.
The village was probably established at the end of the early Yayoi
period and then inhabited continuously throughout Yayoi times. The
importance of the community is indicated by the number of
its
dwell-
ings,
its large collection of stoutly constructed storehouses, and its
perimeter defenses: the aforementioned stockade and an outer moat
that surrounded the village and burial mound. By early 1989, when
the preliminary reports were issued, archaeologists had discovered
remains of some 350 dwellings, including 280 late-Yayoi pit dwellings;
the village may have included as many as 100 dwellings at a single
time.
Other findings include 50 storage pits; 60 raised-floor store-
houses from the late Yayoi period; 2,350 graves, including 2,000 urn
burials; and numerous pottery utensils and items made of stone, glass,
shell, bronze, and iron. The extension of the outer moat to its final
length of one kilometer - and thus the expansion of area under the
control of
village
chieftains - probably took place in the second half of
the middle Yayoi period. A double inner moat enclosing the central
portion of the village is thought to date from the late Yayoi age.
Archaeological findings indicate that the community was prosper-
ous and technologically advanced, especially in the middle and late
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE "COUNTRY" OF YAMATAI 285
Yayoi periods. Items discovered in these strata include bronze swords,
fragments of Later Han and Japanese mirrors, glass beads, and two
molds for casting bronzes. The product of one is uncertain, but the
other was used to manufacture a shield ornament with hooked projec-
tions
(totnoe)
surrounding a circular center. Examples of this orna-
ment, peculiar to Japan, have been found in Kyushu, Shikoku, and
the Kinai region, but until the Yoshinogari discovery, no mold for the
item had been found. The community at Yoshinogari, in other words,
had obtained prestigious items manufactured abroad and had learned
the continental techniques to produce such items for themselves. The
excavation of the moat and the reclamation of hilly land for rice fields
also demanded advanced engineering skills, and the burial mound, a
two-tiered structure dating from the middle Yayoi period, was made
with sophisticated construction techniques surprising for the time.
The burials in the mound indicate the development of a stratified
society and strong local leadership. The main occupant of the mound,
interred in a large urn found near the center of the upper tier, was no
doubt a powerful village chieftain, possibly the community's "first
ancestor." Three other urns in the upper tier are pointed so that their
occupants faced the central urn, suggesting the importance of the
person buried in it. Special rituals honoring dead chieftains may have
been performed at a center just south of the mound, marked off by a
shallow ditch and two structures perhaps similar to the
torii
at Shinto
shrines. The mound itself
is
approached by a path lined on either side
by burial urns, perhaps those of the chieftains' retainers. The tidy
arrangement of many of the graves and their apparent relationship to
the mound and its central occupant point to a considerable degree of
regulatory power on the part of community leaders.
At the edge of the graveyard are several pits containing fragments of
pottery utensils, probably ritual funeral vessels. Grave goods in the
burial urns include beads of various shapes, items of bronze and iron,
and bracelets made of
imogai
and
gohoura
shells, an indication of com-
merce with people of the south seas, where these shellfish can be
found. Perhaps the most interesting grave goods were found in one of
the urns in the upper tier of the mound: a bronze sword with a slender
blade and a transverse handle, and tubular glass beads of a startling
blue color, including two over 6.5 centimeters in length, the largest yet
discovered at a Yayoi site. The inside of the urn is colored red with
cinnabar, no doubt an expensive item for the time, and the sword and
the beads are unusual objects for this period, indicating the high status
of the occupant of the urn.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
286 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
Discoveries at Yoshinogari provide evidence of the warfare that of-
ten accompanies the development of agricultural societies. The size of
the moat (6.5 meters deep and 3 meters wide) and the existence of the
stockade and watchtowers indicate that the community was sometimes
under siege, threatened perhaps by warfare as mentioned in the Wei
chih
account. Among the skeletons in the burial urns are one without a
head, one with a broken thighbone, and one whose body was appar-
ently pierced by a dozen arrows: all indications of violent death, possi-
bly in battle.
Until the Yoshinogari site has been completely investigated, scholars
will be unable to assess fully its importance to the Yamatai question.
Other conclusions are more certain, however. As Mori Koichi ob-
served, scholars examining the routes of transmission of continental
culture must now pay more attention to the Ariake coastal region,
where Yoshinogari is located. In particular, the Yayoi Japanese of that
region may have been in direct contact with the people of Jiangnan in
east central China. More generally, the community at Yoshinogari was
certainly an important center of wealth, power, and the absorption of
continental culture in late Yayoi times.]
Scholars have based their arguments (regarding the location of Yama-
tai) on texts of the
Wei chih
printed in the twelfth century.
60
Although
these printed texts are probably accurate copies of the handwritten
manuscripts that preceded them, the manuscripts themselves may
have contained a number of copying errors that are causing problems
in regard to the Yamatai question. For instance, it has been argued
that the name of the country the Chinese visited should be pronounced
Yamaichi, not Yamatai; in that case, the name could refer neither to
Yamato in the Kinai nor to Yamato in Kyushu, two major candidates
for Yamatai.
In order to locate Yamatai accurately, we cannot rely solely on the
information in Chinese texts and on the comparison of place names in
these texts with place names known in Japan. The reason is that by
doing so, scholars have come up with more than ten candidates for
Yamatai in Kyushu alone. On the other hand, archaeological findings
cannot yet furnish a definite answer either.
61
Even so, the Wei chih
account provides valuable information about the lives of people in the
60 The San-kuo chih first appeared in print between iooo and 1002. The oldest extant printed
texts date, however, from the twelfth century: One dates between 1131 and 1162 and the
other, held by the Imperial Household Agency, from 1190 to 1194.
61 Okazaki, "Nihon kokogaku no hoho," p. 39.
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