The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 1: Ancient Japan
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THE "COUNTRY" OF YAMATAI 287
late Yayoi period, information that can be corroborated by archaeologi-
cal findings.
The visit to "Wa" took place after the Chinese, temporarily ousted
from the Liao-tung and Korean peninsulas, sought to reestablish their
control over these important border regions. The political complexion
of the Korean peninsula had changed considerably since the Former
Han established colonies there in 109 B.C. During the following 250
years,
the Chinese dominated the Koreans, either controlling them
directly through the Lo-lang administrative structure or indirectly
through the tributary system. During the reign of the Later Han
emperor Huan
(A.D.
147-89), however, the Chinese grip on Lo-lang
weakened, and the Samhan and Ye tribes of southern Korea freed
themselves temporarily from Chinese domination. These changes
were due not only to a decline in Chinese power but also to advances
made by the Koreans themselves, as they moved from a stone to an
iron age.
In the last years of the Later Han, the empire lost de facto control of
the Liao-tung peninsula in southern Manchuria to the Kung-sun, a
family of military commanders who extended their control to the Lo-
lang area and set up an outpost south of Lo-lang at Tai-fang (K:
Taebang), bordering the area controlled by the Samhan and Ye. The
Later Han empire collapsed in 220, and China was split into three
kingdoms: the Wei in the north, the Wu in the southeast, and the Shu
Han in the west. During the 230s, Wei armies invaded Liao-tung,
Manchuria, and northern Korea, establishing administrative struc-
tures in Liao-tung and at Lo-lang and Tai-fang. The third-century
Chinese thus had the opportunity - and the motivation - to reestab-
lish contacts with the peoples at the far eastern edge of Asia.
Though the Japanese (the Wa) did not occupy lands bordering Wei
territory, they were close enough to come within the Wei's purview.
Chinese relations with the Wa were established through the Tai-fang
commandery and conducted under the tributary system just de-
scribed. The Wa obtained valuables such as textiles and bronze mir-
rors from the Chinese, and the positions of Wa rulers were legitimized
by the Chinese court's recognition.
The Wei chih section on the Wa - far more detailed than the one
appearing in Former Han records - begins with an account of the visit
of
a
Chinese delegation to some of the "countries" of
Wa,
which owed
allegiance to a queen whose capital was located at Yamatai.
62
For some
62 Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories, pp. 8-20.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
288 JAPAN
AND THE
CONTINENT
seventy or eighty years, the Wa countries had been at war with one
another, but peace was finally established when the queen, an unmar-
ried shaman named Himiko, took control of the entire region. In the
year 238 she sent a delegation to Tai-fang to request an audience at
court in Lo-yang, the Wei capital. The Wei emperor Ming issued the
following edict in the twelfth month of that year (early in 239, by
Western reckonings):
Herein
we
address Himiko, queen
of Wa,
whom
we now
officially call
a
friend
of
Wei.
The
governor
of
Tai-fang,
Liu
Hsia,
has
sent
a
messenger
to
accompany your vassal, Nanshdmai,
and his
lieutenant, Toshi Gyuri. They
have arrived here with your tribute, consisting
of
four male slaves
and six
female slaves, together with two pieces of patterned cloth, each twenty feet in
length.
You
live very
far
away across
the
sea;
yet you
have sent
an
embassy
with tribute. Your loyalty
and
filial piety
we
appreciate exceedingly.
We
confer upon
you,
therefore,
the
title
of
"queen
of Wa
friendly
to Wei,"
together with
the
decoration
of
the gold seal with purple ribbon. The latter,
properly encased,
is
to be sent to you through die governor.
We
expect you,
O
Queen,
to
rule your people
in
peace
and to
endeavor
to be
devoted
and
obedient.
Your ambassadors, Nanshomai
and
Gyuri,
who
have come from afar,
must have
had a
long
and
fatiguing journey.
We
have, therefore, given
to
Nanshomai
an
appointment as lieutenant colonel
in die
imperial guard,
and
to Gyuri
an
appointment
as
commandant
in the
imperial guard.
We
also
bestow upon them
the
decoration
of die
silver seal with blue ribbon.
We
have granted them audience
in
appreciation
of
their visit, before sending
them home with gifts.
The
gifts
are
these: five pieces
of
crimson brocade
with dragon designs,
ten
pieces
of
crimson tapestry with dappled pattern,
fifty lengths
of
bluish
red
fabric,
and
fifty
lengths
of
dark blue fabric. These
are
in
return
for
what
you
sent
as
tribute.
As a
special gift,
we
bestow upon
you three pieces
of
blue brocade with interwoven characters, five pieces
of
tapestry with delicate floral designs, fifty lengths
of
white silk, eight taels
of
gold,
two
swords five feet long,
one
hundred bronze mirrors,
and
fifty
catties each
of
jade
and of
red beads. All these things are sealed
in
boxes and
entrusted
to
Nanshdmai and Gyuri. When they arrive
and you
acknowledge
their receipt,
you
may exhibit them
to
your countrymen
in
order
to
demon-
strate diat
our
country thinks
so
much
of
you
as to
bestow such exquisite
gifts upon you.
6
^
Several diplomatic exchanges followed. In 240 a Wei representa-
tive,
dispatched from the Tai-fang commandery, presented the queen
with an imperial rescript and a seal with a ribbon, along with gifts of
gold brocade, tapestry, swords, and mirrors. Three years later an
eight-member Wa delegation to Wei presented the emperor with
63 San-kuo chih 30,
p.
857; trans. Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan
in
the Chinese Dynastic Histories,
pp.
14-15, with minor editing changes.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE "COUNTRY" OF YAMATAI 289
slaves, native brocade, red and blue silk, a fabric robe, cloth,
cinnabar, and a wooden bow with short arrows. In 245, the Wei court
awarded Nanshomai a yellow pennant, to be presented from the Tai-
fang commandery.
6
'*
The next report on the diplomatic relations between
Wa
and the Wei
court concerns the Wei's mediation in a dispute between two rival Wa
states.
Himiko, at odds with the king of Kunu, had sent an envoy to
the prefect of Tai-fang to ask for Chinese support. The government at
Tai-fang issued a proclamation "advising reconciliation."
6
' The procla-
mation was carried to Wa by Chang Cheng, an officer of the Wei
border guard who apparently stayed in Wa for a number of years
afterwards, possibly as a political or military adviser.
66
When Himiko
died, the
Wei chih
reports, a man was appointed as her successor, but
he could not keep order and was replaced by a thirteen-year-old girl,
no doubt a shaman like Himiko. As representative of the Wei court,
Chang Cheng recognized the girl as the ruler, and she renewed tribu-
tary relations with the court, offering gifts of slaves, pearls, jade
magatama,
and brocade.
6
? The
Wei chih
account of diplomatic relations
between Wa and Wei ends with this episode.
Archaeological findings and textual studies attest to the accuracy of
the Wei chih account of diplomatic relations between Wa and Wei.
According to Oba Osamu, the imperial edict issued to Himiko by the
Wei emperor Ming follows the standard form set during the Han
dynasty for edicts of this type.
68
The phraseology used in Himiko's
investiture appears in other sources: an edict issued by the Emperor
Ming in 229, investing the ruler of
the
Central Asian state of Kushana,
and seals granted by the Western Chin court to the rulers of the
Tibetan peoples Ti and
Ch'iang.
6
*
The title given to Nanshomai, more-
over, also appears in the inscription of a silver seal with
a
Western Chin
dynasty date. The seal was discovered in Inner Mongolia, along with
two gold seals from the same period. The Western Chin court proba-
64 San-kuo
chih
30, p. 857; trans. Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan in
the Chinese Dynastic
Histories,
p.
15.
65 San-kuo chih 30, pp. 857-8; trans. Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan in the Chinese Dynastic
Histories, pp. 15-16.
66 Okazaki Takashi, "Sanseiki yori nanaseiki no tairiku ni okeru kokusai kankei to Nihon:
kinenmei o motsu kokogaku gakuteki shiryo o chushin to shite," in Kondo Yoshiro and
Fujisawa Choji, eds., Kofun jidai, vol. 4 of Nihon no kokogaku (Tokyo: Kawade shobo
shinsha, 1966), 1.615.
67 San-kuo
chih
30, p. 858; trans. Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan in
the Chinese Dynastic
Histories,
p.
16.
68 Oba Osamu, Shin Gi Wa 0 (Tokyo: Gakuseisha, 1971).
69 Enoki Kazuo, Yamatai koku, Nihon
rekishi shinsho
(Tokyo: Shibundo, 1973). Just where the
seals were found is unknown.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
290 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
bly had possession of the Wei emperor Ming's edict and copied its
phrases directly.
70
The silken goods mentioned in the decree are similar to those
found at grave sites in the Uighur cities of Loulan and Niya (in
present-day Sinkiang Province, China) and at the Astana site in
Turfan.
71
Only a few silken fibers have been found at Japanese sites,
but this is not surprising, as silk is very hard to preserve in a humid
climate such as Japan's. On the other hand, bronze mirrors keep very
well, and many mirrors - some perhaps the very ones given to
Himiko - have been found at Yayoi sites. So far, five mirrors bearing
Wei dynasty dates have been discovered at Japanese sites. As I will
explain later, these dated mirrors may have a bearing on the location
of Yamatai.
Although the location of Yamatai is still a matter of dispute, some of
the places that the Chinese visited early in their journey have definitely
been identified: The distances and directions cited seem to be accurate,
and the place names given in the text often resemble present-day place
names. The
Wei chih
account reports that
the
Wa occupied mountainous
islands to the southeast of
the
Tai-fang commandery. Beginning at Tai-
fang, the Chinese sailed along the west coast of the Korean peninsula,
passing various Korean "countries," and then turned southeast along
the coast of Kou-ya-han, more than seven thousand li from Tai-fang.
72
(Kou-ya-han is thought to have been the Kimhae region of southeastern
Korea, an area that borders the Naktong River in South Kyongsang
Province.) From there the Chinese crossed
a
three
thousand-/!
stretch
of
ocean, passing the islands of Tsushima and Iki. Finally they arrived at
Matsuro, which probably corresponds to the Matsuura District of
northern Kyushu. An overland trip of five hundred li to the southeast
brought the envoys to the country of Ito, probably the vicinity of the
Yayoi period sites of Mikumo and Ihara.
According to the Wei chih, Ito was governed by hereditary kings
subordinate to the "queen country" of
Yamatai,
Himiko's domain. Ito
was a way station along the route between Wa and Korea:
70 Okazaki Takashi, (Zusetsu) Chugoku
no
rekishi
3: Gi
Shin Nanbokucho
no
sekai (Tokyo:
Kodansha, 1977);
Li
I-yii, "Nei Meng-ku ch'u-t'u ku-tai kuang-yin te hsin
tsu-Iiao"
(Peking:
Wen-wu ch'u-pan
she,
1961),
p. 9; and Li
I-y\i,
"Nei
Meng-ku
ch'u t'u
wen-wu kung-tso-
tui,"
Nei
Meng-ku ch'u
t'u
wen-wu hsiian-chi
(Peking: Wen-wu ch'u-pan she, 1963).
71 "Hsin-chiang Wei-wu-erh Tzu-chih
ch'u
Po-wu-kuan," Ssu-ch'ou chih
lu,
trans,
in
Okazaki
Takashi,
Kan
To no
senshoku
-
shiruku rodo
no
shinshutsudohin
(Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1973).
72
In
1975, accompanied
by
Professors Inoue Mitsusada, Hirano Kunio, Otomasa Shigetaka,
and Kadokawa Harutoshi,
I
crossed the Tsushima Strait from Pusan
to
northern Kyushu
in a
wooden boat
of the
type that
the
third-century Chinese envoys
to
Japan might have used.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE "COUNTRY" OF YAMATAI 291
When the ruler sends envoys to visit the Chinese capital, or when the Tai-fang
prefecture or the various Han [Korean] countries or prefects send envoys to
die Wa country, diey are all made to stop at die port for inspection, so diat
messages and gifts to die queen may reach her without mishap.73
Two officials responsible to Himiko were stationed at Ito: a governor
and an inspector whose responsibility was to watch over the provinces
north of Yamatai and to keep them properly respectful of the queen.
The governor was probably someone skilled in dealing with Chinese
visitors - perhaps it was even Nanshomai or one of the men who had
accompanied him on embassies to Lo-yang or Tai-fang.
One hundred li to the southeast of Ito lay the country of Na. Ar-
chaeological research and a comparison of ancient and modern place
names indicate that Na can be identified with an area of the present
Fukuoka City. The Chinese had made contact with the people of Na
some two hundred years earlier: It was the king of Na who had been
given a gold seal in
A.D.
57 by the Later Han emperor, a seal thought
to be the one discovered at Shikanoshima in Fukuoka. Traces of the
name Na appear in the ancient place name Nanotsu and in the name of
the Naka River that flows through the Fukuoka flatlands. From Na
the Wei envoys journeyed one hundred li to the east until they reached
the country of Fumi. From this point in the journey, it is difficult to
identify the place names mentioned. The envoys took twenty days,
according to the account, to cross the ocean from Fumi to Toma, the
next destination, and the journey between Toma and Yamatai took ten
days by sea and another month overland.
Some of the
Wei chili's
information on Wa daily life can be corrobo-
rated by archaeological findings. According to the account, Wa crops
included rice, hemp, and mulberry trees. We know that rice was
grown in Japan from the end of the Jomon period, and scraps of hemp
cloth have been found at a middle Yayoi period site in Fukuoka Prefec-
ture.^
Mulberry trees were grown to provide food for silkworms, and
it seems that the Wa were technically advanced enough to weave some
of their own silks, as native brocade was listed among the gifts to Wei
in 243.75 The weapons cited in the Chinese account include spears,
shields, and short wooden bows that used arrows tipped with bone and
iron, implements that have been found at Yayoi sites. Stone arrow-
73 Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan in the
Chinese
Dynastic
Histories,
pp. 12—13.
74 Wajinden no michi kenkyukai and Minamoto Kodo,
Maboroshi
nojoo Himiko: Yamatai
koku e
no
michi:
kodai Nihon no nazo to roman (Fukuoka: Asahi shimbun seibu honsha kikakubu,
1980),
p. 101.
75 Okazaki, "Sanseiki yori nanaseiki no tairiku ni okeru kokusai kankei to Nihon," p. 616.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
292 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
heads were not mentioned by the Chinese, and in fact, stone weapons
had just about been replaced by iron ones by late Yayoi times.
Decisions regarding journeys and other important matters were
made through divination by scapulimancy, using the shoulderblades of
deer. Similar methods, using tortoise shells as well as animal bones,
were practiced elsewhere in northeast Asia, especially in Shang dy-
nasty China. In these practices a question would first be posed, and
then holes would be drilled in the bone or shell, which would then be
heated. The answer was revealed by the shape and direction of the
fissures that appeared. Archaeological sites have yielded evidence that
scapulimancy, using the bones of deer and wild boar, was practiced in
Japan during the Yayoi period. More than sixty bones with artificial
holes and fissures have been discovered at sites on Iki Island, and
evidence of tortoise shell divination has been found on Tsushima.?
6
Tortoise shell divination is still practiced on Tsushima today, and ora-
cle bones are used in shrines in the Kanto region.
The Yamatai queen Himiko was a shaman thought to possess spiri-
tual powers. Though an adult, she remained unmarried and was as-
sisted in ruling the country by her younger brother, who dealt with
secular affairs. A thousand women attended her, but only one man,
who served her food and acted as her medium of communication with
her people. The Himiko described in this account resembles the sha-
mans of northeast China and Korea, in other words, she was
a
medium
whose function it was to communicate with the kami.77 The
Wei chih
also reports that Himiko's palace was surrounded by lookout towers
and stockades and that she was constantly guarded by armed men.
When she died, a mound 145 meters in diameter was made for her
tomb,
and more than one hundred slaves were buried with her.
Among Himiko's gifts, some items were designated as "special" and
had perhaps even been requested by the Wa. One hundred bronze
mirrors were included on this list. Mirrors were prized, as we have
seen, before Himiko's time and were frequently used as grave goods,
an indication of their ritual value. Because Himiko was a shaman, it is
not surprising that she and her people especially valued the mirrors
received from the Wei court. She probably collected mirrors as sym-
bols of power and used them in shamanistic rites. Some scholars have
76 Wajinden no michi kenkyukai and Minamoto, Yamatai koku e no michi, p. ioo; Kimuia
Kitaro, "Nagasaki-ken Ikishima shutsudo no bokkotsu," Kokogaku zasshi 64 (March 1979):
pp.
9, 17-18; Kanzawa Yuichiro, "Yayoi jidai kofun jidai oyobi Nara jidai no bokkotsu
bokkon," Shundai shigaku 38 (1976).
77 Kanzawa, "Yayoi jidai kofun jidai oyobi Nara jidai no bokkotsu bokkon."
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE "COUNTRY OF YAMATAI 293
suggested that mirrors were used in rituals related to sun worship, a
theory born out by references (cited earlier in this chapter) to mirrors
in connection with the Sun Goddess Amaterasu.
Five mirrors bearing Wei dynasty dates have been found in Japan:
two mirrors dated 239, one at the Koganezuka tomb (Izumi, Osaka
Prefecture), and one at the Kamihara Shrine (Kamo, Shimane Prefec-
ture);
and three examples dated 240, at the Shibazaki Kanizawa tomb
(Takasaki, Gumma Prefecture), at the Morio tomb (Toyooka, Hyogo
Prefecture), and at Nanyo City, Yamaguchi Prefecture.?
8
The mirrors
are between twenty-two and twenty-three centimeters in diameter. All
are decorated with images of deities and animals, and all but one have
borders of a sawtooth design
;
7
*
the exception is the Koganezuka mir-
ror, which has a plain border. The mirrors - and others like them
discovered elsewhere - were unearthed from
tateana
tombs (with en-
trances tunneled vertically into the earth's surface) dating from the
early Burial Mound period.
80
The years inscribed on the mirrors were the years in which the Wa
delegation arrived in the Wei capital of Lo-yang, were promised gifts
by the emperor, and returned home to present them to the queen.
Thus it is possible that these mirrors were among those given to
Himiko. Moreover, because the mirrors are similar in design to many
mirrors found in the Kinai region,
81
theories placing Himiko's capital
in the Kinai would seem to stand on firm ground.
82
However, scholars
disagree on where the mirrors of this design were actually cast, even
though the inscriptions on the mirrors themselves suggest that they
were of Chinese manufacture. These inscriptions list the artisans as
bronzecasters surnamed Ch'en, a name that is clearly Chinese. More-
over, some of the mirrors have inscriptions that state, "The copper [for
this mirror] was mined in Hsu-chou and the artist lives in Lo-yang."
As I shall demonstrate, however, information provided by these in-
scriptions may be misleading.
78 Suenaga Masao, Shimada Satoru, and Mori Koichi, "Izumi Koganezuka kofun," in Nihon ko-
kogaku kyokai, ed., Nihon
kokogaku hokoku
(Kyoto:
Sogeisha, 1954), vol. 5; Hasuoka Noriaki,
"Shimane-ken Kamo-cho Kamihara jinja kofun shutsudo no Keisho sannen Ch'en Shih saku
juretsu shiki
shinjukyo,"
Kokogaku
zasshi 58 (December 1972): 89; Goto Shuichi, Kokyo
shuei,
2 vols. (Tokyo: Otsuka kogeisha, 1935-42); Umehara Sueji, "Izushi-gun Kami-mura kofun,"
in Hyogo-kencho, ed.,
Hydgo-ken shiseki meisho tennen kinenbutsu
chota
hokoku
2 (Hyogo-ken:
Hyogo-kencho, 1926); Tanaka Migaku, Nihon
genshi bijutsu
(Tokyo: Kodansha, 1979).
79 Tomioka Kenzo, Kokyo
no
kenkyu (Kyoto: Tomioka Masutaro, 1920).
80 Umehara Sueji, "Jodai kofun shutsudo no kokyo ni tsuite," in Kokogakkai, ed., Kagami
tsurugi
oyobi lama no
kenkyu
(Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1940).
81 Kobayashi Yukio, Kofun jidai no
kenkyu
(Tokyo: Aoki shoten, 1961).
82 Takahashi Kenji, "Kokogakujo yori mitaru Yamatai koku," Kokogaku zasshi 12 (1922), pp.
20-43.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
294 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
As early as 1920, Tomioka Kenzo pointed out that no mirrors with
sawtooth borders and deity-animal designs had been discovered at Wei
dynasty
sites.
8
3
This suggests that the mirrors did not come from Wei.
Despite their inscriptions, they may have been made in Japan some-
time after the mid-third century and thus cannot be used to help us
locate Yamatai.
One of the strongest arguments for this view comes from the Chi-
nese archaeologist Wang Zhong-shu, assistant director of the Institute
of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, who
uses archaeological findings in China to investigate the problem.
8
*
Professor Wang pointed out major differences between "Wei" mirrors
found at Japanese sites and third-century mirrors discovered in China.
Many mirrors have been found at Ying-ch'eng in Hupei Province, the
site of the ancient capital of Wu, which controlled central and south-
east China at the same time that Wei was dominant in the north. A
number of these mirrors bear inscriptions marking them as products
of the Later Han, Wei, and Wu dynasties. Though many are decorated
with designs of deities and animals, they have plain borders, not the
sawtooth borders found on all but one of the Japanese examples.
Moreover, the Japanese mirrors are larger than most of the third-
century mirrors found at Chinese sites.
Many archaeological investigations of other Chinese sites that con-
tain third-century artifacts have been conducted during the last several
decades. No prototypes of the Japanese examples have been found in
the extensive tomb excavations made at Lo-yang, the Later Han capi-
tal.
Though findings in Chekiang Province (in a region of the lower
Yangtze River basin developed in the Later Han) include some mirrors
with deity-animal designs, as well as examples with images of other
types,
most are made of iron, not bronze. Finally, most of the Wei
dynasty mirrors found so far do not have the deity-animal design.
Instead, common Wei designs include the concatenated arc, the cen-
tral square, and images of dragons, and the mirrors are sometimes
marked with inscriptions expressing the wish for promotion to high
office.
The argument that the Japanese "Wei" mirrors were indeed of Chi-
nese manufacture rests in part on the inscription identifying as Chi-
nese both the artist and the source of the material. Mirrors found in
China, however, do not generally have such inscriptions; in only one
83 Tomioka, Kokyo no kenkyu.
84 Wang Zhong-shu, "Notes on the Triangular-rimmed Bronze Mirrors with Mythical Animal
Designs Found in Japan," Kaogu
{Archaeology)
4 (1981): 346-58.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE "COUNTRY" OF YAMATAI 295
case is there a similar inscription regarding the copper, on a mirror
excavated from the San Tao mound in Liao-yang, Liao-tung Province.
Thus Professor Wang argues that the inscription on the Japanese mir-
rors is misleading. He believes that the mirrors were cast in Japan, not
China, and that the artist was an immigrant from Wu, where mirrors
of a similar but not identical type have been found. If
this
is indeed the
case,
then the "Wei" mirrors found in Kinai region tombs could not
possibly be the ones given to Himiko in the third century. That is, one
of the strongest arguments for locating Yamatai in the Kinai region
could very well be invalid.
In attempting to determine the location of Yamatai, scholars have
relied not only on archaeological findings such as mirrors but also on
the calculations of distances and directions over water and land re-
corded in the
Wei
chih.
If the text is accepted literally, it appears that
the
Wei
envoys proceeded from the Korean peninsula in either
a
south-
ern or a southeastern direction to arrive at the countries of
Wa.
In the
Wei period, moreover, the Chinese believed that the Wa lived directly
to the east of present-day Fukien. Such indications led Japanese schol-
ars such as Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) to argue that Yamatai was
in Kyushu.
8
5 In contrast with the theory that sets Yamatai in the
Yamato area of the Kinai, the Kyushu theory has many different
candidates for the exact location of Himiko's country.
86
Because the
information given in the Wei
chih
is incomplete and sometimes inconsis-
tent with geographical facts, however, scholars been unable to agree on
the location of Yamatai.
Certain details of the
Wei chih
suggest that the Chinese never actu-
ally reached Yamatai but merely reported what they had been told by
the Japanese. For the initial portion of the journey, distances over land
and water are given in li, a Chinese linear measure. But these calcula-
tions halt abruptly when the Chinese reach Fumi; after that, distance
is measured in travel time. A seventh-century Chinese dynastic his-
tory, the Sui
shu,
complains of the
Wa:
"These barbarians do not know
how to measure distance by li and measure it by days."
87
This suggests
that in the
Wei
chih, distances in travel time were based on hearsay
evidence from the Japanese rather than on calculations made by Chi-
85 Motoori Norinaga, Gyoju gaigen, in Dai Nihon bunka, vol. 8 of Motoori Norinaga zenshu
(Tokyo: Chikuma shobo, 1972). The Kyushu theory was later elaborated by Shiratori
Kurakichi in "Yamatai koku ni tsuite," Kokogaku zasshi 12 (1922): 8-15.
86 Minamoto Kddo, "Ranritsu sum 'Yamatai koku'," in Wajinden no michi kenkyukai and
Minamoto, Yamatai koku e no michi, pp. 176-7.
87 Wei Cheng et al., Sui shu (Peking, Ku-chi Ch'u-pan she, 1973), vol. 81, p. 1825; trans.
Tsunoda and Goodrich, Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories, p. 28.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
296 JAPAN AND THE CONTINENT
nese who had actually taken the journey. There is also an abrupt break
in
the
quality
of
the descriptive passages after
the
Chinese leave
Ito.
Tsushima,
Iki,
Matsuro,
and Ito are
accurately
and
often pictorially
described,
as
anyone who has traveled
in the
area
can
attest.
88
After
that, however, the vividness fades and the same details
-
the listing of
population figures
and the
titles
of
officials
-
are repeated
for
each
place. This also suggests that
the
Chinese proceeded
no
farther than
Ito.
In short,
we are
still
far
from determining
the
actual location
of
Yamatai. Professor Wang's studies cast doubt on a major argument for
locating Himiko's country in the Kinai, and ambiguities and inconsis-
tencies
in the
Wei chih itself make
it
difficult
to
rely
on the
text's
geographical information.
Yet
the
Wei chih
account
of
the third-century Wa contains valuable
information
on
Yayoi society. The Wa people were farmers and fisher-
men who
had
already begun
to
form
a
stratified society. The Chinese
visitors seem
to
have been impressed
by
the orderliness and peaceful-
ness
of the Wa: The
women were neither quarrelsome
nor
jealous,
even though the men had several wives; there were no thefts; litigation
was rare; taxes
and
labor services were collected easily; and granaries
and markets were established
in
each province.
Dress,
manners,
and
social customs
are
described
in
detail.
The
men wore loosely fastened clothing made
of
wide pieces
of
cloth
and
wrapped strips
of
bark around their heads, perhaps
in the
fashion
of
today's headband
(hachimaki).
Women dressed their hair
in
loops and
wore unlined robes lipped over their heads. People painted their bod-
ies with cinnabar and red earth. Men and boys tattooed their faces and
bodies,
a
practice originally intended
to
frighten away large fish
and
waterfowl that annoyed them when they were diving for food. The
Wei
chih
account also notes that people were buried
in
single coffins cov-
ered with mounds of earth. During a mourning period often days, the
survivors abstained from meat,
and the
head mourners wept
and la-
mented. Others gathered
to
sing, dance,
and
drink wine,
and the
family
of
the deceased purified themselves by washing in water, much
as later Japanese have performed ablutions
at
Shinto shrines. When
the Wa people set out across the sea to China, one person was chosen as
a professional abstainer.
He was not
permitted
to
comb
his
hair,
delouse
himself,
or
wash
his
clothes,
nor
could
he eat
meat
or
have
sexual contact.
If
the sea voyage was successful, this "fortune keeper"
88 My conclusions are based partly on firsthand observations.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008