History - The Kofun Period

My memory

At school more than 50 years ago, junior high school students belonging to my generation learned a term "the Yamato court (大和朝廷) in the 4th century" and "the Kofun period (古墳時代)" was not used yet. Though some scholars hold different opinions, terms "the Yamato Kingship (ヤマト王権) and "the Kofun period" have become common. In other words, it can be said that research on the ancient times has revealed a large number of various things for 50 years.

As Iwase-senzuka Kofun cluster bears close relation to the Yamato Kingship, I need to compile information on the first centralized government in the Japanese Islands. What I have learned about each theme are as follows.

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Outlines of the Yamato Kingship

• The Yamato Kingship was a loose alliance established in the Nara Basin after the 2nd half of the 3rd C. It is said to be the late 7th C. that the king () became to be called an emperor.
• "Kuni, or a king-led province" is often written in katakana(クニ), not in kanji(国), in order to avoid confusion with the term in kanji which began to be used in the mid-8th C. It is also called "the Yamato Regime."
• In the beginning, kings in the southeastern part of the Nara Basin seem to have allied with each other and have formed a base for a broader alliance with kings of other provinces.

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A place name "Yamato"

• Initially, a kanji character "倭" was used to refer to the place. During the reign of Emperor Genmei (r. 707–715), place names were replaced with two kanji characters with positive meaning. At that time, "大" meaning "large or great" and "和" with the same sound (wa) as "倭" meaning "peaceful or balanced" began to be used.
• The southeastern part of the Nara Basin, where the base of the Yamato Kingship was located, was originally called "Yamato." And then, in 757, Yamato (大和) became an official province name for a region covering the present Nara Prefecture area.

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Alliance among king-led provinces and keyhole-shaped kofun

It is thought that king-led provinces in western part of the Japanese Islands formed a loose alliance and standardized keyhole-shaped kofun were the symbol of the association.

Considering that large-sized kofun concentrated in the southeastern part of the Nara Basin in the early Kofun period as shown in the list of large-sized kofun of this page, the union among kings of provinces started there.

It certainly means that the alliance must have consisted of king-led provinces within the Nara Basin at the start, and then other king-led provinces in other regions joined the original Yamato-centered league later.

One of the objects of the alliance is thought to have been the iron import from the Korean Peninsula as I mentioned in the outlines of the Yayoi period.

Here, I need to answer three questions as follows.

• Why did the alliance start in the Nara Basin?
• How did other king-led provinces outside Nara join the alliance? Peacefully or forcibly?
• How and when did the king-led province at the mouth of the Kinokawa River join the alliance?

I will make new entries about my opinions about those uncertainties.

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Why is it in the Nara Basin that the Yamato Kingship started?

It must be easy to understand why king-led provinces developed first in the northern part of Kyushu, which is the closest to the Korean Peninsula in the Japanese Islands. However, why is it in the Nara Basin that the first centralized government in Wa (ancient Japan) was founded in the Nara Basin? It must not have been an accidental event. Here I list two points I am concerned about as follows.

• Topographical conditions
  • Four rivers (Saho, Hatsuse, Asuka and Katsuragi rivers) flow into the Yamato River in the central part of Nara Basin and the river water runs through the Kawachi Plain in Osaka Prefecture to the Osaka Bay.
  • Though the inner area of the basin is a flood plain, alluvial fans spread between the lowland and the surrounding mountains.
  • It is said that no other places in the Kansai district except the southern part of the Kawachi Plain in Osaka Prefecture have such an elevated dry area of the Nara Basin.
  • No fear of tsunami in basins.
• Geographical conditions.
  • Both Distances from the Nara Basin to the northern part of Kyushu and to the northern part of the Kanto Plain are around 500 kilometers. The Nara Basin is almost a halfway point between the two areas.
  • The walking distance from the Nara Basin to the Osaka Bay is around 40 kilometers and that to the Ise Bay is around 85 kilometers. This means that the Nara Basin could play an important role as a distribution center for a network including sea routes.

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Clues about how the Yamato Kingship gained its absolute power

After the Yamato Kingship was successfully founded in the southeastern part of the Nara Basin, how did it establish its supreme authority in most parts of the Japanese Islands?

This may be a difficult question to answer because few written records about that were created both in Wa (ancient Japan) and the continent including Chinese dynasties. Especially the 4th C. is sometimes called "the mysterious fourth century" even among historians.

The followings are records which may be clues as to what the Yamato Kingship did in the 2nd C. and later.

• Official records of Wa by the Wei dynasty in the mid-3rd C. (『魏志倭人伝』)
• Seven-branched Sword from Baekje.
• The Gwanggaeto Stele.
• Letters from Five Kings of Wa to the Chinese dynasties in the 5th C. In one of the letters, King Yu(雄) mentioned as follows.
  • Kings of Wa have already conquered 55 provinces in the east and 66 countries in the west, and until now in the north, we have brought 95 Korean countries under control (written in the letter from King Yu).
• Authorized history books compiled by the three dynasties in the Korean Peninsula in the 5th C.
• The number (135) of provinces written in a Japanese official record(国造紀) about "kuni-no-miyatsuko (also called kokuzo)", or officials like present governors," which was compiled around the 9th C. during the early Heian period.
  • The number 135 is not so much different from the number (55+66=121) of the king-led provinces the Yamato Kingship conquered in the Japanese Islands, which was mentioned in the letter from King Yu to the Chinese dynasty.

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My Opinion on how the Yamato Kingship developed

The fact that clues about development of the Yamato Kingdom are extremely limited may make ancient history learning more interesting on the contrary. Here I also need to refrain from jumping to conclusion and express my opinion as deliberately as I can.

Deciphering clues mentioned above and utilizing other information, I have come to understand the development of the Yamato Kingship as follows. I also add new questions I am facing.

• At first, kings inside the Nara Basin assembled and formed a base (of the Yamato Kingship) for a new alliance. This process must have occurred in the late Yayoi Period for it is supposed to be before keyhole-shaped kofun began to be built.
• It is not that one single powerful autocrat decided everything but that high-ranking members must have consulted together in order to deal with issues. And during that time, the division of roles must have been made and a great king (大王 おおきみ) must have been crowned. I think it was also in the late Yayoi Period. The first king must have been interred in the first keyhole-shaped kofun. That was the beginning of the Kofun Period.
  • Is it too much to say the kings' assembly was like an advanced style of meetings held in farming villages even today?
  • How was the appointment of the successor to the great king confirmed?
  • Was the Yamatai Kingdom related to the Yamato Kingship?
• After the basis for the union was provided, the Yamato Kingship must have invited other king-led provinces outside the Nara Basin to join the alliance in order to strengthen it and handle the Korean Peninsula situations.
  • What was the criterion for judgments of provincial kings who were asked to join the alliance?
  • If the Yamato Kingdom requested neighboring king-led provinces first, did the provincial small kingdom at the mouth of the Kinokawa River join the group very early?
• The Yamato Kingdom must have regarded king-led provinces which had declined the invitation as enemies and must have conquered them by using military force. It is supposed to have been in the early Kofun Period or in the 4th C.
  • How superior was the military force of the Yamato Kingdom?
  • What class did the commanders and the solders belong to?
• When the Yamato Kingdom became confident about uniting the leading king-led provinces in the Japanese Islands, it might have decided to take stronger military action in the Korean Peninsula. It also seems to have in the early Kofun Period.
  • Was securing iron the only objective the Yamato Kingdom pursued?
  • Did the Yamato Kingdom possess transportation capacity to dispatch enough soldiers to the Korean Peninsula?
  • How was the military organized? How well was the forces controlled?
  • Were corps from the mouth of the Kinokawa River dispatched to the Korean Peninsula?
• The Yamato Kingdom's plan to advance into the Korean Peninsula continued was adopted until the 2nd half of the 6th C.

I am going to add new articles about these new questions as much as possible.

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Three Titles in the Ancient Times before the 7th Century

It seems to be necessary to get to know three title names in order to think about the relationship between the Yamato Kingship and the tomb owners at Iwase-senzuka. They are Uji（氏）, Omi（臣） and Atai, or Atae（直）. They are often explained as follows.

• Uji
  • A political organization mainly consisting of the same kin in the ancient times.
  • Both kin and non-kin who were believed to have been descended from the same ancestor gathered and formed a group which were socially and politically the most powerful.
  • The members, general people and other low-ranking people belonging to the group were subject to the head.
• Omi
  • One of more-than-30 titles(姓, kabane) which powerful clans bore.
  • As many of the Omi clans were those who were believed to have originated from Emperors before the 26th Emperor Keitai, Omi must have been one of the highest ranking.
  • The clan Ki deserved the title Omi.
• Atai
  • It is also one of more-than-30 titles(姓, kabane) which powerful clans bore.
  • While Omi was bestowed to central aristocrats, Atai were given to regional clans.
  • Many of the tops of regional governments(国造, Kunni-no-miyatsuko, or Kokuzo) were Atai.

Three Sukune from the Ki Uji Clan in Chronicle of Japan

It is known that the base of the Ki Uji Clan was at a region named Heguri in the Nara Basin. Considering that the clan was bestowed the high-ranking title of Omi mentioned above, the members must have played important roles when the Yamato Kingship was being established.

Three men under the name of Ki are described In Chronicles of Japan as follows.

• Ki-no-tsuno-no-sukune (Sukune Tsuno from Ki, "sukune" is an honorific title in those days)
  • In the 3rd year of Emperor Ojin (around 392?), four Sukune including Sukune Tsuno from Ki was dispatched to Baekje to censure a king of Baekje who had been impolite to the Emperor of Japan.
  • In the 41st year of Emperor Nintoku, he was dispatched to Baekje again.
• Ki-no-oyumi-no-sukune (Sukune Oyumi from Ki)
  • In the 9th year of Emperor Yuryaku (around 470?), Sukune Oyumi from Ki and other three men were dispatched to the Korean Peninsula as Great Generals to conquer Silla.
  • He died from a disease in the fields there and was buried in Tannowa, present Osaka Prefecture (the most southern part of the prefecture, adjoining to Wakayama City).
• Ki-no-oiwa-no-sukune (Sukune Oiwa from Ki)
  • Oyumi's son.
  • Hearing that his father (Oyumi) died in Silla, he went to Baekje and behaved like a leading general. Other generals bore a grudge against him and tried to assassinate him.
  • In the 3rd year of Emperor Kenso (around 490?), Oyumi tried to be a king of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and a king of Baekje expelled him out of the peninsula.

Although articles in the Chronicle of Japan are thought not to be based on historical events, there might have been some facts which were related to the articles, especially in the 4th and 5th centuries, as Seven-branched Sword and the Gwanggaeto Stele suggest.

The Ki Uji Clan and Wakayama

It might be difficult for many of the residents in present Wakayama City to acknowledge that the Ki Uji Clan was originally from the Nara Basin, because the kanji "紀" has been used to indicate the area of Wakayama Prefecture for a long time. For example, "Kinokawa 紀ノ川", a name of a major river in Wakayama, means "river of Ki" and both "Ki-no-kuni紀の国" and "Kishu紀州", which have been traditional place names for the area, mean "province of Ki" or "Ki Province" in Japanese. Therefore, some people in Wakayama must think that the clan name "Ki" was originally from the province name in Wakayama.

Furthermore, it is also generally accepted that a kanji "木" with the same pronounce "ki" as the kanji "紀" had been used until the 7th century.

One of my suppositions I have made about the confusing story is as follows.

• There was an area called "Ki-no-kuni" which meant "a province of trees (木の国)" around the mouth of the Kinokawa River.
• A clan in the Nara Basin who was in charge of military action of the Yamato Kingship, whose name was unknown, extended its power to the mouth of the Kinokawa River in order to build a naval port for their expeditionary force.
• The Yamato Kingship began to call the clan in the Ki Province "the Ki Uji Clan." This event must have been in the middle Kofun Period (the first half of 5th C.), when kanji was not popular yet and only the sound "ki" was important.
• When the naval port in the mouth of the Kinokawa River became unnecessary for some reasons, leading members of the Ki Uji Clan went back to the Nara Basin. That must have been in the late 5th C. They adopted a favorable kanji "紀" to their own name. They became aristocrats of the Yamato Court later.

Two Clans Descended from the Ki Uji Clan

When thinking about Iwase-senzuka, it seems to be momentous to grasp that the Ki Uji Clan who had been busily engaged in military action by the Yamato Kingship in the 5th C. branched out into to two clans after that. One was Ki-no-omi in the Nara Basin and the other was Ki-no-atai at the mouth of the Kinokawa River.

In other words, it must have been true that direct descendants of the Ki Uji Clan returned to the Nara Basin and was conferred the title of Omi (later, Ason 朝臣) and oblique descendants (who might have been non-akin) remained at the mouth of the Kinokawa River and was bestowed the title of Atai.

Later, the Ki Omi were nominated as aristocracy members of the Yamato Court and the Ki Atai were appointed to be kuni-no-miyatsuko, the highest-ranking regional bureaucrats like present prefectural governors.

As the official website of the Kii-fudoki-no-oka says, kofun at the Iwase-senzuka were built by the Ki Uji Clan. And, looking in more details and summing up, many of the kofun at Iwase-senzuka which are thought to have been built in the 6th C. must have been built by the Ki Atai Clan and those who supported the clan.

If possible, I would like to dig deeper and deeper into historical events concerning Iwase-senzuka, the Ki Uji Clan and the Yamato Kingship in this website.