The Kofun Period in Wakayama
This page aims to accumulate and organize what I have learned about the Kofun Period. See My Reasons for details of my motives for writing this page.
Categories
The Ki Uji Clan and the Yamato Kingship
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.
Roles of the Ki Uji Clan and the Mouth of the Kinokawa River
Three men from the Ki Uji Clan described in Chronicles of Japan as mentioned above seem to have been like commanders or generals of Wa army in the Korean Peninsula. In other words, the Ki Uji Clan seems to have in charge of military tactics of the Yamato Kingship. In addition, the mouth of the Kinokawa River is thought to have been used as a naval port for an expeditionary force of Yamato Kingship which the Ki Uji Clan led.
The inference is supported by the next archaeological findings.
- The river mouth had an estuary which could function as a harbor.
- Ancient foundation for seven large warehouses at Narutaki in the north bank of the Kinokawa River.
- Otani Kofun, which has unearthed iron horse armor which is similar to one found in the Korean Peninsula.
- Shaka-no-koshi Kofun, which has an unearthed gold comma-shaped bead which is thought to been from the peninsula.
- Two very large kofun in the Misaki Town, Osaka Prefecture, which is next to Wakayama City.
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.
The Kofun Period in Present Wakayama City
The Kinokawa River
The city is situated at the mouth of the Kinokawa River. The first-class river runs from an area of high rainfall in the central part of the Kii Peninsula.
During the Jomon Period, earth and sand from the Kinokawa River gradually formed the Wakayama Plains, where wet-rice cultivation started and developed in the Yayoi Period.
Geographical Benefit
Two environmental benefits the Kinokawa River brought to the mouth are as follows.
- An estuary harbor inside a long sandbar functioning as a breakwater.
- Agricultural water for rice paddies.
A Harbor at the Mouth of the Kinokawa River
It is already known that the landform of the Kinokawa River mouth area in the ancient times was much different from that of today. In the Kofun Period, the river, which currently runs westward to the sea, bended southward due to a ridge of sand, and the present central city area was an estuary.
In 1981, remains of seven large wooden store houses constructed in the Kofun Period were discovered at Narutaki, a low hilly land near the north bank of the Kinokawa River, in Wakayama City. The archaeological evidence suggests that the estuary was utilized as a harbor.
Actually, "O-no-minato", a name of a harbor, is mentioned in Record of Ancient Matters and Chronicles of Japan, which were completed in the early 8th century.
An Irrigation System
In the south bank area of the Kinokawa River, an irrigation system for rice paddies, which is called "Miyai-yosui." today, has been used for a very long time.
According to archaeologists, the structure for agricultural water already existed and the Wakayama Plains was a granary in the Kofun Period.
Kofun in the North Bank Area
In the north bank area of the Kinokawa River, several keyhole-shaped kofun including very large ones in Misaki Town, Osaka Prefecture, were constructed in the 5th century. Interestingly, in the next century, clustered kofun appeared at Iwase in the south bank area.