Wajin (ancient people)

Last updated

Wajin ( 倭人 , Wajin, literally "Wa people") is

In general the Wajin that established themselves on the Japanese archipelago became the Yayoi people, the ancestors of the Yamato people. [1] The word "Wajin" also refers to related groups outside of Japan.

Contents

The first secure appearance of Wajin is in "Treatise on Geography" (地理志) of the Book of Han (漢書). After that, in "Gishi Wajinden" ((魏志倭人伝), a Japanese abbreviation for the "account of Wajin" in the "Biographies of the Wuhuan, Xianbei, and Dongyi" (烏丸鮮卑東夷傳), Volume 30 of the "Book of Wei" (魏書) of the Records of the Three Kingdoms (三国志)), [2] their lifestyle, habits and the way of society are described and by cultural commonality such as lifestyle, customs and languages, they are distinguished themselves from "Kanjin" (han people (韓人)) and "Waijin" (Wai people (濊人)).

Descriptions about Wajin can be found in the Old Book of Tang (945 AD) and the New Book of Tang (1060 AD)

Several linguists, including Alexander Vovin and Juha Janhunen, suggest that Japonic languages were spoken by Wajin and were present in large parts of the southern Korean Peninsula. According to Vovin, these "Peninsular Japonic languages" were replaced by Koreanic-speakers (possibly belonging to the Han-branch). This event was possibly the reason for the Yayoi-migration into Japan. [3] Janhunen also suggests that early Baekje was still predominantly Japonic-speaking before they got replaced or assimilated into the new Korean society. [4]

Origin of the name

There are several theories as to why certain people living in the Japanese archipelago came to be called "Wajin" (倭人). Cao Wei's official Ru Chun (魏の官人如淳) argued that the origin of Wa was based on the custom of "tattooing (entrusting) to the human face," (人面に入れ墨する(委する)), but denied it because the sounds of Wa (倭) and Yan (委) were different from those of Yan Shigu. [5]

In the early Heian period (794 to 1185), the introduction of "Hiroshi 's private record" (Nihon Shoki Shiki  [ ja ], "Nihon Shoki Shiki") describes the theory that the Chinese side wrote down as "Wakoku" (倭の国), because the self-proclaimed "wa" (わ) was used as a theory of a certain person.

In addition, since the word "Wakoku" is obedient (従順) in "Shuowen Jiezi", Ichijō Kaneyoshi chanted "because the human heart of Wajin was obedient" (Nihon Shoki Sanso  [ ja ], "Nihon Shoki Sanso"), and many posterity Confucian scholars follow this.

There is also a theory that "Wa" (倭) meant "a short race" (背丈の小さい人種, Setake no chīsai jinshu).

The Japanese philosopher Kinoshita Jun'an states that he was called Wa (倭) because he was a small person (dwarf, 矮人). Arai Hakuseki stated in "Koshitsū" (古史通或問) that the transliteration of "Ohokuni" (オホクニ) was "Wakoku" (倭国). In addition, writer Motohiko Izawa said, "When humans on the continent heard their national name, they answered the name of their own organization, which was the "輪" (Wa = ring, ring moat of a moat village 環濠集落), because the concept of the state still existed at that time." Many theories have been made in this way, but there is no definite one.

There is some disagreement with the interpretation of "Wakoku" (倭(委)奴国) as "Wakoku" (倭の奴の国). Among the scholars of the head family of kanji who interpreted the original "Gishiwajinden" (Gishiwajinden  [ ja ]), the word "yatsu" (奴) used to mean a derogatory term for a woman, and the female kingdom, Wa (倭), was called "Wakoku" (倭奴国). It is the theory that it should be called and should be regarded as a derogatory term for the book-sealing nation based on Chinese thought and the current nation's Wakoku (倭国). However, it is the view that such derogatory terms are gradually becoming obsolete even in later Sinocentric countries as the envoys to Sui and Tang came to be used.

As Baiyue and Wu people

The ethnic concept of "Wa-zoku (倭族)" encompasses a wide range of regions and does not limit to the Wajin of the Japanese archipelago. According to Kenzaburo's theory, [6] Wa-zoku are Wajin who came to the Japanese archipelago with rice crop, whose ancestor was the same as the Yayoi people. [7] Torigoe says that the original place of the Wa-zoku is Yunnan. [6]

Suwa Haruo considered Wa-zoku to be part of Baiyue (百越) in southern China. [8]

The Wajin (and the Yayoi) are possibly descendants of the Wu people. A large paddy ruins in the area was created around 450 BC, the Warring States period, in Kyushu, and a record states that "Wajin [were the] self-named descendants of Zhou". An influential theory states that the Wu people of the Yangtze River area that followed the hydroponic rice cultivation culture, which is also a symbol of Yangtze civilization, drifted to the Japanese archipelago around the 5th century BC, in collaboration with the destruction of the Kingdom of Wu.[ citation needed ]

Genetics

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yayoi period</span> Japanese historical period from 200 BCE to 300 CE

The Yayoi period started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kofun period</span> Period of Japanese history from 300 to 538

The Kofun period is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD, following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is the earliest era of recorded history in Japan, but studies depend heavily on archaeology since the chronology of historical sources tends to be distorted. The word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mound dating from this era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himiko</span> 3rd century Queen of Yamataikoku

Himiko, also known as Shingi Waō, was a shamaness-queen of Yamatai-koku in Wakoku (倭国). Early Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom (220–265) and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler following decades of warfare among the kings of Wa. Early Japanese histories do not mention Himiko, but historians associate her with legendary figures such as Empress Consort Jingū, who is said to have served as regent from 201 to 269.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yamato people</span> Ethnic group native to Japan

The Yamato people or the Wajin is a term to describe the ethnic group that comprises over 97% of the population of Japan. Genetic and anthropometric studies has showed that the Yamato are an admixture of the migratory Kofun and Yayoi, who arrived from mainland East and Southeast Asia via the Korean Peninsula, as well as the indigenous Jōmon that were already living on the Japanese archipelago for thousands of years prior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jin (Korean state)</span> Korean state during the Iron Age

The state of Jin was a confederacy of statelets which occupied some portion of the southern Korean peninsula from the 4th to 2nd centuries BCE, bordering the Korean Kingdom of Gojoseon to the north. Its capital was somewhere south of the Han River. It preceded the Samhan confederacies, each of which claimed to be the successor of the Jin state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayato people</span> Ancient ethnic group in southern Kyushu

The Hayato (隼人), which is Japanese for "falcon-people", were a people of ancient Japan who lived in the Satsuma and Ōsumi regions of southern Kyushu during the Nara period. They frequently resisted Yamato rule. After their subjugation they became subjects of the government under Ritsuryō, and the Ministry of the Military had an office known as the Hayato-shi (隼人司) in charge of their governance. The name also came into use by samurai as a title, Hayato no suke (隼人助). In modern times, Hayato is a Japanese male given name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wa (Japan)</span> Oldest recorded name of Japan

Wa is the oldest attested name of Japan in foreign sources. The Chinese and Korean scribes regularly wrote it in reference to the inhabitants of the Wa Kingdoms in Kyushu and the ancient Yamato kingdom with the Chinese character 倭 "submissive, distant, dwarf", until the 8th century, when the Japanese replaced it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yayoi people</span> Ancient ethnic group and ancestors of the Japanese people

The Yayoi people were an ancient ethnicity that lived in the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period and are characterized through Yayoi material culture. Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1000 and 800 BCE, but this date is controversial. The people of the Yayoi culture are regarded as the spreaders of agriculture and the Japonic languages throughout the whole archipelago, and were characterized by both local Jōmon hunter-gatherers and Mainland Asian migrant ancestries.

The classification of the Japonic languages and their external relations is unclear. Linguists traditionally consider the Japonic languages to belong to an independent family; indeed, until the classification of Ryukyuan as separate languages within a Japonic family rather than as dialects of Japanese, Japanese was considered a language isolate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mimana</span> Placename used in Japanese text Nihon Shoki

Mimana, also transliterated as Imna according to the Korean pronunciation, is the name used primarily in the 8th-century Japanese text Nihon Shoki, likely referring to one of the Korean states of the time of the Gaya confederacy. As Atkins notes, "The location, expanse, and Japaneseness of Imna/Mimana remain among the most disputed issues in East Asian historiography." Seth notes that the very existence of Mimana is still disputed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese people in Japan</span> Ethnic group

Chinese people in Japan include any people self-identifying as ethnic Chinese or people possessing Chinese citizenship living in Japan. People aged 22 or older cannot possess dual-citizenship in Japan, so Chinese possessing Japanese citizenship typically no longer possess Chinese citizenship. The term "Chinese people" typically refers to the Han Chinese, the main ethnic group living in China (PRC), Taiwan (ROC) and Singapore. Officially, China (PRC) is home to 55 additional ethnic minorities, including people such as Tibetans, though these people might not self-identify as Chinese. Han Chinese people have had a long history in Japan as a minority.

In population genetics, research has been done on the genetic origins of modern Japanese people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yamato Kingship</span> Historical Japanese state

The Yamato Kingship was a tribal alliance centered on the Yamato region from the 4th century to the 7th century, and ruled over the alliance of noble families in the central and western parts of the Japanese archipelago. The age is from the 4th to the 7th century, later than the Yamatai Kingdom. After the Taika Reform, the ōkimi as an emperor, at that time, was in power, and the Yamato period ended. The time period is archaeologically known as the Kofun period. Regarding its establishment, due to the relationship between Yamatai and Yamato's succession to the king's power, there are very different views on it.

<i>Wajinden</i> Section in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms

The Wajinden refers to the passages in the 30th volume of the Chinese history chronicle Records of the Three Kingdoms that talk about the Wa people who would later be known as the Japanese people. It describes the mores, geography, and other aspects of the Wa, the people and inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago at the time. The Records of the Three Kingdoms was written by Chen Shou of the Western Jin Dynasty at the end of the 3rd century.

Wakoku was the name used by early imperial China and its neighbouring states to refer to the nation usually identified as Japan. There are various theories regarding the extent of power of the early kings of Japan. According to the Book of Sui and the History of the Northern Dynasties, its borders were five months from east to west and three months from north to south. The Wajin appear in historical documents such as the Book of Han and the Geographical Survey of Japan from around the 2nd century BC. In the late 7th century, the Yamato kingdom, which had been called Yamato, changed its external name to Japan, but its relation to Japan since Book of the Later Han is not clear. There are discrepancies in the descriptions of the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang.

Kununokuni (狗奴国)(Kunu no kuni/kunukoku、Kuna no Kuni/Kunakoku、Konanokuni / Konakoku) was a Japanese country that was in conflict with Yamatai, which is mentioned in the "Wajinden" in the "Book of Wei" in the Chinese history book "Records of the Three Kingdoms" of the Three Kingdoms period.

Kukochihiko (狗古智卑狗) as described in the Wajinden was an official of the Kununokuni and a described as the real power behind the government there.

Himikoko/Himikuko was a male king of Kununokuni, recorded in the Wajinden, a 3rd century figure from Wakoku in the 3rd century. Naitō Torajirō proposed the theory that he was Himikoso.

Ito-koku (伊都国) is one of the countries in Wa-koku, which appears in Chinese historical books such as Wajinden. It is said to be located 500 ri southeast of Matsurokoku, in the Yamato era, in the Prefecture of Ito, now Fukuoka Prefecture Itoshima City and part of Fukuoka City.

Chikushikoku (竹斯国) is the name of a country or land that appears in the Book of Sui Dynasty and History of the Northern Dynasties in the history of China as being in the Japan region. or land name that appears in Northern History. It is compared to Tsukushi Province.

References

  1. ↑ 澤田洋太郎『日本語形成の謎に迫る』(新泉社、1999年)
  2. ↑ 岩波文庫では書名の一部として「魏志倭人伝」の五文字を採用している。( 和田 & 石原 1951 )、( 石原 1985 )。
  3. ↑ Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean". Korean Linguistics. 15 (2): 222–240.
  4. ↑ Janhunen, Juha (2010). "RECONSTRUCTING THE LANGUAGE MAP OF PREHISTORICAL NORTHEAST ASIA". Studia Orientalia 108 (2010). ... there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state (in the southwest) was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized.
  5. ↑ 西嶋定生『倭国の出現』(東京大学出版会、1999)- Sadao Nishijima, "The Appearance of the Country" (University of Tokyo Press, 1999)
  6. 1 2 鳥越憲三郎『原弥生人の渡来 』(角川書店,1982)、『倭族から日本人へ』(弘文堂 ,1985)、『古代朝鮮と倭族』(中公新書,1992)、『倭族トラジャ』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1995)、『弥生文化の源流考』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1998)、『古代中国と倭族』(中公新書,2000)、『中国正史倭人・倭国伝全釈』(中央公論新社,2004)
  7. ↑ 諏訪春雄編『倭族と古代日本』(雄山閣出版,1993)7-8頁
  8. ↑ 諏訪春雄編『倭族と古代日本』(雄山閣出版、1993)また諏訪春雄通信100
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.