The Yayoi period ( 弥生 時代 , Yayoi jidai ) started in the late Neolithic period in Japan , continued through the Bronze Age , and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age .
59-526: Yamato ( 大和 ) was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan . Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan . Yamato is usually written as "大和", but these two characters can also be read as "Daiwa" or "Taiwa". Yamato may erroneously refer to the identically written: Names of Japan The word Japan
118-625: A Late Middle Chinese pronunciation ) and pon , respectively. In compounds, however, final voiceless stops (i.e. p , t , k ) of the first word were unreleased in Middle Chinese, and the pronunciation of 日本 was thus Nippon or Jippon (with the adjacent consonants assimilating). Min Chinese languages still retain this pronunciation of 日本, such as Northern Min Nì-bǒ̤ng ( Jian'ou dialect ) or Fuzhounese Nĭk-buōng . In modern Toisanese ,
177-703: A Yue Chinese language, 日本 is pronounced as Ngìp Bāwn [ŋip˦˨ bɔn˥] . Historical sound change in Japanese has led to the modern pronunciations of the individual characters as nichi and hon . The pronunciation Nihon originated, possibly in the Kantō region , as a reintroduction of this independent pronunciation of 本 into the compound. This must have taken place during the Edo period , after another sound change occurred which would have resulted in this form becoming Niwon and later Nion . Several attempts to choose
236-468: A Zhūrúguó 侏儒國 "pygmy/dwarf country" located south of Japan, associated with possibly Okinawa Island or the Ryukyu Islands. Carr cites the historical precedence of construing Wa as "submissive people" and the "Country of Dwarfs" legend as evidence that the "little people" etymology was a secondary development. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with
295-546: A date up to 500 years earlier, between ca. 1000 BC and 800 BC. During this period, Japan largely transitioned to a more settled, agricultural society, adopting methods of farming and crop production that were introduced to the country (initially in the Kyūshū region) from Korea. The earliest archaeological evidence of the Yayoi Period is found on northern Kyūshū, though that is still debated. Yayoi culture quickly spread to
354-490: A definitive official reading were rejected by the Japanese government, which declared both to be correct. While both pronunciations are correct, Nippon is frequently preferred for official purposes, including money , stamps , and international sporting events , as well as the Nippon-koku , literally the " State of Japan " ( 日本国 ). Other than this, there seem to be no fixed rules for choosing one pronunciation over
413-513: A pejorative term when used to mean "Japan", while the second, Dōngyíng , has remained a positive poetic name. They can be contrasted with Nányáng (Southern Ocean), which refers to Southeast Asia , and Xīyáng (Western Ocean), which refers to the Western world . In Japanese and Korean , the Chinese word for "Eastern Ocean" (pronounced as tōyō in Japanese and as dongyang ( 동양 ) in Korean)
472-703: Is Ngi̍t-pún and the Teochew pronunciation is Ji̍k púng . This has influenced the Malay name for Japan, Jepun , and the Thai word Yipun ( ญี่ปุ่น ). The terms Jepang and Jipang were previously used in both Malay and Indonesian, but are today confined primarily to the Indonesian language . The Japanese introduced Nippon and Dai Nippon into Indonesia during the Japanese Occupation (1942–1945) but
531-414: Is Zeppen [zəʔpən] . In modern Japanese, Cipangu is transliterated as チパング which in turn can be transliterated into English as Chipangu , Jipangu , Zipangu , Jipang , or Zipang . Jipangu ( ジパング ( Zipangu )) as an obfuscated name for Japan has recently come into vogue for Japanese films , anime , video games , etc. These names were invented after the introduction of Chinese into
590-571: Is a source for the popular Western description of Japan as the "Land of the Rising Sun". Nichi , in compounds, often loses the final chi and creates a slight pause between the first and second syllables of the compound. When romanised, this pause is represented by a doubling of the first consonant of the second syllable ; thus nichi 日 plus kō 光 (light) is written and pronounced nikkō , meaning sunlight. Japanese 日 and 本 were historically pronounced niti (or jitu , reflecting
649-540: Is an exonym , and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nihon ( にほん ) and Nippon ( にっぽん ). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本 . Since the third century, Chinese called the people of the Japanese archipelago something like "ˀWâ" ( 倭 ), which can also mean "dwarf" or "submissive". Japanese scribes found fault with its offensive connotation , and officially changed
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#1732765728475708-668: Is noted in early historical references to Japan." Examples include "Respect is shown by squatting" ( Hou Han Shu , tr. Tsunoda 1951:2), and "they either squat or kneel, with both hands on the ground. This is the way they show respect." (Wei Zhi, tr. Tsunoda 1951:13). Koji Nakayama interprets wēi 逶 "winding" as "very far away" and euphemistically translates Wō 倭 as "separated from the continent." The second etymology of wō 倭 meaning "dwarf, pygmy" has possible cognates in ǎi 矮 "low, short (of stature)", wō 踒 "strain; sprain; bent legs", and wò 臥 "lie down; crouch; sit (animals and birds)". Early Chinese dynastic histories refer to
767-597: Is used only to refer to the Far East (including both East Asia and Southeast Asia) in general, and it is not used in the more specific Chinese sense of "Japan". In Mandarin Chinese , Japan is called Rìběn 日本 . The Cantonese pronunciation is Yahtbún [jɐt˨ pun˧˥] , the Shanghainese pronunciation is Zeppen [zəʔpən] , the Hokkien pronunciation is Ji̍tpún or Li̍t-pún , the standard Hakka pronunciation
826-538: Is used usually or exclusively in the following constructions: Nihon is used always or most often in the following constructions: In 2016, element 113 on the periodic table was named nihonium to honor its discovery in 2004 by Japanese scientists at RIKEN . As mentioned above, the English word Japan has a circuitous derivation; but linguists believe it derives in part from the Portuguese recording of
885-621: The Records of the Three Kingdoms compiled by the 3rd-century scholar Chen Shou . Early Chinese historians described Wo as a land of hundreds of scattered tribal communities rather than the unified land with a 700-year tradition as laid out in the 8th-century work Nihon Shoki , a partly mythical, partly historical account of Japan which dates the foundation of the country at 660 BC. Archaeological evidence also suggests that frequent conflicts between settlements or statelets broke out in
944-597: The Early Mandarin Chinese or Wu Chinese word for Japan: Cipan ( 日本 ), which is rendered in pinyin as Rìběn ( IPA : ʐʅ˥˩pən˨˩˦), and literally translates to "sun origin". Guó ( IPA : kuo˨˦) is Chinese for "realm" or "kingdom", so it could alternatively be rendered as Cipan-guo . The word was likely introduced to Portuguese through the Malay: Jipan . Cipangu was first mentioned in Europe in
1003-472: The Nihon / Nippon doublet, there is no evidence for a * Jihon . The Japanese name for Japan, 日本 , can be pronounced either Nihon or Nippon . Both readings come from the on'yomi . 日 ( nichi ) means "sun" or "day"; 本 ( hon ) means "base" or "origin". The compound means "origin of the sun", or "source of the sun" or "where the sun rises" (from a Chinese point of view, the sun rises from Japan); it
1062-738: The Sui dynasty . Prince Shōtoku , the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called the emperor of Japan (actually an empress at the time) "the Son of Heaven of the Land where the Sun rises" ( 日出處天子 ) . The message said: "The Son of Heaven, on the Land of the Rising Sun, sends this letter to the Son of Heaven of the Land, where the Sun sets, and wishes him well". The English word for Japan came to
1121-423: The emperor is said to be the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and the legitimacy of the ruling house rested on this divine appointment and descent from the chief deity of the predominant Shinto religion. The name of the country reflects this central importance of the sun. The association of the country with the sun was indicated in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of
1180-406: The (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. It defines 倭 as shùnmào 順皃 "obedient/submissive/docile appearance", graphically explains the "person; human" radical 亻 with a wěi 委 "bent" phonetic, and quotes the above Shijing poem. "Conceivably, when Chinese first met Japanese," Carr (1992:9) suggests "they transcribed Wa as *ˀWâ 'bent back' signifying 'compliant' bowing/obeisance. Bowing
1239-963: The Chinese Old Book of Tang , which notes the change in 703 when Japanese envoys requested that its name be changed. It is believed that the name change within Japan itself took place sometime between 665 and 703. During the Heian period , 大和 was gradually replaced by 日本 , which was first pronounced with the Chinese reading (on'yomi) Nippon and later as Nifon , and then in modern usage Nihon , reflecting shifts in phonology in Early Modern Japanese . In 1076, Turkic scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari in his book Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk mentioned this country as 'Jabarqa' (جَابَرْقَا) . Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' around 1300, based on
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#17327657284751298-483: The Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it due to its offensive connotation , replacing it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance". Retroactively, this character was adopted in Japan to refer to the country itself, often combined with the character 大 (literally meaning "Great"), so as to write the name as Yamato ( 大和 ) (Great Wa, in a manner similar to e.g. 大清帝國 Great Qing Empire , 大英帝國 Empire of Great Britain ). However,
1357-986: The Chinese court of the Kingdom of Wei . When asked about their origins by the Wei embassy, the people of Wa claimed to be descendants of the Taibo of Wu , a historic figure of the Wu Kingdom around the Yangtze Delta of China. For many years, the location of Yamataikoku and the identity of Queen Himiko have been subject of research. Two possible sites, Yoshinogari in Saga Prefecture and Makimuku in Nara Prefecture have been suggested. Recent archaeological research in Makimuku suggests that Yamataikoku
1416-866: The Chinese name, probably 日本國 ; 'sun source country' (compare modern Min Nan pronunciation ji̍t pún kok ). In the 16th century in Malacca , Portuguese traders first heard from Malay and Indonesian the names Jepang , Jipang , and Jepun . In 1577 it was first recorded in English, spelled Giapan . At the end of the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries came to Japan and created grammars and dictionaries of Middle Japanese . The 1603–1604 dictionary Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam has 2 entries: nifon and iippon . Since then many derived names of Japan appeared on early-modern European maps. Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "the sun's origin", that is, where
1475-664: The Jōmon period and Yayoi culture flourished in a geographic area from southern Kyūshū to northern Honshū . Archaeological evidence supports the idea that during this time, an influx of farmers (Yayoi people) from the Korean Peninsula to Japan overwhelmed and mixed with the native predominantly hunter-gatherer population ( Jōmon ). The Yayoi period is, generally, accepted to date from circa 300 BC to 300 AD. However, although highly controversial, radiocarbon evidence, from organic samples attached to pottery shards, may suggest
1534-564: The Korean peninsula around 1500 BC and was brought to the Japanese archipelago by Yayoi wet-rice farmers at some time between 700 and 300 BC. Whitman and Miyamoto associate Japonic as the language family of both Mumun and Yayoi cultures. Several linguists believe that speakers of Koreanic/proto-Koreanic arrived in the Korean Peninsula at some time after the Japonic/proto-Japonic speakers and coexisted with these peoples (i.e.
1593-436: The Korean peninsula gains strength because Yayoi culture began on the north coast of Kyūshū, where Japan is closest to Korea. Yayoi pottery, burial mounds, and food preservation were discovered to be very similar to the pottery of southern Korea. However, some scholars argue that the rapid increase of roughly four million people in Japan between the Jōmon and Yayoi periods cannot be explained by migration alone. They attribute
1652-522: The Portuguese devised their own . In it, /zi/ is written as either ii or ji . In modern Hepburn style, iippon would be rendered as Jippon . There are no historical phonological changes to take into account here. Etymologically, Jippon is similar to Nippon in that it is an alternative reading of 日本 . The initial character 日 may also be read as /ziti/ or /zitu/ . Compounded with /hoɴ/ ( 本 ), this regularly becomes Jippon . Unlike
1711-451: The West from early trade routes. The early Mandarin Chinese or possibly Wu Chinese word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu . The Malay and Indonesian words Jepang , Jipang , and Jepun were borrowed from non-Mandarin Chinese languages, and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were
1770-700: The Yayoi and the Jiangsu remains. Further links to the Korean Peninsula have been discovered, and several researchers have reported discoveries/evidence that strongly link the Yayoi culture to the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. Mark J. Hudson has cited archaeological evidence that included "bounded paddy fields, new types of polished stone tools, wooden farming implements, iron tools, weaving technology, ceramic storage jars, exterior bonding of clay coils in pottery fabrication, ditched settlements , domesticated pigs, and jawbone rituals". The migrant transfusion from
1829-619: The Yayoi population increased, the society became more stratified and complex. They wove textiles , lived in permanent farming villages, and constructed buildings with wood and stone. They also accumulated wealth through land ownership and the storage of grain. Such factors promoted the development of distinct social classes. Contemporary Chinese sources described the people as having tattoos and other bodily markings which indicated differences in social status. Yayoi chiefs, in some parts of Kyūshū, appear to have sponsored, and politically manipulated, trade in bronze and other prestige objects. That
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1888-703: The accounts of Marco Polo . It appears for the first time on a European map with the Fra Mauro map in 1457, although it appears much earlier on Chinese and Korean maps such as the Gangnido . Following the accounts of Marco Polo, Cipangu was thought to be fabulously rich in silver and gold, which in Medieval times was largely correct, owing to the volcanism of the islands and the possibility to access precious ores without resorting to (unavailable) deep-mining technologies. The modern Shanghainese pronunciation of Japan
1947-441: The characters they used to spell the native name for Japan, Yamato , replacing the 倭 ("dwarf") character for Wa with the homophone 和 ("peaceful, harmonious"). Wa 和 was often combined with 大 ("great") to form the name 大和 , which is read as Yamato (see also Jukujikun for a discussion of this type of spelling where the kanji and pronunciations are not directly related). The earliest record of 日本 appears in
2006-546: The contemporary names for Japan in different languages. Yayoi period Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon period should be reclassified as Early Yayoi. The date of the beginning of this transition is controversial, with estimates ranging from the 10th to the 3rd centuries BC. The period is named after the neighbourhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era in
2065-604: The descendants of both the Mumun and Yayoi cultures) and possibly assimilated them. Both Koreanic and Japonic had prolonged influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families. Most linguists and archaeologists agree that the Japonic language family was introduced to and spread through the archipelago during the Yayoi period. The earliest written records about people in Japan are from Chinese sources from this period. Wo ,
2124-576: The dictionary ( Vocabulary of the Language of Japan ) illustrates that the Portuguese word for Japan was by that time Iapam . Historically, Japanese /h/ has undergone a number of phonological changes. Originally * [ p ] , this weakened into [ ɸ ] and eventually became the modern [ h ] . Modern /h/ is still pronounced [ɸ] when followed by /ɯ/ . Middle Japanese nifon becomes Modern Japanese nihon via regular phonological changes. Before modern styles of romanization ,
2183-453: The first female Chinese Emperor Wu Zetian ordered a Japanese envoy to change the country's name to Nippon . It has been suggested that the name change in Japan may have taken place sometime between 665 and 703, and Wu Zetian then acceded to the name change in China following a request from a delegation from Japan in 703. The sun plays an important role in Japanese mythology and religion as
2242-622: The first to bring the word to Europe . It was first recorded in English in 1577 spelled Giapan . In English, the modern official title of the country is simply "Japan", one of the few countries to have no " long form " name. The official Japanese-language name is Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku ( 日本国 ), literally " State of Japan ". As an adjective, the term "Dai-Nippon" remains popular with Japanese governmental, commercial, or social organizations whose reach extend beyond Japan's geographic borders (e.g., Dai Nippon Printing , Dai Nippon Butoku Kai , etc.). Though Nippon or Nihon are still by far
2301-413: The increase primarily to a shift from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural diet on the islands, with the introduction of rice. It is quite likely that rice cultivation and its subsequent deification allowed for a slow and gradual population increase. Regardless, there is archaeological evidence that supports the idea that there was an influx of farmers from the continent to Japan that absorbed or overwhelmed
2360-609: The indigenous population, and between new cultural influences and existing practices. Chinese influence was obvious in the bronze and copper weapons, dōkyō , dōtaku , as well as irrigated paddy rice cultivation. Three major symbols of Yayoi culture are the bronze mirror, the bronze sword, and the royal seal stone. Between 1996 and 1999, a team led by Satoshi Yamaguchi, a researcher at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science , compared Yayoi remains found in Japan's Yamaguchi and Fukuoka prefectures with those from China's coastal Jiangsu province and found many similarities between
2419-943: The language, and they show up in historical texts for prehistoric legendary dates and also in names of gods and Japanese emperors : The katakana transcription ジャパン ( Japan ) of the English word Japan is sometimes encountered in Japanese, for example in the names of organizations seeking to project an international image. Examples include ジャパンネット銀行 ( Japan Netto Ginkō ) (Japan Net Bank), ジャパンカップ ( Japan Kappu ) (Japan Cup), ワイヤレスジャパン ( Waiyaresu Japan ) (Wireless Japan), etc. Dōngyáng ( 東洋 ) and Dōngyíng ( 東瀛 ) – both literally, "Eastern Ocean" – are Chinese terms sometimes used to refer to Japan exotically when contrasting it with other countries or regions in eastern Eurasia ; however, these same terms may also be used to refer to all of East Asia when contrasting "the East" with "the West". The first term, Dōngyáng , has been considered to be
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2478-479: The late 19th century. Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new Yayoi pottery styles, improved carpentry and architecture, and the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields . A hierarchical social class structure dates from this period and has its origin in China. Techniques in metallurgy based on the use of bronze and iron were also introduced from China via Korea to Japan in this period. The Yayoi followed
2537-528: The main island of Honshū , mixing with native Jōmon culture. The name Yayoi is borrowed from a location in Tokyo , where pottery of the Yayoi period was first found. Yayoi pottery was simply decorated and produced, using the same coiling technique previously used in Jōmon pottery. Yayoi craft specialists made bronze ceremonial bells ( dōtaku ), mirrors, and weapons. By the 1st century AD, Yayoi people began using iron agricultural tools and weapons. As
2596-525: The most popular names for Japan from within the country, recently the foreign words Japan and even Jipangu (from Cipangu , see below) have been used in Japanese mostly for the purpose of foreign branding . Portuguese missionaries arrived in Japan at the end of the 16th century. In the course of learning Japanese , they created several grammars and dictionaries of Middle Japanese . The 1603–1604 dictionary Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam contains two entries for Japan: nifon and iippon . The title of
2655-757: The native Jepang remains more common. In Korean, Japan is called Ilbon ( Hangeul : 일본 , Hanja : 日本 ), which is the Korean pronunciation of the Sino-Korean name, and in Sino-Vietnamese , Japan is called Nhật Bản (also rendered as Nhựt Bổn ). In Mongolian , Japan is called Yapon (Япон). Ue-kok ( 倭國 ) is recorded for older Hokkien speakers. In the past, Korea also used 倭國 , pronounced Waeguk ( 왜국 ). These are historic names of Japan that were noted on old maps issued in Europe. Unicode includes several character sequences that have been used to represent Japan graphically: These are some of
2714-447: The native hunter-gatherer population. Some pieces of Yayoi pottery clearly show the influence of Jōmon ceramics. In addition, the Yayoi lived in the same type of pit or circular dwelling as that of the Jōmon. Other examples of commonality are chipped stone tools for hunting, bone tools for fishing, shells in bracelet construction, and lacquer decoration for vessels and accessories. According to several linguists, Japonic or proto-Japonic
2773-439: The northern part of Kyūshū. Contacts between fishing communities on this coast and the southern coast of Korea date from the Jōmon period, as witnessed by the exchange of trade items such as fishhooks and obsidian. During the Yayoi period, cultural features from Korea and China arrived in this area at various times over several centuries, and later spread to the south and east. This was a period of mixture between immigrants and
2832-626: The other hand, averaged 2.5–5 cm (0.98–1.97 in) taller, with shallow-set eyes, high and narrow faces, and flat brow ridges and noses. By the Kofun period , almost all skeletons excavated in Japan except those of the Ainu are of the Yayoi type with some having small Jōmon admixture, resembling those of modern-day Japanese. The origin of Yayoi culture and the Yayoi people has long been debated. The earliest archaeological sites are Itazuke or Nabata in
2891-457: The other, but in some cases, one form is simply more common. For example, Japanese-speakers generally call their language Nihongo ; Nippongo , while possible, is rarely used. In other cases, uses are variable. The name for the Bank of Japan ( 日本銀行 ), for example, is given as NIPPON GINKO on banknotes but is often referred to, such as in the media, as Nihon Ginkō . Nippon is the form that
2950-898: The period. Many excavated settlements were moated or built at the tops of hills. Headless human skeletons discovered in Yoshinogari site are regarded as typical examples of finds from the period. In the coastal area of the Inland Sea , stone arrowheads are often found among funerary objects. Third-century Chinese sources reported that the Wa people lived on raw fish, vegetables, and rice served on bamboo and wooden trays, clapped their hands in worship (something still done in Shinto shrines today), and built earthen-grave mounds. They also maintained vassal-master relations, collected taxes, had provincial granaries and markets, and observed mourning. Society
3009-455: The pronunciation Yamato cannot be formed from the sounds of its constituent characters; it refers to a place in Japan and, based on the specific spellings used in ancient documents (see also Man'yōgana and Old Japanese#Vowels ), this may have originally meant "Mountain Place" ( 山処 ) . Such words which use certain kanji to name a certain Japanese word solely for the purpose of representing
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#17327657284753068-728: The pronunciation of an early Chinese name for Japan, was mentioned in 57 AD; the Na state of Wo received a golden seal from the Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han dynasty . This event was recorded in the Book of the Later Han compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century. The seal itself was discovered in northern Kyūshū in the 18th century. Wo was also mentioned in 257 in the Wei zhi , a section of
3127-573: The sun originates, and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun . This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with the Chinese Sui dynasty and refers to Japan's eastern position relative to China . Before Nihon came into official use, Japan was known as Wa ( 倭 ) or Wakoku ( 倭国 ) . Wa was a name early China used to refer to an ethnic group living in Japan around
3186-908: The time of the Three Kingdoms period . The Yayoi people primarily lived on the island of Kyushu to the Kanto region on Honshu . Although the etymological origins of "Wa" remain uncertain, Chinese historical texts recorded an ancient people residing in the Japanese archipelago (perhaps Kyūshū), named something like *ˀWâ or *ˀWər 倭 . Carr (1992:9–10) surveys prevalent proposals for Wa's etymology ranging from feasible (transcribing Japanese first-person pronouns waga 我が "my; our" and ware 我 "I; oneself; thou") to shameful (writing Japanese Wa as 倭 implying "dwarf"), and summarizes interpretations for *ˀWâ "Japanese" into variations on two etymologies: "behaviorally 'submissive' or physically 'short'." The first "submissive; obedient" explanation began with
3245-491: The two names are interchangeable to this day. Nippon appeared in history only at the end of the 7th century. The Old Book of Tang ( 舊唐書 ), one of the Twenty-Four Histories , stated that the Japanese envoy disliked his country's name Woguo (Chinese) ( 倭國 ), and changed it to Nippon ( 日本 ), or "Origin of the Sun". Another 8th-century chronicle, True Meaning of Shiji ( 史記正義 ), however, states that
3304-482: The word's meaning regardless of the given kanji's on'yomi or kun'yomi , a.k.a. jukujikun , is not uncommon in Japanese. Other original names in Chinese texts include Yamatai country ( 邪馬台国 ), where a Queen Himiko lived. When hi no moto , the indigenous Japanese way of saying "sun's origin", was written in kanji , it was given the characters 日本 . In time, these characters began to be read using Sino-Japanese readings , first Nippon and later Nihon, although
3363-457: Was characterised by violent struggles. The Wei Zhi ( Chinese : 魏志 ), which is part of the Records of the three Kingdoms, first mentions Yamataikoku and Queen Himiko in the 3rd century. According to the record, Himiko assumed the throne of Wa, as a spiritual leader, after a major civil war . Her younger brother was in charge of the affairs of state, including diplomatic relations with
3422-661: Was made possible by the introduction of an irrigated, wet-rice agriculture from the Yangtze estuary in southern China via the Ryukyu Islands or Korean Peninsula . Direct comparisons between Jōmon and Yayoi skeletons show that the two peoples are noticeably distinguishable. The Jōmon tended to be shorter, with relatively longer forearms and lower legs, more deep-set eyes, shorter and wider faces, and much more pronounced facial topography. They also have strikingly raised brow ridges, noses, and nose bridges. Yayoi people, on
3481-525: Was present on large parts of the southern Korean peninsula. These Peninsular Japonic languages, now extinct, were eventually replaced by Koreanic languages . Similarly Whitman suggests that the Yayoi are not related to the proto-Koreans but that they (the Yayoi) were present on the Korean peninsula during the Mumun pottery period . According to him and several other researchers, Japonic/proto-Japonic arrived in
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