Episode 25: The Heavenly Grandson on the March!

September 16, 2020 Joshua Badgley

Jimmu Tennō, aka Iware Biko, subduing the forces of Nagasune Biko through the shining brilliance of the kite (a type of bird) that came down from Heaven.

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So here we go! We are finally into the so-called “historical” portion of the Chronicles. This episode we follow the story of the legendary first sovereign of Yamato. Known to history as Jimmu Tennō (神武天皇) , that is a posthumous name, and the chronicles give us another name: Toyo Mikenu no Mikoto, aka Kamu Yamato Iware Biko no Mikoto. I know, it is a mouthful.

Language

I think this would be a good place to talk about a few things about names, titles, and the Japanese language—particularly the language in the chronicles. One of the problems working on the podcast is choosing just how to translate—or perhaps transliterate—the names and terms therein. We talked about this a little bit when we discussed language some episodes back, and I’ve mentioned the choice to use Himiko rather than Pimiko, even though the later is likely closer to the usage at the time.

In the Chronicles, they were also using Chinese characters in a combination of ways where they were sometimes used for meaning, but other times just for their sound to approximate Japanese words. The study of Old Japanese is a whole discipline that is extremely fascinating, but for the purposes of this podcasts, we’re going to try to keep it light. So we’ll just hit on some of the barest things you should know.

So first off, let’s talk about something called “rendaku”. This is the common practice of taking an unvoiced consonant and changing it to a voiced consonant. There is a good article about it on Tofugu: RENDAKU: WHY HITO-BITO ISN'T HITO-HITO

This has already shown up in some of the names and titles we have encountered—most notably “Hiko” (彦) and “Hime” (姫) (Prince and Princess, respectively), which are sometimes found as “Biko” or “Bime”, at least in modern pronunciation, so just realize that those are the same titles.

In addition, it is important to realize that Old Japanese had Perhaps most important is the “H” sound. Today, in modern Japanese, this is usually encountered as “Ha Hi Fu He Ho”, but it can transform into “P” or “B” as shown below.

This is the only consonant that has three different forms—most simply have two, an unvoiced and a voiced form. But these three forms come from the fact that in the past there appear to have been just two—the “P” and “B” (and we aren’t even getting into some of the different distinctions in vowels).

The history behind this comes from the fact that the original sound was something like “P”, with a voiced sound of “B”. Over time, this “P” changed to something more like “F” (an unvoiced bilabial fricative still found in the character “FU”), then settled on “H”, with a few exceptions. We mention in the podcast how IPA became IFA/IHA and then IWA (岩). Similarly we have KAPA to KAFA/KAHA and then KAWA (川).

In addition, there is one other place were “P” changed into something else—often times being dropped altogether. Most notably is in various diphthongs and long vowels:

· “API”->”AF/HI” ->”AI”

· “APU”->”AFU”->”AU”

· “OPU”-> “OFU”->”OU”

· “OPO”->”OF/HO”->”OO”

So Ōkuninushi is more like Opokuninusi, and Amaterasu Ōkami is Amaterasu Opokami.

And, as I said, this doesn’t even get into the various vowels—where today there are only 5 vowels used in Japanese there appear to have been others used in early Japanese, but over time they were reduced to just those used today.

So that’s a little bit on the language.

The other part of the names, if you haven’t noticed, is that more often then not they appear to be titles. So “Iware Biko” is actually more like “Prince of Iware”—and it is telling, I think that “Iware” is a place in the Yamato basin. In fact, it is occupied by Shiki the Elder and Shiki the Younger when Iware Biko first arrives. Other names, like Usa-tsu-Hiko and Usa-tsu-Hime are the Prince and Prince (or male and female lord) of Usa. “Tsu” was often used as a possessive, similar to “No” in modern Japanese. So “Usa no Hiko” and “Usa no Hime” would be a way of thinking of them. By which it becomes clear that these are simply titles, and not “names” as we would think of them. This could be the name of any Lord or Lady of Usa.

This is not necessarily something that gets easier. While we do get names that are more properly names as we would think of them, Japanese writings regularly refer to someone by their title—possibly with a family name—or some other epithet. Examples of this include the famous Tomoe Gozen, Murasaki Shikibu, and Sei Shōnagon—women being the most common victims since their names are rarely recorded and so we often only have titles to go on. But even the famous “Shōtoku Taishi”, if he existed, is most commonly referenced by a title, not his name. And most of the sovereigns would be referenced as the sovereign of such-and-such palace, rather than any kind of actual name. In much of these stories, we seem to have those kinds of names, with the odd apparent exception, like “Nagasune Biko”, which can basically be translated as something like “Prince Longshanks”. But then he is also called Tōmi Biko—The Prince (of) Tōmi.

Geography

In the last podcast we talked a bit about the geography of the Nara Basin and a few of the places there. And I believe you can check on most of them. From Southern Kyushu you can find Usa, and then on to Aki (~Hiroshima Prefecture) and then on to Kibi (Okayama). Then Naniwa is an old name for Ōsaka, except here we come to a bit of an oddity. You see, back in the Kofun and Yayoi period, the area of most of Ōsaka was actually under water. Over time, these areas appear to have silted up, forming dry land (and then Ōsaka itself grew, building out into the bay). In the old days, though, there was a shallow bay—known as Kawachi Bay—that was actually nestled up along the edge of the mountains on the western edge of the Nara basin.

Rough approximation of t he extent of Kawachi Bay in ancient times.

So you can get an idea of just how the story unfolds—pulling straight up to the shoreline at the foot of the mountains and trying to make their way through. Note that this isn’t something explicitly mentioned in the Chronicles, but we have evidence of the ancient shoreline and it does provide some context for the stories.

Korean “sun crow” print (modern), from the author’s collection.

Yatagarasu - The Sun Crow

The sun crow is another great image from this passage—though the Chronicles really seem to focus more on its size than the other features by which it is better known. Nonetheless, at least in the eyes of later readers, the Yatagarasu would become an important symbol of the sun and of Japan itself.

Technically “Yatagarasu” just means the Great Crow, possibly indicating that it was of great size. “Yata-” is used similarly for other large or impressive items. More often, though, it isn’t its size which is its distinctive feature, but its three legs. This appears to come from the mainland, where the idea of the Yang Wu, or Sun Crow, has been around for some time.

Large sculpture in the shape of the gold foil “sun bird” disk, showing the fiery design. Photo by author.

Early on, for instance, we see a sun-bird disk coming out of the Jinsha ruins near modern Chengdu. The site flourished around the 10th century BCE, and the culture is generally assigned dates of 1200-650 BCE. Here they found numerous images of birds in disks, including a gold foil disk with four birds that appears to represent the sun. There is no clear indication of what these birds are, and they appear to have the proper number of legs. It could just be coincidence that they are birds in a sun disk, but it does seem similar to what we see later on. Of course, the birds could be some other bird than a crow—perhaps chickens or roosters, crowing at the sun, or something similar. They certainly appear to have long legs and necks, which could indicate some kind of crane or heron, but who knows?

From a Western Han tomb in Mawangdui there came a remarkably intact painted cloth covering for a coffin. The painting shows various symbols, including both a sun and a moon. The moon has a toad, but the sun has a black bird—likely a crow of some kind. Here we clearly see this bird in the sun, but it still only has the normal two legs. It could possibly be something else, but certainly feels like a crow, to me.

Detail of image from Wikimedia Commons that is labeled as being in the public domain.

And then, by at least the Tang dynasty (618-907), we see the three legged crow in the sun. Paintings of this three legged crow are seen in Tang dynasty tombs, along with pictures of the moon and other celestial objects.

Three-legged crow in a sun disk in a Tang Dynasty tomb. Photo by author.

It is not unreasonable to assume that the Japanese picked up on the three-legged crow from Chinese sources, likely filtered through the lens of the Korean Peninsula. Given the Wa people and their obsession with the sun, it seems only natural that they would find a use for the imagery. That said, whether or not there was some other legendary beast called Yatagarasu that was then conflated with Yang Wu, I could not say.

References

· Ō, Yasumaro, & Heldt, G. (2014). The Kojiki: An account of ancient matters. ISBN978-0-231-16389-7

· Bentley, John. (2006). The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi: a New Examination of Texts, with a Translation and Commentary. ISBN-90-04-152253

· Chamberlain, B. H. (1981). The Kojiki: Records of ancient matters. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co. ISBN4-8053-0794-3

· Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4

· Philippi, D. L. (1968). Kojiki. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN4-13-087004-1

Episode 18: Ōnamuchi and the Epic Bromance

June 1, 2020 Joshua Badgley

Sukuna Bikona and Ōnamuchi hanging out at the hot springs in Iyo.

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This episode we take a look at the rest of the life of Ōnamuchi. After subduing his “brothers” around the Izumo area and marrying various ladies from all over, he went on to team up with the tiny kami from across the waves, Sukuna Bikona (少彦根).

Now many of the places in this episode can still be visited, today. One of the neat things visiting Japan can be finding some of these traditional locations mentioned all the way back in the 8th century.

The story from the Iyo Fudoki has the two of them meeting at hot spring in Ehime, and tradition claims that as Dōgo Onsen (道後温泉): https://dogo.jp/. Of course, it was a little less built up back then.

And then there is Mt. Miwa. Ōmiwa shrine (大神神社) is still going strong, and you can visit it in Sakurai: http://oomiwa.or.jp/. Of course, Mt. Miwa is near the Makimuku site from the Yayoi period, as well as near Hashihaka Kofun and many others.

Finally, there is Izumo Taisha, also pronounced Izumo Ōyashiro, (出雲大社): http://www.izumooyashiro.or.jp/. Of course, in this case, the shrine has definitely changed a bit.

Here are a few photos from the shrine. Unfortunately, when we were last there, the main shrine was under renovation, so I recommend checking it out at the link, above. There are several features of the shrine that make it unique. One was its height—though it used to be much taller than the current building, as can be seen in some of the reconstructions from the Kamakura period and earlier. Another is its orientation. For one thing, the entrance is under gables, rather than the eves. That means that the entrance is in line with the ridge pole, instead of perpendicular to it. This likely developed from the local architecture—it is quite probable that a house, or palace, would have similar features. I doubt it would be quite that high, but they have found Yayoi buildings that had significant pillars, indicating they likely were raised up to some height, such as the “palace” building of the Yoshinogari site, down in Kyūshū.

Ancient Izumo Taisha (Conjectural Model)

This is one thought of what the Izumo shrine may have looked like, originally, with a single, long staircase climbing up to the main shrine.

Ancient Izumo Taisha (Conjectural Model)

A side view, showing the grand staircase. This particular conjectural reconstruction does not appear to show the triple pillar design that was found in the excavation at the shrine site.

Kamakura Conjectural Model

This is a model of the shrine as it is believed to have looked during the Kamakura Period.

Edo Period Model

This is the model of the shrine as it was reconstructed in the Edo period, and is largely the basis for the current shrine. One can see that the large pillars are no longer used and the entire shrine building is much more similar to standard shrines, though it kept some of the unique features of the Taisha style.

Ancient shrine pillars

Bundles of three pillars were found during an excavation at the shrine. Here is a photo showing the size of the pillars

Location of the ancient pillars

The modern shrine has covered up the excavation, but marked the location of the original pillars so that visitors can still see where they once stood.

Yoshinogari Ceremonial Hall

This is a reconstructed “ceremonial hall” at the Yoshinogari site in Kyushu. Based on the remains of the pillars, it was assumed to be a building of some height. While many of the features are still conjectural, the idea of significantly raised structures does not appear to have been unique to Izumo.

Yoshinogari Ceremonial Hall

A view of the under structure of the reconstructed Ceremonial Hall of Yoshinogari. Again, I would stress that much of this is conjectural, but drawing on various features of traditional architecture, what is known, and what might be possible. Regardless, you can see how a large raised structure may have looked back in the Yayoi period.

So we see a lot of importance seemingly placed on Izumo. These early myths are often grouped together as the “Izumo Cycle”. I guess it does make sense to try to keep them together, since regional stories likely had a greater number of connections to other regional stories, and therefore fit together well.

Still, there are other signs of Izumo’s relative independence, many of which we have gone over in previous episodes and blog posts. We will also encounter it in various encounters between Izumo and Yamato. While many of the details are often glossed over, it was clear that there was a sometimes rocky relationship between these polities, even though Yamato and the royal court would seem to win out.

Next episode, we’ll actually go backwards (or forwards? ) to the Yayoi period again and take a look at the growth of the Izumo cultural area in the archaeological record.

For now, thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed this episode!

References

Torrance, R. (2019). Ōnamochi: The Great God who Created All Under Heaven. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 46(2), 277-318. doi:10.2307/26854516
Ō, Yasumaro, & Heldt, G. (2014). The Kojiki: An account of ancient matters. ISBN978-0-231-16389-7
Ooms, Herman (2009). Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty, 650-800. ISBN 978-0-8248-3235-3
Bentley, John R (2006). The authenticity of Sendai kuji hongi : a new examination of texts, with a translation and commentary. Brill, Leiden ; Boston
Aoki, Michiko Yamaguchi (1997). Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki with Introduction and Commentaries. Association for Asian Studies. Translations of the Fudoki published online by the Japanese Historical Text Initiative of the University of California at Berkeley at https://jhti.berkeley.edu/NIJL%20gateway.html
Chamberlain, B. H. (1981). The Kojiki: Records of ancient matters. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co. ISBN4-8053-0794-3
Ellwood, Robert S (1973). The feast of kingship : accession ceremonies in ancient Japan. Sophia University, Tokyo
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4
Philippi, D. L. (1968). Kojiki. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN4-13-087004-1

Episode 16: Susano'o Slays the Serpent... and does a bunch of other stuff

May 1, 2020 Joshua Badgley

Susan'o’o fighting Yamata no Orochi in the headwaters of the Hii River in Izumo Province, modern Shimane Prefecture, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1839-1892. Image in the public domain.

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So this episode we get to see a different side of Susano’o. He isn’t ruining rice paddies of skinning horses to scare poor weaving maidens. This time, he is rescuing maidens from serpents, bringing trees and making Japan lush and green, and building fences around his wife’s palace—and let me tell you, he is darn proud of those fences!

Susano’o is one of the famous gods of Izumo, as well as brother to Amaterasu, and most of the action takes place there. I’ve included a simple map showing the location of Torikami Falls—presumably the same Torikami of the story—on Mt. Sentsū. You can see the Hi River (now the Hii River—though for some reason Google is calling it the Ibi River in English) flowing from there to Lake Shinji, on the Shimane peninsula, between Izumo City and Matsue. Further south you can see the Gou-no-kawa (江の川), whose name might also be read as “E” or “Ye” River, and which flows north from old Aki Province through ancient Izumo Province to the Japan Sea. Some of the earliest square shaped burials, a hallmark of the culture that was around Izumo in the Yayoi period, seem to have started around Miyoshi on the Gou River, and then spread north into Izumo, Tottori, and beyond. If that is the case, and the Gou or Ye River was once so important to the region, it is no wonder that one of the stories may have found themselves set there, instead of the Hi River, which was closer to what would become the political center of the region.

Not shown are the Isonokami Futsumitama Shrine, in Okayama, the former ancient country of Kibi. This shrine—or some earlier version of it—is probably the Isonokami mentioned in the chronicles where one of Susano’o’s swords, said to be the one used to slay Orochi, was kept with the “Kamibe” (shrine attendants) of Kibi. It is still said to be an important shrine in modern Okayama Prefecture.

Also missing is the Kii Peninsula, far to the other side of Yamato. There are a few mentions of Kii some of the stories, and it does have a Kumano Taisha of its own, wherein is enshrined a version of Susano’o as a Buddhist deity.

Of course the main shrine for Susano’o is generally agreed to be just a little way from Suga in Izumo, in modern Yasugi prefecture. The Kumano Taisha, there, is the one most commonly associated with Susano’o’s spirit.

Speaking of Shrines, we did add Suga and a route between Torikami and Suga on the map, so you can see where they are, relatively. There is even a nice video on YouTube from Tokyo Street View that I thought gave a nice impression of the current incarnation of the Suga shrine, which claims to be the first shrine of Izumo:

Of course, I don’t know if any of the walls there are the “eightfold fences” of the story, but here is the poem as a reminder:

Kofun era walled settlement and wealthy person’s residence, from the Rekihaku Museum in Sakura.

八雲立つ
出雲八重垣
妻籠みに
八重垣作る
その八重垣を

Yakumo tatsu
Izumo yabegaki
tsuma-gomi ni
yabegaki tsukuru
sono yabegaki wo

Personally, I think those walls could have multiple meanings, but it does make me think of the walls around sacred spaces as well as the walls around the residences—or palaces—of important persons and places. in the Kofun and later. Even the early Yayoi settlements are often moated and walled, and the imagery may have changed and shifted over time.

Susano’o’s descendants

Suga no Yuyama Nushi is also known as Yashima Jinmui no Kami. From him we have another five descendants listed, at least in the Kojiki:

Ōtoshi no Kami
Fuha no Mojikunusunu no Kami
Fukabuchi no Mizuyare Hana no Kami
Omizunu no Kami (known in the Izumo Fudoki as Yatsukamizu Omizunu no Mikoto who pulled the land of Izumo together)
Ame no Fuyukinu no Kami (who took Kusanagi back up to the Heavenly Plain)
Ōnamuchi no Kami, aka Ōkuninushi (the subject of our next episode)

Two of these have roles beyond just being a list of names. Yatsukamizu Omizunu could be read as the Lord of the Great Water, which in Izumo is probably the Hi River, though there are other bodies of water that it could be as well. So then this could be the Great Lord of the Hi River. And where did all of this start? At the Headwaters of that very same Hi River.

Omizunu isn’t given a lot of screentime in the Kojiki, and pretty much none in the Nihon Shoki, likely because he isn’t directly related to the story of the Imperial line, and remember, that’s the story that the Chronicles were commissioned to tell. They didn’t need to muck it up with even more stories, as much as some of us wish they had. And so Omizunu’s biggest accomplishment goes almost unreported: the Kunibiki, or Land Pulling episode. This is one of the few myths that is completely laid out in the Izumo Fudoki—most are simply referenced in conjunction with the various locations. That would seem to indicate that it had a certain amount of importance to the people of the region. So we’ll want to talk about this more when we really dig into Izumo as a whole, but the land-pulling story goes something roughly like this: Omizunu decided that the land of Izumo was too small—it was like a thin strip of cloth, so he was going to sew some pieces on. He decided to pull pieces of land over from Silla, from the islands north of Izumo, and even from Koshi—thought to be the Hokuriku area. He pulled in land from all of these places, anchored them to Mt. Sahime, and essentially built Izumo.

Mt. Sahime, today, is known as Mt Sanbe, and what river runs south of it? The Gou no Kawa, or our Ye River.

Omizunu’s progeny has his own 15 minutes of fame in the spotlight. He is the one that takes Ama no Murakumo and delivers it to the kami of the Heavenly Plain. We will later see his son, Ōnamuchi, giving up much more—but that’s still yet to come in our story, so we won’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

Speaking of swords, many of the swords are measured in terms of “hands”—this is assumed to be about the width of a palm (so thumb to little finger, rather than wrist to fingertip). If so, a 10 hand sword would probably be about a meter long. This is not that long as far as some later swords go, but plenty long when we consider most of the “swords” we find in the earlier periods are more like daggers. But during the Kofun period they had plenty of swords that were long enough to qualify, so it could be something like one of these:

Kofun era swords at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Of course, Murakumo, later known as Kusanagi, is part of the imperial regalia. There are still questions as to whether or not it is the original or a copy—after all, some say that the original was lost at the battle of Dannoura during the Gempei Wars—but regardless it is rarely seen and kept at Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya. We will definitely be talking about it again. I’ve seen pictures that claim to be drawings of the sword, but haven not been able to verify any of them.

And that’s it for this blog post. I hope that people are staying healthy and sane.

References

Ō, Yasumaro & Heldt, G. (2014). The Kojiki: An account of ancient matters. ISBN978-0-231-16389-7
Ooms, Herman (2009). Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty, 650-800. ISBN978-0-8248-3235-3
Bentley, J. (2006). The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://brill.com/view/title/12964
Gadaleva, E. (2000). Susanoo: One of the Central Gods in Japanese Mythology. Japan Review,(12), 165-203. Retrieved April 18, 2020 from www.jstor.org/stable/25791053
Aoki, Michiko Yamaguchi (1997) Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki with Introduction and Commentaries. Association for Asian Studies. As hosted on the Japanese Historical Text Initiative of the University of California, Berkely, https://jhti.berkeley.edu/index.html
Chamberlain, B. H. (1981). The Kojiki: Records of ancient matters. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co. ISBN4-8053-0794-3
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4
Philippi, D. L. (1968). Kojiki. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN4-13-087004-1

Episode 11: Journey to Yamato

February 15, 2020 Joshua Badgley

Reconstructed buildings at Harunotsuji, on Iki, thought to have been the capital of that kingdom in the Yayoi period.

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This episode we’ll take you on a tour of the Lands of the Queen of Wa. This is the first time that we see various states of the Wa that are described as being unified under a single authority. There are only about 30 states, or countries, that are named and of those, only a handful are actually described. That said, it still gives us a jumping off point.

So if you are going to listen to the episode, you may want the following map. We’ve gone ahead and set up a potential map of the path from Daifang down to Yamato. It isn’t perfect, but gives you an approximation. There are also a lot of questions and assumptions. From Kuyahan (or Koya-kar(a)) on the Korean Peninsula down to Na seems pretty straightforward. The next land is “Fumi” or “Homi”, and it is not quite as clear as to where it is—but we’ll talk about that here. Zuma, or Toma, is also not quite as clear. Finally, there is Yamato—or maybe Yamatai. That’s also a bit of a quandry. Regardless, here’s our attempt at it:

Click Here for a Map of the Journey

Directions in the Weizhi

So first, we should talk about the directions in the Weizhi. Turns out that the directions are off. The distances might be off, but they seem like they could be relatively correct. The actual directions, though, aren’t quite right. Most of them take you south, and occasionally east. Based on those directions, Japan would appear to be upside down, stretching from the Korean straits down to at least Taiwan and maybe beyond. Perhaps that is why the chroniclers seem to have compared them to the people of Hainan south of China.

Fumi… or Homi

So this is a great example of the trouble with names at this time. First of all, everything is written in Chinese characters, not in Japanese kana, so we don’t have a clear idea of what the sounds were supposed to be. We have reconstructed some of the Ancient Chinese pronunciations, but how close those were to the Japanese, or Wa, pronunciations is hard to say. Then there are the changes in Japonic. For instance, the “F” or “H” sound was actually “P”. So “Himiko” would have been “Pimiko” and “Fumi” would have been “Pumi”. Of course, “は　ひ　ふ　へ　ほ” is “Ha Hi Fu He Ho”, so if we aren’t sure if the vowel is “u” or “o” (or if it is something in between) we get either “Fu” or “Ho”. All of this can make it quite difficult for those who aren’t Japanese linguists to make sense of the various names.

For Fumi, it is hard to see a modern equivalent. It is possible the name does not survive at all, or it survives in an unrecognized form. Given the distances, however, and suggestions of various authors, I’ve looked at three different areas. Personally, I like our third location, which actually puts Fumi up along the coast, near Munakata. Munakata shrine is associated with the island of Okinoshima. Sitting out in the Korean straits, this island is considered sacred, and the entire place is a shrine. Not only that, it has been a shrine since at least Yayoi times. And on the mainland there are numerous kofun—old mounded tombs—that appear to be associated with it. Though many of the kofun are later than Queen Himiko’s time, they nonetheless indicate areas that were considered important—likely the population centers. After all, the elites would want people to see their tombs—though some were put in rather out-of-the way places.

Zuma, Toma, or Izumo?

Another question we have is that of Toma or Zuma. Again, we need to remember that “Zu” is a voiced “Tu” (aka “Du”). So Tu/To is not as far off. Likewise, the “zu” of “Izumo” is a voiced “Tu”. It is easy to see, then, how “Toma” might have come from (or become) “Izumo”, and the population described certainly fits with what we know of the area. Izumo was a counter to Yamato in many of the old stories, not quite falling fully under Yamato hegemony until much later, despite the way the Japanese chronicles tell the story. We’ll look at this more fully, later.

Still, there are other candidates. The land that eventually became Kibi may have some claim to it, and similar areas along the Seto Inland Sea. Still, given what we know of the area up in Izumo, that seems the logical choice.

Pronunciation

Below is a list of the names of the lands that come up in the podcast. First is the original Chinese characters, and then we see the pronunciation suggested by Tsunoda, Kidder, Soumare, and Bentley. These all are versions of the names that you might run across, Bentley’s providing perhaps the accurate reading, though with a transcription that may leave many non-linguists confused. Still, I think you can get the gist:

  Land
OriginalTsunodaKidderSoumareBentley
带方Tai-fangDaifangDaifang 
韓HanHanHan 
狗邪韓Chü-ya-han/Kou-ya-hanKuyahanGouxiehan*koya-kar(a)
對馬TsushimaTsushimaTsu-ma*tǝsVma or *tusVma
一大"Another large country"IkiI-ki*ike
末盧MatsuroMatsuraMatsu-ro*mat-rɔ
伊都IzuItoI-to*itɔ
奴NuNaNa*nɑ
不彌FumiFumiFu-mi*pume
投馬TomaTomaZu-ma*toma
邪馬壱・邪馬壹YamadaiYamataiYa-ma-tai*yama-tǝ(ɨ)
斯馬ShimaShimaShi-ma*sema
已百支IpokkiIhakiI-ha-ki*kɨpa-ke
伊邪IzaIyaI-ya*iya
都支TsukiTokiTa-ki*tɔke
彌奴MinuMinaMi-na*menɔ
好古都KasotoKokotoKo-ka-ta*hokɔ-tɔ
不呼FukuFukoFu-ko*puhɔ
姐奴ShanuSonaSa-na*sanɔ
對蘇TsutsuTsusoTsu-sa*tǝsɔ or *tusɔ
蘇奴SonuSonaSa-na*sɔnɔ
呼邑KoyiKo-oKo-yū*hɔ-ipV
華奴蘇奴KenusonuKanasonaKa-na-sa-na*wanɔ-sɔnɔ
鬼KiKiKi*kui
爲吾IigoIgoI-go*wai-ŋgɔ
鬼奴KinuKinaKi-na*kui-nɔ
邪馬YamaYamaYama*yama
躬臣KushiKujiKyū-jin*kuŋginV
巴利HariHariHa-ri*pari
支惟KiwiKiiKi-i*kewi
鳥奴WunuU-aA-na*ɔnɔ
奴NuNaNa*nɔ
狗奴KunuKonaKu-na*konɔ

Kyushu v. Kinki

In the podcast, I’m not going to spend too much time on the subject of whether Yamato is in Kyushu or in the Kinki region—the area around Osaka and Nara. We may get into the evidence for the Makimuku area and the Hashihaka kofun, but I do want to at least acknowledge that there are those who believe that “Yamatai” was actually in Kyushu, and that Yamato was a later state in the Kinki region.

There are a variety of reasons as to why people insist that Himiko was Queen of a country in Kyushu. Some of it is political: There is no “Queen Himiko” in the official imperial lineages. Therefore, she couldn’t have been the ruler of Yamato. Therefore her country, which would, in modern on’yomi, be pronounced Yamatai, must have been somewhere else. Since many of the early mounded tombs are in Kyushu, and they were closest to the mainland, surely that is where she must be from?

Then there are finds like Yoshinogari. This is a large settlement with moats, a stockade, towers, and even a large, raised “palace” structure, which comes from around the time of the Weizhi. For many people it is proof that Queen Himiko must have come from this area, since nothing else has been found that quite matches it. However, it is hard to find any way that the set of instructions we are given matches up with Yoshinogari, and the site is much too small—only around 2,000 or so population. While the Chinese chroniclers may have exaggerated some numbers, it is a far cry to go from 70,000 households down to a population of about 2,000.

More likely, Yoshinogari is impressive because it survived—it was out of the way and wasn’t built on top of and plowed under over the centuries of land cultivation, which is what would have happened in most of the more populous areas of Japan. While there is no guarantee that a once populous area would remain so, it does seem likely that an area that once housed over a quarter million people would be one of the areas that even today house a lot of people. Indeed, near the Makimuku area they have many mounded tombs, including the largest of the keyhole tombs, Hashihaka, from this period, and they have found the remains of what appears to be a palace. While the current construction around the area makes it hard to do further archaeological study, it seems promising that there may once have been a large, thriving Yayoi and early Kofun population in this area. Time may tell.

For now, most scholars appear to be leaning towards the region near Osaka and Nara, and that is where we will look for answers, at least until something better comes along.

References

TORRANCE, R. (2016). The Infrastructure of the Gods: Izumo in the Yayoi and Kofun Periods. Japan Review, (29), 3-38. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44143124
Barnes, Gina L. (2015), Achaeology of East Asia: The Rise of Civilization in China, Korea and Japan
KO, Kyoungsoo. (2011?) “Ritual Sites and Ritual-Related Artifacts in Korea for Comparative Study for the Positioning of Rituals in Okinoshima Island”; http://www.okinoshima-heritage.jp/files/ReportDetail_70_file.pdf
TAWARA, Kanji. (2009, Nov), “Tsushima as ‘boundary’”; Bulletin of the Society for East Asian Archaeology 2: 19-22
Bentley, John R. (2008), “The Search for the Language of Yamatai”. Japanese Language and Literature (42-1). 1-43. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/30198053
Soumaré, Massimo (2007), Japan in Five Ancient Chinese Chronicles: Wo, the Land of Yamatai, and Queen Himiko. ISBN: 978-4-902075-22-9
Kidder, J. Edward (2007), Himiko and Japan's Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai: Archaeology, History, and Mythology. ISBN: 978-0824830359
Kyodo. (2000, Nov 04) “Archaeologists unearth settlement mentioned in Wei Chronicle”; https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2000/11/04/national/archaeologists-unearth-settlement-mentioned-in-wei-chronicle/#.XiI9r2hKiUk
Barnes, Gina L. (1988); Protohistoric Yamato: Archaeology of the First Japanese State;
Hudson, M., & Barnes, G. (1991). Yoshinogari. A Yayoi Settlement in Northern Kyushu. Monumenta Nipponica, 46(2), 211-235. doi:10.2307/2385402

Episode 10: The Islands of the Immortals

February 1, 2020 Joshua Badgley

Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s 19th century block print depicting Xu Fu’s fantastical voyage in search of Mount Penglai. Image in the public domain, from the Boston Fine Arts Museum.

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This episode we really start to take a look at Japan as seen in the Chinese chronicles. From early times, the Japanese archipelago has been viewed as an almost mythic place in Chinese histories, connected as it was with fantastical tales of the herb of immortality and Penglai, the mountain where the herb was said to grow, far out in the eastern sea.

We also take this time to look at some of what was going on in China and how that affected Japan. Remember, a key aspect of the position of the elites in the archipelago was based on the ability to acquire bronze and iron from the mainland. When turmoil on the mainland disrupted access to these goods it had ripple effects that would echo through the trade routes out into the archipelago, and we see its mark left in the archaeological record of the period.

Copy of the gold seal of the King of Na of Wa from the Tokyo National Museum.

Emerging from this chaos we then see our first glimpses of the early Wa states in the islands—while there is some mention of them in the early Han dynasty, it isn’t until the later Han accounts that we start to get any real details. Perhaps most incredible is the seal of the King of Na, a gold seal found on Shika Island, in modern day Fukuoka prefecture, which appears to be the item described in the Chronicles of the Later Han dynasty. That we should have such close agreement with the written histories is almost too good to be true—and to be honest, many have questioned its validity. Found in the late 18th century by happenstance while a farmer was working his fields, the story of its discovery is just as incredible as its provenance.

We also cover the account—sparse as it is—of king Suisho. Or—maybe King Suisho. There is no ruler in the Japanese histories that can be easily equated with this figure. This will be a problem for a while, as it is difficult to equate the Chinese names for the Japanese sovereigns with the Japanese names given to them. It is often further confused by the fact that we usually know the names in the Chronicles by their posthumous names—a practice that was likely imposed much later, in imitation of Chinese practice. And that even assumes that the given names we have—names like Ikumeiribikoisachi no Sumeramikoto—are, in fact, the names of the time and not a later name or title, as early Japanese names have their own special qualities that make them interesting to study.

And so, unfortunately, we’ll have to continue to live with some uncertainty for the time being, but at least a few of the clouds are parting and we are beginning to see a glimmer of what is going on. All of this will start to come together, and we’ll soon be entering into the period that is considered most reliably as historical. From there we’ll be able to dig into the Japanese chronicles and hopefully have a good platform to examine them critically as we do so.

References

Robbeets, Martine (2017). Austronesian influence and Transeurasian ancestry in Japanese, Language Dynamics and Change, 7(2), 210-251. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00702005
Mizoguchi, Koji (2012). The archaeology of Japan: From the earliest rice farming villages to the rise of the state. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139034265
Soumaré, Massimo (2007); Japan in Five Ancient Chinese Chronicles: Wo, the Land of Yamatai, and Queen Himiko. ISBN: 978-4-902075-22-9
Kidder, J. Edward (2007); Himiko and Japan's Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai: Archaeology, History, and Mythology. ISBN: 978-0824830359
Imamura, Keiji (1997). Prehistoric Japan: New perspectives on insular East Asia. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00085215
Barnes, Gina L. (1988); Protohistoric Yamato: Archaeology of the First Japanese State. ISBN: 978-0915703111

Episode 2: Jōmon Period, Part 1

October 1, 2019 Joshua Badgley

A brief look at the transition from the Pleistocene era through the Incipient, Initial, and Early Jomon periods, as new technological innovations changed life on the archipelago.

Land
Original	Tsunoda	Kidder	Soumare	Bentley
带方	Tai-fang	Daifang	Daifang
韓	Han	Han	Han
狗邪韓	Chü-ya-han/Kou-ya-han	Kuyahan	Gouxiehan	*koya-kar(a)
對馬	Tsushima	Tsushima	Tsu-ma	tǝsVma or tusVma
一大	"Another large country"	Iki	I-ki	*ike
末盧	Matsuro	Matsura	Matsu-ro	*mat-rɔ
伊都	Izu	Ito	I-to	*itɔ
奴	Nu	Na	Na	*nɑ
不彌	Fumi	Fumi	Fu-mi	*pume
投馬	Toma	Toma	Zu-ma	*toma
邪馬壱・邪馬壹	Yamadai	Yamatai	Ya-ma-tai	*yama-tǝ(ɨ)
斯馬	Shima	Shima	Shi-ma	*sema
已百支	Ipokki	Ihaki	I-ha-ki	*kɨpa-ke
伊邪	Iza	Iya	I-ya	*iya
都支	Tsuki	Toki	Ta-ki	*tɔke
彌奴	Minu	Mina	Mi-na	*menɔ
好古都	Kasoto	Kokoto	Ko-ka-ta	*hokɔ-tɔ
不呼	Fuku	Fuko	Fu-ko	*puhɔ
姐奴	Shanu	Sona	Sa-na	*sanɔ
對蘇	Tsutsu	Tsuso	Tsu-sa	tǝsɔ or tusɔ
蘇奴	Sonu	Sona	Sa-na	*sɔnɔ
呼邑	Koyi	Ko-o	Ko-yū	*hɔ-ipV
華奴蘇奴	Kenusonu	Kanasona	Ka-na-sa-na	*wanɔ-sɔnɔ
鬼	Ki	Ki	Ki	*kui
爲吾	Iigo	Igo	I-go	*wai-ŋgɔ
鬼奴	Kinu	Kina	Ki-na	*kui-nɔ
邪馬	Yama	Yama	Yama	*yama
躬臣	Kushi	Kuji	Kyū-jin	*kuŋginV
巴利	Hari	Hari	Ha-ri	*pari
支惟	Kiwi	Kii	Ki-i	*kewi
鳥奴	Wunu	U-a	A-na	*ɔnɔ
奴	Nu	Na	Na	*nɔ
狗奴	Kunu	Kona	Ku-na	*konɔ