A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower Read Online Free PDF

the people’. 34 Living permanently within a fortress she was guarded by 100 men, and served by 1,000 women and a single male attendant. It was through this male attendant that she communicated with the outside world. She concerned herself with spiritual matters, and left the administrative aspects of ruling to her younger brother.
    In 238 Himiko sent a tributary delegation to the Chinese emperor, following a practice observed since at least AD 57 by some of the rulers of other kingdoms in Wa. 35 As a result, like those other rulers, she had her regal status officially recognised by China. However, unlike the others, she seems to have been recognised as sovereign of the whole land of Wa, not just of a kingdom within it. She also received gifts from the emperor of various cloths, jewels, and mirrors. Her own gifts to him included slaves, cloths, and cinnabar.
    According to the Chinese historians she died in 248 at the age of 65, accompanied by 100 sacrificed slaves. Chaos followed her death, till a 13-year-old girl named Iyo, a relative of Himiko, eventually came to the throne after the abortive accession of a male ruler whom the people refused to obey.
    Yamatai was the centre of power in Japan, with many if not most other kingdoms giving allegiance to it. It has also long been the centre of controversy as to its location, for surprisingly this is not clear. The description of the journey in the
Wei Chih
is open to very different interpretations. Most experts equate Yamatai with Yamato in the Nara Basin area, which was to be the site of the first Japanese state a few hundred years later, but others see it as located in north Kysh. 36
    The descriptions of Wa/Japan found in the
Wei Chih
and other Chinese documents represent a significant distinction between the Yayoi period and earlier periods – a shift from prehistory to recorded history.
    The period itself was an intense and even revolutionary one of great change over a relatively short span of time. It witnessed a leap from hunting and gathering to cultivation, and from stone tools to metal tools. Settlements became fixed, and society became clearly stratified. These changes created the economic and technological base for a social and political unification into a state. 37
    1.5   The Early State Emerges: The Kofun/Yamato Period (ca 250–710)
     
    When Queen Himiko was buried with her 100 slaves it was obvious that a large tomb was needed – 100 paces in diameter, according to the
Wei Chih
. This was to set the fashion for some centuries. As society became more stratified, those at the top wanted to show their status beyond the span of their mere mortal life. As with the pyramids in ancient Egypt, huge tombs were erected. In Japan’s case they were usually raised mounds (
kofun
) surrounded by hollow clay figurines known as
haniwa
(‘clay rings’).
    The
haniwa
are rather mysterious, but seem to have been a combination of tomb markers and status objects. There were also objects inside the tomb, probably for the afterlife. Many of these too were status objects, but it was not all a case of mere ostentation. The tombs also contained large numbers of weapons, leaving no doubt as to the ability of the ruling elite to maintain their position by force if necessary. 38
    The burial mounds are convenient physical symbols of this period. The most important feature of the era, however, is the emergence of the Yamato state, named after its power-base at Yamato in the Nara Basin.
    The pre-eminence of Yamato forms the substance of the
Kojiki
and
Nihon Shoki
accounts. We saw earlier that these do not reveal much about the actual process, other than a triumph over a rival power-base at Izumo by what appears to have been negotiation. Dates are also unreliable. Most experts now believe the first verifiable emperor was Sjin. The
Nihon Shoki
lists him as the tenth emperor and gives his death as equivalent to 30 BC , whereas the
Kojiki
gives it as AD 258. In fact, 318 seems most likely.