An outline, era by era

Japan

Yayoi and Kofun periods

Classical Antiquity · ~500 BCE – ~500 CE

The Yayoi and Kofun periods cover roughly 1000 or 800 BCE to about 600 CE in the Japanese archipelago. The Yayoi period began when wet-rice farming and metalworking, brought from the Korean peninsula and ultimately from China, spread from northern Kyushu across the islands. It ended around 250 CE. The Kofun period followed, named for the huge earthen burial mounds (kofun) built for local rulers until about the sixth century CE. The start date of the Yayoi is debated, and scholars place it between about 1000 and 800 BCE.

Over these centuries, villages grew into larger communities with irrigated fields, bronze bells and mirrors, and powerful chiefs. Chinese records describe a land called Wa, with a queen named Himiko. By the fourth century a group of leaders in the Yamato region, around present-day Nara and Osaka, held a leading place among the regional powers. They are the ancestors of the later imperial court. The period matters because it set up the farming society, the political order and the contacts with Korea and China from which early Japanese states grew.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Rice farming arrives from the continent

    Event

    What happened

    Around 1000 to 800 BCE, wet-rice cultivation appears in northern Kyushu, with irrigated paddies, new pottery and polished stone tools. At sites such as Itazuke and Nabatake, farmers dig channels and build embankments for flooded fields. Over the following centuries the new way of farming spreads east across Honshu.

    The rest is history

    Most scholars think the farming came with migrants from the Korean peninsula who mixed with the local Jomon hunter-gatherers, although the size of the migration is debated. The new food supply allowed larger settlements and stored surplus. It also brought land disputes and growing differences in rank. This is the basis of the Yayoi period, named after a district of Tokyo where its pottery was first found in 1884. Excavated Yayoi moats, such as at Yoshinogari in Kyushu, show these communities were fortified.

    Sources

    1. BookMizoguchi, Koji. The Archaeology of Japan: From the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.Standard survey of the Yayoi and Kofun periods.
    2. BookImamura, Keiji. Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996.

  2. The king of Na receives a gold seal from Han China

    Event

    What happened

    The Chinese history Hou Hanshu records that in 57 CE the Han emperor Guangwu gave a seal to an envoy from the land of Na in Wa. In 1784 a farmer on Shikanoshima island in Kyushu found a small gold seal inscribed with characters that read roughly 'king of the Na country of Wa, subject of Han'. It is now in the Fukuoka City Museum.

    The rest is history

    The seal is widely, though not universally, accepted as the one the Chinese record describes, and a few scholars have questioned its authenticity. It shows that Kyushu chiefs were sending envoys to China by the first century CE and seeking recognition from the Han court. This early diplomacy gave local rulers prestige at home, and it set a pattern repeated by Himiko's embassy in 239 CE.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryHou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han), chapter on the eastern barbarians (Dongyi), compiled by Fan Ye, 5th century CE.
    2. BookBarnes, Gina L. State Formation in Japan: Emergence of a 4th-Century Ruling Elite. London: Routledge, 2007.

  3. Himiko and the Chinese record of Wa

    Event

    What happened

    The Chinese text Wei Zhi, written in the late third century, says Wa was torn by war until its leaders agreed to make a woman, Himiko, their queen. Her capital was Yamatai. In 239 CE she sent envoys to the Wei court, which gave her the title 'queen of Wa friendly to Wei', along with gifts including bronze mirrors.

    The rest is history

    The text is the earliest written account of Japanese politics. The location of Yamatai is still debated, with northern Kyushu and the Nara basin as the main candidates. Himiko's death is described as being followed by a great mound burial, which may reflect the rise of the kofun tradition. Her successor, a girl named Iyo, restored order, according to the same record.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryWei Zhi (Records of Wei), section on the Wa people, by Chen Shou, c. 280 CE, in Sanguozhi.
    2. BookFarris, William Wayne. Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures: Issues in the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998.

  4. Building the great keyhole-shaped tombs

    Event

    What happened

    From the mid-third century CE, large keyhole-shaped mounds, with a round part and a square front, are built, starting with Hashihaka in the Nara basin. Over the next two centuries the form spreads from Tohoku to Kyushu. The largest, the Daisen Kofun near Sakai, is about 486 metres long. Graves hold bronze mirrors, iron weapons, jewels and, later, armour and horse gear.

    The rest is history

    The shared form and goods suggest a network of regional rulers linked with the Yamato leaders, who gave and received prestige objects. The mounds are ringed with clay figures called haniwa. Scholars debate how centralised the Yamato power was, but the tombs mark the start of a ranked, warrior-led society. Building of large keyhole tombs faded in the sixth century as Buddhism and new burial customs came in. Several large tombs in Osaka were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.

    Sources

    1. BookBarnes, Gina L. State Formation in Japan: Emergence of a 4th-Century Ruling Elite. London: Routledge, 2007.
    2. BookMizoguchi, Koji. An Archaeological History of Japan, 30,000 B.C. to A.D. 700. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

  5. Japanese forces in Korea and the Gwanggaeto stele

    Event

    What happened

    A stone stele raised in 414 CE at the tomb of King Gwanggaeto of Goguryeo, in present-day northeast China, records fighting against Wa troops that crossed the sea and operated on the Korean peninsula in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. The Chinese Song history also records five Wa kings sending envoys between 421 and 478 CE to seek military titles for Korean lands.

    The rest is history

    The evidence shows that Yamato rulers were deeply involved in the affairs of Baekje and the Kaya states, and they imported iron, horses and skilled craftsmen. Immigrant families brought writing, metalwork and new technology to the islands. Scholars disagree about how much control Wa actually held, and the stele's wording is argued over. The contacts shaped the kofun-era court.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryGwanggaeto Stele. Inscribed stone monument, Goguryeo, 414 CE, Ji'an, Jilin.
    2. PrimarySongshu (History of the Song), chapter on Wa, compiled by Shen Yue, c. 488 CE.

  6. The sun goddess and the first emperor Jimmu

    Origin story

    The legend

    The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki tell how the sun goddess Amaterasu sends her grandson Ninigi down to rule Japan with a mirror, sword and jewel. His great-grandson Iwarebiko marches east from Kyushu, defeats rival chiefs and becomes Emperor Jimmu, founding the imperial line in the year 660 BCE.

    The rest is history

    Both works were compiled in 712 and 720 CE, many centuries after the Kofun period, under the court of the day, and they were meant to give the ruling line a divine ancestry. No evidence supports Jimmu's date or even his existence. The three regalia echo the mirrors, swords and jewels found in real kofun burials. Japan's official founding day, 11 February, was set in 1872 using the Nihon Shoki date.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryKojiki (Record of Ancient Matters). Japanese chronicle, 712 CE.
    2. PrimaryNihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan). Japanese court chronicle, 720 CE.
    3. BookAston, W. G., trans. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, 1896.

  7. Empress Jingu conquers Korea

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    The Nihon Shoki says that Empress Jingu, pregnant and acting as regent, is told by a god to attack Silla. She leads a fleet across the sea, and the waves and fish carry her ships so that Silla's king surrenders without a fight. She returns to Japan and delays the birth of her son, the future Emperor Ojin, until the army is home.

    The rest is history

    No Korean or Chinese record mentions such a conquest, and the Nihon Shoki's dates for her reign do not fit other evidence. The story was written down in 720 CE, some four centuries after the period it describes. It may echo real Wa activity in Korea. In later centuries it was used to justify Japanese claims on Korea, and in 1881 Jingu was put on a Japanese banknote.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryNihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan). Japanese court chronicle, 720 CE, book 9.
    2. BookAston, W. G., trans. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, 1896.

  8. Yamato Takeru, the prince who conquered the regions

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    Prince Ogusu, later Yamato Takeru, is sent by his father the emperor to subdue rebels in Kyushu and the east. He kills the Kumaso chiefs disguised as a girl, and a fire set by enemies is beaten back with the sword Kusanagi. He dies of illness on the way home and turns into a white bird.

    The rest is history

    The tale appears in both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, with some differences. Yamato Takeru is probably a composite figure that symbolises the extension of Yamato power into Kyushu and the Kanto region. An inscribed iron sword from the Inariyama tomb in Saitama (471 CE, probably) and another from Kumamoto show that the Yamato court's reach had indeed extended to both regions by the fifth century. The Kusanagi sword is one of the three imperial regalia, and is said to be kept at Atsuta Shrine.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryKojiki (Record of Ancient Matters). Japanese chronicle, 712 CE.
    2. BookPhilippi, Donald L., trans. Kojiki. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1968.

  9. Urashima Taro and the dragon palace

    Folk tale

    The legend

    A fisherman named Urashima rescues a turtle and is carried to a palace beneath the sea, where a princess welcomes him. After what seems three days he goes home, given a box he must not open. He finds three hundred years have passed, opens the box, and ages at once.

    The rest is history

    The earliest versions are in the Nihon Shoki, which places the event in 478 CE, and in the Tango fudoki, a local gazetteer of the eighth century, where he is called Urashima no ko. They are the oldest written forms of a tale later known across Japan. The setting in the Kofun period has no historical support. The story reflects the real importance of the sea and the coast to early Japanese communities, and the Tango version names a shrine, Urashima Shrine at Ine, which still exists.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryNihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan). Japanese court chronicle, 720 CE, book 14.
    2. PrimaryTango no kuni fudoki (Gazetteer of Tango Province), 8th century CE, surviving in quotations.

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