Wakoku

The first appearance of the word "wa" or "wa-jin" in Chinese historical books was around 150 BC in the middle of the Yayoi period[1] and corresponds to the Pre-Han period described in the Book of Han in China. According to the Book of Han, from 2nd century BC to around AD, Japanese regularly visited the (former) Han Dynasty via the Han colony of Lelang County, tribute, and it is known that they formed a large number (described in the Han Book as "more than 100") of political groups (countries).

In the middle of the 1st century, in the 2nd year of the Kemmu Chugoku era (57), the chief of Wan-nu-no-kuni, which is said to have been located in northern Kyushu (along the coast of Hakata Bay), received a gold seal (King of Na gold seal) from Emperor Guangwu of Han.

"The Book of the Later Han, the Eastern Barbarians, "In the second year of Jianwu's reign, the Japanese kingdom paid tribute to Chaohe, and sent a man to call himself a great master, and Guangwu gave him a seal.

It is believed that this was the result of the consolidation of Japanese political groups in northern Kyushu, and that the Yamato State sent an envoy to the Later Han Dynasty as a representative of these groups.

The Nakoku found in the Japanese Biography in Wajinshi is said to be located in the Fukuoka Plain. The King of Han Ku Nukuni, which is written in the Book of the Later Han, has been excavated from this area, and the 1st century BC, and a pre-Han mirror dating back to the 1st century BC has been excavated. A royal tomb dating back to the 1st century BC has also been found at the San'unnamikoji site (Itoshima City), which is thought to be the center of the "Ito Province.[2]。

About 50 years later, in the first year of Yongchou (107), the Japanese king Suishō sent an envoy to the Later Han Dynasty and presented 160 seikuchi (slaves).

"In the first year of the reign of Emperor An's Yongchu, the king of the Japanese kingdom, Shoushang, and others presented a hundred and sixty people to the court.

The oldest person in Japanese history to leave his name in a document dating back 107 years, Sho Masu was also the first person to be named King of Japan in historical records. Furthermore, the term "wakoku" also appears for the first time at this time. These facts suggest that it was during this period that the political power known as wagoku, which represented Japan and the Japanese people externally, was formed.

The Later Han Shu was compiled in a much later period, and although this has led some to believe that a powerful political force representing the Japanese state to some extent emerged between the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century, there is no evidence that Gouzu in each of the regions of the Japanese archipelago had any influence on the development of the Japanese state. The possibility that the king of Japan was also known as the King of Japan cannot be ruled out. In any case, from this time until the end of the 7th century, the political power representing/uniting the Yamato/Japanese people continued to refer to itself externally as "Wakoku".

After Sho-masu, it is said that a male lineage succeeded to the throne of Yamato, but in the late 2nd century, a large-scale conflict broke out between the various political forces within Yamato (the Great War of Yamato).

This great uprising was settled when Himiko, who resided in Yamatai/Ibataikoku (see Ibataikoku), was appointed king of Japan. Himiko died in the 240s, and the next king of Japan was a male, but civil war broke out again, and the rebellion ended when a female, Taeyeo/ Ichibayo (see Taiyo), became king of Japan. Thus, in late Yayoi Japan, miko-like girls frequently ascended to the throne.

In the "Sangokushi" (Records of the Three Kingdoms), Wei Shu Toi Denn Wajin-jo, the so-called Wei Shih Wajin Den, there are quite detailed descriptions of Emataikoku, Tsushima Province, Ichiji Province, Suerokoku, Itsukoku, Nakoku, and other countries. It takes 20 days by water to reach Toumadai from Fumikuni, and 10 days by water and 1 month by land to reach the south from Toumadai to Yamataikuni. King Himiko of Yama-dae-guk also paid tribute to Wei and was given the title of King of the Parent Wei Kingdom.

After Iyo, the record of tribute to the Chinese dynasty by Wakoku was cut off for a while. According to the Kujiki, there were more than 120 Kuni-no-Miyatsu in various parts of the Japanese archipelago, forming regional states.

Among them, the kings of the Yamato kingdom, which is said to have been established by a confederation by the first half of the Kofun era in the 4th century, were known externally as "Yamato kings" or "Yamato kings," but the early Yamato kingdom was an alliance of Regional states of various powerful families and was not a despotic kingdom or dynasty. It was not. It is thought that kings of regional states sometimes referred to themselves externally as Wakoku Kings.

From the late 4th century, tribute to the Northern and Southern dynasties, such as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was seen, and this tribute to the Southern Dynasty continued intermittently until the end of the 5th century. These were the Five kings of Wa, as described in the Book of Song, and five kings are known: San, Jin, Je, Heung, and Wu.

The king of Japan was called "King of Wako" or "King of Japan" to the dynasties of the Southern Dynasty on the continent, and domestically he was called "King" or "Okimi", as the inscription on an iron sword excavated from the Eta Funayama Kofun in Kumamoto Prefecture reads "治天下獲□□□鹵大王". Dai-ou]], or "Great King" (Ame no Shitashiroshimashimasu-okimisu-okimisu),[3].

Shikai huayi sōtō (四海華夷總圖), a map of the world created in 1532. Daqin State is shown in the far west.

" Suisho" Wakoku 81st liezhuan 46th Dongyi Wakoku. According to Suisho, Wakoku is located in the southeastern part of Baekje / Silla, in the land of Sansenri, and the territory of the country is five months from east to west and three months from north to south. .. In the national book to Sui brought by the messenger of Mission to Sui dispatched from King Taritoshi Hokuko in 607 Instead of using the notation, it is written as "Hide 處 Tenko" (Tenko in the place where the sun rises). This is just to indicate that it is in the east, as in the Buddhist scriptures of the time, "Daichi Ron" (annotation of "Makahan Wakahara Mitsutakyo"), "Hide 處 處 east 處 處 west". I have an idea. However, as Japan developed, I realized that the word "倭" was not suitable for the country name, and there is a theory that it was changed to the country name "Japan" for that reason.[4] After that, until the latter half of the 7th century, the notation of the national name remained Wakoku / Wakoku.

When Baekje was destroyed in 660, the Japanese attempted to revive it, and the Battle of Baekgang broke out in 663 between the Tang dynasty and Silla, but they were defeated and forced to withdraw completely from the Korean peninsula. The first time the country was divided into two regions was in the 1960s. Emperor Tenmu]], who won the Imjin War in 672, accelerated the construction of the Ritsuryo State, and in the process, he tried to prevent the Tang Dynasty from invading Japan by showing the Northern Tang Dynasty that Japan was a separate country from the Southern Tang Dynasty and Japan from the Southern Tang Dynasty. The compilation of the Daiho Ritsūritsu, which regulated the new state system, was almost completed at the end of the 7th century, and it is said that the country name was changed from Wa (Japan) to Japan around 701, just before the implementation of the said code. Thereafter, the central political power in the Japanese archipelago would refer to itself as Yamato.

The New Tang Book and the Old Tang Book describe the change of the country's name at this time, saying that the name "Japan" was changed to "Japan. In both books, there is also a description that "Japan, originally a small country, annexed Japan," which is generally understood to refer to the Imjin War in which Emperor Tenmu destroyed the Omi Imperial Court of Emperor Kōbun. The "K" in "K" is the first letter of the Japanese alphabet. In the Sangokushi, a history book of the Korean Peninsula, "Shilla honki", December of the 10th year of King Munmu (670), there is an article that reads, "Japan is renamed as the Japanese nation. The article states, "Japan was renamed as 'Japan' in the 10th year of King Munmu's reign (670), and was named after its proximity to the rising sun. In the New Book of Tang, it is written that Me-tarishibikō was the first emperor to have contact with China.

For a while afterwards in Japan, "Yamato" was sometimes used to refer to Japan, but around the middle of the Nara period (the Tempyō-shōhō era), "Wa" (和), which has the same pronunciation, began to be used in combination, and gradually became the predominant character. The word "Japan" was initially read as "Yamato," but eventually came to be read phonetically as "Zippon" or "Nippon," which became established around the Heian era and has continued to the present day.