ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
of the
Yayoi people
The were an ancient ethnicity that migrated to the Japanese archipelago from Korea and China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Although highly controversial, a single study that utilized radiometric dating techniques inconclusively ...
who lived in the
Japanese archipelago
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East C ...
.
*In the wider sense, an ethnic group that was mainly active at sea between
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater Chin ...
, the
Korean Peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...
and the Japanese archipelago.
In general the Wajin that established themself on the Japanese archipelago became the
Yayoi people
The were an ancient ethnicity that migrated to the Japanese archipelago from Korea and China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Although highly controversial, a single study that utilized radiometric dating techniques inconclusively ...
, the ancestors of the
Yamato people
The (or the )David Blake Willis and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu''Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity,'' p. 272: "“Wajin,” which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read “Yamato no hito” (Ya ...
. The word "Wajin" also refers to related groups outside of Japan.
The first secure appearance of Wajin is in " Treatise on Geography" (地理志) of the ''
Book of Han
The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. I ...
'' (漢書). After that, in "Gishi
Wajinden
The ''Wajinden'' refers to the passages in the 30th volume of the Chinese history chronicle ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' that talk about the Wa people who would later be known as the Japanese people. It describes the mores, geography, and ...
" ((魏志倭人伝), a Japanese abbreviation for the "account of Wajin" in the "
Biographies
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
Xianbei
The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...
, and
Dongyi
The Dongyi or Eastern Yi () was a collective term for ancient peoples found in Chinese records. The definition of Dongyi varied across the ages, but in most cases referred to inhabitants of eastern China, then later, the Korean peninsula, and Ja ...
" (烏丸鮮卑東夷傳), Volume 30 of the "Book of Wei" (魏書) of the ''
Records of the Three Kingdoms
The ''Records or History of the Three Kingdoms'', also known by its Chinese name as the Sanguo Zhi, is a Chinese historical text which covers the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 184–220 AD) and the Three Kingdoms period (220� ...
'' (三国志)), their lifestyle, habits and the way of society are described and by cultural commonality such as lifestyle, customs and languages, they are distinguished themselves from "Kanjin" (
han
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
people (韓人)) and "Waijin" (Wai people (濊人)).
Descriptions about Wajin can be found in the
Old Book of Tang
The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
(945 AD) and the ''
New Book of Tang
The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...
'' (1060 AD)
Several linguists, including
Alexander Vovin
Alexander (Sasha) Vladimirovich Vovin (russian: Александр Владимирович Вовин; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Ad ...
and
Juha Janhunen
Juha Janhunen (born 12 February 1952 in Pori, Finland) is a Finnish linguist whose wide interests include Uralic and Mongolic languages. Since 1994 he has been Professor in East Asian studies at the University of Helsinki. He has done fieldwork o ...
, suggest that
Japonic languages
Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan, sometimes also Japanic, is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and ...
were spoken by Wajin and were present in large parts of the southern
Korean Peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...
. According to Vovin, these "Peninsular Japonic languages" were replaced by Koreanic-speakers (possibly belonging to the Han-branch). This event was possibly the reason for the Yayoi-migration into Japan. Janhunen also suggests that early
Baekje
Baekje or Paekche (, ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BC to 660 AD. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla.
Baekje was founded by Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder Ju ...
was still predominantly Japonic-speaking before they got replaced or assimilated into the new Korean society.
Origin of the name
There are several theories as to why certain people living in the
Japanese archipelago
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East C ...
: *''ŋjweiC'' < Yan Shigu
Yan Shigu () (581–645), formal name Yan Zhou (), but went by the courtesy name of Shigu, was a famous Chinese historian, linguist, politician, and writer of the Tang Dynasty.
Biography
Yan was born in Wannian (, in modern Xi'an, Shaanxi). His a ...
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japane ...
(794 to 1185), the introduction of "Hiroshi 's private record" (, "Nihon Shoki Shiki") describes the theory that the Chinese side wrote down as "Wakoku" (倭の国), because the self-proclaimed "wa" (わ) was used as a theory of a certain person.
In addition, since the word "Wakoku" is obedient (従順) in "
Shuowen Jiezi
''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give t ...
",
Ichijō Kaneyoshi
, also known as Ichijō Kanera, was the son of regent Tsunetsugu. He was a ''kugyō'' or Japanese court noble of the Muromachi period (1336–1573). He held regent positions sesshō in 1432, and kampaku from 1447 to 1453 and from 1467 to 1470. ...
chanted "because the human heart of Wajin was obedient" (, "Nihon Shoki Sanso"), and many posterity Confucian scholars follow this.
There is also a theory that "Wa" (倭) meant "a short race" (背丈の小さい人種, Setake no chīsai jinshu).
The Japanese philosopher Kinoshita Jun'an states that he was called Wa (倭) because he was a small person (dwarf, 矮人).
Arai Hakuseki
was a Confucianist, scholar-bureaucrat, academic, administrator, writer and politician in Japan during the middle of the Edo period, who advised the ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ienobu. His personal name was Kinmi or Kimiyoshi (君美). Hakuseki (白 ...
stated in "Koshitsū" (古史通或問) that the transliteration of "Ohokuni" (オホクニ) was "Wakoku" (倭国). In addition, writer Motohiko Izawa said, "When humans on the continent heard their national name, they answered the name of their own organization, which was the "輪" (Wa = ring, ring moat of a moat village 環濠集落), because the concept of the state still existed at that time." Many theories have been made in this way, but there is no definite one.
There is some disagreement with the interpretation of "Wakoku" (倭(委)奴国) as "Wakoku" (倭の奴の国). Among the scholars of the head family of kanji who interpreted the original "Gishiwajinden" (), the word "yatsu" (奴) used to mean a derogatory term for a woman, and the female kingdom, Wa (倭), was called "Wakoku" (倭奴国). It is the theory that it should be called and should be regarded as a derogatory term for the book-sealing nation based on Chinese thought and the current nation's Wakoku (倭国). However, it is the view that such derogatory terms are gradually becoming obsolete even in later Sinocentric countries as the envoys to Sui and Tang came to be used.
As Baiyue and Wu people
The ethnic concept of "Wa-zoku (倭族)" encompasses a wide range of regions and does not limit to the Wajin of the Japanese archipelago. According to Kenzaburo's theory,鳥越憲三郎『原弥生人の渡来 』(角川書店,1982)、『倭族から日本人へ』(弘文堂 ,1985)、『古代朝鮮と倭族』(中公新書,1992)、『倭族トラジャ』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1995)、『弥生文化の源流考』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1998)、『古代中国と倭族』(中公新書,2000)、『中国正史倭人・倭国伝全釈』(中央公論新社,2004) Wa-zoku are Wajin who came to the Japanese archipelago with rice crop, whose ancestor was the same as the
Yayoi people
The were an ancient ethnicity that migrated to the Japanese archipelago from Korea and China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Although highly controversial, a single study that utilized radiometric dating techniques inconclusively ...
. Torigoe says that the original place of the Wa-zoku is
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...
.
Suwa Haruo considered Wa-zoku to be part of
Baiyue
The Baiyue (, ), Hundred Yue, or simply Yue (; ), were various ethnic groups who inhabited the regions of East China, South China and Northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. They were known for their short hair, ...
(百越) in
southern China
South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...
.諏訪春雄編『倭族と古代日本』(雄山閣出版、1993)また諏訪春雄通信100
The Wajin (and the Yayoi) are possibly descendants of the Wu people. A large paddy ruins in the area was created around 450 BC, the
Warring States period
The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...
, in
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
, and a record states that "Wajin ere theself-named descendants of Zhou". An influential theory states that the Wu people of the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow ...
area that followed the
hydroponic
Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in aqueous solvents. Terrestrial or aquati ...
rice cultivation culture, which is also a symbol of Yangtze civilization, drifted to the Japanese archipelago around the 5th century BC, in collaboration with the destruction of the Kingdom of Wu.