Kofun era

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The Template:Nihongo is an era in the history of Japan from around 250 CE to 538 CE. The word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mounds dating from this era.

Archeological evidence indicates contacts between southern Korea and Japan from a very early period. Until elements of Northeast Asian, Chinese, and Korean civilization were introduced to the Japanese archipelago in waves of migration, the latter was inhabited by the hunter-gatherer Jomon people consisting of Ainu and Malayo-Polynesian people. This view was popularized in Japan by Egami Namio's theory of a powerful horse-riding race from the north who brought about the dramatic change from Jomon to Yayoi culture. Kofun period has been the continuation of Yayoi period.

Most scholars believe that there were massive transmissions of technology and culture from Korea to Japan which is evidenced by material artifacts in tombs of both states in the Proto-Three Kingdoms of Korea and Kofun eras, and the later wave of Baekje immigrants to Yamato.

Korean immigrants in Japan

The archeological record and ancient Chinese sources indicate that the various tribes and chiefdoms of Japan did not begin to coalesce into states until 300, when large tombs begin to appear while there were no contacts between the Wa and China. Some describe the "mysterious century" as a time of internecine warfare as various chiefdoms competed for hegemony on Kyushu and Honshu. [1]. A unified Yamato state may have coincided with large migration of Korea's Baekje people at the end of the fourth century

"Japan of the Kofun Period was very positive towards the introduction of Korean culture". Not only are there many material objects from China and Korea that were exported to Japan such as bronze mirrors, iron, and pottery, kofun key-hole shaped tombs and haniwa, two features once thought to be unique to Japan, have been discovered in Korea. Ceramic manufacturing in kilns and horse-riding are two important technologies transmitted to Japan by Korean immigrants. [2].

Yamato links to the mainland and the Liu Sung Dynasty in 425 and 478 were facilitated by the maritime knowledge and diplomatic connections of Baekje. [3].

Iron working technology was introduced into Japan from Korea around 300. Korea was an important source of iron ingots to Japan and the Koreans were famous for the iron-working skills in that time period. [4].

Korean paintings in Goguryeo tombs had important influences in Japan. [5]. Decorated tombs and painted tumuli which date from the fifth century and later found in Japan are generally accepted as Korean exports to Japan. The Takamatsuzuka tomb even has paintings of woman dressed in distinctive Korean pleated skirts. [6].

Kofun tombs

Image:NintokuTomb.jpg The Kofun period (c AD 250–538) takes its name (古墳, kofun: "old tomb") from the culture's rich funerary rituals and distinctive earthen mounds. The mounds contained large stone burial chambers. Some are surrounded by moats.

Kofun came in many shapes, with round and square being the simplest. A distinct style is the keyhole kofun (前方後円墳 zenpō kōen fun), with its square front and round back. Many kofun were natural hills, which might have been sculpted to their final shape. Kofun range in size from several meters to over 400 meters in length.

By the late Kofun period, the distinctive burial chambers, originally used by the ruling elite, were also built for commoners.

The biggest kofun are believed to be the tombs of local monarchs like Ōjin (応神天皇 Ōjin Tennō) and Nintoku (仁徳天皇 Nintoku Tennō). Kofun are also classified according to whether the entrance to the stone burial chamber is vertical (縦穴 tate-ana) or horizontal (横穴 yoko-ana).

Kofun society

Image:KofunHorseCharriots.JPG Image:IshibutaiWithFigureSmallVersion2.jpg During the Kofun period, a highly aristocratic society with militaristic rulers developed. Its cavalry wore armour, carried swords and other weapons, and used advanced military methods like those of north-east Asia. Evidence of these advances is seen in funerary figures (called haniwa; literally, clay rings), found in thousands of kofun scattered throughout Japan. The most important of the haniwa were found in southern Honshu—especially the Kinai region around Nara—and northern Kyushu. Haniwa grave offerings were made in numerous forms, such as horses, chickens, birds, fans, fish, houses, weapons, shields, sunshades, pillows, and male and female humans. Another funerary piece, the magatama, became one of the symbols of the power of the imperial house. Much of the material culture of the Kofun period is barely distinguishable from that of the contemporaneous southern Korean peninsula, demonstrating that at this time Japan was in close political and economic contact with continental Asia (especially with the southern dynasties of China) through Korea. Indeed, bronze mirrors cast from the same mould have been found on both sides of the Straits. Image:KofunCuirass.jpg The Kofun period was a critical stage in Japan's evolution toward a more cohesive and recognized state. This society was most developed in the Kinai Region and the easternmost part of the Inland Sea. Japan's rulers of the time even petitioned the Chinese court for confirmation of royal titles. Image:HaniwaHorse.JPG The Yamato polity, which emerged by the late 5th century, was distinguished by powerful great clans or extended families, including their dependants. Each clan was headed by a patriarch who performed sacred rites to the clan's kami to ensure the long-term welfare of the clan. Clan members were the aristocracy, and the kingly line that controlled the Yamato court was at its pinnacle. The Kofun period of Japanese culture is also sometimes called the Yamato period by some Western scholars, since this local chieftainship arose to become the Imperial dynasty at the end of the Kofun period. Yamato and its dynasty however were just one rivalling polity among others throughout the Kofun era. Japanese archaeologists emphasise instead the fact that in the early half of the Kofun period other regional chieftainships, such as Kibi, near modern day Okayama, were in close contention for dominance or importance.

The Yamato court ultimately exercised power over clans in Kyushu and Honshu, bestowing titles, some hereditary, on clan chieftains. The Yamato name became synonymous with all of Japan as the Yamato rulers suppressed the clans and acquired agricultural lands. Based on Chinese models (including the adoption of the Chinese written language), they started to develop a central administration and an imperial court attended by subordinate clan chieftains but with no permanent capital.

The Yamato court had ties to the Korean Gaya confederacy, called Mimana in Japanese. There is archaeological evidence from the Kofun tombs, which show similarities in form, art, and clothing of the depicted nobles. A second source is the Nihonshoki. Japanese kokugaku historians claimed Gaya to be a colony of the Yamato state, a theory that is now widely rejected. More likely all these states were tributaries to the Chinese Sui and Tang dynasties to some extent.

While conventionally assigned to the period from 250 CE, the actual start of Yamato rule is disputed. The dynasty's supremacy was challenged throughout the period from Kibi Province (later Bizen and Bitchū) and it was only into the 6th century that the Yamato clans could be said to have any major advantage over their neighbouring clans.

Most scholars believe that there were massive transmissions of technology and culture from Korea to Japan which is evidenced by material artifacts in tombs of both states in the Proto-Three Kingdoms of Korea and Kofun eras, and the later wave of Baekje immigrants to Yamato.

Ruling class

Japan's Emperor Kammu's mother is known to be a Baekje descendant.

Many important figures in Emperor Ojin's reign were immigrants from the Korean kingdom of Baekje. In Emperor Kimmei's reign, according to the Nihongi, a Korean was in charge of taxes levied on shipments. The introduction of Chinese writing to Yamato was one Baekje's most important gifts to the court. [7].

One-third of the noble families on a list compiled in 815 had their origins in China or Korea: 170 of the 1200 listed were from China, 240 from different parts of Korea. [8]. These immigrants received noble titles from the rulers of the Yamato, and were valued as experts, especially on iron-working, horseriding and writing.

Korean influence on Japanese laws is also attributed to the fact that Korean immigrants were on committees that drew up law codes. Eight of the 19 members of the committee drafting the Taiho Code were from Korean immigrant families while none were from China proper. Further, idea of local administrative districts and the tribute tax are based on Korean models. [9].

Chinese chronicles make note that the horse was absent on the islands of Japan and they are first noted in the chronicles during the reign of Nintoku, most likely brought by Korean immigrants. The horse is one of the treasures that the king Silla presented the emperor according to the record of Nihonshoki. Irrigation, sericulture, and weaving were also brought to Japan by Korean immigrants who are mentioned in the ancient Japanese histories. [10]. The cavalry wore armour, carried swords and other weapons, and used advanced military methods like those of north-east Asia. Evidence of these advances is seen in funerary figures (called haniwa; literally, clay rings), found in thousands of kofun scattered throughout Japan. The most important of the haniwa were found in southern Honshu—especially the Kinai region around Nara—and northern Kyushu. Haniwa grave offerings were made in numerous forms, such as horses, chickens, birds, fans, fish, houses, weapons, shields, sunshades, pillows, and male and female humans. Another funerary piece, the magatama, became one of the symbols of the power of the imperial house. Much of the material culture of the Kofun period is barely distinguishable from that of the contemporaneous southern Korean peninsula, demonstrating that at this time Japan was in close political and economic contact with continental Asia (especially with the southern dynasties of China) through Korea. Indeed, bronze mirrors cast from the same mould have been found on both sides of the Straits.

Language

Little evidence remains of the languages spoken in the ancient Korean kingdoms. Chinese, Korean and Japanese wrote accounts of history mostly in Chinese characters, making original pronunciations difficult to trace. Some linguists believe that modern Japanese evolved from the version of Korean spoken in Goguryeo and Baekje of Korea, while modern Korean is closer to that of Silla.

The theory that the name of the former Japanese capital Nara came from the Korean word Nara ("country") is disputed. The Japanese word Nara may be related to the word Narashita, meaning a flat place, as the city is located on a small flat plain in the mountainous region of Nara prefecture.

The Inariyami sword, made in either Korea or China (tentatively dated 471 or 531) contains Chinese character inscriptions in styles used in Korea. These "Koreanisms" of written Chinese are also found on the Eta Funayama Sword dated to about the fifth century. [11]. Various inscriptions with the names of the authors such as bronze mirrors and swords have peninsular surnames or are explicitly Korean. Also, other Japanese artifacts display popular Baekje styles, such as the abbreviated form of "be" on swords, a stone monument in Tako and a Buddhist statute at Horyu-ji Temple. [12].

Territorial expansion of Yamato dynasty

In addition of archaeological findings showing a local monarchy a the today Kibi Province as an important rival, the legend of the 4th century Prince Yamato Takeru indicates the then bordering areas and battlegrounds of the then monarchs of Yamato: a frontier was obviously somewhere close to the later Izumo province (the eastern part of the today Shimane prefecture). Another frontier, in Kyushu, apparently was somewhere north of the today Kumamoto prefecture. The legend specifically states that there was an eastern land in Honshu "whose people disobeyed the imperial court", against whom Yamatotakeru was sent to fight. That rivalling country may have been located rather close to the Yamato nucleus area itself, or relatively far away. The today Kai province is mentioned as one of the locations where prince Yamatotakeru sojourned in his said military expedition.

Towards Asuka period

Kofun period changed into Asuka period in mid-6th century CE (traditionally in 538), by the introduction of Buddhism. Chinese writing and Buddhism were introduced by Baekje, a Korean kingdom.

History texts

Many Koreans, Westeners and some Japanese raise questions about the completeness, objectivity, and reliability of the surviving version of these Japanese sources. They argue early parts of Kojiki and Nihongi were fabricated or exaggerated by the Yamato court to legitimize its rule.

Kojiki and Nihongi, Japanese history chronicles, state that the Yamato kingdom had always influenced events in Korea by sending in troops, sometimes as many as 100,000, and maintained an outpost in Korea. They also state that the Kammu's mother's clan was given the status of a retainer under the emperor after the Baekje kingdom fell. These claims are viewed by many different scholars as unsupported propaganda.

Thus, a myth that Jingu conquered parts of Korea in the Kojiki is rejected as fairy tale inserted by Yamato scholars because of later tense relations between Silla and Yamato.

Most scholars agree that the founding date of Japan as 660 B.C.E. and the first thirteen emperors of Japan are mythical and not based on historical fact. Additionally, the Nihongi attributes dates two sexagenary cycles or 120 years of history before they actually happened to make the relatively young Yamato state as respectable as contemporaneous Korean and Chinese states which shows another evidence of bias of the writers. (A sexagenary cycle of sixty years was used to keep a measure of time on a calendar.)

Many of the myths of these two histories also have many similarities with traditions in China, Manchuria, and Korea.

See also

Template:Commons

• History of Japan
• Tumulus

References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies which, as a United States government publication, is in the public domain. - Japan

ja:古墳時代 nl:Kofun pl:Kofun pt:Período Kofun sv:Kofun fr:Kofun