Himiko
Himiko, also known as the Shingi Waō, was a shamaness-queen of Yamatai-koku in Wa. Early Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler following decades of warfare among the kings of Wa. Early Japanese histories do not mention Himiko, but historians associate her with legendary figures such as Empress Consort Jingū, who is said to have served as regent from 201 to 269.
Scholarly debates over the identity of Himiko and the location of her domain, Yamatai, have raged since the late Edo period, with opinions divided between northern Kyūshū or traditional Yamato Province in present-day Kinki. The "Yamatai controversy", writes Keiji Imamura, is "the greatest debate over the ancient history of Japan." A prevailing view among scholars is that she may be buried at Hashihaka Kofun in Nara Prefecture.
She came to power aged 20 in 190, and died in either 247 or 248.
Historical references
The shaman queen Himiko is recorded in various ancient histories, dating back to 3rd-century China, 8th-century Japan, and 12th-century Korea.Chinese sources
The first historical records of Himiko are found in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, a Chinese classic text dating to. Japanese scholars excerpted the passages relating to the Wa from volume 30 of the "Book of Wei" of the Records and refer to them as the. This section is the first description of Himiko and Yamatai:This early history describes how Himiko came to the throne:
The "Records of Wei" also records envoys travelling between the Wa and Wei courts. Himiko's emissaries first visited the court of Wei emperor Cao Rui in 238, and he replied:
Finally, the "Records of Wei" records that in 247 when a new governor arrived at Daifang Commandery in Korea, Queen Himiko officially complained of hostilities with Himikuko, the king of Kuna , one of the other Wa states. The governor dispatched "Chang Chêng, acting Secretary of the Border Guard" with a "proclamation advising reconciliation", and subsequently:
Commentators take this 'Iyo' as a miscopy of Toyo paralleling the writing as .
Two other Chinese dynastic histories mentioned Himiko. While both clearly incorporated the reports, they made some changes, such as specifying the "some seventy or eighty years" of Wa wars occurred between 146 and 189, during the reigns of Han Emperors Huan and Ling. The Book of Later Han says "the King of Great Wa resides in the country of Yamadai", rather than the Queen:
The 636 Book of Sui changes the number of Himiko's male attendants:
Japanese sources
Neither of the two oldest Japanese histories – the nor – mentions Queen Himiko. The circumstances under which these books were written is a matter of unending debate, and even if Himiko were known to the authors, they may have purposefully decided not to include her. However, they include three imperial-family shamans identified with her: Princess Yamato-totohi-momoso, the aunt of Emperor Sujin and daughter of Emperor Kōrei; Yamatohime-no-mikoto, the daughter of Emperor Suinin ; and Empress Jingū, the wife of Emperor Chūai. These dates, however, are not historically verified.One remarkable exception to early Japanese histories overlooking Himiko is the, quoting the three times. In 239, "the queen of Wa" sent envoys to Wei; in 240, they returned "charged with an Imperial rescript and a seal and ribbon;" and in 243, "the ruler of Wa again sent high officers as envoys with tribute".
Princess Yamato-totohi-momoso, the shaman aunt of Emperor Sujin, supposedly committed suicide after learning her husband was a trickster snake-god. The does not mention her, but the describes her as "the Emperor's aunt by the father's side, a shrewd and intelligent person, who could foresee the future". After a series of national calamities, the Emperor "assembled the 80 myriads of Deities" and inquired by divination. Yamato-totohi-momoso was inspired by Ōmononushi-nushi, to say: "Why is the Emperor grieved at the disordered state of the country? If he duly did us reverent worship it would assuredly become pacified of itself." The Emperor inquired, saying: "What God is it that thus instructs me?" The answer was: "I am the God who dwells within the borders of the land of Yamato, and my name is Oho-mono-nushi no Kami." While imperial worship of this god was "without effect", Yamato-totohi-momoso later married him.
The Hashihaka Kofun in Sakurai, Nara is associated with this legend.
Yamatohime-no-mikoto, the daughter of Emperor Suinin, supposedly founded the Ise Shrine to the sun-goddess Amaterasu. The records her as the fourth of Suinin's five children, "Her Augustness Yamato-hime, ". The likewise records "Yamato-hime no Mikoto" and provides more details. The Emperor assigned Yamato-hime to find a permanent location for Amaterasu's shrine, and after wandering for years, the sun-goddess instructed her to build it at Ise "where she first descended from Heaven".
Empress Consort Jingū supposedly served as regent after the death of her husband Emperor Chūai until the accession of her son Emperor Ōjin. The and have similar accounts. Emperor Chūai wanted to invade Kumaso, and while he was consulting with his ministers, Jingū conveyed a shamanistic message that he should invade Silla instead. Compare these:
The Emperor thought the gods were lying, said he had only seen ocean to the West, and then died, either immediately or after invading Kumaso. Jingū allegedly discovered she was pregnant, personally planned and led a successful conquest of Silla, gave birth to the future emperor, and returned to rule Yamato. The adds that since Jingū wanted to learn which gods had cursed Chūai, she constructed a shamanic "palace of worship", "discharged in person the office of priest", and heard the gods reveal themselves as coming from Ise and Mukatsu. Although the and myth-histories called Jingū first of the Japanese empresses, Meiji period historians removed her from the List of Emperors of Japan, leaving Empress Suiko as the first historically verifiable female Japanese ruler.
Korean sources
The oldest extant Korean history text, the , records that Queen Himiko sent an emissary to King Adalla of Silla in May 173.Interpretations
Researchers have struggled to reconcile Himiko between Chinese and Japanese historical sources. While the described her as an important ruler in 3rd-century Japan, early Japanese historians purposely avoided naming Himiko, even when the quoted the about envoys from Wa.Name
The three Chinese characters transcribing the Wa regent's name are read or in Modern Japanese and or in Modern Standard Chinese.However, these contemporary readings differ considerably from how 'Himiko' was pronounced in the 3rd century, both by speakers of the unknown Wa-language and by Chinese scribes who transcribed it. While transliteration into Chinese characters of foreign words is complex, the choice of these three particular characters is puzzling, with literal meanings Wikt:卑 "low; inferior; humble", Wikt:彌 "fill, cover; full; whole, complete", and Wikt:呼 "breathe out; exhale; cry out; call".
In terms of historical Chinese phonology, the modern is simpler than its presumed 3rd-century late Old Chinese or early Middle Chinese pronunciation. Compare the following reconstructions of the name in Archaic Chinese or Middle Chinese, Early Middle Chinese, and, historically closest, Late Han Chinese.
- or
,, explains Miller, etymologically derives from and .
Tsunoda notes that "Pimiko is from an archaic Japanese title,, meaning 'princess'"; that is, with the female name suffix , viz. the uncommon given name Himeko. Other Amaterasu-related etymological proposals for the Japanese name Himiko involve and ; or their combination, "princess-priestess".
Bentley considers the Baekje word, 'west', the honorific prefix and, 'heir', and thus interprets as 'the honorific heir of the west'.
Identity and historicity
Identifying Himiko of Wa is straightforward within the history of China, but problematic within the history of Japan. The 3rd-century Chinese provides details about shaman Queen Himiko and her communications with Emperors Cao Rui and Cao Fang. The 8th-century Japanese and the disregard Himiko, unless she was the subtext behind their accounts of Empress Jingū, Yamatohime-no-mikoto, or Yamato-totohi-momoso-hime.None of these three legendary Japanese royal shamans adequately corresponds with the Chinese chronology and description of Himiko. Assuming the account that Himiko died around 248, if one accepts the dubious Japanese traditional dating, then she was closer to the 3rd-century AD Empress Jingū than to the 1st-century BC Yamato-hime-no-mikoto and Yamato-totohi-momoso-hime. On the other hand, if one accepts the postdating adjustments prior to the 4th century, then Himiko was closer to these Yamato-named shamans. Neither the nor the mentions Himiko or any of the salient topics that she was unmarried, was chosen as ruler by the people, had a younger brother who helped rule, or had numerous female attendants.
William Wayne Farris reviews the history of scholarly debates over Himiko and her domain Yamatai. The Edo-period philosophers Arai Hakuseki and Motoori Norinaga began the controversies over whether Yamatai was located in Northern Kyushu or Yamato Province in the Kinki region of central Honshū and whether the or the was historically more trustworthy. The Confucianist Arai accepted the Chinese history as more reliable, and first equated Himiko with Jingū and Yamatai with Yamato. The scholar Motoori accepted the traditional Japanese myth-history as more reliable, and dismissed its quotations as later accretions. He hypothesized that a king from Kumaso sent emissaries who masqueraded as Jingū's officials to the Wei court, thus leading Wei to mistake them for representatives of Himiko. Farris states that "Motoori's usurpation hypothesis carried great weight for the next century."
Rather than being linked with Yamataikoku, Himiko may have been instead linked with Nakoku, whereto was sent a golden royal seal, by Emperor Guangwu of the Han dynasty. Nakoku is said to have existed from the 1st century to the early 3rd century, and seems to have been independent or even a rival of the current Imperial House of Japan, supposedly in Yamato, Honshū. Even so, both the and recorded that the current imperial dynasty, starting with Jimmu, originated from the Kumaso territory of Takachiho, Hyūga Province in present-day Kyushu's southeastern section. The Kumaso were also associated with Kunakoku, ruled by Himiko's rival, king Himikuko.
After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japanese historians adopted European historical scholarship, especially the source-based methodology of Leopold von Ranke. Naka Michiyo believed the chronology was inaccurate prior to the 4th century, and thus "Jingū became a fourth-century queen whose reign could not possibly have coincided with Himiko's." The sinologist Shiratori Kurakichi proposed the compilers were tempted to associate Jingū with the religious powers of Himiko. Naitō Torajirō argued that Himiko was the high priestess of the Ise shrine Yamato-hime-no-mikoto and that Wa armies obtained control of southern Korea:
Some later Japanese historians reframed Himiko in terms of Marxist historiography. Masaaki Ueda argued that "Himiko's was a despotic state with a generalized slave system", while Mitsusada Inoue idealized Yamatai as a "balance of small states" with communal property and popular political expression. Following the late 1960s "Yamatai boom", when numerous Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists published reevaluations of Himiko and Yamatai, the debate was joined by Japanese nationalists, mystery writers, and amateur scholars.
File:Hashihaka kohun aerial.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of the Hasihaka Kofun. Made based on , Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism|alt=Photo of a keyhole-shaped bunch of trees measuring several tens of meters from the left-bottom corner to the right-top corner. A road curves around the right and bottom side of the mound. The roofs of more than 20 buildings are visible to the right of the picture.
In Japanese historical and archeological periodization, the 2nd- and 3rd-century era of Queen Himiko was between late Yayoi period and early Kofun period. Kofun refers to characteristic keyhole-shaped burial mounds, and the noting "a great mound was raised, more than a hundred paces in diameter" for Himiko's tomb, may well be the earliest written record of a. Several archeological excavations of Yayoi and Kofun sites in kinki region, have revealed Chinese-style bronze mirrors, called shinju-kyo . Many scholars who support the Kinki theory associate these with the "one hundred bronze mirrors" that the records Emperor Cao Rui presented to Queen Himiko, while other scholars oppose it. The Hashihaka Kofun in Sakurai, Nara was given a recent boost by radio-carbon dating circa 240–60. The early Chinese records of Himiko and her Yamatai polity remain something of a Rorschach test. To different interpreters, this early Japanese shaman queen can appear as evidence of communalism, Jōmon priestess rulers, the Japanese conquest of Korea, the Mongolian conquest of Japan, the imperial system originating with tandem rule by a female shaman and male monarch, the "patriarchal revolution" replacing female deities and priestesses with male counterparts, or a shamanic advisor to the federation of Wa chieftains who "must have looked like a ruling queen to Chinese envoys".