King of Na gold seal
The King of Na gold seal is a solid gold seal discovered in the year 1784 on Shikanoshima Island in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The seal is designated as a National Treasure of Japan. The seal is believed to have been cast in China and bestowed by Emperor Guangwu of Han upon a diplomatic official visiting from Japan in the year 57 AD. The five Chinese characters appearing on the seal identify it as the seal of the King of Na state of Wa, tributary state of the Han dynasty.
The seal is currently in the collection of the Fukuoka City Museum in Fukuoka, Japan. It is the first known textual record of Japan as a country, and is included in Japanese history books as a cultural asset that indicates how Japan came into being as a political entity.
Appearance
The seal is composed of gold of 95% purity. It is made up of a square base, with the seal itself on the bottom face, and a handle on top of the base in the shape of a snake. It has a mass of. The total height from base to handle is. The base of the seal averages on a side. This dimension roughly corresponds to the traditional Chinese standard unit of length of one cun, as used in the Later Han dynasty.Characters engraved on the seal
The five characters engraved on the seal are :The meanings of these characters are: "Han", "Wa", "Na", "state / country", and "ruler." Altogether, the meaning of the seal inscription is: " the King of the Na state of the Wa of the Han dynasty".
The character 委 is a loan for 倭, an instance of the common practice of loaning characters in Classical Chinese. The characters are engraved in the seal script style.
History
The seal has been judged to be the one described in the Book of the Later Han, a Chinese chronicle of the history of the Eastern Han dynasty. According to the chronicle, the Chinese Emperor Guangwu conferred the seal on a diplomatic official visiting from Japan.Contemporary description of conferral
The following is the original Chinese text from the chronicle:This passage can be translated into English as:
During the Han dynasty, similar seals were bestowed on other regional sovereigns, in an attempt by the dynasty to bring these sovereigns into the Han ruling order.