Japan's Yayoi Period in 3 Minutes

The period of Japanese history beginning sometime between the 10th and 3rd centuries BCE and ending around the 3rd century CE is known as the Yayoi Period. This period is defined by the beginning of widespread rice cultivation on the Japanese archipelago, and the reason that its starting point falls within such a wide window of time is that there is still a good deal of debate as to when this actually took place. Either way, the early part of the period roughly corresponds to China's Warring States Period, and it is thought that the warfare on the continent led large numbers of people, mostly Korean, but some Chinese as well, to migrate to Japan to escape the chaos. These people brought with them not only rice farming techniques, but also bronzeware, ironware, new types of pottery, and other technologies such as the weaving loom. Of the metals brought over, iron eventually came to see widespread use in weaponry, tools, and farming implements, and the less durable bronze was mostly employed in ritualistic religious objects such as dōtaku bells. The shift from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural one led to population increase and larger settlements, the emergence of wealth disparity and a leadership class, and the beginning of inter-village warfare. This warfare was especially spurred on by the spread of the aforementioned iron weapons in the latter half of the period, and it became the norm for settlements to protect themselves with moats and wooden palisades. One example of this that can be seen today is the reconstructed Yayoi-era settlement of Yoshinogari in modern Saga Prefecture. Several centuries of warfare between settlements eventually led to the formation of small states, and according to the Book of Han, a Chinese history completed in 111 CE, more than a hundred of these small states existed at the time of its writing. This, by the way, also marks the first mention of Japan, called Wa or Wakoku by the Chinese, in written historical sources. In 57 CE, the king of a Japanese state called Nakoku is recorded as having sent an embassy to one of the Han emperors and received a golden seal in return, and this seal survives to the present day. The most famous Japanese ruler of the Yayoi period, however, is undoubtedly Queen Himiko, a priestess queen whose existence is recorded in the 3rd century Chinese history, the Records of the Three Kingdoms. Himiko is said to have ruled a kingdom called Yamatai, a coalition of more than 30 smaller states which she ruled through sorcery and divination. It is unknown exactly where in Japan the kingdom of Yamatai was located, with several different theories continuing to be hotly debated. Northern Kyushu, which was the epicenter of trade between Japan and continental Asia at the time, seems like a strong candidate, but it has also been theorized that it may have been located in central Japan and been the forerunner of the Yamato state which began to take over the archipelago during the next period of Japanese history. If you want to know more about the Yayoi period, please check out the second video in my Japanese History the Textbook series, where I go into much of this information in greater depth. If you enjoyed the video, please like, comment, and subscribe for more videos covering this and many other eras of Japanese history. Thanks a lot for watching, and Huuu ui no rezu!