In this episode we follow the footsteps of the Chinese emissaries on their way to archipelago.  There had been plenty of travel back and forth, based on the various artifacts we've found, but it wasn't until the History of the Wei that we get our first look at the paths and directions to the countries in the island.  It is also when we get our first look at the people and customs of the people known as  the "Wa", including their sovereign:  A Queen known as "Himiko", and her home country, known as "Yamato".

So come with us as we take a look at the lands of the Wa.

For more go to: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-11

Rough Transcript

(Auto-transcription courtesy of listener, Zach)

Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 11, Journey to Yamato. Now before we get started, I want to apologize to everyone for last episode. The audio quality was just not quite what we hoped it would be. Unfortunately with jet lag and a bit of, let's say, work being done on what is my recording studio, aka the library, it just didn't come out like we wanted it to. So hopefully we'll have a bit better audio quality this time around, and we'll do a bit more quality control. With that, let's get into the episode. So we are finally into the Chinese accounts of the Hua, moving into the periods between the first and third centuries. At this point, I'll largely be leaving the distinction between Common Era and Before Common Era aside, unless it is specifically relevant. These next few episodes, we'll be starting to look at the lands of the Hua, and specifically, the territory said to have been controlled by a relatively new state, Yamato. Now the question we should probably address is, what constitutes the lands of the Hua people? I mean, the Chronicle tells us that there were originally over a hundred polities, but only 30 or so that were actually in contact with the Chinese court. We get the names of these 30 largely from the entries in the Wei Zhi, or the Wei Chronicles, and as such, we are looking at all of these names in Chinese characters, not a native alphabet. I'm going to largely be referring to two resources for names here. One is J. Edward Kidder's 2007 work, Himiko and Japan's Illusive Chieftain of Yamatai. This is a great compilation of the research up to that point, and the way he brings together the various accounts provides a great in-depth look at this period. The other main source is Massimo Soumare's 2009 work, Japan in Five Ancient Chinese Chronicles, translated by David Amana and edited by Mark Hall and Sengoku Daimyo's founder Anthony J. Bryant. It really helps lead you through the various Chronicles, and I recommend it as an easy way to read the Chronicles themselves, including the original Chinese in facsimile. For the most part, I'll try to use the name that's as close to the old or modern Japanese as possible, rather than using the Chinese. This is so that we can move beyond matters of translation and transliteration and into the story of the time. But just know that there is still an entire area of study out there on just what these names really were. In fact, that was one of the reasons we went over the language issues in a previous episode. And if people are really interested, maybe we'll do a special episode just on the various names and what they might be and might mean. And with all that disclaimer out of the way, let's move on. So if you were a Chinese ambassador during the Wei Dynasty, heading out to the lands of the so-called Eastern Barbarians, you would probably be starting from the Chinese stronghold of Daifang, the successor to the Lelang Commandery, near the mouth of the Han River and modern day Seoul. From there you would travel south, along the coast of Mahan on the west coast of the Korean peninsula until you came all the way round to the mouth of the Nakdong River, near present day Busan. This was the land of Kuya in Byeonhan, one of the twelve states in that region, which would eventually become known as the Gaya Confederacy. At this point you were on the edge of Wa territory, and the people and culture you saw at this jumping off point likely prepared you for your journey out into the ocean. The crossing here has always been treacherous, so you probably had to wait for the right season before you could cross. Even then the chance of getting caught out in the freak storm, or simply bad seas, was a real possibility that would probably have you just a little on edge. By the way, at this point as you are following along, it might be helpful to pull up a map. I'll try to give some modern reference points that you can follow along, but I'll also post a Google map layer that will give you some of the general points along the way, at least to our destination, the country of Yamato, home of the Queen of the Wa. So, leaving port at the mouth of the Nakdong River, you'd strike out for the islands of Tsushima, in the middle of the Korean straits. On a clear day one might be able to spy the island before leaving sight of the mainland, allowing for easier navigation, and it would only be about 35 miles to the northern tip of the large island. This large island is mountainous, and covered in thick forests. Despite its size, there are only a few thousand people here, and they mostly live off the bounty of the ocean, including the ships that inevitably stop here on their journey to or from the Japanese archipelago. Paths through the forest are merely tracks, nothing large enough for carts as they have neither carts nor the horses to pull them. Though other Wa people grow rice, the islands aren't that well suited to it, and so instead they rely on trading with the mainland and the archipelago for most of their rice and other cereals. This hearty group of people making a living in the ocean expanse is governed by a leader called Hiko, and their second in command, Hinamori, who themselves may have resided in an area around modern Mine Bay, where numerous archaeological sites have yielded up evidence of continuous Yayoi settlement. Previously the island had been its own autonomous chiefdom, but recently it had come under the sway of a powerful state of the archipelago, and it now owed allegiance to the Queen of the Wa, who resided in the country of Yamato, our fictitious mission's eventual destination. So leaving the large islands of Tsushima in the distance, the next stop would be at the island of Iki. Despite a much smaller size when compared with Tsushima, this has many more people, about 4,000 households, or roughly 16,000 people. The ambassadors from the Wa may have arrived at Uchi’umi Bay and traveled up along the Hatahoku River to Haranotsuji, where we have found a large settlement that was possibly the old capital of Iki in the Yayoi period. As with Tsushima, Iki once had its own independent chiefdom, but at the time of the Wa dynasty it was part of the larger Wa state. Also like Tsushima, the governor is called Hiko, and their second in command is called Hinamori. Now really quick a note about this. It's really unclear if these are names or if they're just titles, and as we continue it may be that we're getting both. It is common practice in Japanese to refer to someone by their title rather than by their name, and so it is very likely that is how they would have been introduced to the Chinese officials. The terms Hiko and Hinamori, or possibly Hinumori, certainly feel like titles to me. Of course it's also possible that at this time it was only these two individuals, and they are mentioned twice because they were presiding over both the states of Tsushima and Iki. I mean, well that certainly could be the case. But the way the chronicle is written, it seems to imply that these are different individuals, and therefore I'm going to assume they were simply noting the titles of the governors and their deputies, and in this case they happen to be the same. By the way, someone might point out reading ahead that if these are titles, they aren't exactly consistent. While Hinamori appears to be the name of the second in command in at least four different states, the governor is almost always different. My response is that the fact that the other governors and deputies would have different titles shouldn't really be surprising. While these states may be under the rule of the Queen of the Wa, there is no sense of a homogenous organization, and the ties are likely still pretty loose. According to the chronicles, the archipelago had been embroiled in interstate conflict for quite some time in the late second century, and the current peace was probably only a generation or two old. Although the Chinese call it a kingdom, the Wa states are probably better described as some sort of confederacy with a single head of state. Each chiefdom still has its own culture and practices, however. And this is something that we will see again and again throughout Japanese history, even when it can be described as one single country. For instance, in the Edo period we often talk about the domains as "han" and so we might talk about the Fukuoka Han as an example. And yet the political units and structures often actually varied from one place to another. Modern scholarship has used "han" for all these domains because it really just helps us generalize to have a jargon that we can use no matter where we're talking about and trying to remember what a particular village or other political organization is from one place to another just gets way too confusing when you're trying to have larger general discussions. But in reality, what different sized villages, regions, or domains were called could definitely differ from one place to another. And that does make looking up information quite painful when you're going back to the old records. So Japan may look homogenous, but there are myriad regional differences in language and culture even up to the modern day. But let's get back to our mission. We had made it from Korea to Tsushima and now on to Iki. So sailing out from Uchiumi Bay on Iki Island, you would next continue south towards modern Karatsu and the state of Matsuro. Now the name Matsuro is identified with Matsuura or Matsu-ura, south of Fukuoka on the west coast of Kyushu. Now it would be tempting to assume that this is modern Matsuura city, but it is likely pointing more to the vicinity of Karatsu city at the mouth of the Matsuura River. Matsuura city is actually a modern city created when several towns and villages of the old Matsuura domain were brought together. Karatsu, on the other hand, was the site of some of the oldest rice paddy fields in Japan and as I mentioned sits at the mouth of the Matsuura River. In the Heian Period, the area was simply known as Matsuura. Now I can't help but notice that Karatsu also just happens to mean like Chinese port, so hmm, seems to me that this has been a place where people have been coming to Japan from the mainland for quite some time. Now the people of Matsuuro are settled along the coast. As the chronicle puts it, they reside at the feet of the mountains and along the sea. The forests were so thick that if you traveled through it single file, you'd barely be able to make out the person immediately in front of you. As for population, it was estimated to be similar to Iki with around 4,000 households or 16,000 people. The people of Matsuuro were known for catching fish and more specifically abalone. Diving deep down to gather the precious shellfish, which have long been considered a delicacy, even in modern Japan. Not only that, but abalone also makes distinctive pearls. Now unlike the round white pearls made by traditional pearl oysters, abalone pearls are often asymmetrical, shaped almost like a horn. This is partly due to the fact that abalones only have a single shell. Despite this, these asymmetrical pearls seem to have almost been more prized at the time. This may be related to the same aesthetics that made the tama, or kama-shaped jewel, popular in Japan and the Korean peninsula. Though we know that Matsuuro was once an independent kingdom, we're given no indication as to who is governing it at this time. It may be that it falls under the governor of the next state, Ito, or simply that the name of the governor was not recorded. I tend to assume the latter. There are certainly plenty of places where it is clear there was missing information, and Chen Shou, the author of the Wei Chronicles, will often just gloss over them. Moving on from the coast of Matsuuro, our ambassadorial mission would disembark their ships and travel across the land to the state of Ito, in the vicinity of modern day Itoshima. This was a large administrative center, with about 10,000 households, around 40,000 people. The governor is called Niki, and has two second-in-commands, Shimako and Hikoko. In addition to the local administration, Ito was also home to the great commander of Waa, who was an officer of the great queen in Yamato, charged with keeping peace in the various states. This would seem to presage the later Dazai-fu, a government administrative center in the Fukuoka region that would be responsible for receiving and hosting foreign emissaries, as well as overseeing the departure of missions from Yamato. Speaking of Fukuoka, the next state on the itinerary was likely the state of Na. We spoke about Na in the previous episode. This was once a kingdom that sent a mission to the Han Dynasty court, receiving the famous gold seal that was discovered on Shikanoshima. While it was no longer an independent kingdom, Na was still impressive in size, with some 20,000 households, twice as many as the administrative center at Ito. The governor in the third century was Shimako, and their second-in-command was Hinamori. From here, the path begins to get a bit murky. Some scholars think that Fumi, or possibly pronounced "homi," was the next step in the chain. Others have suggested that all other distances are given from Ito or from Na, and the author of the Wei Chronicles is simply providing a list of other important states that were known to the Chinese court. So if Fumi is 100 li away, that is the same distance given from Ito to Na. They specifically state that it is eastward as well. That could put it inland in Kyushu, possibly around the area of the Dazai-fu. Of course, directions have hardly been stellar up to this point. Past Matsuura, the directions have actually been going south or southeast. That would put Ito southeast of Matsuura and Na southeast of that. This might make sense if the entire archipelago were repositioned so that it was, as the Chinese of the time believed, extending all the way past Taiwan. Given other evidence, however, it looks like south needs to become north, at least from Matsuura onward. But then do we assume that east is still valid? It's hard to tell. There are no obvious candidates that have yet garnered anything approaching consensus in the academic community. So while we don't know the exact location of Fumi, we do know that it was small. Only a thousand households or so, and the governor is called Tama while their second in command is Hinamori. From here we have two more locations that are given on our trek. Zuma, or Toma, and Yamato. Now Zuma is supposed to be 20 days by water, so any mission that decided to visit this far-flung state would likely have left from Na or Ito, unless that is, Fumi were actually north of Na instead of east. If however it were to the east, then any mission that went there would need to return to the coast to catch a ship. Now 20 days by water is not referring to travel on open ocean out of sight of land. Given the seafaring technology of the time, the mission would have probably hugged the coast and likely stopped at a variety of small settlements on the way. It makes little sense for this to be somewhere in Kyushu, so it is likely Honshu or Shikoku, and the best candidate appears to me to be the country of Izumo, on the Japan sea side of Honshu. Now regardless of the wording of the entry in the chronicles, the region around Izumo was a power center through much of the Yayoi period. From the early to middle Yayoi periods it flourished and rivaled the polities forming in the inner sea. In the Japanese chronicles, particular attention is paid to Izumo and its deities. Much of its power seems to have come from the fact that it was relatively alone on the Japan seaside of Honshu, providing a sea route to the mainland that would remain independent of the Kinki and Seto inland sea regions. The Chinese chroniclers apparently had some mention of this and its entry reflects its importance. The country of Zuma, which I am going to assume is indeed Izumo, was some 50,000 households. Even if that is a wild exaggeration, it is still considerably larger than either the countries of Ito or Na. The governor is called Mimi, and their second in command is called Mimi-nari, noticeably different from the Hinamori title that seems to have been the standard for most of the states under the sway of the Yamato queen. Honestly, the impression I get is that Izumo was still in a somewhat tenuous position vis-a-vis its relationship with Yamato. Though nominally subservient to the queen, the stories and archaeology paint a picture that is much more dynamic. Certainly by the 8th century there was still some idea that the relationship between Yamato and Izumo had not always been so smooth. But as I said, we'll spend some time at a later point really diving into Izumo. There's a lot there. For now, we have the pertinent details for our journey, and we can move on. So the final destination in our itinerary is, in fact, Yamato. Yamato is described as the queen's country. It is similarly distant. According to the chronicles, it is 10 days by sea and then 30 days over land, which probably means that our mission was required to depart from the northwestern coast of Kyushu by ship, arrive in Honshu at the edge of the Seto Inland Sea region, and then walk the rest of the way to the capital. It is also possible that this may be a continuation departing from Zuma, sailing along the Japan Sea coast, and then trekking across the land down south. Now, exactly why this odd arrangement of directions was required is not immediately obvious. I mean, Japan is long and thin. There's no place that would obviously take 30 days to cross by foot from one side to the other, assuming a motivated crew. Most likely this was some power move on the part of the queen. By offloading the ships at the western edge of Honshu, or even making them sailing around the Japan seaside and walking, she was demonstrating her power and her authority. They would have seen her guards and settlements and all the land that she claimed was hers. Certainly, the ambassadors coming from China would have experienced Japan as a large and vast expanse of land, and honestly may not have realized that the entire island chain was really more thin and long. There would have been satellite communities that they passed through, farming fields in the area of modern Osaka, and heading towards the foothills and valleys around the Nara region. Once the ambassadors arrived at the queen's settlement, they would have seen a large stockade with wooden walls, moats, and watchtowers. Not different necessarily than some of the moated villages they likely passed along the way, but much grander in scale. This then was Yamato. The country is described as having 70,000 households, putting it at a population of about 250 to 300,000 people. Now if true, that's about the equivalent to the modern cities of Anchorage, Alaska, Topeka, Kansas, or possibly even Irvine, California. This would have been much larger than any typical settlement. I mean, the largest complete yayoi settlement that has been uncovered and reconstructed so far is probably that of Yoshinogari. But given the size and number of buildings, that settlement only supported a couple of thousand people it would seem. This would have been a sprawling metropolitan area, possibly facilitated by the alluvial plains and valleys of the Yamato region. Unfortunately it is also an area that has been highly settled for long periods of time, and so finding evidence of something that large may be something that is hard to do, just because, well, people have been digging it up and replanting the fields or buildings or everything else for hundreds of years. Now Yamato may be the country of the queen, but it also had its own local administration. It was governed by a person known as Ikima, and they were aided by ministers called Mimasho, Mimawaki, and Nakato. Of course it was also home to the palace of the queen, Queen Himiko. Himiko exerted control over some thirty states, including Shima, Ihaki, Iya, Taki, Mina, Kokata, Fuko, Sana, Susa, Sona, Ko, Kanasana, Ki, Igo, Kina, Yama, Kuji, Hari, Ki, and Una, as well as the countries previously mentioned in the account. Unfortunately we have no specific information about all these other states in Queen Himiko's confederation beyond a phonetic reading of their names, so we don't really know where they were, what they were, or how they relate to later states. We also know that not all of the wa were under Himiko's dominion, and the king of Kuna and his second in command, Kukachiko, were reportedly in conflict with Yamato at this time. This was apparently the situation after years of civil war amongst the wa. According to the Chinese chronicles, Himiko was eventually chosen as ruler and took on the mantle of queen. The description provided describes a ruler who was herself immersed in ritual and attended by a number of loyal servants in her palace, while her brother and other important ministers handled the day-to-day duties of running the government. This would actually be a key part of the role of many later sovereigns, with ritual being a large part of their responsibilities. As for the average people, the wa themselves are described largely as farmers and fishermen. Besides the fishing in the lands and the coastal regions, they were growing rice, hemp, and other grains, and were also cultivating silkworms. They weren't really pastoral, however. There are no cattle nor sheep, and horses are debatable but most likely relegated to the 5th century and later. They had imported pigs from the mainland along with domesticated dogs and cats. In the forest they could hunt wild boar, deer, bear, fox, wolf, tanuki, otters, monkeys, and a wide range of wild fowl, including ducks, geese, cranes, pheasants, and more. Only a handful of these show up in the Chinese chronicles, but it is unlikely that they had access to the resources for a full National Geographic-style documentary on the islands. Now regarding their personal adornments, the clothing, and what they wore, both silk and hemp and possibly other bast fibers, were used for making fabric, which they used for clothing as well as trade. According to the chronicles, men's clothing was made of wide pieces of fabric that were tied together, possibly referring to the ties to keep them closed, along with some kind of cloth around their head, probably like some kind of headband. Women wore something akin to a poncho, with a hole cut in the middle for their head. We also know that they wore garments with sleeves, based on the archaeological record, but those aren't mentioned here. At the Yoshinogari site in northern Kyushu, they have evidence of fabric that had been sewn together, and since the accounts include tributes of colored fabric, we assume that their clothing was bright and vibrant. I'd like to take a moment here now to note that some of this information, particularly where it either contradicts or at least is not supported by the archaeological record, is dubious. For instance, the whole talk of clothing here appears to be eerily similar to a section in the history of the early Han on the land of Hui, where the Daner and Zhuye people from the Hainan area are described. In both Chen Shou's and Fan Ye's accounts, they mention that the wall are similar to these two groups, but that could be a mistake made based on the assumed geography of the archipelago. Hainan, you see, is in the south of China. If Chen Shou, author of the Weizhi, believed that the wall stretched from Korea all the way to the south of Taiwan, he may have made the assumption that they must have been similar to other and southern people, leading him to crib from those other descriptions. In addition, it's always possible that a particular tradition was practiced but merely by a single group of people in the islands. However, because maybe it was the one that was encountered by a particular ambassador, that was the tradition that got recorded and therefore it gets applied to the entire Wa population. Therefore, while we can use this to help paint a picture in our heads and possibly fill in our own gaps, we want to remain open to new data from archaeological finds regarding the actual material culture. For that reason, I'll occasionally be looking at sites from around this period, like Yoshinogari, for comparison. Yoshinogari is particularly tempting to use as an exemplar because of its size and because it was active during the period when these Chinese histories were written. Still, it is only one site and doesn't clearly correspond to any of the countries mentioned in the chronicles so far, so we still want to seek out evidence from other studies as well. Other things that were recorded were the fact that, for instance, everyone went barefoot. This is kind of hard to believe in the more northern areas, at least during the winter, but if they made anything like the later Waragutsu or straw boots for wintertime, I don't know that we have any of them that have survived. Geta, wooden sandals, have been found, but they appear to have been primarily for agricultural use. These are typically wide sandals for walking in the muddy paddy fields. Men's hair was worn in two loops on either side of their heads. This is something that we do know, a style known as Mizura, and it would be popular really up through the historical period, and it's often used in depictions of men from before the 8th century. Women's hairstyle is less clear. The chronicle states that it was worn loose, folded where the bun is made, or something like that. It is likely indicated that it was tied up in some fashion, but we really don't know how. We do have evidence of hair that is folded and tied up from graves at the time, but it's hard to reconstruct exactly what the style is from the mess of hair that we have left. We also have evidence for this in later periods, but nothing directly from this time. Besides their clothing and hairstyles, people would also tattoo their bodies. This is pretty remarkable if you know anything about the history of tattoos in Japan, because in most of Japanese history, tattoos were actually used as punishment, marking criminals so that everyone would know them. There's still a stigma against tattoos today, and many people assume that tattoos indicate some involvement with organized crime like the yakuza. Of course, this was hardly an issue back in the early 1st and 2nd centuries, and there's plenty of evidence of rich tattooing culture throughout the archipelago, straight up into the modern era, even if it doesn't fit into the narrative of the majority culture. Now the size and placement of the tattoos were dependent on the state, indicating different cultures in the different states, but they all seem to have been used to denote rank at the very least. Fishermen also used tattoos as a type of talisman to protect against "birds" and "big fish". Alright, now while I understand the thing about fish, I mean you've got sharks, eels, and let's face it, whales fall into this category, so here's some scary stuff in the ocean. I don't know that I can say the same about birds though. I mean, why would you need protection from birds? The best I can think of here is that maybe they were talking about something like the kites, large raptors that live along the seashore. I do know that at places even today, for instance at Hase Temple in Kamakura, there are warning signs to watch your food lest the kites come and take it. Sure enough, if you leave your food out and turn your back for a second, they are on you, they'll swoop down from above, they will take your sandwich directly from behind you, ask me how I know. Now perhaps the fishermen were just trying to protect their catch? I don't know. Now besides the tattoos, they also painted themselves with vermilion and red cinnabar. We've seen traces of cinnabar in ancient burial sites, possibly added after the corpse had been interred, but it also seems possible that they were painting themselves in life as well. Some of the later clay haniwa figures from around the Mounded Tombs in the Kofun era have red paint that could indicate tattoos or painting of some kind. And by the way, in case you're wondering, yes, cinnabar is what we were talking about earlier with the King of Qin, Qin Shi Huang Di, and some of his potions for immortality. Yeah, it has mercury, so I can't imagine it's a great thing to be painting your face with, but it was used in both China and Japan for that purpose for many hundreds of years. As for the warriors of the Wa, they carried pikes, shields, and wooden bows. They made arrowheads out of bone or iron, according to the Chinese histories, as well as wood and bronze based on archaeological finds. The bows are described as asymmetrical, longer on the top than on the bottom. This is significant, as it's the same principle seen in the modern Yumi, and it puts the lie to the idea that the Yumi's distinctive shape was developed specifically to shoot from horseback, since there were no horses in the archipelago at this time. Truth is, many cultures use some variant on an asymmetrical bow, but few have developed it to the same extent as the Yumi. It is interesting that they do not mention swords, and they do not mention the ge, sometimes translated as halberd or dagger axe. Whereas a pike has a point in line with a shaft, the dagger axe looks like, well, as the name implies, a dagger affixed crosswise to the head of a long pole. While a pike or spear is used for thrusting, the dagger axe uses more of a striking motion. In Japan, we have examples made out of both bronze and stone. As for swords, there is no direct mention of them. Most of the bladed, sword-like weapons we find early on are really more like a dagger, which is probably more of a personal defense weapon, possibly even more symbolic, rather than a weapon of war. Still, it is interesting since when we get into the Japanese chronicles, swords and the bow are the more common weapons that we find individual people wielding. Again, this could be the difference between an individual and soldiers, as swords tended to be backup weapons in war, not your primary weapon. Regarding the dining customs of the people, they ate and drank out of tall cups made of bamboo. Well, maybe made of bamboo. That is what the character that is used seems to imply, since it uses the bamboo radical. But this is probably a reference to Takatsuki, tall stemmed cups and trays. Now at this time, people would have likely sat on the ground to eat, a tradition that continued for the common people, and came and went and came back again for the elite, up to the modern era. When eating in such a manner, individual dishes would often be served on trays to keep them up off the ground and make it easier for the diner to reach them. We have examples of these kinds of dishes made out of ceramic, and it is possible that there were examples made from other more perishable material that just hasn't survived in the archaeological record. And of course, they love their drinking. Enough of the Chinese commented on it. Alcohol was, quite literally, in the DNA of the Jomon people. Remember Mariko up in Hokkaido and how they found that she had the genetic markers indicating the tolerance for alcohol? And as we know, rice can make for some incredibly potent beverages, so it's no surprise that it was popular. That it was popular enough to receive comment is interesting, however, as the Chinese were no strangers to drinking to excess. Drinking parties were a common feature of the Heian court and earlier, and would fit well with many modern traditions. Honestly, it puts me in mind of my first ever gasshuku and enkai with the Meigakudai Kendo Club, my first experience with a Japanese drinking party. Even before that, one of my teachers used to comment on the way alcohol could be used to grease the wheels of business. They called it "nomunication", "nomu" of course being the Japanese word, to drink. Well, from drinking, let's move on to eating. Now apparently they didn't have chopsticks or spoons at this time. Heck, even in China, chopsticks were still mostly used only for cooking, and it was only around 400 or so that they started to be used at the table by individuals. In Japan, though chopsticks are mentioned in the Japanese histories, we have yet to find any examples in the Kofun period, and even after that, they seem to have been rarely used until the 8th century. Much like in the US, where many people only used chopsticks when eating Asian cuisine, it's likely that when they first arrived, chopsticks were something that the elite used while imitating the continental customs. But the common practice was still to eat with your hands, and maybe a spoon. Spoons eventually vanished almost altogether, and even today people drink soup, and it is common to drink the broth straight from the bowl. However they ate, it must have been a pretty good diet. I mean according to Chen Shou, they were long-lived, with some people living well beyond 100 years of age. I have to say though, this seems like one of those dubious claims that we were talking about earlier, even if modern Japan tends to have the most long-lived people today. Of course the human body, under ideal conditions, can certainly live long. In modern times, people have reached verified ages of 122. That said, life may have been better, but it wasn't easy back in the day. And while we don't have much on longevity in the Yayoi period, people were probably living comfortably into their 40s on average. Assuming they made it past childhood, that is. And therefore you likely had people in their 50s and 60s, with possibly a few elders here and there living into their 80s and 90s. But that would have been an exception, not the rule. It is possible that there was someone of about 100 years of age, or old enough that nobody alive could remember how old they were anyway, during one of the visits by the Chinese. But you know, we shouldn't take this as evidence that it was in any way common. In fact, this whole thing could go back to the story of Shufu and the search for Penglai, the so-called Isle of the Immortals, with Chen Shou and Fan Ye connecting it to that story. Speaking of age, it was apparently not a factor by which society separated itself. Neither was gender. While the Wa do appear to have separate sleeping arrangements for members of the family, fathers and mothers and senior brothers and junior brothers would sleep all in different places, there was no difference that we can see between men and women, at least during the meetings. I want to hit that again. Although they had social stratification and ideas of familial bonds and even inheritance of social status, there appears to have been no distinction made in the seating arrangements between men and women or old and young. There were still differences of social station, but that seems to have been separate. Though it's unclear to me if social status was based on personal position, or on one's family, or perhaps some combination of both. This could be a factor in why they seem to have no problem switching between male and female sovereigns, a practice that would later be frowned upon as the Japanese society became more patriarchal. Speaking of families, polygamy may have been a thing with men having multiple wives, 3 to 5 according to the Chinese. There's no evidence of women having multiple husbands on the other hand. Here we can be a bit more skeptical. This could be a part of wishful thinking on Chen Shou's part, and we have to remember that the Chinese would have seen all of this through their own cultural lens. I mean, despite the use of the character "dwarf" for the name "Wa", Chen Shou seems to be rather generous in his depictions of the people, with comments like "Women are neither luxurious nor jealous" and "There's no theft and litigations are few". These may be more pointed at his fellow Han Chinese rather than meant as an accurate description of the "Wa", especially as in the next sentence he talks about the harsh punishments for breaking the law, including having wives and children taken away, likely meaning forcing them into a life of slavery, or even executing the entire family for serious matters. Even if these harsh punishments were the reason that people were so law-abiding, their existence would seem to indicate that there was a recognized need. In other words, there were people committing some sort of crime that they felt had to be punished. You know, this puts me in mind of some of the modern ideas about Japan and the way people often view it as something foreign and exotic, and can therefore emphasize certain factors of it. I mean, certainly, compared to many places in America, it feels much safer to walk around the streets of Japan, but to say there is no crime certainly ignores a lot of what does happen in Japan, and to a certain extent almost infantilizes it. So it's something that has always gone on, it's something we always do to the other, and something we should all be cautious against. Now these punishments that they talked about, they could also indicate at least some level of communal responsibility. This is a trait common to many East Asian cultures, and which is still prized in Japan today. This is a theme we will see constantly running through the historical narrative. For instance, in the 16th and 17th centuries, one of the reasons why ronin, or masterless samurai, were so despised was that they weren't part of any particular group. It also helps explain some actions that we see people take that may not have otherwise been in their own best interest. It should not be taken to mean however that the Wa, or the Japanese as a whole, are somehow mindless automatons subservient to the larger society. Rather it can be seen as a host of individuals who are working together for the greater good, with strong social pressures to conform. So that is a rough description of the people of Wa during this time, and from about the first to third century, also known as the late Yayoi. Next episode we will look at the early Yamato court, including its rituals, as well as the early accounts of the ruler, Himiko. Until then, thank you for all of your support. We really appreciate all of the listeners who choose to download us and listen to us. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You know, if you feel the need to do more, we have information about our Ko-Fi site over on our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/podcast, where we will also have some photos of various artifacts that we have discussed, as well as references and other material used for this and prior episodes. I try not to say too much about it, but this is something that we do pretty much on our own, and so anything that people can throw at us to just help us keep the lights on and our hosting fees down would be appreciated. Questions or comments? Feel free to tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page. That's all for now. Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.