Ezo (people)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ezo ( Japanese 蝦 夷 ), obsolete Yezo , is an ancient Japanese name for the people of eastern and northern Japan who were considered barbarians by the Yamato Japanese. In ancient times the people were called either Emishi or Ebisu (outdated Yemishi or Yebisu ).

Since the end of the Heian period the people were called Ezo . However, over time the meaning of this term changed. Today the term emishi is preferred for the people.

Emishi

Emishi pays homage to Prince Shotoku. Made in 1324 based on Shotokutaishi e-den e-maki, made in 1069.

The oldest description of the Emishi (or Ezo) can be found in the Nihonshoki , the oldest history book in Japan. According to the book, the Emishi residents are in the east who were enemies with the Yamato government ( Yamato Chōtei or Yamato Ōken ). Their sphere of influence extended to Osthonshu . According to Chinese descriptions, the Emishi are known as “hairy barbarians” and lived in parts of Honshu, especially in the Tōhoku region.

The Emishi were skilled warriors and relied on horseback warriors in their fight against the Yamato Japanese. Because of their special war tactics, the Emishi were feared opponents of the Yamato. This only changed when the Yamato Japanese copied their tactics and used them against the Emishi.

It is controversial whether the Emishi were relatives or forerunners of the Ainu . Most historians suspect that the Emishi were a separate Jōmon people, which were neither related to the Ainu nor to the Yamato Japanese. Another theory is that it was just Yamato Japanese who did not recognize the emperor's rule. Both views are compatible and it is very likely that there were Yamato-Japanese who belonged to the Emishi and Emishi who served the Yamato Empire.

Place names in the northern part of the island of Honshu, which cannot be explained etymologically in Japanese, but with the help of the Ainu, and the hunting vocabulary of the Matagi , traditional hunters in the Tohoku region, borrowed from the Ainu , suggest, however, that there is indeed a close connection between Emishi and Ainu there. The cultural deviations of the modern Ainu on Hokkaido , Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands from the Emishi could be explained by the fact that the modern Ainu are a fusion of the Emishi (identified with the archaeological Satsumon culture) and the Siberian Okhotsk culture (which are often identified with the Niwchen and the Mishihase are identified from Japanese literature) originated in Hokkaido.

history

The Emishi are first mentioned historically in Nihonshoki . According to the records, the Emishi and the early Japanese fought a violent battle under their mythological first emperor, Jimmu , in which the Japanese narrowly had the upper hand. After that there were repeated attacks, in which the Emishi were often victorious. According to records, Emishi troops rebelled in southwestern Japan after the death of Emishi Yūryaku . They had been hired as mercenaries by the imperial government to take part in an expedition to Korea.

A major campaign took place in 658-60 on the Sea of ​​Japan as far as Tsugaru under the command of Abe no Hirafu . The goal was the rich fishing grounds and the extraction of kombu algae - which still belong in every Japanese soup stock today. Gold had also been discovered in Mutsu in 749 , which they wanted to acquire. Emperor Kammu (781-806) had introduced conscription for the campaign of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro 794-806 in Tōhoku . (In theory, were under the Ritsuryō He succeeded the mighty Emishi chief - but levies were rare one-third of all fully taxable men committed -Systems for military service.) Aterui subdue its still in Katano Shrine in Hirakata is thought .

Around the 7th century, the Emishi settled in the Tōhoku area north of the center of today's Miyagi Prefecture to today's Yamagata Prefecture and on Hokkaidō . The more the Yamato government expanded its power to the north, the more often the Emishi fought for their habitat. The Emishi who surrendered to the Yamato government were called Fushu and were quickly assimilated. Despite the partial surrender and forced resettlement far from the coast, Emishi continued to fight the Yamato.

They usually traded with the Yamato. Goods were kombu , horses , furs , feathers , etc. In return they received rice , cloth , iron , etc.

In the 9th century, the conquests of the Yamato Empire ended in the middle of what are now Akita and Iwate prefectures . However, officials from the Yamato government and tribal chiefs of the Fushu interfered in internal disputes among the Emishi. As a result, the Emishi lost their independence during the 12th century.

Culture

The Emishi culture can be seen as a direct successor to the Jōmon culture of Honshus. It shows some parallels to the Ainu and Japanese culture but can be clearly distinguished from them. Ko-Shinto , an ancient form of modern Shintoism, is considered the traditional religion of the Emishi and formed the core of their culture. Worship of nature, various gods, spirits and belief in a spirit world shaped the everyday life of the Emishi. Ancestor worship was widespread and still plays an important role across Japan today. The Emishi were skilled warriors and the art of war was considered an honorable skill. Some historians assume that the Emishi played a decisive role in shaping the samurai .

The Emishi also had an influence on the Ainu culture and local Japanese traditions. The Satsumon culture in southern Hokkaido is seen as a mixture of Emishi and Ainu traditions.

Origin Theories

After the Edo period , scientific theories about the Emishi diverged.

  1. The most supported theory is that the Emishi were a separate people descended from the local Jōmon population of Honshū. According to this theory, the Emishi are not related to the Ainu.
  2. Another theory is the "Emishi Ainu theory" ( Emishi Ainu setsu ), according to which the Emishi are synonymous with the Ainu from this time on.
  3. There is also the theory that the Emishi are Japanese who did not submit to the Yamato government ( Emishi henmin setsu ).
Distribution of the C1a lineage, which has been proven especially in the Emishi of Japan.

The first theory is based on historical and cultural facts as well as genetic data. The Emishi largely belong to haplogroup C-M8 (C1a1), one of the two main haplogroups of the Jōmon population. The Jōmon period began about 14,000 years ago, around the same time a migration of people from southern Siberia to Japan was detected. These belonged to haplogroup C1a1, which is mainly found in Japan today (about 6%). The next related haplogroup C1a2 occurred in Paleolithic and Neolithic Europe and is found today in some Europeans, Armenians and Berbers . This Jōmon-Japanese (Emishi?) And Old-European line is referred to as C1a and has its origin in the Caucasus and in the Black Sea region .

"Ezo" has been synonymous with "Ainu" since the Middle Ages . History books confirm the existence of today's Ainu since the 13th century , and from around this time until it received its current name, the island of Hokkaidō was called either Ezo-ga-shima ( 蝦 夷 ヶ 島 , "Island of the Ezo") or Ezochi ( 蝦 夷地 , called "Ezo-Land"). Therefore, the term Emishi is preferred for the people of that time in order to avoid confusion.

See also

literature

  • On anthropology: Nakanishi Susumu: Emishi to wa nanika (= Kadokawa sensho 247). Kadokawa shoten, Tokyo 1993, ISBN 4-04-703247-6 (Japanese).
  • Bruno Lewin : The Japanese relations with the Emishi around the year 800. In Oriens. Vol. 18/19, 1965/1966, ISSN  0078-6527 , pp. 304-326.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Farris, pp. 94-95, 108-113.
  2. ↑ Aston, WG, trans. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697. Charles E. Shuttle Co., Tokyo 1972 (reprint of two volume 1924 edition), VII 18. Takahashi, Tomio. “Hitakami. ” In Egami, Namio ed. Ainu to Kodai Nippon . Shogakukan, Tokyo 1982.
  3. ↑ Aston, WG, trans. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697. Charles E. Shuttle Co., Tokyo 1972 (reprint of two volume 1924 edition), VII 18. Takahashi, Tomio. “Hitakami. ” In Egami, Namio ed. Ainu to Kodai Nippon . Shogakukan, Tokyo 1982.
  4. ↑ Iwate Nippo: 朝廷 軍 の 侵略 に 抵抗. September 24, 2004, accessed November 30, 2019 .
  5. ↑ 上 田正昭 他 『日本 古代史 の 謎 再 考 （エ コ ー ル ・ ド ・ ロ イ ヤ ル 古代 日本 を 考 え る １）』 学生 社 1983 年 pp.52 よ り
  6. ↑ Ben Hubbard: Samurai Warriors . Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC, 2016, ISBN 978-1-5026-2459-8 ( google.at [accessed November 30, 2019]).
  7. ^ Keiji Imamura: Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia . University of Hawaii Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-8248-1852-4 ( google.be [accessed November 30, 2019]).
  8. ↑ Aston, WG, trans. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697. Tokyo: Charles E. Shuttle Co., 1972 (reprint of two volume 1924 edition), VII 18. Takahashi, Tomio. “Hitakami. ” In Egami, Namio ed. Ainu to Kodai Nippon . Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1982.
  9. ↑ 崎 谷 満 『DNA ・ 考古 ・ 言語 の 学 際 研究 が 示 す 新 ・ 日本 列島 史』 （勉 誠 出版 2009 年） (in Japanese)
  10. ↑ 崎 谷 満 『DNA ・ 考古 ・ 言語 の 学 際 研究 が 示 す 新 ・ 日本 列島 史』 （勉 誠 出版 2009 年） (in Japanese)
  11. ↑ Yusuke Watanabe, Izumi Naka, Seik-Soon Khor, Hiromi Sawai, Yuki Hitomi: Analysis of whole Y-chromosome sequences reveals the Japanese population history in the Jomon period . In: Scientific Reports . tape 9 , no. 1 , June 17, 2019, ISSN  2045-2322 , p. 1–8 , doi : 10.1038 / s41598-019-44473-z ( nature.com [accessed November 30, 2019]).
  12. ↑ G. David Poznik, Yali Xue, Fernando L. Mendez, et al., "Punctuated bursts in human male demography inferred from 1,244 worldwide Y-chromosome sequences." Nature Genetics 2016 June; 48 (6): 593-599. doi: 10.1038 / ng.3559.