Himiko

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Queen Himiko

Himiko ( Japanese 卑 彌 呼 / 卑 弥 呼 * approx. 170; † 248 ) is the first ruler known by name of the Yamatai kingdom .

Life

Himiko is the first ruler in Japan to be referred to as queen . It was probably after the end of a 70-80 year long war among some kuni ( 国 ) - small communities of about 20-30 km in size - elected by their tribal leaders as head in order to keep peace among themselves. With Yamatai at its head, she ruled over 32 kuni, an area of ​​roughly 600 km² from today's perspective.

Himiko made contact with the Wei Dynasty of China in order to establish trade relations and above all to benefit from the rich knowledge of the Chinese of the time. In this way she wanted to free Japan from the status of backwardness. In 238 she sent an embassy to China with tributes and was rewarded with recognition of her position in power in Japan. She also allegedly received 100 bronze mirrors. Only 4 mirrors that correspond in appearance and workmanship to the Chinese production method of that time have been found to this day.

As it is written in Wei Zhi , the queen lived secluded from the public in a residence, protected by watchtowers. She was guarded by 100 male guards and 1000 exclusively female servants took care of her. She remained unmarried. The only male exception in her court was her brother, who, among other things, served as a mouthpiece to the people. After her death, she was reportedly buried in a large burial mound with 100 slaves.

After political unrest (it was an electoral kingship), a relative of hers was brought to power, a 13-year-old girl named Toyo ( 臺 與 / 台 与 , also Iyo).

Name origin

The Japanese Himiko is intended to from hime ( 姫 , dt "stand-wife, Princess.") - which itself by hi ( 日 , dt "sun".) And me ( 女 , dt "woman.") Is derived - and the female The suffix ko ( 子 , German “child”), hi and miko (shaman) or hime and miko exist. In addition, / h / was probably pronounced in Proto-Japanese as * [p].

In order to imitate the pronunciation of their name, the Chinese used the characters 卑  - “low, low”, 彌  /  弥  - “fill; fully ”and 呼  -“ breathe out; call". In modern Chinese, these would be pronounced bēimíhū or bìmíhū . The Chinese pronunciation of the time in the 3rd century is controversial and includes:

  • pjiḙmjiḙχuo ( Bernhard Karlgren , Old / Middle Chinese )
  • pjiemjieχwo ( Li Fanggui , Old / Middle Chinese)
  • pjiumjieXxu (William H. Baxter, Old / Middle Chinese)
  • pjimjiχɔ or pjiə̌mjiə̌χɔ (Edwin G. Pulleyblank, early Middle Chinese)
  • piemiehɑ (Axel Schuessler, late Han Chinese)

Shamanism

The fact is that the Chinese in Wei Zhi describe Himiko as a special shaman with a unique practice, but it must be mentioned that no other practices of Japanese shamanism at the time of Himiko are described. One knows neither the exact nature of the practices nor the exact background for the practices. Himiko is described several times as a spiritual leader who knows how to "enchant" her people.

reception

Himiko and Yamatai are the subject of the 2013 Tomb Raider game from Square Enix and the 2018 film Tomb Raider .

literature

  • Donald H. Shiveley and William H. McCullough (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Japan: Vol.1 . Cambridge University Press, UK 1999
  • Jonathan Edward Kidder: Himiko and Japan's elusive chiefdom of Yamatai University of Hawaiʻi Press, Honolulu 2007
  • C. Melvin Aikens and Takayasu Higuchi: Prehistory of Japan Academic Press, New York 1982

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Himiko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pimiku; 卑 弥 呼 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION early Japanese queen
DATE OF BIRTH at 183
DATE OF DEATH 248