Ito (state)

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Ito ( Japanese 伊 都 国 , Ito-koku or Ito no kuni , eng. "Land Ito") was a Japanese state during the Yayoi period (between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD). ), which was probably in the southeast of Itoshima , Fukuoka Prefecture , Kyūshū in the Itoshima Plain ( 糸 島 平野 , Itoshima-heiya ). In Japan, for example, the Itokoku Archaeological and Historical Museum deals with research into Ito.

Historiographic records

Ito is first mentioned in the Weizhi Worenchuan ( Chinese  魏志 倭人 傳  /  魏志 倭人 传 , W.-G. Wei-chih Wo-jen-chuan , Japanese. 魏志 倭人 伝 , Gishi Wajinden , dt. "Records of Wei : Lives of the people of Wa ”) from the 3rd century, part of the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms ( Chinese  三國 志  /  三国志 , Pinyin Sānguó Zhì ), which in turn belong to the historiography, the 24 dynasty stories . In the Wei Zhi, in the section on the "Eastern barbarians" ( Tung-i-chuan ), there is a travel description from the Taifang commandant's office ( Chinese  帶 方 ) to the Wa Confederation under the rule of Himiko . Ito no kuni stands out in this travel description because only three of the 29 mentioned kuni - for Ito and the two kuni Yamaichi and Kunu ( Chinese  狗 奴 ) - were stated to be ruled by a regent. According to the Wajiden, Ito is 500 li ( Chinese 里 ) away from Matsura no koku in a southeast direction :  

「東南 陸 行 五百 里 至 伊 都 國。 官 曰 爾 支 副 曰 泄 謨 觚 ・ 柄 渠 觚。 有 千余 戸 丗 有 王 王 皆 統 属 女 王國。 郡 使 往来 常 所 駐」

“Traveling to the southeast over land, one reaches the country I-tu 伊 都 [after] more than five hundred li. The official's name is Erh-chih 爾 支, his deputies I-mo-ku 泄 謨 觚 and Ping-ch'ü-ku 柄 渠 觚. There are over a thousand households. For generations there have been kings who all rule depending on the queen's country. "

- Translated by Barbara Seyock: In the footsteps of the Eastern barbarians, 2004, p. 51 [6]

This section first contains an indication of the distance and the direction of the compass to be taken to reach Ito and which is embedded in the route description of the itinerary . It is also mentioned here that Ito was ruled by kings, although in contrast to the two kuni Yamatai and Kunu no king is named. Furthermore, it says in Section 28:

“In their [ie the where] country originally men were made kings for seventy or eighty years. Then there was unrest in the land of Wo. They attacked each other and fought for years. Then they made a woman queen together. Her name is Pei-mi-hu . "

- Translated by Barbara Seyock: On the trail of the Eastern barbarians, 2004, p. 56 [28]

The aforementioned armed conflicts are known in Japanese research as the “revolt of the Wa” ( 倭人 騒 乱 , Wajin-sōran ). This historical fact is supported by the archaeological findings that document a large number of war graves on Itoshima. Ito's special position among all 30 kuni was that it appointed an inspector. These officials, who are also mentioned in the first section of the text, performed a control function within the Wa Confederation. This was even true of the kuni Na , which had received an imperial seal made of gold in AD 57. "When envoys come from the headquarters [Tai-fang to the Queen's land] or go [back], they usually stop there [ie in I-tu]." Ito thus came in the embassy traffic between the mainland and the Wa Confederation, who was ruled by Queen Himiko, a key position.

Another reference to this special position can be found in the Nihongi . Book VI, which deals with the Suinin - Tennō , tells of an emissary (Tsunoga Arashito) who was attacked and robbed on the way from Silla to Tsuruga. After landing, this envoy was stopped by a man saying, “I am the king of this land. There is no other king besides me. You are not allowed to go any further. ”( 吾 則 是 国王 也 除 吾 復 無二 王 故 勿 往 他 処 ) The name of the man who stopped the traveler is Itsutsuhiko ( 伊 都 都比 古 ), which means“ Prince of Ito ”. The passage with the words: "A text says" ( 一 云 ) inserted into the running text and, according to Barbara Seyock's view, probably in the late 3rd century and thus two to three generations before the reporting period of the Tung-i-chuan .

The Nihongi mentions for Nordkyūshū (Tsukushi) the office of agatanushi of Ito ( 伊 覩 縣 Nord Ito no agatanushi ), which still existed at the time the chronicle was written, and also gives an etymology belonging to the realm of legends for the country name, which it gives out of thanks from the mythological emperor Chūai . In Engishiki from the early 10th century, a district Ito ( 怡 土 郡Ito-gun ) is mentioned for the province of Chikuzen (today: Fukuoka prefecture) , which existed until 1896 when it was merged with the neighboring district of Shima to form Itoshima district .

In addition to these historiographical sources, the archaeological finds also suggest that the sites in the Itoshima plain are royal tombs and that Ito can thus be located in the vicinity of Maebaru.

Archaeological evidence

As early as 1780, a double epithos grave with bronze mirrors from the Han period was discovered in Ihara-yarimizo ( 井 原 鑓 溝 遺跡 ) . The original records and finds have been lost, only a description by the scholar Aoyagi Tanenobu has been preserved in his writing Yanagizono koki ryaku-kō ( 柳園 古 器 略 考 ). An iron sword, many bronze mirrors and TLV mirrors with four guardian spirits were also found.

In the aforementioned work by Tanenobu there is also a description of the Mikumo-minami-shōji ( 三 雲南 小路 遺跡 ) group of finds, discovered in 1822 , which lies between the rivers Zuibaji ( 瑞 場 寺 川 ) and Kawahara ( 川 原 川 ). Here, too, it was a double-epithed grave. A bronze full-handled dagger and a stick dagger, 35 bronze mirrors, a fragment of a ring-shaped glass ornament (a Chinese bi-disc ) and curved beads were found as grave goods. The second grave contained 22 small bronze mirrors and pearls.

It turns out that many imported goods from the mainland could be unearthed as grave goods at the Itoshima sites. Both the Hanzeit mirrors, the Bi-Disk, as well as the full-grip dagger, presumably from the commandant's office in Lelang on the Korean peninsula, had ritual significance as well as great material value. In connection with the findings , one can therefore assume that it must have been the burial of high-ranking people. The Wajiden, however, mentions the kings of Ito in addition to the high-ranking officials, the inspectors.

Hirabaru site, tomb No. 1

One finding that suggests a royal burial is at the Hirabaru site ( 平原 遺跡 ; 33 ° 32 ′ 32 ″  N , 130 ° 13 ′ 42 ″  E ). Although the excavation site was opened up in 1965, it was not until a posthumously published book by the archaeologist Harada Dairoku in 1991 that brought the site back into focus. In the center of the barrow was a 14 × 10 m large, rectangular tomb area. Inside was a 4.5 × 3.6 × 0.5 m grave with the remains of a wooden coffin (dimensions: 3 m long, 95 cm wide (at the head end)). The burial area is surrounded by a circulating moat, which may have been intended for subsequent burials. Harada interpreted the findings with reference to a practice of suicide described in the Wajiden if a regent dies. A close look at the artifacts shows the special nature of the site. Hundreds of pearls of various colors, materials and shapes (spherical, comma-shaped or roughly bone-like ガ ラ ス 骨 状 化 管 玉 , garasu kotsu-jōka kudatama ) were found inside the grave. The pearls can be divided into nine different types. These include 872 fragments of blue pearls, which are believed to have been made into around 320 rings. The 500 amber opal beads and 12 red agate beads that were also found could once have been a necklace. This material is extremely unusual for a yayo time finding situation. So far one has only been able to find another pearl of this kind in Tatetsuki ( 楯 築 遺跡 ). Typical, however, are these pearls as late holistic grave goods in the Lelang area.

39 mirrors could be reconstructed from the bronze fragments that were also found. Four of the mirrors are striking because of their dimensions. With a diameter of up to 46.5 cm, they are the largest bronze mirrors ( 仿製 鏡 , bōseikyō ) ever found in Japan . The remaining 35 bronze mirrors are Chinese mirrors from the Han period, 32 of which are TLV mirrors with four guardian spirits ( 方格 規矩 四 神 鏡 , hōkakukiku shishin-kyō ). There was also an iron sword with a ring-shaped pommel in the grave.

All of this indicates the tomb of a very high person, a king or a queen. What is puzzling, on the one hand, is that not a single bronze mirror was found intact and, on the other hand, that post holes along the side of the grave indicate a wooden construction. Since both the Wajid and the later Nihongi name the mourning periods to be observed for emperors, Harada has adopted a raised floor construction ( pile construction ) that is more reminiscent of a mortuary ( 殯 宮 , mogari no miya ). Seyock, on the other hand, has two objections to this line of argument. When viewed from above, the arrangement of the post holes results in a parallelogram, which is improbable as a floor plan for a pile structure. In addition, the diameter of the post holes of 20 cm is too small for a load-bearing raised floor structure compared to finds in Saga, where the diameter was about one meter. Rather, the post holes indicated a two-part, clasp-shaped privacy screen that protected the site from desecration. Similar findings in Fujisaki, ( 藤 崎 遺跡 ), Fukuoka and Akasaka-imai ( 赤 坂 今井 遺跡 ), Kyōtō, also fit.

From the coincidence of historiographical facts and archaeological findings, the historical state of Ito is now located in the Itoshima plain. The Hirabaru site is currently considered by scholars to be the tomb of a queen or king of Ito.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Digitized at Aozora Bunko : This inspector resides in the country I-tu [25].
  2. ↑ Barbara Seyock: On the trail of the Eastern barbarians . Münster 2004, p. 197 (Wei Zhi, section [26]).
  3. ↑ Nihongi , fascicle 6, translation according to WG Aston: Nihongi. Chronicles of Japan, from the Earliest Times to AD 697 . London 1896, p. 167 (English, archive.org ). : “ I am the king of this land, and there is no other king but me. Do not thou therefore proceed further. ”
  4. ↑ 井 原 鑓 溝 遺跡 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved September 5, 2013 (Japanese).
  5. ↑ 井 原 鑓 溝 遺跡 . (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved September 10, 2013 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ss.iij4u.or.jp
  6. ↑ 三 雲 ・ 井 原 遺跡 鑓 溝 地区 現 地 説明 会 1094 番地 . Retrieved September 10, 2013 (Japanese).
  7. ↑ <三 雲 ・ 井 原 鑓 溝 遺跡 群> . 邪 馬 台 国 大 研究 ﾎ ｰ ﾑ ﾍﾟ ｰ ｼﾞ , accessed September 10, 2013 (Japanese, with numerous illustrations).

literature

  • Barbara Seyock: The Hirabaru Site and Wajinden Research Notes on the Archeology of the Kings of Ito . In: NOAG . tape 173-174 , 2003, pp. 207–225 (English, uni-hamburg.de [PDF; accessed on August 31, 2013]).
  • Barbara Seyock: On the trail of the Eastern barbarians: on the archeology of protohistoric cultures in South Korea and Western Japan . In: Bunka - Tübingen intercultural and linguistic Japanese studies . tape 8 . Literaturverlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-8258-7236-6 , Ito, p. 187–198 (dissertation Tübingen from 2002).
  • Takashi Okazaki: Japan and the continent in the Jomon and Yayoi Periods . In: The Cambridge History of Japan . 2nd Edition. tape 1 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-521-22352-0 , pp. 276 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed September 2, 2013]).

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