Yamataikoku
State | Defunct
300 BCE to 300 CE
Yamataikoku or Yamaichikoku is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period (circa 300 BCE – 300 CE).
The (297 CE) Chinese history Sanguo Zhi first records Yemetaiguo or Yemayiguo as the domain of shaman Queen Himiko (died circa 248 CE).
Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated where Yamataikoku was located and whether it was related to Yamato "Japan".
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The oldest accounts of Yamatai are found in the official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories for the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE), the Cao Wei Kingdom (220-265 CE), and the Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE).
The Wei Zhi ("Records of Wei") from about 297 CE, which is part of the San Guo Zhi (Records of the Three Kingdoms"), first mentions the country Yamatai written as Yamaichi.
This history describes ancient Wa (Japan) based upon detailed reports of third-century Chinese envoys who traveled throughout the Japanese Archipelago.
Going south by water for twenty days, one comes to the country of Toma, where the official is called mimi and his lieutenant, miminari.
Here there are about fifty thousand households.
Then going toward the south, one arrives at the country of Yamadai, where a Queen holds her court.
[This journey] takes ten days by water and one month by land.
Among the officials there are the ikima and, next in rank, the mimasho; then the mimagushi, then the nakato.
There are probably more than seventy thousand households. (115, tr. Tsunoda 1951:9)
The Wei Zhi also records that in 238 CE, Queen Himiko sent an envoy to the court of Wei emperor Cao Rui, who responded favorably.