Japanese Emperors: Y-DNA Haplogroup D1b1a2

THE FOUNDER OF THE YAMATO KINGDOM

According to the Nihongi, Homuda (Ōjin) became the king of Yamato state in 270 CE. Quite a few Japanese historians believe that the Yamato Kingdom began with Ōjin, despite the fact that, according to the Kojiki and Nihongi, Ōjin was the fifteenth, not the first, king of Yamato Kingdom. Tsuda Sōkichi (1873-1961) contended that the records of Kojiki and Nihongi on the Yamato kings prior to Ōjin were nothing but a simple fabrication for the purpose of making the Yamato royal family the rulers of Japanese archipelago since ancient times. [27]

The first evidence advanced by Tsuda to support his thesis is as follows. In the original text of Kojiki and Nihongi, all thirteen kings between Jimmu the Founder and the fifteenth king Ōjin were recorded in traditional Japanese style posthumous formulaic titles, none of them individual or unique. From this, Tsuda reasons that posterity manufactured the titles, rendering them uniform. Beginning with Ōjin, however, the unique name that was actually used since the time of the princedom was recorded as the posthumous title of each king. From this, Tsuda reasons that the name of each king was authentic. For example, the name of Ōjin when he was a prince is Homuda, and the latter became his traditional Japanese style posthumous title. [28] The Chinese-style titles, such as Jimmu or Ōjin, though most familiar to the general public these days, are not the ones we see in the original Kojiki and Nihongi. These are the titles that are believed to have been manufactured later by a scholar called Oumi Mihune (722-85).



The second evidence presented by Tsuda is as follows. According to the Kojiki and Nihongi, from Jimmu to the fifteenth king Ōjin, the pattern of succession was strictly lineal, from father to son. Between Ōjin and Tenji, however, the pattern of succession was mostly fraternal, with kingship passing from brother to brother. The practice of father-to-son succession was not firmly established even after Tenji in the late seventh century. Tsuda therefore contended that the records of Kojiki and Nihongi on all kings prior to Ōjin were fictitious.[8]

Hong finds four additional pieces of evidence to support the thesis that the Yamato Kingdom began with Ōjin.[9] [29] The first supporting piece of evidence is as follows. Tsuda had focused on the fact that both Kojiki and Nihongi record strict father-to-son successions prior to Ōjin. More importantly, however, is the fact that the credibility of them is cast into doubt by the peaceful nature of the transitions ascribed to them, so unlike other transitions. There was a bloody feud among brothers when Nintoku succeeded Ōjin. There was another bloody feud when the Richiu-Hanzei brothers succeeded Nintoku. Peculiar circumstances developed when Ingyou succeeded Hanzei. There was another bloody feud when the Ankau-Yūriaku brothers succeeded Ingyou. More peculiar circumstances occurred when the Kenzou-Ninken brothers succeeded Yūriaku-Seinei, and when Keitai succeeded Ninken-Buretsu. In other words, conflict and bloodshed, mostly between brothers, characterize post-Ōjin successions, giving us no reason to suppose that pre-Ōjin successions were peaceful.



Second, according to the Nihongi, the 70-year interval between the death of the so-called fourteenth king Chiuai (in 200) and the enthronement of the fifteenth king Ōjin (in 270) was ruled by Empress Jingū as regent (201-69). Yet Jingū is commonly acknowledged to be a fictitious figure apparently inspired by the third century Pimihu. The story of Jingū’s regency makes the thesis that only the post-Ōjin kings did actually exist sound more reasonable.

Third, immediately after the compilation of Kojiki in 712, the Yamato court ordered the governors of all provinces to compile surveys of products, animals, plants, and land conditions, etymologies of place names, and written versions of oral traditions. The Harima Fudoki, one of the few such records extant, is believed to have been compiled between 713 and 715. The Harima Fudoki includes so many anecdotes related to Homuda (Ōjin) that one may readily believe Homuda to have been the founder of the Yamato Kingdom. It is blanketed with a myriad of accounts about Homuda’s activities such as visiting villages and people, going on hunting expeditions, and the naming of places after his trifling words and deeds. Other kings are scarcely mentioned.


Emperor Ojin Mausoleum

According to Aoki, the Harima Fudoki is full of accounts of Homuda’s “fighting career and aggressive profile,” and yet “it is interesting to note that neither Kojiki nor Nihon shoki speak much of the belligerent activities of Homuda, while other provincial accounts are full of such episodes. . . . This must be an indication of some effort made to cover up Homuda’s undesirable aspects for records. In fact, the compilers of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki seem to have taken pains to conceal his belligerence before and after his emergence as the ruler of Yamato state . . . Compilers’ mention of his birthmark of an archery arm-piece seems to imply that he was a man of martial strength. . . .The silence of both Kojiki and Nihon shoki regarding Homuda’s aggressiveness seems intentional.” [30] Whatever the cover-up, until this very day, as many as 25,000 Hachiman Shrines all over the Japanese Islands continue to worship the deified spirit of Homuda, not Jimmu, as the god of war.

Fourth, according to the Kojiki and Nihongi, among all Yamato kings, only Jimmu the official Founder and the so-called fifteenth king Ōjin were born in Kyūshū: Jimmu shortly after the imperial ancestor deity Ninigi descended to Kyūshū from heaven, and Homuda immediately after his mother (Empress Jingū) landed on Kyūshū, crossing the sea from Korea. [31] From Kyūshū, Jimmu makes an epic Eastward Expedition, while Ōjin makes a miniature expedition eastward with his mother. [32] The fact that only Jimmu the official founder and Ōjin the fifteenth king were recorded to have been born in Kyūshū (only to conquer unruly elements in the Yamato area) implies that both Jimmu and Ōjin represent the one and only founder of the Yamato Kingdom.



EMBARKING ON THE EXPEDITION TO THE JAPANESE ISLANDS

Leaving the southeastern shore of the Korean Peninsula, crossing the Korea Strait, and passing the islands of Tsushima and Iki, the expeditionary force led by Homuda lands on Kyūshū, not on the northern plain area crowded by the Yayoi aborigine but, passing the Kammon Straight (at the modern-day Shimonoseki City), on the secluded southeastern shore of Kyūshū Island, the modern Hyūga. In the Age of Gods, however, the Kojiki and Nihongi specify the Peak of Kuji-furu of Taka-chiho in the Hyūga area as the very spot where the godly founder of Yamato Kingdom descended from “Heaven.” [33]

According to the Kojiki, immediately after Ninigi descended from heaven to the peak of Kuji-furu, he made the following statement: “This place faces towards Kara Kuni (Korea); it is…a land where the morning sun shines directly, a land where the rays of the evening sun are brilliant.” [34] According to Egami, this conspicuous mention of Korea at the very starting point of the foundation myth leads us “to regard Korea as the original home of the gods of heaven.” [35] Chamberlain, who had translated the Kojiki into English, notes the attempt by Motowori Norinaga (1730-1801), the leader of the so-called Kokugaku (National Learning) tradition that supposedly takes words and phrases in the Kojiki and Nihongi “literally” and then interprets their meaning in the most nationalistic way, to delete the word Korea: “though not daring actually to alter the characters (of the original text), assumes that they are corrupt and in his Kana rendering” omits the sentence mentioning Korea. Chamberlain further notes that: “His evident reason for wishing to alter the reading is simply and solely to conceal the fact that Korea is mentioned in a not unfriendly manner, in the traditional account of the divine age. … [There] is no excuse for so dishonest a treatment of the text he undertakes to commentate.” [36]

Massive Arrival of the Paekche People
The Nihongi records the official arrival of horses in the
Japanese archipelago from Paekche. The King of Paekche
sent A-chik-ki with two quiet horses (one stallion and one
mare, specifies the Kojiki) in 404 CE, the fifteenth year of
Ōjin’s reign. Because A-chik-ki was well-read in the clas-
sics, the Heir Apparent made him his teacher. Ōjin (Ho-
muda) asked A-chik-ki whether there were other learned
men superior to him, and he answered that there was such a
man named Wang-in. Wang-in arrived from Paekche in 405
CE, and the Heir Apparent learned various books from him.
A-chik-ki became the ancestor of the Scribes, and Wang-in
became the ancestor of the Chief Writers.

The Kojiki adds that the King of Paekche also sent a blacksmith,
a weaver, and a man who knew how to brew wine. The latter brewed
a good wine and Ōjin greatly rejoiced in that wine [47].
The Nihongi records the construction of a reservoir in
396 CE, the seventh year of Ōjin’s reign, by a group of peo-
ple from the Korean Peninsula. The Kojiki apparently re-
cords the same event, saying that there came some people
from Silla, who constructed a reservoir under the command
of Take-uchi which was called “Paekche Reservoir.” The
Nihongi records that the King of Paekche sent a seamstress
named Chin-mo-chin in 403 CE, who became the ancestress
of the seamstresses of Kume [48].



According to the Nihongi, Kung-wol, the progenitor of
the Hata clan, arrived at Yamato in 403 CE, the fourteenth
year of Ōjin, from “Paekche,” leading the people of 120
provinces, and in 409 CE (twentieth year of Ōjin), Achi, the
progenitor of the Yamato Aya clan, also arrived with the
people of 17 provinces [49]. The records of both Samguk-
sagi (for the year 399 CE) and King Kwang-gae-to epitaph
(for the year 400 CE) corroborate the possible sequence of
the massive movement of people from Paekche to the Japa-
nese Islands precisely at about this time.15

According to the Shinsen Shōjiroku, the Hata people
were dispersed into various provinces during the reign of
Nintoku where they undertook sericulture and silk manufac-
turing for the court. It is recorded that, by the late fifth cen-
tury (in the reign of Yūriaku), the size of the Hata clan
amounted to 18,670 persons consisting of 92 Be [51]. Ac-
cording to the Shoku-Nihongi, the province of Takechi,
which was the very center of the Yamato Kingdom, was so
full of Aya people that the people of other clans accounted
for only one or two out of ten [52]. According to the Shinsen
Shōjiroku, Achi obtained permission of Ōjin to establish the
Province of Imaki (the Newly Arrived) that was later re-
named Takechi, but the place came to be so crowded with
the Aya people that they had to be dispersed into various
other provinces [53]. The Harima Fudoki records that: “In
the reign of Homuda, Paekche people arrived at this place
and built a castle as they used to do in their homeland, mak-
ing it their dwelling. Hence the place is called Ki Mure
Mountain,” i.e., walled mountain fortress16 [54].



The massive movement of Paekche people clearly estab-
lishes a place for the Paekche in the formation of the Yamato
Kingdom. Ishida states: “Detailed research by historians has
made clear that the greatest wave of immigration took place
immediately after the unification of Japan by the Yamato
court. If the Yamato court was established without any rela-
tion to Korea, how can these facts be explained?” [56]
The Shinsen Shōjiroku (New Compilation of the Clan
Register) was compiled by the Yamato court under the aus-
pices of Saga (r.809-23), and finished in 815 CE. The Shin-
sen Shōjiroku records the progenitors for the 1,182 Yamato
ruling clans (uji) living in the capital and five surrounding
provinces. The preface of the Register states that since the
Ma-hito is the sovereign one among the imperial clans, the
Ma-hito clans in the capital region are presented at the very
beginning of the imperial group in Book One. The first four
Ma-hito imperial clans were recorded as descendants of Ho-
muda, the fifth clan as descendants of Keitai, the seven fol-
lowing Ma-hito clans as descendants of Bidatsu; then the
following eight Ma-hito imperial clans (i.e., thirteenth to
twentieth) were recorded as the descendants of “the Prince of
Paekche.” However, the twelfth, that is, the Ma-hito clan
immediately preceding those recorded as the descendants of
the Prince of Paekche, was recorded as the descendant of
Bidatsu and also as the offspring of the King of Paekche. In
other words, “the descendants of Bidatsu” are equivalent to
“the offspring of the King of Paekche” [57]. According to
the Nihongi, Bidatsu was the second child of Kimmei, who
was the rightful heir of Keitai, who in turn was “a descen-
dant in the fifth generation” of Ōjin (Homuda). Thus, the
Register is in effect recording that the entire Ma-hito impe-
rial clan, from the first to the twentieth, were the offspring of
“the King of Paekche.” This implies that the entire Ōjin line
of Yamato imperial families originated from Paekche royal
families.

Immediately after recording the Paek-chon River debacle
and the fall of fortress Chu-yu in 663, the Nihongi records
the following dialogue: “Then the people of the country said
to one another; Chu-yu has fallen; nothing more to be done
now; this day the name of Paekche has become extinct; how
can we pay visits to the place where the tombs of our ances-
tors are?”17 [58].