Himiko

             Who was Himiko?

 

            In early Japanese history there were several different countries. The one that actually became known as the Japanese state was known in the Yayoi period as Yamato. However there existed several before it that helped shape the current Japanese identity. The most famous of these early states was known as the Yamatai but there are many questions that remain, even to the present day. The most important one being was it`s most famous leader, Himiko, even real?

 

            Himiko was the leader of the Yamataikoku from around 189-248 AD. She took power along with her younger brother after a period of bloody war and brought peace to the countryside. Stories say that she could use magic to bewitch the people into believing what she wanted them to and may have used bronze mirrors to cloud their minds. The stories also give her 1000 female attendants and one male attendant, her brother who served her, and interpreted her visons. She was unmarried and became ruler at 14. When she died a huge burial mound called the Hashihaka kofun was erected for her in Sakurai, Nara and she was buried with sacrifice, respect and her absence started a civil war that eventually led to the Yamato.

 

            I mention stories because in the most famous early Japanese history sources, the Nihonshoki and the Kojiki she doesn`t exist. There is no mention of her reign, her accomplishments, nothing of true note. The only sources for her existence come from Chinese sources compiled in 297 called the Records of Three Kingdoms. There the people of Wa, The Chinese name for Japan, had sent an envoy to the Han dynasty. She is also recorded in Korean sources in 1145 but little evidence is there to back it up.

 

            The Nihon shoki and the Kojiki which were written in the 8^th century mention the envoys sent to the Chinese but all reference to Himiko had been eliminated. However her family line is present along with earlier Emperors and later emperors. There may have been a desire to cover up her accomplishments but why is unclear at this time.

 

            So did Himiko exist? Some theories place her as the Empress consort Jingu who was the wife and shamanistic advisor of the 14^th Emperor Chuai. On her advice he invaded Korea but there is little Korean evidence for such an attack. After he died she continued the war for three years and gave birth. She served as the regent until her son Ojin took power around 270 at age 70.

However stories around Jingu are conflicting and there is no direct connection to Himiko.

 

            Hashihaka tomb which is said to be her burial place has never been fully excavated and in March of 2000 the Japan Times published an article that described a bronze mirror which was reported to have been a gift to Himiko from the Chinese but it was found in Hokenoyama tomb not Hashihaka. Other mirrors have been found in different Kansai tombs and Shikoku tombs. Many scholars disagree with the Kansai origins of the Yamatai Kingdom and instead place it in Kyushu.

 

            So who was she? Was she the driving force behind the pacification of the wars in the Yamatai kingdom? Was she a powerful sorcerer able to bewitch the minds of her subjects? Was she a myth made up by a subjected people to explain a golden age that was destroyed when the Yamato people took power? Was she a victim of the male patriarchy that wanted to devalue all things female? Controversy continues to surround her life and death.