Yamatai
History
Yamatai-koku (邪馬台国) is an old kingdom of the Japanese archipelago mentioned in the Chinese chronicles. According to these texts, this kingdom was directed by a named queen-priestess
Himiko 卑弥呼. The kingdom was supposed to dominate about thirty other small kingdoms which before fought all between them. Himiko would have died in
248 and his/her brother would then be ridden on the throne. However, under its reign, the kingdom fell at the edge of the civil war and one had to replace the brother of Himiko by another queen (Iyo or Toyo).
The kingdom of Yamatai exchanged gifts with the Chinese kingdom of Wei.
Localization
The site of Yamatai is one of the subjects most discussed concerning the Japanese history. The sources written concerning this kingdom do not make it possible indeed to locate it.
Some think that the kingdom would be in the current Kansai, others think that it is in the north of the island of
Kyūshū. Another not very popular theory said that this kingdom is in the Îles Ryūkyū.
The word Yamatai
The name of this kingdom is usually read “Yamatai”, but this reading is not only anachronistic (the pronunciation evolved/moved since IIIe century), but it mixes several types of Sino-Japanese readings.