'Conceivably, when Chinese first met Japanese,' Carr : 9 suggests, 'they transcribed Wa as * ʼWâ 'bent back' signifying 'compliant' bowing/obeisance. It defines 倭 as shùnmào 順皃 'obedient/submissive/docile appearance', graphically explains the 'person human' radical with a wěi 委 'bent' phonetic, and quotes the above Shi Jing poem. The first 'submissive obedient' explanation began with the (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. Carr : 9–10 surveys prevalent proposals for the etymology of Wa ranging from feasible (transcribing Japanese first-person pronouns waga 我が 'my our' and ware 我 'I we oneself') to shameful (writing Japanese Wa as 倭 implying 'dwarf'), and summarizes interpretations for * ʼWâ 'Japanese' into variations on two etymologies: 'behaviorally 'submissive' or physically 'short ''.

In these latter cases, the pairs of provinces with similar names are thought to have been created through the subdivision of an earlier single province in prehistoric or protohistoric times.Īlthough the etymological origins of Wa remain uncertain, Chinese historical texts recorded an ancient people residing in the Japanese archipelago, named something like * ʼWâ or * ʼWər 倭. Some other pairs of historical provinces of Japan exhibit similar sharing of one etymological element, such as Kazusa (<* Kami-tu-Fusa, 'Upper Fusa') and Shimōsa (<* Simo-tu-Fusa, 'Lower Fusa') or Kōzuke (<* Kami-tu-Ke, 'Upper Ke') and Shimotsuke (<* Simo-tu-Ke, 'Lower Ke'). The historical province of Yamato (now Nara Prefecture in central Honshu) borders Yamashiro Province (now the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture) however, the names of both provinces appear to contain the Japonic etymon yama, usually meaning 'mountain(s)' (but sometimes having a meaning closer to 'forest', especially in some Ryukyuan languages). The pronunciation Yamato cannot be formed from the sounds of its constituent Chinese characters it is speculated to originally refer to a place in Japan meaning 'Mountain Gate' (山戸). Retroactively, this character was adopted in Japan to refer to the country itself, often combined with the character 大, literally meaning 'Great', similar to Great Qing or Great Britain, so as to write the preexisting name Yamato (大和) (e.g., such as 大淸帝國 'Great Qing Empire' or 大英帝國 'Great British Empire'). Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato with one and the same Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it, replacing it with 和 'harmony, peace, balance'. The Wajin ( also known as Wa or Wō ) or Yamato were the names early China used to refer to an ethnic group living in Japan around the time of the Three Kingdoms period. Japanese statistics only count their population in terms of nationality, rather than ethnicity.įurther information: Wa (Japan) and Yamatai After Japan's surrender in World War II, the term became antiquated for suggesting racial notions that have been discarded in many circles. The term came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the settlers of mainland Japan from minority ethnic groups inhabiting the peripheral areas of the then Japanese Empire, including the Ainu, Emishi, Ryukyuans, Nivkh, Oroks, as well as Austronesians, Chinese, Koreans, and Micronesian peoples who were incorporated into the Empire of Japan in the early 20th century. The clan leaders also elevated their own belief system that featured ancestor worship into a national religion known as Shinto. The clan became the ruling faction in the area, and incorporated native Japanese and Korean migrants.

The Yamato clan set up Japan's first and only dynasty. Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated whether the word is related to the earlier Yamatai ( 邪馬臺). The Yamato people ( 大和民族, Yamato minzoku, literally 'Yamato ethnicity') or the Wajin ( 和人, Wajin, 倭, literally ' Wa people') was applied to the Imperial House of Japan or 'Yamato Court' that existed in Japan in the 4th century further, it was originally the name of the region where the Yamato people first settled in Yamato Province (modern-day Nara Prefecture).

Yamato battle group