大和民族 | |
|---|---|
 Wedding ceremony of theJapanese imperial family (currentEmperor Naruhito and currentEmpress Masako pictured) wearingkimono | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Majority in theJapanese archipelago, except in theRyukyu Islands and theSakhalin Island | |
| Languages | |
| Japanese | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantlynon-religious in modern times[1][2] Traditionally:  Shinto · .svg) BuddhismMinority: Christianity · New religions[3] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
TheYamato (大和民族,Yamato minzoku;lit. 'Yamato ethnicity') orWajin (和人 /倭人;lit. 'Wa people')[4], also known as theJapanese,[5] are anEast Asianethnic group that comprises over 98% of thepopulation of Japan and are the primaryJapanese people.Genetic and anthropometric studies have shown that the Yamato people descend from theYayoi people, who migrated to Japan from the continent beginning during the1st millennium BC, and the indigenousJōmon people who had inhabited the Japanese archipelago for millennia prior.[6]
It can also refer to the first people that settled inYamato Province (modern-dayNara Prefecture). Generations of Japanese archeologists, historians, and linguists have debated whether the word is related to the earlierYamatai (邪馬臺). Around the 6th century, the Yamato clan set up Japan's first and only dynasty. The clan became the ruling faction in the area, and incorporated the natives of Japan and migrants from the mainland.[7] The clan leaders also elevated their own belief system that featuredancestor worship into a national religion known asShinto.[7]
The term came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the settlers ofmainland Japan from minority ethnic groups inhabiting the peripheral areas of the thenEmpire of Japan, including theAinu,Ryukyuans,Nivkh, as well asChinese,Koreans, andAustronesians (Taiwanese indigenous peoples andMicronesians) who were incorporated into the empire in the early 20th century. The term was eventually used as racepropaganda. After Japan's surrender in World War II, the term became antiquated for suggestingpseudoscientific racist notions that have been discarded in many circles.[8] Ever since the fall of the Empire, Japanese statistics only count their population in terms of nationality, rather than ethnicity.
TheWajin (also known asWa orWō) orYamato were the names early China used to refer to an ethnic group living inJapan around the time of theThree Kingdoms period. Ancient and medieval East Asian scribes regularly wroteWa orYamato with one and the same Chinese character倭, which translated to "dwarf", until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it, replacing it with和 "harmony, peace, balance". Retroactively, this character was adopted in Japan to refer to the country itself, often combined with the character大, literally meaning "Great".
The historical province ofYamato within Japan (nowNara Prefecture in centralHonshu) bordersYamashiro Province (now the southern part ofKyoto Prefecture); however, the names of both provinces appear to contain theJaponic etymonyama, usually meaning "mountain(s)" (but sometimes having a meaning closer to "forest", especially in someRyukyuan languages). Some other pairs of historical provinces of Japan exhibit similar sharing of one etymological element, such asKazusa (<*Kami-tu-Fusa, "UpperFusa") andShimōsa (<*Simo-tu-Fusa, "Lower Fusa") orKōzuke (<*Kami-tu-Ke, "UpperKe") andShimotsuke (<*Simo-tu-Ke, "Lower Ke"). 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.
Although 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. Carr[9]: 9–10 surveys prevalent proposals for the etymology ofWa ranging from feasible (transcribing Japanese first-person pronounswaga我が "my; our" andware我 "I; we; oneself") to shameful (writing JapaneseWa as倭 implying "dwarf"), and summarizes interpretations for *ʼWâ "Japanese" into variations on two etymologies: "behaviorally 'submissive' or physically 'short'". The first "submissive; obedient" explanation began with the (121 CE)Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. It defines倭 asshùnmào順皃 "obedient/submissive/docile appearance", graphically explains the "person; human' radical with ashùnmàowěi委 "bent" phonetic, and quotes the aboveShi Jing poem. "Conceivably, when Chinese first met Japanese," Carr[9]: 9 suggests, "they transcribedWa as *ʼWâ 'bent back' signifying 'compliant' bowing/obeisance. Gestures of respect is noted in early historical references to Japan." Examples include "Respect is shown by squatting",[10] and "they either squat or kneel, with both hands on the ground. This is the way they show respect."[11]
Koji Nakayama interpretswēi逶 "winding" as "very far away" and euphemistically translatesWō倭 as "separated from the continent". The second etymology ofwō倭 meaning "dwarf (variety of an animal or plant species), midget, little people" has possible cognates inǎi矮 "low, short (of stature)",wō踒 "strain; sprain; bent legs", andwò臥 "lie down; crouch; sit (animals and birds)". Early Chinese dynastic histories refer to aZhūrúguó侏儒國 "pygmy/dwarf country" located south of Japan, associated with possiblyOkinawa Island or theRyukyu Islands. Carr cites the historical precedence of construing Wa as "submissive people" and the "Country of Dwarfs" legend as evidence that the "little people" etymology was a secondary development.
Scientific racism was a Western idea that was imported from the late nineteenth century onward. Despite the notion being hotly contested by Japanese intellectuals and scholars, the false notion of racial homogeneity was used as propaganda due to the political circumstances of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan, which coincided withJapanese imperialism andWorld War II.[8] Pseudoscientific racial theories, which included the false belief of the superiority of the Yamato character, were used to justify military expansionism, discriminatory practices, and ethnocentrism.[8] The concept of "pure blood" as a criterion for theuniqueness of the Yamatominzoku began circulating around 1880 in Japan, around the time some Japanese scientists began investigations intoeugenics.[12]
Initially, to justify Imperial Japan'sconquest of Continental Asia, Imperial Japanese propaganda espoused the ideas of Japanese supremacy by claiming that the Japanese represented a combination of all East Asian peoples and cultures, emphasizing heterogeneous traits.[13] Imperial Japanese propaganda started to place an emphasis on the ideas of racial purity and the supremacy of the Yamato race when theSecond Sino-Japanese War intensified.[13] Fuelled by the ideology of racial supremacy, racial purity, and national unity between 1868 and 1945, the Meiji and Imperial Japanese government carefully identified and forcefully assimilated marginalized populations, which included Okinawans, the Ainu, and other underrepresented non-Yamato groups, imposing assimilation programs in language, culture and religion.[14]
According to Aya Fujiwara, a professor of history at Alberta University, in an attempt to have some influence over the Japanese diaspora in Canada, Imperial Japanese authorities used the term Yamato as race propaganda during World War II, saying that:
"ForJapanese-Canadians in particular, the Emperor was the most natural symbol to promote primordial national sentiment and superiority of the Yamato race - the term that the Japanese used to distinguish themselves from others. This term meant a noble race, the members of which saw themselves as "chosen people". The modernization of Japan, which began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, produced a number of historical writings that tried to define the Japanese under the official scheme to create a strong nation. Imported to Canada by Japanese intellectuals, a "common myth of descent" that Japanese people belonged to the noble Yamato race headed by the Emperor since the ancient period was one of the core elements that defined Japanese-Canadian ethno-racial identity in the 1920s and the 1930s. The evolution and survival of an ethnic community, Anthony D. Smith argues, relies on the complicated "belief-system" that creates "a sacred communion of the people" with cultural and historical distinctiveness. During this period, Japanese intellectuals, scholars, and official representatives sought to keep Japanese Canadians within their sphere of influence, thereby reinforcing a transnational myth that would promote Japanese Canadians' sense of racial pride as God's chosen people in the world."[15]
World War II and Holocaust historianBryan Mark Rigg noted in 2020 how Yamato master race theory was included in government propaganda and schools in the decades leading up to World War II and howGaijin were regarded in Japan assubhumans.[16] Discrimination also occurred against non-Yamato races in Japan such as theAinu andRyukyuan peoples.[17][18]
At the end ofWorld War II, the Japanese government continued to adhere to the notions of racial homogeneity and racial supremacy, with the Yamato race at the top of the racial hierarchy.[19] Japanese propaganda of racial purity returned to post-World War II Japan because of the support of the Allied forces. U.S. policy in Japan terminated the purge of high-ranking war criminals and reinstalled the leaders who were responsible for the creation and manifestation of prewar race propaganda.[20]
In present-day Japan, the termYamato minzoku may be seen as antiquated for connoting racial notions that have been discarded in many circles since Japan'ssurrender in World War II.[21] "Japanese people" or even "Japanese-Japanese" are often used instead, although these terms also have complications owing to their ambiguous blending of notions of ethnicity and nationality.[22]
In present-day Japan statistics only counts their population in terms of nationality, rather than ethnicity, thus the number of ethnic Yamato and their actual population numbers are ambiguous.[23]
The earliest written records about Japanese people are from Chinese sources. These sources spoke about theWa people, the direct ancestors of the Yamato and other Japonic agriculturalists.[32] Early Chinese historians described the land of Wa as a land of hundreds of scattered tribal communities.[33] Third-century Chinese sources reported that the Wa lived on raw fish, vegetables, and rice served on bamboo and wooden trays, clapped their hands in worship (something still done inShinto shrines today), and built earthen-grave mounds. They also maintained vassal-master relations, collected taxes, had provincial granaries and markets, and observed mourning. TheWei Zhi (Chinese:魏志), which is part of the Records of the three Kingdoms, first mentionsYamataikoku and QueenHimiko in the 3rd century. According to the record, Himiko assumed the throne of Wa, as a spiritual leader, after amajor civil war. Her younger brother was in charge of the affairs of state, including diplomatic relations with the Chinese court of theKingdom of Wei.[34] When asked about their origins by the Wei embassy, the people of Wa claimed to be descendants of the people ofWu, a historic figure of theWu Kingdom around theYangtze Delta of China, however this is disputed.[35][36] The Wa of Na also received a golden seal from theEmperor Guangwu of theEastern Han dynasty. This event was recorded in theBook of the Later Han compiled by the Chinese historianFan Ye in the 5th century AD. The seal itself was discovered in northern Kyūshū in the 18th century.[32]
Archaeological evidence shows that Japonic speakers were first present in the southern and central regions of theKorean Peninsula. These peninsular Japonic-speaking agriculturalists were later replaced/assimilated byKoreanic-speakers, from southern Manchuria, likely causing the Yayoi migration and expansion within the Japanese archipelago.[37][38] Whitman (2012) argues that the Yayoi agriculturalists were ethnically distinct from proto-Koreans and were present in the Korean peninsula during theMumun pottery period. According to him, proto-Japonic languages arrived in the Korean peninsula around 1500 BC and was introduced to the Japanese archipelago by the Yayoi agriculturalists at around 950 BC, during the late Jōmon period. Koreanic languages arrived later from Manchuria to the Korean peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a laterfounder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.[39]
Overall, the most well-regarded theory is that present-day Japanese primarily descend from theYayoi people[40][41] and arguably, continental East Asian migrants from theKofun period,[42][43] and to a lesser extent, the pre-existing heterogenousJōmon population in the Japanese archipelago.[44]
Overall, the Yamato Japanese are related to other modern East Asians with Koreans being their closest relatives.[45][46] They are also related to Northern Han Chinese populations and act as the genetical intermediate between the continental clusters and the indigenous Ryukyuan clusters.[47] In regards to Han Chinese subgroups, the Yamato Japanese are related to populations found inInner Mongolia, Northeastern China (e.g.Liaoning,Shandong etc.) andShaanxi.[48][49][50][51] Among non-East Asians, the Yamato people show affinities with populations such as theDingjieSherpa people, NortheastSiberians andOceanian populations.[52][53][54]
Major disagreements exists as to whether theRyukyuans are considered the same as the Yamato, or identified as an independent but related ethnic group, or as a sub-group that constitutes Japanese ethnicity together with the Yamato. Ryukyuans have a distinct culture from the Yamato, with its owncuisine,history,language,religion and traditions.[55][56]
From theMeiji period—during which the Ryukyuan's kingdom was annexed by Japan—and onward, Japanese scholars such asShinobu Orikuchi andKunio Yanagita supported the ideological viewpoint that they were a sub-group of the Yamato people. The Ryukyuans were assimilated with their ethnic identity, tradition, culture and language suppressed by theMeiji government.[57][58][59] Today, the inhabitants of theRyukyu Islands are mostly a mixture of Yamato and Ryukyuan.
大和民族 the Yamato [Japanese] race
there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state (in the southwest) was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized.
The term Yayoi has four uses, which can create much confusion. First, it is the designation of the period beginning with the introduction of rice agriculture around 1000 BC until the advent of the Mounded Tomb Culture in the third century AD. Yayoi is a period designation exclusive to Japan; it includes both farmers and hunter–gatherers and entails the agricultural transition in a time-transgressive and regionally disparate process. Second, 'Yayoi people' may refer to anyone living in the Japanese Islands in the Yayoi period, or third, Yayoi may refer specifically to admixed people (Mumun + Jōmon in varying in proportions and across great distances). Fourth, Yayoi may indicate acculturation: the adoption of (rice) agriculture (and other continental material culture) by Jōmon-lineage people in the Yayoi period. All of these conflicting aspects of Yayoi must be kept in mind and clearly defined in any discussion.
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