The Yayoi jin were an ancient people that immigrated
Classification
The terms
Yayoi and
Wajin can be used interchangeably, though
Wajin (倭人) refers to the people of Wa, and
Wajin (和人) is also used as a name for the modern
Yamato people.
[David Blake Willis & Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu: Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity, , p. 272: ‘“Wajin,” which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read “Yamato no hito” (Yamato person)’.]
The definition of the Yayoi people is complex: Yayoi describes both farmer-hunter-gatherers exclusively living in the Japanese archipelago and their agricultural transition. Yayoi people refers specifically to the mixed descendants of Jōmon hunter-gatherers and mainland Asian migrants, who adopted (rice) agriculture and other continental material culture.
Archaeological research defines the term "Yayoi people" as a general designation for migrants who arrived in the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period, originating primarily from the Korea and southern Pacific regions. It is not used to indicate a single, specific ethnic group.
These migrants are believed to have gradually assimilated with the indigenous Jōmon population, who had long inhabited the archipelago, thereby contributing to the formation of the Yamato people.
The influence of Yayoi cultural elements varied by region. Populations in Kyushu, Okinawa, and the Tōhoku region are thought to retain stronger Jōmon traits, whereas those in Kansai region and Shikoku exhibit a greater degree of Yayoi influence.
Origin
There are several hypotheses about the geographic origin of the mainland Asian migrants:
-
immigrants from the Southern or Central Korea
[ ロシア極東新石器時代研究の新展開 (in Japanese)]
-
immigrants from Jiangnan near the Yangtze River Delta in ancient China
[崎谷満『DNA・考古・言語の学際研究が示す新・日本列島史』(勉誠出版 2009年)(in Japanese)]
-
multiple origins from various regions of Asia, including Southeast Asia
[Multiple references:]
According to Alexander Vovin, the Yayoi were present in the central and southern parts of Korea before they were displaced and assimilated by arriving proto-Koreans.[Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean". Korean Linguistics. 15 (2): 222–240.] A similar view was raised by Whitman (2012), who further noted that the Yayoi are not closely related to the proto-Koreanic speakers and that they arrived in Korea later from Manchuria around 300 BC and coexisted with proto-Japonic speakers. Both influenced each other, and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.
Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, suggested that immigrants from the Korean Peninsula initiated the Yayoi period in Japan. Citing research findings, he stated that Yayoi Japan likely received millions of immigrants from Korea. These immigrants, during the Yayoi transition, are believed to have overwhelmed the genetic contribution of the indigenous Jōmon people, whose population was estimated to be around 75,000 at that time.
In recent times, through archaeological and genealogical research, Japanese scholars have largely associated the origin of the Yayoi people with the Korean peninsula and have stated their impact in terms of shared ancestry between the two modern populations.
Lifestyle
The Yayoi population is believed to have been heavily agricultural
and shamanistic oriented, being thought to be the precursor of
Shinto, worshipping animals and spirits.
Though the origins are still debated, the Yayoi group is believed to have been the people who first introduced rice farming to Japan.
Language
The people of the Yayoi culture are regarded as the spreaders of agriculture and Japonic languages throughout the whole archipelago and had both local Jōmon hunter-gatherer and mainland Asian migrant ancestry.
The remnants of Japonic speakers in Korea are often categorized under the Peninsular Japonic demographic,
Genetics
Overview
The Yayoi period population is inferred to have been culturally close to the pre-Koreanic Mumun pottery period populations of the southern Korean peninsula, which may have been speakers of Peninsular Japonic languages.
Impact on modern populations
Genetically, the Yayoi people (especially the late-Yayoi settlers) are believed to be a major component of the genetic makeup for the modern Japanese people
Physical appearance
Early Yayoi immigrants had often wholly large and flat features, large facial height, round eye orbits, and large teeth,
Sea people
Some historians call the Yayoi people the "Sea people (海人族/Kaijinzoku or Amazoku, 海神族/Watatsumizoku)," postulating that they migrated to Japan via the sea from elsewhere. This idea began with finding Gaya confederacy-styled bronzewares and shipwreck remains on the coasts of the Korean peninsula,[澤田洋太郎『日本語形成の謎に迫る』（新泉社、1999年）] prompting some historians to suggest that there was a group of seafaring people who entered Japan via Korea from the seas during the Yayoi period.
Multiple theories about their geographic origin exist, including the Korean peninsula,[次田真幸『古事記 （上） 全訳注』講談社学術文庫 38刷2001年（初版 1977年） p.192] and South China. However, the theory of the Sea people is deemed merely hypothetical due to lack of evidence, and support for it has diminished over the years in favor of more grounded descriptions in terms of the Yayoi people.
Language
See also
