Yamato polity
The early Japanese political order centered in the Yamato region and governed by rulers who gradually extended authority over much of the archipelago.
Kofun period: A period of Japanese history, roughly the third through sixth centuries, marked by large keyhole-shaped burial mounds. The polity took shape during this era, whose monumental tombs signal expanding elite power.
Uji: Hereditary Japanese kin groups that organized status, occupation, and political allegiance in ancient times. The court governed through leading uji rather than a uniform territorial bureaucracy.
Taika Reform: A series of seventh-century reforms that sought to centralize Japanese government and reorganize land, taxation, and administration. The reforms recast older court authority into a more centralized state.
Baekje: One of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, which existed from the fourth century until its defeat in 660. Baekje was both a diplomatic partner and a more established neighboring kingdom with influence at the Yamato court.
Yayoi period: A period of Japanese prehistory marked by wet-rice agriculture, metalworking, and new forms of social organization. Yayoi communities and elites preceded the court-centered order that emerged in Yamato.
Kabane: Hereditary titles assigned to powerful Japanese clans in the ancient period. Kabane ranked elite lineages and helped the rulers structure political service.
Ritsuryō: The system of codes and institutions used to organize the centralized Japanese state in the seventh and eighth centuries. Ritsuryō governance formalized powers that had grown around the Yamato court.
Silla: A Korean kingdom that unified much of the peninsula in the seventh century. Silla’s territorial unification offers a contrast to Yamato’s gradual consolidation among island communities.
Wa (Japan): An ancient name used in Chinese texts for peoples and polities of the Japanese archipelago. Chinese accounts describe Wa rulers and communities during the polity’s formative centuries.
Ōkimi: An ancient Japanese title meaning great king, used for rulers before the title tenno became established. It identifies the ruler’s early royal status without projecting later imperial terminology backward.