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弥生 · YayoiChina16 sentences

中国の歴史書にのる倭

Wa in Chinese Records

The Chinese of that time called the area of present-day Japan Wa.

The people who lived in Wa were called Wajin.

Wa is described in Chinese history books.

The Hanshu (Kanjo) is a book that records the history of the Chinese state of Former Han.

The geography section (chirishi) in it says that the Wajin were divided into more than a hundred countries.

Hyakuyokoku means "a little over a hundred kuni".

Rakurō Commandery was a Chinese government office on the Korean Peninsula.

It is written that the Wajin live across the sea from Rakurō Commandery.

The Hou Hanshu (Gokanjo) is a book that records the history of the Chinese state of Later Han.

According to it, in the year 57 the king of the Na country (Na no kuni) of Wa sent an envoy to the Later Han emperor.

It says that Emperor Guangwu (Kōbutei) gave the king a seal with its cord (inju).

The Na country is thought to have been around present-day Fukuoka City.

In 1784 a farmer found a gold seal on Shikanoshima island in Fukuoka Prefecture.

The characters 「漢委奴国王」 are carved on the gold seal.

This gold seal is thought to be the seal of the inju written about in the Hou Hanshu.

Today the gold seal is in the Fukuoka City Museum and is a National Treasure.

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