Memories of the Land of Hitakami — The Yamato Kingship and the Reorganization of the Eastern Provinces

Voices from the Ancient Strata of Silence, Part 10

Memories of the Land of Hitakami — The Yamato Kingship and the Reorganization of the Eastern Provinces

Having secured the 'water road' of the Seto Inland Sea,
the Yamato incorporated the maritime powers of western Japan into their own broad-reaching order.

Beyond their gaze lay a vast eastern world,
not yet fully integrated.

The eastern provinces were not merely a frontier.

Remembered in later traditions as the 'Land of Hitakami',
it was a world of unique martial culture extending from the eastern provinces to the north.

Ironware.
River transport.
Water routes opening to the sea.
And, the mobility of horses that would later come into full force.

A different system of power from Yamato,
another sun.

How did Yamato
incorporate this eastern world into its own order?

The 'Memory of Myth' of the Yamato Takeru Eastern Expedition

In the chronicles and myths, the expedition to the eastern provinces
is depicted as the heroic tale of Yamato Takeru.

The Kusanagi sword.
The wildfires of Suruga.
The scene of crossing the sea from Sagami.
And the young hero who pacifies the eastern provinces.

However, behind this beautiful story,
the memory of the long process by which the Yamato kingship expanded its power into the eastern provinces
is layered in the form of myth.

For Yamato, the eastern provinces were not merely a frontier.

Iron culture.
Water transport connecting rivers and inland seas.
The military power of local chieftains.
A social structure different from that of Yamato.

The eastern world, possessing these elements,
was a massive opponent that Yamato, seeking to build an order on an archipelago-wide scale,
could not avoid.

Myth condensed the memory of that long contact and conflict
into the journey of a single hero.

Control of traffic around Katori-umi — Seizing the 'heart' of the eastern provinces

In Yamato's advance into the eastern provinces,
Katori-umi held
extremely significant importance.

The Kanto region in ancient times was vastly different from the maps of today.

Around the Tone River, Kinu River, and Lake Kasumigaura,
vast inland seas, low-lying wetlands, and waterways spread out,
and people and goods moved across the water.

The Katori Sea was

• inland river transport

• Pacific coastal shipping routes

• the path to the north via the Hitachi region

• the low-lying wetland zones of the Kanto Plain

connecting these,
it was one of the largest transportation hubs in the Eastern Provinces.

Sitting on the shores of this Katori Sea
is Katori Jingu Shrine.

Futsunushi-no-Kami, enshrined at Katori Jingu,
is a deity who was deeply revered in later ages as a god of war.

Of course, one cannot simply superimpose
the appearance of the shrine as seen today onto its appearance in the Kofun period.

However, it is extremely important that the land of Katori
has been handed down as a place that was not only a vital point for water transport,
but also one that bore the memories of the military and ritual traditions of the Eastern Provinces.

The Katori Sea was not merely a space for waterborne traffic.

It had the character of a nodal point for the control of the Eastern Provinces,
where not only people and goods moved, but also military power, rituals, and ties between local leaders intersected.

Securing this location
had a major impact on logistics and military movement in the Eastern Provinces. Connecting these,
it was one of the largest transportation hubs in the Eastern Provinces.

Securing this location
had a major impact on logistics and military movement in the Eastern Provinces.

Yamato deepened its relationships with local leaders around the Katori Sea,
and established a framework for regional governance that would lead to the later Kuni-no-Miyatsuko system.

This was not merely an administrative reorganization.

It was part of a "transportation control" strategy,
securing key points of water transport and connecting the leader classes of the Eastern Provinces to a Yamato-centered order.

The flow of goods and people, which had moved freely,
was gradually incorporated under the influence of Yamato.

The water network of the Eastern Provinces,
while maintaining its openness,
was drawn toward a new political gravity.

The "Sign of a New Order": Keyhole-Shaped Burial Mounds

Having secured key transportation hubs, the Yamato state next began incorporating the chieftain classes of the eastern provinces into its own broad-reaching order.
The visible sign of this was the keyhole-shaped burial mound.

The visible sign of this was,
the keyhole-shaped burial mound.

The eastern provinces originally possessed their own unique social cohesion,
driven by local chieftains.

However, as the Kofun period progressed,
influential chieftains in various regions
began adopting the Yamato style of burial.

This was not merely a trend in tomb construction.

It was a political sign,intended to demonstrate that "I am connected to the Yamato-centered chieftain order."

It was a political sign,
intended to demonstrate that.

The keyhole-shaped burial mounds built throughout the eastern provinces were traces carved into the earth,
marking the process by which the eastern world, remembered as the Land of Hitakami,
was being incorporated into the broad-reaching order of Yamato.

Kenu and Michinoku: The Geopolitical Reorganization of the Eastern Provinces

The reorganization of the eastern provinces by Yamato
was not limited to water transport and burial mounds.

The very way in which these regions were understood
was also gradually changed.

One of the symbols of this
was Kenu.

Kenu, which spanned Gunma and Tochigi,
was one of the largest spheres of influence in the eastern provinces.

Judging from the scale and distribution of the burial mounds,
it is clear that a powerful chieftain class existed in this region.

Kenu would later come to be understood
as Kamitsukenu and Shimotsukenu.

This indicates that one of the largest spheres of influence in the eastern provinces
was being reorganized within the Yamato-centered regional order.

Furthermore, to the north of that,
a frontier world that would eventually be called "Michinoku" stretched out.

The eastern provinces were being incorporated into the Yamato order.
Meanwhile, the north continued to maintain its uniqueness and was spoken of as a target of resistance.

The eastern world, which had once been continuous,
was, through the expansion of Yamato,

Those who submit.
Those who do not submit.

They were gradually divided into these categories.

Conclusion: Memories of the Land of Hitakami and the Transforming Eastern Provinces

The process of reorganizing the Eastern Provinces
can be summarized as follows.

• The Yamato Takeru myth contains layered memories of expansion into the Eastern Provinces.

• Through the Katori Sea, a vital hub for water transport, the transportation network of the Eastern Provinces was connected to the broader Yamato order.

• Keyhole-shaped burial mounds became political signs indicating that the local elite of the Eastern Provinces had connected to the Yamato-centered regional order.

• Through the control of Kenu and Michinoku, the eastern world was reorganized within a new regional order.

Thus,
the eastern world, once remembered as the "Land of Hitakami,"
faded from the center stage of history.

It was not a simple disappearance.

Local leaders were connected to the Yamato order,
water transport was placed under a new political gravity,
and the people of the Eastern Provinces would eventually

"Those who submit" and "those who do not submit"

come to be described as separate groups.

The other sun
was incorporated under the sky of Yamato.

However, the path for Yamato to build an order on the scale of the archipelago
was not yet finished.

What remained at the end was
the western power that was close to the direct trade route with the Korean Peninsula
and had brought great tension to Yamato's integration until the very end—

the maritime kingship of Tsukushi.

In the next chapter, as the final chapter of Part II,
we will approach the true nature of the "Iwai Rebellion,"
the last great internal conflict that determined Yamato's rule.

Chapter 10: Sources and Bibliography

Classical Historical Materials

• Nihon Shoki, Annals of Emperor Keiko
  Contains key accounts regarding Yamato Takeru's eastern expedition.

• Kojiki, Middle Volume, Yamato Takeru Section
  A foundational source conveying the mythical depiction of the eastern expedition.

• Shoku Nihongi, Articles related to the Emishi
  Historical materials for confirming the management of the Tohoku region, perceptions of the Emishi, and awareness of borders during the Nara period.
  In this paper, these are referenced as supplementary materials for considering later perceptions of the East.

References and Related Materials

• Shin Sato, 'History and Culture of the Ancient Eastern Provinces'

• Masaki Kudo, 'Ancient History of the Emishi'

• Taichiro Shiraishi, 'Kofun and the Yamato Regime'

• Koichi Mori, 'Window to Ancient History'

• Exhibition commentaries, municipal histories, and excavation reports related to the Kofun period in Chiba, Ibaraki, Gunma, and Tochigi Prefectures

• Archaeological materials regarding the distribution of Kofun in the Katori Sea, Tone River water system, Kanto low-lying wetlands, and the Keno region

Supplementary Note

In this paper, rather than treating Yamato Takeru's eastern expedition as historical fact,
I read it as a memory of the Yamato Kingship's expansion into the eastern provinces
that was reconstructed into a mythical narrative by later generations.