Himiko

[1] Himiko (卑弥呼, c. 170–247/248 AD), also known as the Shingi Waō (親魏倭王, "Ruler of Wa, Friend of Wei"),[3][a][b] was a shamaness-queen of Yamatai-koku in Wakoku (倭国).

Early Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom (220–265) and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler following decades of warfare among the kings of Wa.

Early Japanese histories do not mention Himiko, but historians associate her with legendary figures such as Empress Consort Jingū, who is said to have served as regent from 201 to 269.

[6] Scholarly debates over the identity of Himiko and the location of her domain, Yamatai, have raged since the late Edo period, with opinions divided between northern Kyūshū or traditional Yamato Province in present-day Kinki.

[9] This section is the first description of Himiko (Pimiko) and Yamatai: The Japanese people of Wa [倭人] dwell in the middle of the ocean on the mountainous islands southeast of [the prefecture of] Tai-fang.

The governor dispatched "Chang Chêng, acting Secretary of the Border Guard" with a "proclamation advising reconciliation", and subsequently: When Himiko passed away, a great mound was raised, more than a hundred paces in diameter.

[14]Commentators take this 'Iyo' (壹與, with 壹, "one", an old variant of 一) as a miscopy of Toyo (臺與, with 臺 "platform; terrace") paralleling the Wei Zhi writing Yamatai (邪馬臺) as Yamaichi (邪馬壹).

While both clearly incorporated the Wei Zhi reports, they made some changes, such as specifying the "some seventy or eighty years" of Wa wars occurred between 146 and 189, during the reigns of Han Emperors Huan and Ling.

From the time of the overthrow of Chaoxian [northern Korea] by Emperor Wu (BC 140–87), nearly thirty of these communities have held intercourse with the Han [dynasty] court by envoys or scribes.

One remarkable exception to early Japanese histories overlooking Himiko is the Nihon Shoki, quoting the Wei Zhi three times.

[22] Yamato Totohi Momoso himemiko (倭迹迹日百襲媛命), the shaman aunt of Emperor Sujin, supposedly committed suicide after learning her husband was a trickster snake-god.

The Kojiki does not mention her, but the Nihon Shoki describes her as "the Emperor's aunt by the father's side, a shrewd and intelligent person, who could foresee the future".

Yamato-toto-hi-momo-so-bime no Mikoto said to her husband: "As my Lord is never seen in the day-time, I am unable to view his august countenance distinctly; I beseech him therefore to delay a while, that in the morning I may look upon the majesty of his beauty."

The Emperor assigned Yamato-hime to find a permanent location for Amaterasu's shrine, and after wandering for years, the sun-goddess instructed her to build it at Ise "where she first descended from Heaven".

If thou worshippest me aright, the land will assuredly yield submission freely, and the edge of thy sword shall not be all stained with blood.

"[34]The Emperor thought the gods were lying, said he had only seen ocean to the West, and then died, either immediately (Kojiki) or after invading Kumaso (Nihon Shoki).

Jingū allegedly discovered she was pregnant, personally planned and led a successful conquest of Silla, gave birth to the future emperor, and returned to rule Yamato.

Beyond that, it is at present impossible to go.Hime (Old Japanese Pi1me1), (姫, "young noblewoman; princess"), explains Miller, etymologically derives from hi (Fi1) (日, "sun") and me (me1) (女, "woman").

Tsunoda[38] notes that "Pimiko is from an archaic Japanese title, himeko, meaning 'princess'"; that is, hime with the female name suffix -ko (子, "child"), viz.

Other Amaterasu-related etymological proposals for the Japanese name Himiko involve hi (日, "sun") and miko (覡 or 巫女, "female shaman, shamaness; shrine maiden; priestess"); or their combination hime-miko, "princess-priestess".

The 8th-century Japanese Kojiki ("Records of Ancient Matters") and the Nihon Shoki ("Chronicles of Japan", which quotes the Wei Zhi) disregard Himiko, unless she was the subtext behind their accounts of Empress Jingū, Yamatohime-no-mikoto, or Yamato-toto-hi-momo-so-hime-no-Mikoto.

Assuming the Wei Zhi account that Himiko died around 248, if one accepts the dubious Japanese traditional dating, then she was closer to the 3rd-century AD Empress Jingū than to the 1st-century BC Yamato-hime-no-mikoto and Yamato-toto-hi-momo-so-hime.

Neither the Kojiki nor the Nihon Shoki mentions Himiko or any of the salient topics that she was unmarried, was chosen as ruler by the people, had a younger brother who helped rule (unless this refers to Jingū's son), or had numerous (figuratively "1,000") female attendants.

The Edo-period philosophers Arai Hakuseki and Motoori Norinaga began the controversies over whether Yamatai was located in Northern Kyushu or Yamato Province in the Kinki region of central Honshū and whether the Wei Zhi or the Nihon Shoki was historically more trustworthy.

The kokugaku scholar Motoori accepted the traditional Japanese myth-history as more reliable, and dismissed its Wei Zhi quotations as later accretions.

Even so, both the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki recorded that the current imperial dynasty, starting with Jimmu, originated from the Kumaso territory of Takachiho, Hyūga Province in present-day Kyushu's southeastern section.

Naka Michiyo believed the Nihon Shoki chronology was inaccurate prior to the 4th century, and thus [45] "Jingū became a fourth-century queen whose reign could not possibly have coincided with Himiko's."

The sinologist Shiratori Kurakichi proposed the Nihon Shoki compilers were tempted to associate Jingū with the religious powers of Himiko.

To different interpreters, this early Japanese shaman queen can appear as evidence of communalism (Marxists), Jōmon priestess rulers (Feminist history), the Japanese conquest of Korea,[51] the Mongolian conquest of Japan (Namio Egami's "horserider theory" (ja)), the imperial system originating with tandem rule by a female shaman and male monarch,[52] the "patriarchal revolution" replacing female deities and priestesses with male counterparts,[53] or a shamanic advisor to the federation of Wa chieftains who "must have looked like a ruling queen to Chinese envoys".

[55] Queen Himiko contests take place in small towns offering cash prizes to women over the age of eighteen on the basis of charm and appearance.