Emishi

The Emishi (蝦夷), also called Ebisu and Ezo, were a people who lived in parts of northern Honshū in present-day Japan, especially in the Tōhoku region.

The first mention of the Emishi in literature that can be corroborated with outside sources dates to the 5th century CE,[citation needed] in which they are referred to as máorén (毛人—"hairy people") in Chinese records.

[a] Some Emishi tribes resisted the rule of various Japanese emperors during the Asuka, Nara, and early Heian periods (7th–10th centuries CE).

The origin of the Emishi is disputed and continues to be a topic of discussion; however, some theories propose a connection to Northeast Asians.

This relationship could have been facilitated by human migration along the coastline of the Sea of Japan, suggesting a link between the Northeast and the adoption of rice farming during the Yayoi era.

The first mention of the Emishi is from a Chinese source, the Book of Song in 478 CE, which referred to them as "hairy people" (毛人).

[6] According to the Nihon Shoki, Takenouchi no Sukune in the era of Emperor Keikō proposed the subjugation the Emishi of Hitakami no Kuni (日高見国) in eastern Japan.

This kanji spelling was first seen in the T'ang sources that describe the meeting with the two Emishi that the Japanese envoy brought with him to China.

The success of the gradual change in battle tactics came at the very end of the 8th century in the 790s under the command of the general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro.

However, they continued to be influential in local politics, as subjugated, though powerful, Emishi families created semi-autonomous feudal domains in the north.

In 658, Abe no Hirafu's naval expedition of 180 ships reached Aguta (present day Akita Prefecture) and Watarishima (Hokkaidō).

In 758, after a long period of stalemate, the Japanese army under Fujiwara no Asakari penetrated into what is now northern Miyagi Prefecture, and established Momonofu Castle on the Kitakami River.

In 794, many key Shiwa Emishi, including Isawa no kimi Anushiko of what is now northern Miyagi Prefecture, became allies of the Japanese.

The newly appointed shōgun general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro then attacked the Isawa Emishi, relentlessly using soldiers trained in horse archery.

After their conquest, some Emishi leaders became part of the regional framework of government in the Tōhoku culminating with the Northern Fujiwara regime.

This had the effect of popularizing the idea that the Emishi were like other contemporary ethnic Japanese who lived in northeastern Japan, outside of Yamato rule.

[22] The Matagi are suggested to be the descendants of these Ainu-speakers, which also contributed several toponyms and loanwords, related to geography and certain forest and water animals which they hunted, to the local Japonic-speaking people.

These were likely ethnic Japanese, who resisted the Yamato dynasty's consolidation of political power in early Japan and instead allied themselves with other local tribes.

[30][31] Additionally, the evidence of rice cultivation by some of the Emishi supports the theory of a possible Japonic component of their ancestry.

[29] Several historians noted striking similarities between the horseriding nomads of the Amur region, specifically Tungusic peoples, and the Emishi.

Kudo Masaki and Kitakamae Yasuo concluded that the Emishi were of predominantly Tungusic origin with some assimilated Japonic groups (Izumo people).

[33] They further argue that linguistic place names (toponyms) previously suggested to be Ainu, can be explained by Amur Tungusic substratum onto proto-Ainu.

Kikuchi Toshihiko argues that there was much contact between the aboriginal peoples in northern Honshu and Hokkaido who formed the Satsumon and Okhotsk cultures and Tungusic and Paleoasiatic groups in the Russian Far East, especially along the Amur River Basin and on the Manchurian Plain.

[25] The term "Emishi" is used for the concealed village tribe of the main character Ashitaka in the Hayao Miyazaki animated film Princess Mononoke.