Yamato (大和) was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan.
Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan.
Yamato is usually written as "大和", but these two characters can also be read as "Daiwa" or "Taiwa".
Yamato may erroneously refer to the identically written: