Yoshinogari Site - Historical Perspectives On Yoshinogari

Historical Perspectives On Yoshinogari

The discovery and subsequent excavation of Yoshinogari caused a sustained sensation in the Japanese media in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The attention given to this site soon centred upon intense speculation that Yoshinogari could have been the capital of Yamatai, a polity mentioned in Chinese historical texts such as Weizhi and Houhanshu. Yamatai is assumed to have had implications for the formation of state-level society in the Kofun period. This issue remains somewhat controversial. However, most archaeologists state that there is no direct link between Yoshinogari and Yamatai (Barnes 1993; Yoshinogari 2001).