Transactions of the Japan Academy

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Firstly, the author agrees with Professor Taro Sakamoto's (M.J.A.) opinion to the effect that the ancestors of the Japanese nation came over to Japan from Siberia via the Mamiya Straits, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido in the early Stone Age. He also approves of Professor T. Sakamoto's theory that Yamatai Queendom was in Kyushu, not in Yamato (Nara Prefecture).
The author assumes that the distances described in the so-called Gishi Wajinden are those between the capitals of the kingdoms.
The author's hypothetic identification of the capitals of the kingdoms are as follows.
Matsura Kingdom: Karatsu City including Sakura-no-baba.
Ito Kingdom: Around the Mikumo-Iwara district in Maebaru Town.
Fumi Kingdom: Umi City and the adjacent district.
As for the capital of Na Kingdom he advances a new theory that it must have been located in the area between Ko-no-su Hills and Mt. Higashi-Abura-yama in Fukuoka City.
In regard to Toma Kingdom, the author rejects all the theories advanced so far, and he proposes a new hypothesis that the capital was located around the consecrated spring of Asaduma in Kurume City.
The most problematic capital of Yamatai Queendom was located, according to the author, in Kumamoto City.
Probably around the end of the 3rd century A.D. it was destroyed to ashes by the Kumaso people (including that of Kuna Kingdom), a branch of the Japanese, who attacked Yamatai Queendom from the south, and the name Yamatai was abolished by them and passed into oblivion.

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