# Yamatai Honshu Theory

The Yamatai Honshu Theory is the theory that the Yamatai-koku was located in Honshu, specifically Kinai (now Kinki region), where the capital was located in the Kofun period rather than in Kyushu as the Yamatai Kyushu Theory proposes.
According to this theory, the Yamatai-koku was essentially continuous with the Yamato Kingship, with its capital in roughly the same region, and the Yamatai-koku transformed into the Yamato Kingship when the Kofun period began.

## Overview

In the Edo period, Arai Hakuseki advocated the theory in which he insisted Yamatai-koku was located in the Yamato Province (大和国, Nara prefecture, Honshu). Later, he advocated the different theory, in which he insisted Yamatai-koku was located in the Yamato county (山門郡, Yamato-gun) in the Chikugo Province (Fukuoka prefecture, Kyushu) in his book Foreign Affairs Chronicle.
Since then, from the Edo period to the present, the mainstream of the academic world has been largely divided between the "Yamatai Honshu (Kinai) Theory (邪馬台国畿内説)", which has been insisted and supported by Naito Konan et al. and the "Yamatai Kyushu Theory (邪馬台国九州説)", which has been insisted and supported by Shiratori Kurakichi et al.
The Kyushu theory, however, is divided into two distinct theories: one that says the Yamataikoku "moved" (the "eastward shift" theory) and one that says it "did not move at all. The "eastward shift" theory holds that the Yamataikoku moved to the Kinai region and became the Yamato Kingdom.
Masao Kume proposes the Two dynasties parallel theory (二王朝並立論) and states that the Queen Country (女王国) of More than 2,000 miles from the county to the Kingdom of Women (自郡至女王国萬二千餘里) is different from the Yamatai Kingdom (邪馬台国) of Thirty days by sea (海路三十日) （ 20 days of water travel from South to Touma (南至投馬国水行二十日) and Ten days of water travel from the south to the land of Yamatai (南至邪馬台国水行十日) and the female kingdom in Tsukushi is in Kinai through the "Civil War of Wa (倭国大乱)". It is assumed that the new royal capital, which was the capital of Japan, is Yamatai.
In the 1960s, it was thought that artifacts from the period of the Yamataikoku were abundant in Kyushu while those from the Kinai region were scarce in the Kinai region. The National Institute for Radiocarbon Dating and Dendrochronology has presented a chronology based on radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology that compares the tombs of Himiko and the Yamato imperial court to those of Yamatai and Himiko, and that the establishment of the Yamato Imperial Court dates back to that time. Some have suggested that radiocarbon dating of pottery from the Kinai region by the National Institute of Japanese Archaeology and Dating suggests that the establishment of the early state in the Yamato region of the Kinai region dates back to the same period as the Yamataikoku.。. According to this Kinai theory, there was at least one power in 3rd century Japan that was able to secure transportation routes from Yamato to the continent, and it can be said that a power with great influence over the entire western Japan centering on Yamato, namely the "Yamato Kingdom," was already established at this time.

## Makimuku ruins

The Makimuku ruins site is considered by some researchers to be the best candidate for the center of the Yamatai, and may be the site that proves the Yamatai Honshu Theory. In 2011, a part of another large building was found about 5 meters to the east of the large building ruins, and the building ruins may have been built in the late 3rd century or later.。

## Hashihaka Kofun

The Hashihaka kofun ( 箸墓古墳 （ はしはかこふん）) is a megalithic tomb (kofun) located in Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The Hashihaka kofun is considered to be the first large keyhole-shaped kofun constructed in Japan and is associated with the emergence of the Yamato Kingship. It is sometimes considered the birthplace of the Kofun system of tombs which is highly linked to the emergence of a state level society.