Another Thank You

I wish to thank Mr. Ichiro Sakita (崎田一郎さん) at the Saitobaru Burial Mounds Museum today for his time to answer questions about the Hayato/ Kumaso/ Yamato, and the historical periods in Miyazaki.

This man went above expectations.  He provided books, videoes, and academic journals.  Thank you so much, ありがとうございます、崎田さん.

New Reasearch on the Kumaso, Hayato



Kumaso Exhibit, Saitobaru Burial Mound Museum, Saito



“The Kumaso were a group of Japanese people who lived in southern Kyushu from the beginning of recorded Japanese history until sometime in the Nara period.”

“Evidence points to them speaking the Austronesian language.”

“The Nihonshoki says that the 12th Emperor Keiko and his son Prince Yamatotakeru both conducted military missions in order to subjugate them. It also says that the 14th Emperor Chuai (husband of Empress Jingu) fought against Kumaso in the northern Kyushu because they had revolted against Yamato court by allying with Silla kingdom on Korean peninsula. They had been assimilated during Nara period and ceased to revolt.”

The above three quotes are typical misunderstandings of the Kumaso and the Hayato.  The first quote is wrong is because the Kumaso and Hayato lived in Kyushu long before recorded history.  They are the indigenous people of Kyushu.  The second quote is wrong because there is absolutely no evidence that the Kumaso or Hayato spoke an Austronesian language.  How could people indigenous to Kyushu speak a language common to Borneo, Polynesia, and native Philippines?  They didn’t because the Kumaso and Hayato were native to Kyushu.

The third quote is from a writing from the 8^th Century CE that was handed down from oral stories and put into writing with much embellishment along the way.  Taking the “Nihonshoki” as historical evidence is like modern Greeks trying to take their mythology as historical fact.  A further fact is that it was a Yamato invasion of Kyushu to further their empire that brought the Kumaso and Hayato under control.

Genetic testing has shown that there was little difference between the Kumaso, Hayato, and Yamato.  What all these quotes miss is that the Japanese archipelago, barring Hokkaido, developed at the same pace, had contact with each other, had contact with Sinic people after 1000 BCE, and emerged in civilizational patterns at the same times.  If anything it was merely cultural differences.  How is that?

Well, consider the Saxons and Celts.  They lived on the same archipelago and the patterns of civilization ran the same.  Their languages were fairly understandable to each other.  The difference came with the Roman and Norman invasions.  In this example the difference is that there was no foreign invasion of Japan, but the Yamato who were genetically linked to the Kumaso and Hayato invaded Kyushu to expand their empire.

A trip today to the Saitobaru Burial Mounds Museum confirms this.  In this museum is an extensive library on anthropology, archaeology, and history.  What one finds is that what commonly thought as history has been slowly debunked.

From Dr. Ryu Otani’s book “The Kumaso” we find:

There is absolutely no evidence, genetically, to show the Kumaso or Hayato were separate in lineage or language from the rest of Shikoku or Honshu.  They were simply the indigenous people of Kyushu.  Both the Kumaso and Hayato inhabited areas all over the island of Kyushu.  If anything it was a mere difference in culture one would expect by a separation of islands, much like the evolutionary process in the Galapagos.  The Kumaso were generally highlanders and the Hayato were generally lowland dwelling people.  Kumaso and Hayato were brothers of the Yamato. (54)

As to the Austronesian language, Mark Hudson in his book “Ruins of Identity” explains:

I have argued that it is difficult to see any evidence of population movements from Austronesia speaking areas into the Japanese islands in late prehistory. (197)

In fact, like the rest of the Japanese archipelago Kyushu was influenced by Sinic civilization.  Hiromichi Hongo, an anthropologist, explains in his book “Kumaso, Hayato History”:

Archaeology and testing show a definite link to Hayato and Kumaso being influenced at the same times as the rest of Japan’s archipelago by the Sinic people of China and Korea.  The Bronze and Iron Ages arrived at the same times and the development from hunting to agricultural societies follows the same time frame.  This refutes earlier postulations from no evidence, aside from myths, that Japanese civilization spread from south to north.  It also shows the Hayato and Kumaso were genetically linked to the rest of Japan, barring the Ainu of Hokkaido who are actually the sole people of Japan that are genetically different from the rest of the Japanese people. (92)

The same conclusion was reached by geneticists who conducted tests on Kumaso, Hayato, Yamato, and Ainu remains.  This is what was reported in the “Japanese Journal of Genetics”:

Genetic testing on Yamato, Kumaso, Hayato, and Ainu remains found the following results.  Yamato, Hayato, and Kumaso were genetically related.  The Ainu, however, were genetically more related to Siberian people of the time, and distant from other people of the Japanese islands.  The people of Okinawa are also distant genetically from the Kumaso, Hayato, and Yamato.  This disproves previous postulations of south to north migration of the Hayato and Kumaso.  Barring the people of Okinawa and the Ainu, the people of Japan are genetically identical. (15+)

The conclusion then is obvious, the Kumaso and Hayato were genetically related to the Yamato and shared common ancestry.  Mythical books cannot prove historical facts.  The Ainu and Okinawa people are not genetically related to the rest of Japan, and the Japanese government has recognized this fact.  It is time for the rest of the world to stop believing bad science and start reporting what Japanese geneticists, archaeologists, and anthropologists have found.  Wikipedia and others are so misleading in their articles on the Kumaso and Hayato.  I offer this:

Wikipedia the Kumaso

Wikipedia the Hayato

Another site on false Kumaso information

There is absolutely no evidence to prove a Malay/Polynesian ancestry to the Hayato and Kumaso.  There is plenty of evidence to show they were native to Japan and genetically related to the rest of Japan, barring the Ainu and the Ryuku people of Okinawa.  The Ainu and Ryuku are the sole people not genetically related the rest of Japan.

Sources:

Hongo, Hiromichi. “Kumaso, Hayato History”, Yoshigawa Museum. 2004 ed

Hudson, Mark. “Ruins of Identity”, University of Hawaii. 1999

Japanese Journal of Genetics volume 27 issue3, spring 2010.  “Hayato, Kumaso, and Yamato”

Otani, Ryu. “The Kumaso”, Tokyo University. 2006

Hyuga Ancient Era (2500 BC to 300 AD)

Kumaso Pit Dwelling Replica in Saito

The first verifiable signs of civilization in Hyuga were in about 2500 BC.  Middens (the archaeological term for ancient trash dumps) reveal that stone tools were used, flint arrows were chipped out, and the diet of the people consisted of mostly gathered vegetables, fruit, nuts, and what could be hunted.

Clothing made of fur was worn.  Cave paintings that exist in the Nambu Heiyabu (Saito), Hokubu Heiyabu (Nobeoka), Nambu Yamazoi (Miyakonojo), and Hokubu Yamazoi (Takachiho) areas show that the people also fished in rivers and used spears to catch fish standing on the rock formations along the coastal areas.  Due to no basket weaving or signs of pottery the people were nomadic and moved frequently.

The plentiful caves in the area of Hyuga provided the bulk of shelter.  About 300 BC a change is noticed quite abruptly.  Pottery began to flourish.  The pottery is very similar to the pottery found at the same time in southern China.  Evidence of agriculture, use and making of metal tools (copper and tin), cattle rearing, and use of horses and ox plows begins to be seen at this time.

(In light of new evidence and research please see The Kumaso Jan. 3, 2011)

It is believed this is the emergence of the Kumaso in the region after migrating from present day Kagoshima and Kumamoto Prefectures.  The same evidence of the pottery and shift to agrarian lifestyle pose evidence for this belief.  Paintings and carvings also show that tattooing and cord weaving also came to be introduced at the time.  These are serious shifts in lifestyle and culture.

Further evidence is from written Chinese records of the time, “The people of the area have much hair, the men wear furs and skins over woven cloth, and the women wear their hair up with a long wooden pin holding it in place.  They are talented in tooth pulling and child carrying in woven baskets attached to the mother’s back by leather straps.  Most of the men wear tattoos and the women wear single seam dresses with holes for the head and arms. They are much like our people in Sheng.”

Pit dwellings and stilted huts were used for shelter and protection.  Stone ovens were used and the middens and use of pottery show that the people tended stay where they settled for centuries.  Pottery was not used by nomadic people due to its fragility and time consuming production process.

Use of ovens is important.  Unlike the Jomon and Yamato, the Kumaso baked breads.  This is evidenced in the middens where wheat chaff has been found.  Also, rice requires no plow where wheat does.  Use of metal hooks, nets, and boats for fishing emerge about 100 BC.  It is speculated that the Kumaso were more Sinic than Jomon.

This would only make sense as DNA testing has shown that the Ainu of Hokkaido were closely related to the Jomon people of Honshu (Japan’s main island).  Yet, the Kumaso are DNA related to the Sinic mainland.  Tattooing and tooth pulling were not known in Japan at the time.  The pottery of the Kumaso also lacks the cord patterns and stick decorating that Jomon pottery had; at least until the Yamato invasions that changed everything in Kumaso culture.

By 250 AD the area would begin seeing the first signs of invasion by the Yamato of Honshu (Japan’s main island).  In just 50 years the Kumaso would be defeated by either extermination or by forced integration of small villages where the chief surrendered.  Men would be turned into slaves and sent to Yamato land owners in Honshu, and the women given to Yamato settlers in Hyuga.