State formation in Japan

Gina Lee Barnes

"This book examines the processes of elite identity formation and accumulation of political power in Japan between the 2nd century BC and late 4th century AD. It analyses early chiefly patterns of interaction both with peer chieftains on the Korean Peninsula and within the Japanese Islands, and with political superiors in the Chinese imperial court. Chinese records about the archipelago's inhabitants frame the study of polity formation at the 'Edge of Empire', while analyses of new burial data and art historical evidence generate hypotheses that early female queens ruled as earthly equivalents of the Chinese mythical Queen Mother of the West. It offers a rebuttal of Wallerstein's characterizations of the Han tributary system and portrayal of the economic periphery as applied to Japan and undertakes a comparison of the Chinese and Japanese historical records in which the former...

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