Emperor Sujin

• 3th-4th century/highly fabricated
• Other names: Prince Mima

Emperor Sujin is believed to have been the first Yamato ruler, after the mysterious Yamatai confederacy fell to disunion in the mid-3rd century.

Conditions on the Archipelago

To understand Emperor Sujin's place in Japanese history, it's necessary to analyze the waves of immigrants and imported technology that arrived from China and Korea before the 4th century.

The native Jomon people, who occupied the Japanese islands from 8500-300 B.C., were gradually displaced by continental immigrants during the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. These waves of immigrants coincided with the petering out of the Zhou Dynasty of China.

Bearing iron and bronze weapons, the hunter-gatherer Jomon people easily overtaken and subdued. Japan then entered the Yayoi Period, which lasted from 300 B.C. to 250 A.D., which was characterized by widespread agriculture and the adoption of iron and bronze weapons and farming implements.

After the birth of Christ, from 100 A.D. to 250 A.D. (late Yayoi), warfare spread for the first time on the Japanese archipelago. Agriculture created an imbalance of power between villages, which was only rectified by fighting.

Another wave of continental immigrants came around the 3rd century A.D. However, because these emigrants met the previous continental immigrants who had similar warring technology, the transition to Japanese soil was not as smooth as had previously been witnessed in the Jomon Period. Sweeping the archipelago from West to East, the newcomers displaced the Yayoi peoples.

Prince Mima (Emperor Sujin) is believed to have been one of these aggressive newcomers.