ABSTRACT
Japan is an island country, but its history is far from insular. From earliest times, residents of the archipelago placed considerable importance on contacts with continental Asia. Objectively, too, such contacts played a significant, and at times crucial, role in the development of Japanese society and civilization. Over the course of history, interactions among China, Japan, and Korea varied in both nature and intensity. Roughly speaking, early Japanese foreign relations developed in five overlapping phases. These were characterized respectively by immigration from the continent to Japan; tributary relations with China; peer-polity interactions with Korea; the attempted creation of a Japan-centered international order; and a shift from diplomatic relations to largely commercial ones, with a smattering of piracy. One basis for Japanese-Korean relations was clearly material. Japanese leaders desired Korean goods ranging from gold jewelry (from Silla) to, more prosaically but also probably more importantly, iron ingots (particularly from Kaya, an originally independent region at the southernmost tip of the peninsula).
