ABSTRACT
Among the world's nations, the Japanese state is one of the most ancient, tracing its roots back to the third century ce when an emerging elite defined itself through shared aristocratic burial customs and an ideology that celebrated political rulership. This chapter traces the development of the Mounded Tomb Culture; the Early Kofun political ideology; the formation of overseas links with political leaders on both the Korean peninsula and mainland China. It also traces the transformation of Kofun-period culture through aristocrats and craftspeople newly immigrated from the continent; and the emergence of Yamato as the ancient Japanese state. Foremost in these discussions is political rulership in early Japan, which had a surprising female component that later disappeared. Mounded burials became known in Japan probably through interaction with the Lelang Commandery, the center of the Chinese Han-dynasty military occupation of the northern Korean peninsula, from Middle Yayoi onward.
