ABSTRACT
The introduction of wet-rice cultivation resulted in the rapid development of food production as well as large increases in population. It was followed by frequent armed conflicts, the emergence of social stratification, and shortly thereafter some form of kingship. Such small polities were merged until finally they were unified under the "Yamato" supreme kingship which, by the end of the third century AD, was based in Yamato, the present Nara Basin in the Kinki district. The question of whether the original "Yamatai" kingdom, which is recorded in a Chinese chronicle as having gained superiority over other kingdoms in the early to middle third century, was located in northern Kyushu or the Nara Basin has generated the greatest controversy concerning the ancient history of Japan. This controversy centres not simply on the location of a kingdom but on the relationship between the Yamatai Kingdom and the later Yamato kingship, and consequently on the very origins of the Japanese state.
