古代北九州と朝鮮半島南部との共同文化圏について

Abstract

The thesis of this article is to find and support the cultural identity that was shared by Japan’s northern Kyushu and Korea’s southern district in ancient times. Although the evidence for this purpose is ample, the author, first of all, lays stress on a major premise of the thesis that is a geographic neighborhood in between. Such a neighborhood continued to act as a bridge on the sea through which innumerable immigrants from Korea’s southern district since the Yayoi period (BC. 3 century~AD. 2-3 century) ceaselessly flowed into Kyushu and elsewhere in Japan, The immigrants obviously brought with them a culture, above all, their religious belief, which formed the basis for the cultural identity mentioned above. Sorts of evidence such as nomenclature in northern Kyushu and archeological findings support the thesis of cultural identity. For example, a tribal state in northeastern Kyushu in ancient times, named ‘toyokuni’(豊国), was called ‘karakuni’(韓国) at that time. The latter is referred to as a ‘Korean state.’ The other important remnants of such a cultural identity is found in Tsushima Island and beyond. The Tsushima Island, together with its neighbor island Iki, has been famous for having played the role of a ‘bridge island’ between Japan and Korea from time immemorial. In that Tsushima, archeological findings show that Korean immigrants left the remnants of their religious belief in the way to Kyushu. Amenohiboko(天日槍) who is referred to as a symbol of Korean immigration, according to Japan’s old historical books, brought with him, among others, ‘kumanohimorogi (熊神籬) that means ‘a sacred shrine’ in which old Shinto was originated. The author concludes that this and other pieces of evidence are sufficient to testify the cultural identity shared by Kyushu and the southern district of the Korean peninsula based on religious beliefs.