First Empire of Yamatai

''This article is about the historical Empire of Yamatai. Not to be confused with the current Yamatai, which is also known as the Empire of Yamatai.''The Empire of Yamatai (山都帝国) was a feudal absolute monarchy in the Naichi archipelago, lasting from 470 to 1533. During this long period of largely peaceful rule, Yamatai was unified and developed a distinct culture. Yamatai was named after its first capital, Yamato, which is located at the foot of the culturally significant Hijiriyama mountain. The Empire of Yamatai lasted between the classical and medieval periods of Yamataian history. Modern Yamatai descends directly from the Empire of Yamatai, and much of modern Yamatai's traditional culture, language and religion was developed during this era.

Prior to the foundation of the Empire, Yamatai was divided into three warring domains during the Sankoku Period since the collapse of the Kingdom of Miyako in 83 CE. In 440, Himiko emerged in the Minamoto Domain, claiming to be the reincarnation of Himiko, the semi-mythical ruler of Miyako who had become revered as a goddess. Proclaiming her intent to reunify Yamatai, Himiko was supported by the highly religious Minamoto clan leadership, who proceeded to invade their rival states. The subsequent Teigai War lasted around 22 years and ended in 470 with Yamatai unified under Himiko and the Minamoto Clan, with Himiko declaring the formation of the Empire of Yamatai at Yamato on 7 May 470.

With the unification of Yamatai under the Empire, an unprecedented period of peace ensued, enabling a new hierarchical central government based on the Hua model to be created. Local government was still delegated to regional clans, which pledged loyalty and paid taxes to the Empress and the central government in return for the ability to collect a certain portion of tax revenue within their realms and participate in the government. In the first centuries of Imperial rule, the Kamamori Shrine was founded to organise Michi, marking a turning point in the religious development of Yamatai and bringing an increasingly unified religious canon to the Yamataian people. Literature and Yamataian arts also flourished throughout the country, aided by improving living standards brought by centralised infrastructure planning and central economic planning.

In 710, Hijiriyama erupted and forced the government of Yamatai to flee the city. The new capital was established in Kōya on Akitsukuni, beginning a new period of cultural development centred on Akitsukuni. During the Kōya period, the Empress and the Imperial Court increasingly left the administration of the country in the hands of the local clans, largely due to the isolation of Kōya on one end of the Empire and an increasingly decadent culture in the capital focused on arts and culture. The gradual decline of the central government strengthened feudalism and the division of the country into a multitude of realms controlled by increasing numbers of progressively more independent clans. Actual control over the country increasingly fell in the hands of the feudal clans, which began administering their own areas, raising their own armies, and even issuing their own currencies.

By the 11th century, the central government in Kōya was so weak that foreign states were openly trading with individual feudal domains instead of going through the Yamataian government. The unchecked growth of the feudal clans eventually reached a critical mass in the 12th century, and in 1127 the Mizuho War broke out over control of the fertile Mizuho plain between the Saionji clan and the Takatsukasa clan. With the war eventually enveloping the entirety of Yamatai and the domains coalescing under eleven major clans, Tsugunaga Atsumochi travelled to Kōya to petition the central government to step in. With the army of the Tsugunaga clan pledged to the central government as the core of the new Imperial Army, Tsugunaga Atsumochi led the new Imperial Army to reunify the nation and ended the war in 1150.

Named as the new Grand Advisor of the Imperial Court, Tsugunaga advised the Empress to move the capital back to Yamato to provide the government with a proper central position to oversee the nation. In 1153, the capital was shifted back to Yamato. Steps were taken to assert control over the feudal clans, such as improving the tax collection system and demanding a contribution to the Imperial Army from portions of the privately-raised professional armies controlled by the clans. Efforts to unify the infrastructural project across the domains were also carried out, and a return to pre-Kōya period central planning was carried out.

Towards the end of the medieval period, the Kamamori Shrine gained increasing amounts of political power and influence over the Empress. Concerned with this and inspired by the system of Shogunal governance in Hinomoto, an alliance of five of the clans led by Nakatomi Terunaga rose up and attempted to seize power in the 1520 Kibō War (己卯). After their defeat, the clans were further stripped of power, and replaced with a system of Commanderies controlled by the central government across the land that supplanted the tax collection duties of the clans. Clans were also forbidden from raising their own armies, though clan leaders were still placed in command of the state armies, albeit under the watchful eyes of Shrine commissars.

In 1533, Empress Momochi issued the Heavenly Proclamation, declaring her godlike status as a descendant of Himiko, who was a living god. This was supported by the Kamamori Shrine-dominated Imperial Court, and marked the start of the theocratic era.