Yamatai or Yamatai-koku is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period The Chinese text Records of the Three Kingdoms first recorded the name as () or (; using reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations) followed by the character for "country", describing the place as the domain of Priest-Queen (died ). Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated where Yamatai was located and whether it was related to the later . History Chinese texts The oldest accounts of Yamatai are found in the official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories for the 1st- and 2nd-century Eastern Han dynasty, the 3rd-century Wei kingdom, and the 6th-century Sui dynasty. The c. 297 CE Records of Wèi (), which is part of the Records of the Three Kingdoms (), first mentions the country Yamatai, usually spelled as (), written instead with the spelling (), or Yamaichi in modern Japanese pronunciation. Most Wei Zhi commentators accept the () transcription in later texts and dismiss this initial spelling using () meaning "one" (the anti-forgery character variant for 一 "one") as a miscopy, or perhaps a naming taboo avoidance, of () meaning "platform; terrace." This history describes ancient Wa based upon detailed reports of 3rd-century Chinese envoys who traveled throughout the Japanese archipelago:Going south by water for twenty days, one comes to the country of Toma, where the official is called mimi and his lieutenant, miminari. Here there are about fifty thousand households. Then going toward the south, one arrives at the country of Yamadai, where a Queen holds her court. [This journey] takes ten days by water and one month by land. Among the officials there are the ikima and, next in rank, the mimasho; then the mimagushi, then the nakato. There are probably more than seventy thousands households. (115, tr. Tsunoda 1951:9) The Wei Zhi also records that in 238 CE, Queen Himiko sent an envoy to the court of Wei emperor Cao Rui, who responded favorably: We confer upon you, therefore, the title 'Queen of Wa Friendly to Wei', together with the decoration of the gold seal with purple ribbon. ...As a special gift, we bestow upon you three pieces of blue brocade with interwoven characters, five pieces of tapestry with delicate floral designs, fifty lengths of white silk, eight taels of gold, two swords five feet long, one hundred bronze mirrors, and fifty catties each of jade