partial Pacific origins, possibly in relation with the Austronesian expansion. Early historical period Ambassadorial visits to Japan by the later Northern Chinese dynasties Wei and Jin (Encounters of the Eastern Barbarians, Wei Chronicles) recorded that some Japanese people claimed to be descendants of Taibo of Wu, refugees after the fall of the Wu state in the 5th century BCE. History books do have records of Wu Taibo sending 4000 males and 4000 females to Japan. Yayoi Period The first major naval contacts occurred in the Yayoi period in the 3rd century BCE, when rice-farming and metallurgy were introduced, from the continent. The 14 AD incursion of Silla (新羅, Shiragi in Japanese), one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, is the earliest Japanese military action recorded in Samguk Sagi. According to that record, Wa (the proto-Japanese nation) sent one hundred ships and led an incursion on the coastal area of Silla before being driven off. Yamato Period During the Yamato period, Japan had intense naval interaction with the Asian continent, largely centered around diplomacy and trade with China, the Korean kingdoms, and other continental states, since at latest the beginning of the Kofun period in the 3rd century. According to a mythological account in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Empress Jingū is claimed to have invaded Korea in the 3rd century, and to have returned victorious after three years. Whether a Japanese political entity actually ruled a part of Korea in ancient times is debated, but considered unlikely for that time period. Other than the expedition of Empress Jingū, battle of Hakusukinoe (白村江), one of the earliest historical events in Japan's naval history took place in 663. Japan sent 32,000 troops and possibly as many as 1,000 ships to Korea to support the declining Baekje kingdom (百済国; contemporary records suggest that Baekje and Yamato Japan were allies, and that their royal/imperial families were possibly related) against Silla and Tang-dynasty China. They were defeated by the T'ang-Silla combined force. The Azumi people were a warrior tribe from northern Kyushu. They were extremely skilled seafarers. The Azumi gained early contact with the Yamato Court and provided maritime trade links and influenced the Yamato Court's military and diplomatic approach in the seas. Thus the Japanese imperial government employed them as their naval force from the 3rd to 5th centuries. Medieval period Naval battles of a very large scale, fought between Japanese clans and involving