was an immigrant clan active in Japan since the Kofun period (250–538), according to the history of Japan laid out in Nihon Shoki. Hata is the Japanese reading of the Chinese surname Qin () given to the State of Qin and the Qin dynasty (the ancestral name was Ying), and to their descendants established in Japan. The Nihon Shoki presents the Hata as a clan or house, and not as a tribe; only the members of the head family had the right to use the name of Hata. The Hata can be compared to other families who came from the continent during the Kofun period: the descendants of the Chinese Han dynasty, through Prince Achi no Omi, ancestor of the Aya clan, the Sakanoue clan, the Tamura clan, the Harada, and the Akizuki clan, as well as the descendants of the Chinese Cao Wei Dynasty through the Takamuko clan. Origins The Hata are said to have come to Japan from China through the Chinese Lelang Commandery, then through the Kingdom of Baekje (both on the Korean peninsula). Lelang, near what is today Pyongyang, was the greatest of the Four Commanderies of Han created in 108 BC in the areas captured after the conquest of the Wiman Joseon state (194 BC – 108 BC), which corresponds to the current North Korea, by Emperor Wu of the Chinese Han dynasty. A flux of Chinese immigration into the Korean peninsula continued without cessation, implanting Chinese culture and technology there. Some scholars say the Hata clan did not come from Baekje, but from the Silla or Gaya area. The first leader of the Hata in Japan, Uzumasa-no-Kimi-Sukune, arrived during the reign of Emperor Chūai, in the 2nd century CE. According to the Nihon Shoki, a Heian-period Japanese chronicle, he and his followers were greeted warmly, and Uzumasa was granted a high government position. Roughly one hundred years later, during the reign of Emperor Ōjin, , visited Japan from the Kingdom of Baekje, in Korea. He had long wanted to emigrate to Japan, but the Kingdom of Silla would not permit him to do so. Having enjoyed the experience of meeting 120 people of his clan at Mimana. Yuzuki no Kimi left Japan but soon returned, in 283, with additional members of his clan "from 120 districts of his own land", as well as a massive hoard of treasures, including jewels, exotic textiles, and silver