![]() ![]() In the 16th century in Malacca, Portuguese traders first heard from Malay and Indonesian the names Jepang, Jipang, and Jepun. Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' around 1300, based on the Chinese name, probably 日本國 'sun source country' (compare modern Min Nan pronunciation ji̍t pún kok). During the Heian period, 大和 was gradually replaced by 日本, which was first pronounced with the Chinese reading (on'yomi) Nippon and later as Nifon, and then in modern usage Nihon, reflecting shifts in phonology in Early Modern Japanese. It is believed that the name change within Japan itself took place sometime between 665 and 703. The earliest record of 日本 appears in the Chinese Old Book of Tang, which notes the change in 703 when Japanese envoys requested that its name be changed. Wa 和 was often combined with 大 ("great") to form the name 大和, which is read as Yamato (see also Jukujikun for a discussion of this type of spelling where the kanji and pronunciations are not directly related). Japanese scribes found fault with its offensive connotation, and officially changed the characters they used to spell the native name for Japan, Yamato, replacing the 倭 ("dwarf") character for Wa with the homophone 和 ("peaceful, harmonious"). They were called Wa in Chinese, and the kanji for their name 倭 can be translated as "dwarf" or "submissive". They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本.ĭuring the third-century CE Three Kingdoms period, Japan was inhabited by the Yayoi people who lived in Kyushu up to the Kanto region. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon ( にっぽん) and Nihon ( にほん). The word Japan is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. Overview of names for the Asian island state ![]()
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