This essay questions the widespread modern use of the terms “torai” and “torai-jin” in ancient history and argues that the very understanding of early Japanese history has been distorted by such newly coined expressions.
Referring to texts such as the Nihon Shoki, the Samguk Sagi, the Book of Song, the Book of Southern Qi, and the Lunheng, it points out that the terms actually found in historical sources are “kika,” “raiki,” “raicho,” and “kicho,” not “torai.”
The essay further warns against lumping together all those who came from the peninsula under the single label of “torai-jin,” arguing that to treat words and kotodama lightly is to distort history itself.

2019-03-12
There are many descriptions of Japan in Chinese books, and its existence is already recorded there as the “Wa Kingdom.”

What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.

“Torai” is a newly coined word.

Why is it that in recent years the characters “torai” have come to be used so frequently in ancient history.
Historically, I cannot help but tilt my head at this word.
The term “torai-jin” was proposed and made to take root by Kim Tal-su and others on the grounds that “kika-jin” was not appropriate, but I have doubts about this word, which does not even appear in the Kiki.
In the Nihon Shoki one frequently sees the words “kika,” “raiki,” “raicho,” and “kicho,” but I could not find the word “torai.”
On the other hand, in the Samguk Sagi one finds such expressions as “raitō,” “tōbō,” and “bōjin.”
These mean leaving that land because of famine, poverty, or the calamities of war.
And thus people left the peninsula and came to Japan.
Can that simply be disposed of with the single term “torai-jin.”
According to the Book of Song and the Book of Southern Qi, the King of Wa was recognized as the ruler of the whole Korean Peninsula.
It is very hard to imagine that people of the peninsula would come over to such a powerful country bringing new culture with them.
Originally, the word “torai-jin” means nothing more than “people who came across the sea,” but among them there were surely those who fled persecution, and those who migrated in search of richer land.
There is no reason for people living comfortably in their own country to risk danger and come over for no cause.
The natural way to think is that people of various circumstances came.
By contrast, “kika,” under the original influence of Sinocentric thought, means that foreign peoples were moved by the virtue of the ruler and submitted to him.
“Kicho” means returning to one’s home country.
Although those words were left in writing in the Nihon Shoki, today the words “torai” and “torai-jin” have become mainstream, and we are trying to view history from there.
What kind of education are historians trying to carry out by using such newly coined terms.
There is a reason the words “kika” and “kicho” were used.
All the more so in ancient times, when “kotodama” must have been treasured even more than today.
Many people know that the spiritual backbone of the Japanese lies in this “kotodama” and “onryo.”
And yet those very people wrote frequently of “kika,” “raika,” and “kicho.”
Would it not be natural to think that they wrote with the consciousness that these people had returned from the peninsula to Japan, and had come to belong to Japan.
To try to explore history using a word like “torai-jin,” which does not appear even once in the books of that age, is quite absurd.
Because there was also a Wa Kingdom on the peninsula, or states attached to it, they wrote as they did.
If one treats written words lightly, history becomes distorted.
There are many descriptions of Japan in Chinese books, and its existence is already recorded there as the “Wa Kingdom.”
In the Lunheng appears the line, “In the age of Zhou, all under heaven was at peace, and the people of Wa came and presented chōsō.”
Chōsō seems to refer to a medicinal herb steeped in alcohol, but tribute too is described in detail.
In the Book of Jin and the Book of Liang it is written that the ancestors of the people of Wa were descendants of Taibo of Wu.
To be continued.