Published on April 17, 2019.
Using the inscriptions on the Gwanggaeto Stele as a point of departure, this piece examines the role of Wa in Baekje and Silla and the realities of ancient East Asia shaped by conflict with Goguryeo and Yan.
It questions the falsification theory advanced by some Korean scholars, reconsiders ancient Japanese history, and traces how the author’s own conviction deepened through personal experiences connected with Mount Hiei, Sakamoto, and Saicho.

2019-04-17
This was, so to speak, an attempt to mislead history intentionally out of an unwillingness to acknowledge the fact that Wa had once conquered them in the past.
As I reread the previous chapter, I came to a certain conviction.
Recently, someone who lives as one of Japan’s treasures…
told me that on the Gwanggaeto Stele, which still stands today in Jilin Province, China…
there are characters that can be read as stating that in 391 Wa (Japan) crossed the sea and made Baekje, Silla, and others its subjects…
and that there were records of battles between the forces of Wa and those of Goguryeo.
The fact that this had vanished from my mind because I had subscribed to the Asahi Shimbun until August five years ago…
became the trigger that led me to my conviction.
In 398, Goguryeo conquered Birye in the coastal region (the Okjeo region)…
and in 400, it dispatched a great army of 50,000 to Silla, which had been occupied by Wa.
After rescuing it, it pursued the Wa forces and advanced on Mimana and Kara.
However, it was counterattacked by Anra and others and returned north.
Seeing the Goguryeo army moving south, Yan invaded the Liaodong region, but achieved little.
In 404, Goguryeo stopped the Wa counterattack in the Daifang region (Hwanghae Province), and thereafter the struggle centered on the lower Han River basin.
In 410, it subjugated Eastern Buyeo in the north.
Thus Gwanggaeto the Great…
while standing in severe opposition to Baekje and Wa in the south, and Yan in the northwest…
secured the region extending from central Korea to the Liao River.
The person who posted this laborious work to the internet, the greatest library in human history…
wrote in the section titled “Summary, impressions, and so on”…
that this theory of falsification makes one question whether Korean and pro-Korean scholars truly possess the qualities required of scholars.
It was, so to speak, an intentional attempt to mislead history out of an unwillingness to acknowledge the fact that they had once been conquered by Wa.
It is rather Mr. Sakō, who is said to have altered the text, who is extremely troublesome.
Scholarship stands only upon facts.
*
What led me to discover this laborious work and to reach the conviction stated at the beginning…
was a certain chapter in the following book by Sasaki Rui…
a genuine Sankei Shimbun reporter following Masayuki Takayama and Abiru Rui.
The process by which I came to hold an unquestionable conviction was this…
more than ten years ago I experienced my third rediscovery of Kyoto…
and whenever the weekend came, I visited Kyoto and Shiga…
and now, on days of clear weather and in seasons such as cherry-blossom time…
I visit constantly.
Needless to say, when one is in Kyoto, Mount Hiei is always visible…
Even if one thinks of going there…
entering Mount Hiei from Kyoto is troublesome because of repeated transfers…
and it takes time…
so there is no need, while in Kyoto, to go out of one’s way to do something time-consuming.
When I met young people in Kyoto…
and found that quite a few of them had never gone anywhere outside Kyoto…
I thought that was perfectly natural.
It is rather natural that someone living in the greatest city in the world would not feel like going anywhere else.
But one day I realized that by taking the JR Special Rapid direct service I could go to Sakamoto, the gateway to Mount Hiei…
and moreover, I learned that the Sakamoto cable railway on Mount Hiei was historic…
so I headed for Mount Hiei at once…
though I regretted not having come much sooner.
Since then, I have gone frequently to Mount Hiei…
I came to know that Lake Biwa had long been the finest scenic place in Japan…
that Ki no Tsurayuki loved the view of Lake Biwa…
and that his grave is located at Motateyama Station along the Mount Hiei cable line.
Prompted by this…
I elevated Ki no Tsurayuki to the rank of one of the most important figures in Japanese history.
As I came and went many times, I also grew very fond of Hiyoshi Shrine…
and I also came to love both sides of the Sakamoto road leading to Hieizan-Sakamoto Station.
Then one day, something astonishing happened.
Along this road there is a small temple with an appearance that makes one want to step inside…
and when I entered, I was astonished.
It was the birthplace of Saicho…
and Saicho…
If one puts it extremely, China is a country in which the ruling power changes about every hundred years…
a country of dynastic revolution, where rise and fall are constant…
which is why even private businesses generally last only about three generations.
The royal family of the Later Han, after being overthrown, fled to Japan…
and Japan settled them here.
Saicho was one of their descendants.
That surprise, or rather that fact which I happened to learn only because I stopped there by chance…
is what has led to my present conviction.
This article will continue.