2025-11-06
A large group of 10,000 to 20,000 Jews — the Hata clan — came to Japan from the Kingdom of Yuzuki, a city-state in the Ili Basin along the Silk Road.
2024-02-08
At Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, the norito prayer recited by the chief priest contains the words, “God is one and has no form. Though void, there is spirit.” … In fact, Inari shrines were also spread by the Hata clan.
2023-09-02
A friend of mine, one of the most avid readers I know, who, like me, subscribes without fail every month to the magazines WiLL and Hanada, told me that the following feature article was extraordinary.
At the time I was busy working, so I did not read it.
However, my friend had confused Hidemichi Tanaka with Hidehiro Okada, the husband of Junko Miyawaki, so I merely replied, “That is not correct.”
Last night, I read through the remainder of WiLL all at once and finally reached this feature.
I am glad that I was able to learn about it while I am still alive.
Among people who do not live in Kyoto, I believe I am the person in the world who visits Kyoto most frequently.
In 2012, the year after I fully recovered from a serious illness that had kept me hospitalized for eight months, I visited Kyoto on 300 of the 365 days of the year.
The place I visited most often at that time was the Kyoto Botanical Garden.
I spent my days photographing seasonal flowers, wild birds, butterflies, and other subjects.
A few years ago, I spent 100 days in a single year walking around and photographing Arashiyama.
If you cross Togetsukyo Bridge toward Arashiyama Park and continue to the end, you will find a small stream.
There is a description of the Hata clan there.
Naturally, that description does not contain Professor Hidemichi Tanaka’s discovery of the century — an argument that every Japanese citizen should read.
Like me, almost everyone must simply have regarded the Hata and Soga clans as people who came to Japan from abroad.
All emphasis in the text other than the headings is mine.
Jews Came to Ancient Japan — Hidemichi Tanaka, Professor Emeritus at Tohoku University, and Makoto Mogi, World History Lecturer at a Preparatory School
Japanese History Cannot Be Told Without the Jewish Connection — Approaching the Truth of the Theory of Jewish Assimilation into Japan
The Discovery of “Jewish Haniwa”
Tanaka
Scholars at Japanese universities remain silent when confronted with new historical facts.
When I published my research on what I call “Jewish haniwa,” Japanese historians were bewildered and, so far, have continued to remain silent.
Traces suggesting that groups of Hebrews — that is, Jews — came to the ancient Japanese archipelago have been discovered in various forms.
Yet hardly any scholars are willing to confront this research directly.
By contrast, my interpretation was immediately accepted for presentation at an international conference at Tel Aviv University in 2019, and I was invited to participate.
Mogi
I have long been presenting videos on Jewish history and other subjects.
That is why I was delighted to publish The Ancient History & World History of Japan and the Jews with Professor Tanaka, who has pursued his own distinctive research on the Jews.
It was a highly stimulating book for me as well.
Tanaka
Mr. Mogi, I understand that you went to see the “Jewish haniwa” excavated from two keyhole-shaped burial mounds called Tonozuka and Himezuka, collectively known as the Shibayama Kofun, in Shibayama, Chiba Prefecture, near Narita Airport.
Mogi
Yes.
It was my first visit there.
I studied archaeology at university, so I have always been interested in kofun burial mounds, and I had seen the haniwa excavated from Shibayama Kofun many times.
But, like archaeologists generally, I had assumed that this figure was a “warrior haniwa.”
However, after Professor Tanaka told me, “This haniwa is a human figure modeled on a Jewish person,” I went to see it again, and from then on I could see it only as a “Jewish haniwa” (laughs).
Professor, why did you conclude that this haniwa represented a Jew?
Tanaka
It wears a tall triangular hat with a brim, has a long beard, wears long sleeves and long trousers, and carries a sword.
I immediately felt that this was clearly a person of immigrant origin.
At the very least, it does not have distinctly Japanese characteristics.
And its most striking feature is not the clothing or the hat but the mizura hairstyle.
“Mizura” refers to hair tied in bunches beside the ears.
Mogi
It may be easy to visualize if one thinks of the hairstyles of the children depicted on either side of Prince Shotoku in the famous portrait.
What is distinctive about this mizura hairstyle?
Tanaka
Mizura is not a hairstyle practiced by every ethnic group.
Jews, in addition to circumcision, have used this kind of hairstyle as a sign of Jewish identity.
The Old Testament contains the following passages.
“You shall not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard” (Leviticus 19:27).
“Those who shave the edges of their hair are heathens” (Jeremiah 9:26).
The term refers to the side portions of the hair around the temples.
Jewish men sought to express physically that they were different from pagans by not cutting their hair or beards and by circumcision.
Have you ever seen another ethnic group besides the Jews with a custom resembling this mizura hairstyle?
Mogi
No, I have not.
Among Jews, sidelocks resembling mizura are called payot in Hebrew.
Indeed, the mizura of the “Jewish haniwa” and Jewish payot look remarkably similar.
Tanaka
Haniwa of this kind have been excavated mainly in the Kanto region, but examples have also been found in Kansai and Kyushu.
Mogi
I believe Professor Tanaka’s achievement lies in “rediscovering” as “Jewish haniwa” figures that everyone had simply labeled “warrior haniwa” and stopped thinking about.
Why were historians and scholars unable to interpret them as haniwa modeled on Jewish people?
Tanaka
Perhaps because scholars confined to narrow specialties knew far too little about Western and Jewish history.
Moreover, they were deeply bound by the fixed assumption that Japanese history had developed primarily through interaction with China and the Korean Peninsula.
There was probably also an inability to overcome skepticism toward the possibility that a distant foreign people, the Jews, could have had anything to do with ancient Japan.
The Arrival of a Large Jewish Group
Mogi
There is no dispute that migrants came to Japan.
There is no reason to assume that they came only from China and Korea; some may have come from much farther away.
But can we really identify them as Jews?
Could they not have been Greeks or Persians?
Tanaka
They were unquestionably Jews.
The Jews repeatedly lost their homelands and were cast into an uncertain world because of religious conflicts and upheavals such as the Assyrian Captivity in 722 BC, the Babylonian Captivity in 582 BC, and the Jewish wars.
Many Western countries despised and persecuted Jews who entered their societies as outsiders.
As a result, they were driven from country to country in the Diaspora and, in a sense deliberately, eventually reached Japan.
Mogi
That is certainly true.
Even in modern times there is the history of massacres and persecution of Jews under Imperial Russia and Nazi Germany.
Their history has repeatedly been one of humiliation.
Tanaka
No other people in the world have continued to suffer persecution to this extent.
Mogi
Professor Tanaka, when do you believe Jews first came to Japan?
Tanaka
I believe the first Jews arrived in the Japanese archipelago while the original indigenous Japanese people — the Jomon people — were living here.
Mogi
There were several major events that forced Jews to migrate because of war and persecution, including the Exodus in the 13th century BC, the Assyrian Captivity in the 8th century BC, and the Babylonian Captivity in the 6th century BC.
That was still during Japan’s Jomon period.
Tanaka
I believe Jews came to Japan in “five waves.”
Mogi
The clearest case is the fourth wave.
During the reign of Emperor Ojin, in the Kofun period, a large group of 10,000 to 20,000 Jews — the Hata clan — came to Japan from the Kingdom of Yuzuki, a city-state in the Ili Basin along the Silk Road.
What kind of people were the Hata clan?
Tanaka
The Hata are said to have been Jews driven out of the Roman Empire who traveled eastward along the Silk Road, or the Steppe Route, passing through the Kingdom of Yuzuki, Manchuria, and the Korean Peninsula before reaching Japan.
It is even said that Qin Shi Huang had some connection with the Hata clan.
The Nihon Shoki clearly records that the Hata clan came to the Japanese archipelago through the kingdom of Silla on the Korean Peninsula.
Yuzuki no Kimi, the leader of the Hata clan, appealed to Emperor Ojin for help, saying that he wanted to come to Japan but was being obstructed by the people of Silla.
The emperor sent troops to Silla to support them.
Mogi
In Jewish and Christian thought, Jerusalem is regarded as the center of the world, while the Garden of Eden, the ideal land described in the Old Testament, lies in the distant East.
Catholic churches also traditionally face east, and worshippers pray facing east.
They could have settled in Silla, yet perhaps their insistence on continuing to Japan reflected a longing for a land at the far eastern edge of the world.
Tanaka
Emperor Ojin was also remarkable for supporting and accepting the Jews.
The Jews who came to Japan presented the emperor with silk textiles wound in spiral patterns.
He therefore gave them land in what is now Kyoto and named the place Uzumasa.
Koryu-ji Temple there is said to have been built by the Hata clan.
The Japanese association of the Hata name with weaving is also said to derive from the clan.
Mogi
The population of Japan during the Kofun period is estimated at around five million.
If approximately 20,000 Jews came to Japan, that would amount to roughly 0.4 percent of the population.
Biologically speaking, that would mean little influence on the genetic makeup of the Japanese population.
Nevertheless, these Jews possessed extremely advanced technologies and served the Imperial Court.
Today, Jews account for roughly two percent of the population of the United States.
Their influence in American media, finance, Hollywood, academia, and other fields is immeasurable.
Tanaka
If two percent of the American population can exert that degree of influence, one can imagine how significant their influence might have been in ancient Japan.
Japan’s Remarkable Power of Assimilation
Mogi
Throughout the world, Jews were persecuted and treated as outsiders.
Why, then, were they able to assimilate in Japan?
Tanaka
Perhaps because they were able to accept the Japanese environment as an ideal homeland.
They originally came from desert regions where the natural environment was extremely harsh.
Life in those surroundings was difficult.
To survive in such an environment, people naturally seek support from an invisible, transcendent being.
In that sense, one could say that the Jews created “God.”
Japan, however, is rich in greenery and water, with fish, nuts, and abundant natural resources.
The environments in which Jews and Japanese people lived were radically different.
For them, abandoning a desert-based monotheistic religion and blending into Japan’s rich nature-centered beliefs may have been more natural.
I believe this demonstrates Japan’s remarkable assimilative power.
Mogi
They assimilated into Japan and received names, status, and land from the Imperial Court.
They then married Japanese people, raised children of mixed ancestry, and spent their lives here.
After three generations, they would have become completely Japanese.
There is a fixed assumption that “Jews could not have adapted to Japan because Judaism is monotheistic whereas Japanese Shinto is polytheistic.”
But if one reads the Old Testament carefully, one finds that among the twelve tribes of ancient Israel, the “Ten Lost Tribes,” taken captive by the Assyrians and later disappearing from historical record, had looser observance of the commandments and had already accepted polytheistic practices.
Therefore, it would not be surprising if they assimilated with the polytheistic Jomon people.
Tanaka
It is a mistake to assume that all Jews were uniformly monotheistic.
Internal divisions and factional disputes occur among Jews just as they do among other peoples.
The Influence of the Hata Clan
Mogi
What influence did these assimilated Jews have on Japan?
Tanaka
As I mentioned earlier, Emperor Ojin made the momentous decision to accept some 20,000 members of the Hata clan.
He was later enshrined as the principal deity of Hachiman worship.
Hachiman shrines were founded by the Hata clan and embodied their gratitude to Emperor Ojin: “Thank you for accepting us Jews.”
They also constructed for Emperor Ojin what was then the largest kofun burial mound.
Mogi
Hachiman is regarded as a warrior deity, but its origin is not entirely clear.
Could it originally have been a deity worshipped by the Hata clan on the continent?
Tanaka
The reading Hachiman came later.
Originally it was called Yahata.
The number eight, ya, can carry the meaning of “many.”
Could “Yahata” therefore mean “many Hata”?
It also resembles the name Yahweh, the one God of Judaism.
Mogi
I see.
Now that you mention it, “Yahata” and “Yahweh” certainly sound similar.
What changes occurred during the Kofun period after the arrival of the Hata clan?
Tanaka
The changes were enormous.
The Jomon and Yayoi periods, lasting more than ten thousand years, were cultures centered on wood.
From the Kofun period onward, however, the Hata clan brought stone culture and advanced civil-engineering and architectural technology to Japan.
Traditionally, Japanese people had lived in harmony with nature and had not radically reshaped it.
The six-post structure at the Sannai-Maruyama site in Aomori Prefecture is a good example.
Kofun, by contrast, are enormous artificial structures representing a culture of stone.
I believe the influence of the Hata clan can be seen here.
Mogi
A new stone-coffin burial dating from the late Yayoi period was recently discovered at the Yoshinogari site in Saga Prefecture.
Stoneworking was clearly a technology introduced by migrants.
Kofun also contained massive stone coffins designed to preserve the dead body.
This implies an intention toward bodily resurrection and represents a culture foreign to the Jomon view of life and death.
Constructing enormous burial mounds such as those associated with Emperor Ojin and Emperor Nintoku would have required considerable technical knowledge, organizational capability, and financial resources from migrant groups such as the Hata clan.
Tanaka
As a clan highly skilled in civil engineering, the Hata contributed greatly to Japan by constructing embankments and applying irrigation and water-channel technology.
In a later period, Hata no Kawakatsu became famous as a close associate of Prince Shotoku.
Even his name, meaning roughly “victory over the river,” suggests expertise in civil engineering.
Flood control of the Katsura and Kamo rivers in Kyoto also owed much to the Hata clan.
By contributing advanced technology at the center of government, the clan eventually became involved in politics as well.
Prince Shotoku = Jesus Christ
Mogi
What kind of influence did Jews exert during the Asuka period?
I am particularly interested in their relationship with Prince Shotoku.
Professor Tanaka, you have also studied the Soga clan, which was related by blood to Prince Shotoku.
Tanaka
I regard the Soga clan as the fifth wave of Jewish arrivals.
In 431, an important Christian council known as the Council of Ephesus was held in the Eastern Roman Empire.
At that council, Nestorianism, a branch of Christianity, was officially condemned as heresy.
The Nestorians were driven out and traveled eastward, eventually reaching Japan.
I believe that the families who came to Japan through this movement became the Soga clan.
Mogi
To clarify, the Nestorians were Christians, not practitioners of Judaism.
Jews had already been persecuted by the Roman Empire in the second century and dispersed throughout the world.
Tanaka
I believe some of those dispersed Jews converted to Christianity — specifically Nestorian Christianity — as they moved eastward.
Even the name “Soga” can be interpreted as suggesting “I have risen again,” alluding to Christ.
Christ rose from the dead three days after his execution.
It is almost as though they were declaring themselves Nestorians through their name.
I believe these people became the ancestors of the Soga clan.
Mogi
So you regard the Soga clan as, in a sense, a “new Hata clan.”
The Soga were the most powerful clan in the Yamato government.
They are famous for entering the center of power, marrying their daughters into the imperial family, and dominating politics.
Tanaka
The Soga, as Nestorians, secretly tried to spread “their own form of Christianity” in Japan but failed, and the clan was destroyed.
Why did the Soga fall?
The key to solving that mystery lies in the question: “Why was Prince Shotoku called Prince Umayado?”
Mogi
The Nihon Shoki records that his mother, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, went into labor in front of a stable and gave birth there.
This closely resembles the Gospel story of Mary giving birth to Jesus Christ in a stable.
Tanaka
In other words, the Soga clan wanted to make Prince Shotoku “the Christ of Japan,” so they tried forcibly to connect the birth of Christ with the story of Prince Shotoku’s birth.
But Prince Shotoku was the Crown Prince and placed importance on traditional Japanese values, so he could not accept this.
Prince Shotoku saw through the Soga clan’s plan.
The historical record says that Prince Shotoku died of illness, but I believe he may have been assassinated because he incurred the hostility of the Soga clan.
For details, please read my book Prince Shotoku Was Assassinated: The Failure of the Jewish Soga Clan.
Mogi
Soga no Umako assassinated Emperor Sushun and Prince Anahobe, Prince Shotoku’s uncle.
Umako’s grandson, Iruka, attacked Prince Yamashiro no Oe, Prince Shotoku’s son, driving his entire family to their deaths.
Tanaka
Unable to tolerate the ruthlessness of the Soga clan, Nakatomi no Kamatari supported Prince Naka no Oe, who assassinated Soga no Iruka and completely eliminated the clan’s power.
Mogi
The Isshi Incident.
That marked the beginning of the Taika Reform.
Tanaka
Exactly.
After the fall of the Soga clan, powerful clans no longer attempted such violent attacks against the imperial family.
Japan at that time had been in danger of being swallowed up by the Soga clan.
Mogi
During the Kofun period, the Hata clan became increasingly powerful, but they never threatened the imperial line and completely assimilated into Japan.
They spread the peaceful Hachiman faith.
The Soga clan, however, attempted to cross a line.
According to your interpretation, because they were monotheists, they attempted to take control of the government in order to spread Nestorian Christianity, but their forceful approach ultimately led to their destruction.
I see.
Was It Really Shinto?
Tanaka
From everything we have discussed, I think you can understand why I believe it is almost certain that clans of Jewish origin entered ancient Japan.
Even today, many things remain that, in my view, strongly suggest assimilation between Jews and Japan.
Mogi
The Old Testament contains the story known as the Binding of Isaac.
There was a mountain in Jerusalem called Mount Moriah.
Abraham, regarded as the patriarch of the Jewish people, was the leader of a nomadic, sheep-herding people.
On Mount Moriah, while offering sheep to God, he suddenly received a command from God to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Just as Abraham was about to kill Isaac with a blade on Mount Moriah, an angel stopped him.
God had been testing Abraham.
This story is known as the Binding of Isaac.
Tanaka
Suwa Taisha Shrine is located in Nagano Prefecture, with an Upper Shrine and a Lower Shrine on opposite sides of Lake Suwa.
The sacred mountain associated with the Upper Shrine is Mount Moriya.
Suwa Taisha is famous for the Onbashira Festival, but it also has an unusual ritual known as the Ontosai Festival.
Until around the Edo period, seventy-five deer heads were reportedly offered.
Today, of course, mounted deer heads are used.
Until the end of the Edo period, there was also a ritual in which a boy was tied to a pillar and a priest symbolically thrust a sword toward him.
Mogi
That is clearly the Binding of Isaac.
Mount Moriah — Mount Moriya.
The correspondence seems almost too perfect.
Can this really be dismissed as coincidence?
Shinto traditionally abhors blood, so the offering of freshly severed deer heads is itself extremely unusual.
Tanaka
There is more.
At Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, the norito prayer recited by the chief priest contains the phrase:
“God is one and has no form.
Though void, there is spirit.”
Mogi
That is contradictory if Shinto is fundamentally polytheistic, because it says that “God is one.”
Tanaka
In fact, Inari shrines were also spread by the Hata clan.
Mogi
Then that makes sense.
Tanaka
Japanese and Jews may appear entirely different and unrelated, but in fact Jews had a greater influence on Japanese culture and customs than China or the Korean Peninsula did.
Seen in this light, Jews and Judaism should begin to feel much more familiar.
Yet much of the media, perhaps because it is highly sensitive to anti-Jewish discrimination, is reluctant even to discuss Jews.
Mogi
In fact, when we published this book, a certain newspaper company also interfered in various ways with the placement of advertisements.
Tanaka
But in light of everything we have discussed, Japanese history cannot be told without discussing its relationship with the Jews.
More broadly, the history and culture of the world can no longer be discussed without addressing Jewish issues.
Their influence has been that great.
Precisely for that reason, we should eliminate prejudice, fear, and the attitude of treating Jewish issues as though they were too sensitive to touch.
Mogi
Exactly.
When matters are concealed in an unnatural way, irresponsible conspiracy theories spread instead.
Tanaka
Jewish conspiracy theories are wrong, but it is equally unhealthy to treat Jews as somehow absolute or beyond criticism.
Jews themselves should also be more conscious of that.
I believe there are encouraging signs today that such discussions can now take place.
Mogi
I hope the day comes when Jewish issues can be discussed openly in Japan as well.
Tanaka
Absolutely.