page_title: Korean influence on Japanese culture
section_title: Immigration from the ancient Korea to Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Korean influence on Japanese culture / Korean influences on ancient and classical Japan / Immigration from the ancient Korea to Japan
context_page_description: Korean influence on Japanese culture refers to the impact of continental Asian influences transmitted through or originating in the Korean Peninsula on Japanese institutions, culture, language and society. Since the Korean Peninsula was the cultural bridge between Japan and China throughout much of East Asian history, these influences have been detected in a variety of aspects of Japanese culture, including technology, philosophy, art, and artistic techniques.
  Notable examples of Korean influence on Japanese culture include the prehistoric migration of Korean peninsular peoples to Japan near the end of Japan's Jōmon period and the introduction of Buddhism to Japan via the Kingdom of Baekje in 538 AD. From the mid-fifth to the late-seventh centuries, Japan benefited from the immigration of people from Baekje and Gaya who brought with them their knowledge of iron metallurgy, stoneware pottery, law, and Chinese writing. The modulation of continental styles of art in Korea has also been discerned in Japanese painting and architecture, ranging from the design of Buddhist temples to smaller objects such as statues, textiles and ceramics.
context_section_description: During this period a significant factor behind the transfer of peninsular Korean culture to Japan was immigration from Korea. Most peninsular immigrants, generically known as kikajin in Japanese, came during a period of intense regional warfare which racked the Korean peninsula between the late fourth and late seventh centuries. Japanese traditions held that the Yamato kingdom has sent military expeditions to assist Baekje as early as 369 CE, military aid that is said to have enabled the latter to secure control of Naktong against its enemies, Silla and Goguryeo.
  Many of these immigrants, who were welcomed by the Japanese government, were from Baekje and Gaya. These refugees brought their culture to Japan with them, and once there they often became leading officials, artists, and craftsmen. Korean peninsular immigrants and their descendants played a significant role in Japan's cultural missions to Sui China, and some peninsular families are even said to have married into the Imperial Family. By 700, it has been conjectured, perhaps one third of all Japanese aristocrats may have been of relatively recent peninsular origin, including the Aya clan. Although peninsular immigrants settled throughout Japan, they were especially concentrated in Nara, the region where the Japanese capital was located. According to one estimate, from 80 to 90 percent of people in Nara had Baekje ancestry by the year 773, and recent anatomical analyses indicate that modern-day Japanese people living in this area continue to be more closely related to ethnic Koreans than any other in Japan.
  The Soga clan, a clan with close ties to the Baekje elite, may also have been of Baekje ancestry. Scholars who have argued in favor of the theory that the Soga had peninsular ancestry include Teiji Kadowaki and William Wayne Farris.
caption: Throughout much of ancient Japanese history Korea was divided into several warring kingdoms.
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