Kingdom of Kibi

Kibi (吉備国, Kibi no kuni) was a kingdom of fourth century Western Japan that acted as a cultural bridge between the Yamato state and the various kingdoms of the Korean peninsula. The Kingdom of Kibi covered most of what is today Okayama Prefecture. Today, the Kibi Road crosses the plain between Okayama and Soja, what was once the heartland of Kibi-no-kuni.

Kibi was strategically located on the inland seaway between Korea and Yamato. The kingdom's strong influence on the Yamato administration, and the presence of Korean noblemen in the government of the ancient kingdom, would cause a chain of events that ended with the disintegration of Kibi.

In the modern Japanese language, the word 黍 kibi refers to proso millet. However, the name of the kingdom of Kibi, which appears in the Kojiki and in the Nihonshoki (the oldest written records in Japan), may have a different origin that has been lost to time. The Chinese characters used for writing the name of the kingdom, which have been in use for over 1200 years, literally mean "lucky, propitious, good" and "to prepare, preparation; ready; complete, perfect; provision, equipment, installation, facility" and probably have been used for their phonetic values.

Kibi has been associated with the legends of Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto, the son of Emperor Kōrei, who fought the ogre "Ura" and was enshrined as a god. Ura was said to have lived in Ki castle near the city of Sōja.

Archaeological research of many temples and shrine ruins, as well as burial mounds, suggests that the ancient kingdom was as developed and powerful as the Yamato administration that controlled Japan in the eighth century. The center of power of the Kibi Kingdom was located on the Kibi plain between Soja and Okayama.

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