Talk:Nagato/@comment-180.47.108.148-20140204164333/@comment-115.38.165.81-20140222100410

^ Even Japanese are actually fascinated by the placenames in their country. While Japan has a recorded history of 2,500 years, the written records only go back as far as the 6th century CE, and they were written in kanji (which was imported from China), so there are lots of arguments about placenames in Japan and how they relate to history. The Nagato province, for instance, may have been named after an actual gate or pass that could have existed there in ancient times, or the kanji name is an approximation of how the provincial name was pronounced in ancient Japanese, or both. If the name does indicate the presence of an ancient pass or gate, then it carries the implication that the province must have been a border region in ancient times. The location of the province right at the southwestern tip of Honshu agrees with the implication, but then who was the "Long Gate" meant to keep out? The Chinese are the most obvious candidate, because the province fell under the control of the Yamato imperial court right around the time of Imperial China's second period of expansion. However, the other candidates would be the various nationalities that formed the original inhabitants of Kyushu, suggesting a defensive posture on the part of the Yamato dynasty that contradicts the official line of an ever-expanding, mighty empire.