Yamato

Yamato (大和) was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan. Later the term was used as the name of the province and also as an ancient name of Japan. The term was semantically extended to mean “Japan” or “Japanese” in general.

Japanese history

• Yamato people, the dominant ethnic group of Japan
• Yamato period, which is the period of Japanese history when the Japanese Imperial court ruled from Yamato Province
• Yamato-damashii, the nationalistic "Japanese spirit"
• Yamato Nadeshiko, The ideology of the perfect Japanese woman
• Yamato Takeru, a legendary Japanese prince of the Yamato dynasty
• Yamato-e, classical Japanese painting

People

Yamato
Family name
Pronunciation	Yamato
Region of origin	Japanese
Footnotes:

• YAMATO, the ring name of Japanese professional wrestler Masato Onodera
• Yamato Ganeko, a singer of the band Orange Range
• Yamato Gō (born 1969), a former sumo wrestler from Hawaii
• Yamato Manwa, a composer of koto music
• Yūga Yamato, the current top star of Takarazuka Revue

Geography

Japanese geography

• Yamato Province, a former province of Japan that covered the part of Honshū that is present-day Nara Prefecture
• Yamato, Kanagawa, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture
• Yamato, Fukuoka, a town in Fukuoka Prefecture
• Yamato, Fukushima, a town in Fukushima Prefecture
• Yamato, Saga, a town in Saga Prefecture
• Yamato, Kumamoto, a town in Kumamoto Prefecture
• Yamato, Ibaraki, a village in Ibaraki Prefecture
• Yamato, Kagoshima, a village in Kagoshima Prefecture
• Yamato, Yamanashi, a village in Yamanashi Prefecture
• Yamato, Gifu, a former town in Gifu Prefecture, which on 1 March 2004 became a part of Gujo City, Japan
• Yamato, Niigata, a former town in Niigata, Japan, which on 1 November 2004 merged with the town of Muika, Japan forming the city of Minamiuonuma, Japan
• Yamato, Yamaguchi, a former town in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which on 4 October 2004 merged into Hikari, Japan
• Yamato Town (as it was named upon its establishment in 1943), which changed its name to Wakō, Saitama on 31 October 1970
• Yamato Village (as it was named upon its establishment on 1 November 1919), which changed its name to Higashiyamato, Tokyo on 1 October 1970
• Yamato River, a river in Nara Prefecture

United States geography

• Yamato Colony, California, a Japanese-American agricultural community in California
• Yamato Colony, Florida, a Japanese farm settlement in South Florida in the first half of the twentieth century
• Yamato Colony, Texas, a Japanese-American owned sugar cane plantation near Brownsville, Texas

Antarctic geography

• Yamato Glacier
• Yamato Mountains

Geology of Antarctica

• Yamato 691, a 4.5 billion year old meteorite discovered by members of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 1969
• Yamato 791197, the first rock to be found on Earth identified as a lunar meteorite

Entertainment

• Wadaiko Yamato, a Japanese musical group which performs Taiko music
• Yamato (film), a 2005 Japanese film about the World War II Yamato battleship
• Two military science fiction novels by Ken Kato, both set in the 24th Century: Yamato: A Rage In Heaven; and Yamato 2: The Way Of the Warrior.
• Space Battleship Yamato (live action film), a Japanese live action film based on the classic anime series of the same name
• USS Yamato (NCC-71807), a Galaxy class starship and the sister ship of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Yamato Man is the name of one of the robot bosses in Mega Man 6 for Nintendo Entertainment System.
• Yamato cannon is the most powerful weapon of Battlecruisers - terran ships in Starcraft game series
• Takeshi Yamato, alter ego of Ultraman 80 from the 1980 tokusatsu of the same name
• Yamato is the name of the demon-forged katana that is also Vergil's primary weapon of choice in Devil May Cry 3

Anime and Manga

• Space Battleship Yamato, a Japanese science fiction anime series and the name of its eponymous space craft; called Star Blazers in the West
• Kira Yamato, the protagonist of the television anime series Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and an important character in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
• Minazuki Yamato, a character in the manga Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne
• Yamato Delgado ("Daiwa" in the Japanese version), the main character in the Battle B-Daman anime and manga series
• Yamato "Matt" Ishida, a fictional character in the anime and manga series Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02
• Yamato (Naruto), a fictional character in the manga and anime Naruto
• Yamato Akitsuki, a fictional character in manga/anime Suzuka
• Waki Yamato, a manga author
• Yamato Kotobuki, a fictional character in the anime/manga Super Gals!
• Shiroi Senshi Yamato (Yamato, the White Fighter), a manga by Yoshihiro Takahashi
• Takeru Yamato, the real Eyeshield 21 in the manga of the same name
• Yamato Nakano, a character from Loveless (manga)
• Swordmaster Yamato, a character in Gag Manga Biyori.

Ships

• Yamato 1, the first working prototype of a ship with a magnetohydrodynamic drive
• Yamato class battleship, a class of 2 Japanese battleships of World War II
  • Japanese battleship Yamato, lead ship of the Yamato class, named after the Yamato Province
• Yamato, corvette of the Katsuragi class, launched in 1885 and used as a prison from 1935. Sunk by a typhoon in 1945
• Yamato Maru, originally the Italian ship Giuseppe Verdi that was built in 1914 and transported thousands of Italians to Ellis Island; sold to the Japanese in the 1920s and renamed Yamato Maru, sunk by a US submarine in 1943 in the Philippines.

Companies

• Yamato Transport, Japan's largest door-to-door delivery service company
• Yamato Motor Co. Ltd., the producer of boats and motors for Kyōtei
• Yamato Life

Animals

• Caridina multidentata (Yamato shrimp), an invertebrate frequently used in the planted freshwater aquarium, known for eating algae

Language

• Yamato kotoba, native Japanese language vocabulary

See also

Yamato is usually written as "大和", but these two characters can also be read as "Daiwa" or "Taiwa."

Yamato may erroneously refer to:

• Daiwa, Hiroshima, a former town in Hiroshima Prefecture, which on 22 March 2005 merged with two other towns to form the city of Mihara, Japan
• Daiwa, Shimane, a former village in Shimane Prefecture, which on 1 October 2004 merged with Ochi, Shimane to form the town of Misato, Japan
• Taiwa, Miyagi, a town in Miyagi Prefecture
• Daiwa Bank, now a part of Resona Holdings, which was part of a bond scandal in 1995

See also

• Yamoto (disambiguation)