{{Short description|Japanese clan}} {{Expand Japanese|topic=cult|%E5%90%89%E5%82%99%E6%B0%8F|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox Japanese clan|home province=Kibi Province}}
The '''Kibi clan''' was a Japanese clan<ref>{{Cite web| title=E-Mail Newsletter from Mayor of Okayama City (23) July 2nd Issue [Desiring the glory of Kibi Clan] | url=https://www.city.okayama.jp/shisei/cmsfiles/contents/0000012/12189/000196899.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026164833/https://www.city.okayama.jp/shisei/cmsfiles/contents/0000012/12189/000196899.pdf | archive-date=2023-10-26}}</ref> centered in Okayama Prefecture<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCQdAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Kibi+clan%22 |title=Korean Social Science Journal |date=1983 |publisher=Korean Social Science Research Council |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKbrAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Kibi+clan%22 |title=Social Science Journal |date=1983 |publisher=Korean National Commission for Unesco. |language=en}}</ref><ref name="asahi-shinbun-1979a">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gBgVAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Kibi+clan%22 |title=Japan Quarterly |date=1979 |publisher=Asahi Shinbun |language=en}}</ref> descended from {{ill|Wakatakehiko|ja|%E7%A8%9A%E6%AD%A6%E5%BD%A6%E5%91%BD}} the son of Emperor Kōrei.
Kibi no Makibi, the founder of Hiromine Shrine was a famous member.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=電子図書館担当 |date=2022-01-14 |title=The Ancient Documents of Hiromine Shrine {{!}} Kobe University Library - デジタルアーカイブ |url=https://lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/da/en/hiromine/ |access-date=2023-11-04 |language=en-US}}</ref>
They had navigational authority over the Seto Inland Sea.<ref name="asahi-shinbun-1979a" />
They had a prominent Iron manufacturing apparatus.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxEtAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Kibi+clan%22 |title=The East |date=1982 |publisher=East Publications |language=en}}</ref>
They alternatively may descend from Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto who roughly ruled Okayama Prefecture.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Plutschow |first=Herbert E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiJTyA6FsMsC&dq=%22Kibi+clan%22&pg=PA12 |title=Japan's Name Culture: The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context |date=1995 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-1-873410-42-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Plutschow |first=Herbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYX7AQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Kibi+clan%22&pg=PP15 |title=Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan: With a Selection from P.G. O'Neill's Photographic Archive of Matsuri |date=2013-11-05 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-24705-9 |language=en}}</ref>
Kibidera in Sakurai is the clan temple of the clan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McCallum |first=Donald F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yY4BEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Kibi+clan%22&pg=PA100 |title=The Four Great Temples: Buddhist Archaeology, Architecture, and Icons of Seventh-Century Japan |date=2008-11-30 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-6473-6 |language=en}}</ref>
== Association with Kibitsu Shrine == The Kibitsu Shrine's rites are closely to the clan. The shrine's gods are the Kibi clan's ancestors who have become gods. These ancestors protect the Kibi area.<ref name="hardacre-2023a">{{Cite book |last=Hardacre |first=Helen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nunQEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Kibi+clan%22&pg=PA239 |title=Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan |date=2023-09-01 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-92204-4 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=239}}
The shrine started as a place for the Kibi clan. It has the clan's ancestors as gods. This gives the shrine a pure and protective feel. The ancestors are seen as good and helpful spirits. This is how the shrine connects with mizuko. Mizuko means the souls of babies who died early or were not born.<ref name="hardacre-2023a" />{{Rp|page=239}}
The shrine places the mizuko shrine next to the ancestor shrine. It also uses running water. This setup has several meanings:<ref name="hardacre-2023a" />{{Rp|page=239}}
# The water purifies the souls of mizuko. Mizuko is linked to water.<ref name="hardacre-2023a" />{{Rp|page=239}} # Being near the ancestor shrine suggests these souls become kind and protective spirits.<ref name="hardacre-2023a" />{{Rp|page=239}} # As protective spirits, the mizuko guard those who remember them.<ref name="hardacre-2023a" />{{Rp|page=239}}
This way, the Kibitsu Shrine uses its ties to the Kibi clan. It creates a respectful place for mizuko. It links them to the shrine's ancestral and protective gods.<ref name="hardacre-2023a" />{{Rp|page=239}}
== Harima Fudoki == The story of Emperor Keikō and Inami-no-Wakiiratsume in the Harima Fudoki shows the relationship between the Kibi clan and the Yamato Kingship. It suggests that the Inami area was once a border between the Yamato and Kibi regions.<ref name="palmer-2015a">{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Edwina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWzsCgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Kibi+clan%22&pg=PA71 |title=Harima Fudoki: A Record of Ancient Japan Reinterpreted, Translated, Annotated, and with Commentary |date=2015-11-09 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-26937-8 |language=en}}</ref>
Inami-no-Wakiiratsume, a woman from Inami, is mentioned in several ancient texts. She is thought to be the younger sister of Oiratsume from the "Kojiki,". She might have been a queen in Harima.<ref name="palmer-2015a" />
The Harima Fudoki does not mention Otarashihiko/Keiko as an emperor. Instead, Otarashihiko might have been a local leader in the Inami district of the Harima coast.<ref name="palmer-2015a" />
== Kibi clan rebellion == {{Main|Kibi Clan Rebellion}} The {{nihongo|Kibi Clan Rebellion|吉備氏の乱|kibishi no ran}} from 463 was a revolt against the Yamato state on the Korean peninsula, involving two brothers from the Kibi clan: Tasa and Oto. .<ref name="brinkley-p114">{{Harvnb|Brinkley|1915|p=114}}</ref><ref name="nihongi">{{cite book |last=Aston |first=William G. |url=https://jhti.berkeley.edu/Nihon%20shoki.html |title=Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |year=1896}}</ref>{{Sfn|Brinkley|1915|p=112}}<ref name="kamstra">{{cite book |last=Kamstra |first=Jacques H. |title=Encounter Or Syncretism: The Initial Growth of Japanese Buddhism |publisher=Brill Archive |year=1967 |page=255}}</ref>
The revolt was triggered when Tasa learned that the Japanese Emperor Yūryaku had moved him to the Japanese post at Mimana on the Korean Peninsula in order to seize his beautiful wife. The incident falls into Japan's proto-historic period and is recounted in the ''Nihon Shoki''.<ref name="brinkley-p114" /><ref name="nihongi" />{{Sfn|Brinkley|1915|p=112}}<ref name="kamstra" />
== Decline ==
In 713, at the suggestion of ''Bizen-no-kami'' Nanten - and ''Bizen-no-suke'' Kamitsukeno-no-Kenji the Eita, Katsuta, Tomata, Kume, Mashima, and Oba districts of Bizen Province were separated into a new province, and, and Kamitsukeno-no-Kenji was appointed as the first governor of Mimasaka Province. This separation was the final stage of the disintegration of the former Kingdom of Kibi, and was intended to further weaken the Kibi clan by putting its iron resources directly under the control of the imperial government.<ref>[http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/images/uploads/EOS070712Ab.pdf "Nationwide List of ''Ichinomiya''," p. 3] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517061440/http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/images/uploads/EOS070712Ab.pdf|date=2013-05-17}}; retrieved 2012-11-20.</ref>
== In popular culture == The Kibi clan features in Age of Empires as an enemy faction alongside the Izumo clan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Lawrence T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IMDmDVRF7o0C&q=%22Kibi+clan%22 |title=Age of Empires: Unauthorized Game Secrets |date=1997 |publisher=Prima Pub. |isbn=978-0-7615-1053-6 |language=en}}</ref>
== See also == * {{Ill|Mimi and Mi|lt=Mimi and Mi|ja|ミミおよびミ|simple|Mimi and Mi}} *List of Japanese battles *Military history of Japan
==Notes== {{Reflist|group="nb"}}{{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC ''Japan encyclopedia.''] Cambridge: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-01753-5}}; [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/58053128?referer=di&ht=edition OCLC 58053128] * {{cite book|last1=Brinkley|first1=Frank|author-link=Francis Brinkley|title=A history of the Japanese people: From the earliest times to the end of the Meiji era|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryjapanes01kikugoog|year=1915|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Co}}
{{Kibi clan}}
Category:Japanese mythology Category:Kibi clan Category:History of Okayama Prefecture