The Yamato period (大和) (better known as the Kofun period) is the period of Japanese history when the Japanese Imperial court ruled from modern day Nara Prefecture, then known as Yamato province.

While conventionally assigned to the period circa 250 - 710 A.D., the actual start of Yamato rule is disputed. The court's supremacy was challenged throughout the period from Bizen and Bitchū provinces in what is now known as Okayama prefecture, and it was only into the 6th century A.D. that the Yamato clans could be said to have any major advantage over their neighbouring clans.

Hence, Japanese archaeologists (and textbooks) tend to prefer the less deterministic term Kofun period, which reflects the diagnostic archaeological feature, the large, often keyhole shaped burial mounds (kofun) found across mainland Japan.

In this period, Chinese writing system, Buddhism, and Confucianism were introduced by Baekje, a kingdom in Korea.

After the fall of Baekje, the Yamato government sent envoys to the Chinese court, from which they obtained a great wealth of philosophical and social structure. In addition to ethics of government, they also adopted the Chinese calendar and many of its religious practices, including Chinese Buddhism and Taoism (Jp: Onmyo). Prince Shotoku proscribed a new constitution for Japan based on the Chinese model.

The Yamato Period can be divided into two parts based upon the arrival of Buddhism:

• The Kofun period ( ca. 250 A.D - 538 )
• The Asuka period ( 538 - 710 )

See also

• Korean arguments on Yamato period