Editorial Note: The Unique Characteristics of Gaya Culture

Gaya competed with Silla for hundreds of years in the area that is now known as the Gyeongsang region of South Korea but eventually succumbed in the late sixth century. Gaya's history was resultingly disparaged because, from the victorious point of view, it had always been part of Silla.

Gaya appears under the name Imna in Korean and Mimana in Japanese in the Nihon shoki, which relates the history of ancient Japan. Its descriptions seem to imply that Gaya's territory was actually part of Yamato Japan and that an institution for its governance was maintained.

The situation changed markedly in the 1970s with the excavations of Gaya tombs by Korean archaeologists. The nature of the artifacts recovered from these tombs, especially their quality rivaling that of artifacts from Silla, came as a welcome surprise to all. Data produced by archaeological excavations have since provided a foundation for Gaya research and have been used to adress the errors found in previous studies that had been based only on textual research. As a result, it has now become possible to present new knowledge of Gaya's history and culture.