, also read as Pimiku, was a female ruler of Yamataikoku, an ancient state-like formation thought to have been located either in the Yamato region or in northern Kyushu of present-day Japan. Few records are available and little is known about her, and the location of Yamataikoku is the subject of a great, often emotionally charged, debate that has been raging since the late Edo period.

According to an ancient Chinese history book, Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Himiko was a shaman who controlled people through her paranormal abilities. The Nihonshoki, an old Japanese history book, notes that Himiko was actually Empress Jingū Kogo, the mother of Emperor Ōjin, but historians disagree. Some speculate that she is conflated with Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess.

The Chinese chronicles book (that was compiled in 297 CE) refers to the inhabitants of the Japanese islands simply as the Wa, literally, "The Little People".

Furthermore, it describes a fragmented political structure of more than a hundred or more separate tribes, nominally ruled by a female shaman, Queen Himiko.

Some have, due to intuition, proposed that Himiko would have been a ruler of Jomon period, an archaeological age when the religion was a goddess religion, as indicated by figurine evidence, and the population generally was Austronesian/Malayo-Polynesian, ancestors of e.g the today Ainu peoples. However, that timing is patently incorrect, since the latest discoveries of Jomon remnants are from c 300 BCE, five centuries earlier than Himiko's lifetime as anchored by said Chinese records. Moreover, much of the other evidence, including her name, links Himiko to proto-Yamato people, who just migrated there in late Jomon era and started Yayoi period, into which Himiko and her people are tentatively classified. Traditions of Jomon culture, such as reverence to female godheads and a priestess-led society, as well as very large villages and still small, tribal groups being units of political power, in a proto-agricultural economic setting, may have influenced the societies of Yayoi settlers and be one of reasons of the cultural structure of Himiko society.

According to an ancient Korean history book, Samguk Sagi, Himiko, as queen of Japan, sent an embassy to King Adalla of Silla in May 172. However, Chinese history books record Silla as having been established on 356, which casts doubt on this claim.

Himiko never married and it is recorded that her younger brother assisted her as a political advisor. She is said to have had one thousand female servants and to have never appeared in public.

In ca. 188 CE, Himiko ascended to paramountcy and in 248 CE she died. There are indications that a tribal king, posthumously now known as Emperor Shujin, raised military host against queen Himiko or her successor (reportedly another shaman, her niece or other relative), ultimately conquering their position and establishing male rule with headquarters in central Japan.

The precise pronunciation of her name is unknown. The Himiko reading derives from her name as represented in kanji, which was written 卑彌呼 prior to mid-20th century kanji reforms. Himiko may have been a chinese corruption of himemiko, princess-priestess, or lady shaman. The name is said to mean "Sun Daughter". There are assessments that she is the real person upon whom the myth of sun goddess Amaterasu is built.

175 births | 248 deaths | Ancient Japan | Queens regnant

Himiko | Himiko | 히미코 | Himiko | 卑弥呼 | Himiko | 卑彌呼