Haruhito Kochi (born 1970) is a Japanese historian specializing in ancient Japan and East Asia. Born in Tokyo, he graduated from Meiji University’s Faculty of Letters and left its doctoral program before completion. He holds a doctorate in history and is a professor in the Faculty of Economics at Kanto Gakuin University. His research concerns Japanese missions to Tang China, royal titles, country names, and relations between Japan and Korea. He examines state formation and changes in Japanese kingship within the wider context of diplomacy and exchange with China and the Korean Peninsula, comparing Japanese sources with Chinese and Korean records and archaeological evidence. His study of fifth-century diplomacy and royal succession, “Wa no goo” (the five kings of Wa), investigates the rulers San, Chin, Sai, Ko, and Bu recorded in the Chinese “Book of Song.” It explores their reasons for sending envoys to China and the nature of royal authority in Wa. The book received an Outstanding Work Award at the Ancient History and Culture Awards. His account of eighth-century Japan, “Yurashia no naka no ‘Tenpyo’” (the Tenpyo era within Eurasia), examines the military tensions underlying the period’s cultural and diplomatic exchanges, connecting the An Lushan Rebellion with Fujiwara no Nakamaro’s plans to attack Silla. In his study of royal succession, “Keitai Tenno” (Emperor Keitai), he asks how a powerful figure from Hokuriku, whose relationship to the existing royal line was unclear, came to the throne. Through relations with the Korean Peninsula and Iwai’s rebellion, the book traces the emergence of a hereditary monarchy that placed increasing importance on bloodline.
