THE CONQUEST OF NORTHERN HONSHU

Before its annexation by the Yamato court, northern Honshu was called Michinoku, meaning 'beyond where the road ends'. In the 7th century, the court’s meaningful sphere of control extended as far as Shirakawa Barrier (Shirakawa no seki), a government outpost in modern-day Fukushima prefecture.

Shirakawa Barrier was so far from central Japan that even in later poetry, 'Shirakawa Barrier' survived as a euphemism evoking distance. Beyond Shirakawa Barrier in the mountains to the north and east lived the people whom the Yamato state collectively called Emishi – barbarians. They were a people who stubbornly refused to submit to the Yamato aegis.

There’s some debate as to whether or not the Emishi had a state or states like the Yamato court, but from the Yamato perspective, theirs was foreign