Yamato

This is about the old province in Japan. For other uses, see Yamato (disambiguation).

Yamato (大和) is an old province of Japan, which is now known as Nara prefecture.

Since the imperial court rose into power there, Yamato came to mean whole Japan too and in that sense is referred to as Yamato-no-kuni.

The Okinawans sometimes use it to refer to Mainland Japan in contrast to Okinawa, which is Uchinaa in their dialect.