Mimana

thumb|Southern Korea around the time of the Gaya confederacy. This region has been described as the most likely location of Mimana Mimana (), also transliterated as Imna according to the Korean pronunciation, is the name used primarily in the 8th-century Japanese text Nihon Shoki, likely referring to one of the Korean states of the time of the Gaya confederacy (c. 1st–5th centuries). As Atkins notes, "The location, expanse, and Japaneseness of Imna/Mimana remain among the most disputed issues in East Asian historiography." Seth notes that the very existence of Mimana is still disputed. However, the hypothesis that Mimana or "Mimana Nihonfu" (任那日本府) was a Japanese colonial ruling institution of Koreans is denied by historical academia in both Korea and Japan.

==Usage of term== The name (pronounced Mimana in Japanese, Imna in Korean, and Renna in Mandarin Chinese) is used over 200 times in the 8th-century Japanese text Nihongi. Much earlier, it is mentioned in a 5th-century Chinese history text, the Book of Song, in the chapter on the State of Wa. It is also used in two Korean epigraphic relics, as well as in several Korean texts, including Samguk sagi. The oldest reference to Imna occurs on the last portion of Gwanggaeto Stele erected in AD 414 by Jangsu of Goguryeo; during the Silla–Goguryeo and Paekche–Kaya–Wa War, in order to rescue Silla from the Paekche–Kaya–Wa invaders, Goguryeo troops pursued Wakoku forces to a city in Imna, where the Wa forces surrendered. Because of the connotations of Wa presence on the Korean peninsula, Korean Academics began disputing the very existence of Imna starting in 1970s. However, the very term "Imna" occurs over 100 times in Korea's oldest history book, Samguk sagi.