The Hayato (隼人?), literal meaning falcon-man, were a people of ancient Japan, believed to have lived in Ōsumi region, the south of Kyūshū, until at least the Nara period. Some scholars suggest that the Hayato people were closely related to Malay/Polynesian people. The Kumaso may have been a related group. The Kagoshima dialect of Japanese might show influences of the Hayato language. It is widely believed that the majority of the Hayato people migrated to modern day Shimizu, a town in Shizuoka prefecture.
The Imperial Guard was constituted by the Hayato.
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