The yayoi and kofun periods resource guide (1)

The Yayoi and Kofun Periods Agriculture, iron and changes to the landscape of the Japanese archipelago Teacher Resource Guide Georgetown University East Asia National Resource Center

By Kelly Hammond

Transitions from Jōmon to Yayoi and Kofun During Japan's Final Jōmon period, new cultural influences from the Korean peninsula began to make their way to Kyūshu. Farreaching rice cultivation and metal-working techniques made their way to the Japanese archipelago via the mainland and changed not only the lifestyle but also the societal organization of people living there. Although not as smooth and uncomplicated as is described here, the shift from the Jōmon to the Yayoi and Kofun periods marks the shift from the majority of the population in the region subsisting in a semi-nomadic, hunter-gathererlike way to much more organized, settled societies, reliant on agricultural production.

The importation of rice cultivation and new metal working techniques portended great cultural and historical changes for Japan.

Storage jar, Yayoi period

The Yayoi period ( 弥 生 時 代 ) marks the beginning if the Iron Age in Japanese history and is typically dated from 300 BCE to 300 CE. The name “Yayoi” is simply the name of the

area in Tokyo in the late nineteenth century where archaeologists first encountered pottery from this period.

Earthenware storage jar with incised decoration

The Kofun period (古墳時代) is usually dated from the middle of the third century to around the seventh century and follows—but also overlaps with—the Yayoi Period. There are two main things that distinguish these periods from each other: first, is that in the Kofun Japanese rulers and elites began building large burial mounds; and second, there was a large migration of people fleeing incessant wars on the Korean peninsula to the Japanese islands.

The word “kofun” is Japanese for the type of burial mounds dating from this era and lends itself to the name of the period.

The Kofun period is also distinguished from the Yayoi because it is the oldest era of recorded history in Japan. This means that prior to the Kofun period, there are no written records for historians to analyze about the history of Japan, and we must rely solely on archaeology to tell us about the pre-Kofun periods. However, the Kofun show up in historical records as far away as China, and these sources can be cross-referenced with archaeological evidence, giving us a much clearer picture of the way that Kofun society

worked. The ends of the Yayoi and Kofun periods are usually marked from later periods in Japanese history by one main cultural difference: the introduction of Buddhism to the region. This introduction had an incredibly profound impact on the cultural landscape of Japan.

These were almost certainly developed to store grain surpluses through the winter.

2. Primitive weaving of textiles using vegetable fibers As tools improved and people had to spend less time foraging for food, weaving techniques also improved.

3. Metalworking Iron implements would have included tools such as axes, sickles and hoes used for agriculture, felling of trees etc. but also of weapons including arrowheads, knives, and swords.

Artist representation of a Yayoi warrior

Among the characteristics that distinguish the Yayoi and Kofun periods from the earlier Jōmon period include the appearance of new pottery styles and the start of intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields. A hierarchical social class structure also emerged in this period as a result of some of the changes introduced to the society. Some other characteristics that archaeologists use to distinguish the Yayoi and Kofun periods from the earlier Jōmon period include: 1. First appearance structures

of

raised-floor

Artistic re-creation of a Kofun warrior

As community, the Yayoi could enjoy a considerable advantage over the Jōmon culture as food supply and food source stability, along with improved food storage capacity, led to the ability to support a larger population and divisions of labour. As societies had surpluses of food, people were able to stop working and devote their energies to things like crafts, developing artisanal skills, and fighting.

Improved metalworking techniques also translated into more powerful weaponry. Not surprisingly, then, the new Yayoi culture

spread rapidly and quickly overwhelmed the JĹ?mon.

Agriculture, Iron, and Pre-Buddhist Japan The introduction of wet-rice cultivation resulted in the rapid development of food production as well as large increases in population. It was followed by frequent armed conflicts, the emergence of social stratification, and shortly thereafter some form of kingship.

Once wet rice agriculture was initiated in Japan, paddy field construction greatly modified the natural topography of lowland Japan. The nature of the soil was less important than the control over water: Rice paddies need to be levelled in order to maintain an even water depth for nourishing the rice during the three growing months. Thus, coastal plains of gley soils having small slope gradients were the first to be exploited from the beginning of the Yayoi period. They were originally carved out of river bottomlands, but as these areas were prone to flooding, coarse sediments of lower basin flanks and irrigation canals were made.

surpluses and storage required to set aside the large amounts of time, labour and organization required. The main evidence is the fact that at one stage of the Yayoi period, the communities were building their settlements on hills or high ground. This is in contrast to the usual Yayoi practice of building on flat alluvial (low lying areas near rivers) areas. Yayoi people did not have the capability of building long canals for irrigation, so the hill top settlements were either an indicator of dry-rice cultivation, or they were defensive settlements to protect the community. Whether this was the case or not, wet-rice cultivation was adopted fairly early in the period (probably within as little as 100 years) and spread extremely quickly.

With one notable exception, Yayoi people lived in the same kind of pit-type or circular dwellings of the Jomon period. The exception was the introduction of raised-floor structures. These structures appear to have been primarily built to improve food storage (i.e. storage of the rice harvest). Elevating the floor reduced food loss due to spoilage from dampness or rodents. Buildings such as these were not possible until the Yayoi period due to the lack of iron tools. With secure food storage, communities grew in size and could support full or partial division of labour - leading to the application of knowledge of textile weaving (using simple looms) and to improved tool manufacture.

Wooden tools

It is not clear whether rice as a crop and wet-rice (irrigated) cultivation as an agricultural method arrived in Japan simultaneously. There is some evidence that the rice crop was first grown in dry fields or in marsh areas, which would indicate that the Yayoi people initially did not know how to cultivate via the wet-rice method, or that the communities did not initially have the food

Reconstruction of a Yayoi house

Kofun Burial Mounds

kofun, 50 or 60 meters, in diameter required a major investment.

The practice of building sepulchral earthen mounds and burying treasures with the dead was transmitted to Japan from the continent around the third century A.D. and caused a significant change in burial customs, marking the shift from the Yayoi to the Kofun period. The bodies of the dead were interred in large wooden coffins placed in the tomb chambers. Buried with the deceased were such items as bronze mirrors, tools, weapons, personal ornaments, horse decorations, and clay vessels. The outer part of the burial mounds was lined with stones. Haniwa (see below), sometimes numbering in the thousands, were placed in rows at the base and scattered on the crest of the knolls or on the sloping sides of the mounds.

Only very wealthy people could afford to have kofun built. Some of them are enormous and would have required incredible organization, craftsmanship and labour. Much like the pyramids in Egypt or the Terracotta warriors in China, these mounds are a testament to the organization of the states and the stratification of society during this period.

Their diffusion is often understood to reflect a parallel spread of political power as Japan, which had been divided into a series of loosely related domains, was gradually organized into a unified state with a central government. The arrival of immigrants from the Korean peninsula and possibly others parts of mainland East Asia, provided one impetus for changes in political organization and related burial practices.

Large jar, late Kofun or Asuka period

Key-hole burial mound

Kofun come in many shapes, with round and square being the simplest. A distinct style is the keyhole-shaped kofun, with its square front and round back. The mounds contained large stone burial chambers. Some are surrounded by moats. Kofun range in size from several meters to over 400 meters in length. The largest, attributed to the Emperor Nintoku, is an astounding 486 meters long. Others are much smaller, but even a relatively modest

Social Stratification and State Formulation As the Yayoi population increased, the society became more stratified and complex.

They wove textiles, lived in permanent farming villages, and constructed buildings with wood and stone. They also accumulated wealth through land ownership and the storage of grain. These factors promoted the development of distinct social classes. This was all possible due to the introduction of an irrigated, wet-rice culture from the Yangtze estuary in southern China via the Ryukyu Islands or Korean Peninsula. Wet-rice agriculture led to the development and growth of a sedentary, agrarian society in Japan. Local political and social developments in Japan were more important than the activities of the central authority within a stratified society.

Haniwa boar, Kofun period

Social stratification, along with sedentarization of agriculture, are considered the threshold for state formation. The preceding Yayoi societies had chiefs ruling regional polities. This led to an aristocratic elite that shared common values, aspirations, beliefs, and ideology, and we can see specific examples of this in the burial mounds of the Early Kofun. It can be said that the Yayoi and

the Kofun periods provided the “springboard” for the emergence of an actual organization that could be called a state in later periods.

Helmet, Kofun Period

Where did the Jōmon Go? There are some differences in Jōmon and Yayoi/Kofun skeletal remains. The most likely hypothesis to explain these differences is that there were dramatic improvements in peoples’ nutrition and diets. While there was undoubtedly considerable migration from the Korean Peninsula and/or China during these periods, the migration was either insufficient to change the overall genetic makeup of the people who inhabited Japan prior to their arrival or was predominantly of male migrants, which would have resulted in intermarriages with the Jomon/Yayoi people. This “hybrid hypothesis” is accepted by most scholars.

However, some argue that there was very little inter-mixing, while some argue that there was significant inter-mixing. Some suggest more Jōmon genes were retained in the northeastern Japanese populations than in the south-western ones.

Bust of a warrior

Haniwa and Dotaku Much of the material culture of the Kofun period demonstrates that Japan was in close political and economic contact with continental Asia, especially with the southern dynasties of China, most likely via the Korean peninsula. Indeed, bronze mirrors cast from the same mould have been found on both sides of the Tsushima Straight, which separates Korea from Japan.

burial mound, in the center, along the edges, and at the entrance of the burial chamber of enormous keyhole mound tombs constructed for the ruling elite during the Kofun period. We can learn a lot from examining haniwa. For instance, during this period because of the way that haniwa are depicted, it appears that the cavalry wore armour, carried swords and other weapons, and used advanced military methods like those of northeast Asia. Haniwa grave offerings were made in numerous forms, such as horses, chickens, birds, fans, fish, houses, weapons, shields, sunshades, pillows, and male and female humans. This gives us an idea about what the people from this period considered important, and what they wanted to take with them to protect them in the afterlife.

Like the Terracotta Warriors in China, these haniwa would have been painted elaborately when first put on the graves. However, oxidization and wear over time has worn away all the paint but archaeologists can still find traces of color and pigment on some haniwa.

Haniwa figure of a wild boar

One type of object that was imported from the mainland and was very important to the burial practices of the Kofun period were the elaborate haniwa. Haniwa are made of terracotta and were placed at the top of the

Haniwa figure of a warrior

Haniwa horse, Kofun period

Another material import from the mainland produced during the late Yayoi period and Kofun period are the distinctive Japanese bronze bells known as dotaku. They are thought to derive from earlier, smaller Korean examples that adorned horses and other domesticated animals. Dotaku were buried singly, in pairs, and in large groups— occasionally with bronze mirrors and weapons—in isolated locations, often on hilltops. They have not been discovered in graves or near dwellings. Their placement suggests that they were communal property rather than owned by individuals. The rationale for the burial of these bells remains unclear, although it is often suggested that they were included in rites to ensure a community's agricultural fertility. There is no evidence that the dotaku were functional and they are thought to have been purely ceremonial objects.

Haniwa horsehead, late Kofun period

Bell (dotaku), late Yayoi period

Importation of things like haniwa and dotaku from the mainland show how cultures adapt things that they appropriate to suit their own needs. Both of these objects appear in very similar for and content on the mainland, but are used for different purpose, and in different ways by the Yayoi and Kofun peoples. It is important to remember that the transmission of culture from one society to another is always complicated and multi-faceted.

It could be assumed that because there were haniwa and dotaku found in Japan, the people who lived there blindly accepted Korean and Chinese cultural indoctrination. But with a little prodding and probing, we find out that the people in Japan appropriated the objects but changed the function to suit their own needs. Can you think of objects or ides in our culture that we have appropriated from others and made to suit our own needs? Can you think of objects that we have exported that other cultures and peoples use differently than we do?

The Yamato Dynasty and Japan Today Among the world's nations, the Japanese state claims that it is one of the oldest, tracing its roots back to the third century CE when an emerging elite defined itself through shared aristocratic burial customs and an ideology that celebrated political rulership. These keyholeshaped tombs provisioned with precious grave goods indicate access to valuable raw materials, the availability of specialist craftsmanship, and command of labour. They are also a testament to the organization of the state and state power during the period. During the Kofun, the small polities that dotted the landscape were merged through marriage and warfare until finally they were unified under the “Yamato” supreme kingship that, by the end of the third century AD, was based in Yamato, the present Nara Basin in the Kinki district.

itself to the Yamato Kingship. This is still relevant today, as the current Emperor of Japan, who is the ceremonial representatives of the current constitutional monarchy in Japan claims to be a descendant of the Yamato Kingship from the Kofun period.

Yamatai kingdom’s Queen Himiko (Illustration copyright: Newton Graphic Science Magazine “Nihon no ruutsu”)

Yamato territory, Kofun period

The question of whether the original “Yamatai” kingdom, which is recorded in a Chinese chronicle as having gained superiority over other kingdoms in the early to middle third century has generated a controversy centering not simply on the location of a kingdom but on the relationship between the Yamatai Kingdom and lineage of the imperial family which links

Useful Websites Timeline and information about Kofun Period Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kofu/hd _kofu.htm

Link to informative site about the history of the Kofun period

Personal website of a Japanophile. Interesting and useful information but should be crosschecked with other sources for verification purposes http://heritageofjapan.wordpress.com/followi ng-the-trail-of-tumuli/rebellion-in-kyushuand-the-rise-of-royal-estates/villagesettlement-patterns-the-homesteademerges/major-events-in-the-kofun-period/

http://www.t-net.ne.jp/~keally/kofun.html Article from the Japan Times about new developments and archaeological finds Information about the Kofun Period from the British Museum along with descriptions of some of their artifacts http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highli ghts/article_index/j/japan_kofun_period_abo ut_3rd.aspx

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fa20120816 o1.html

Article about Japanese bells in the Yayoi Period http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/dictio/data/ko uko/45dotaku.htm

Japanese Government Website about pre-710 Japan http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2131.html

Minneapolis Museum of Art website displaying their collections of Yayoi and Kofun art with descriptions and great images http://www.artsmia.org/art-ofasia/history/japan-yayoi-period.cfm http://www.artsmia.org/art-ofasia/history/japan-kofun-period.cfm

Online article about the Yayoi and some of the other peoples of the northern islands in the Japanese archipelago http://emishi-ezo.net/emishi_kofun.html

East Asia Blog article on new archaeological finds from the Yamato Culture http://eastasiablog.wordpress.com/2012/09/1 7/traces-of-yamato-culture-found-in-japansniigata-prefecture/

Suggestions for Further Reading: Addiss, Stephen, Gerald Groemer and J. Thomas Rimer. Traditional Japanese arts and culture: an illustrated sourcebook.

Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006.

Diamond, Jared. “Japanese Roots.” Discover Magazine. (June 1998).

Egami, Namio. The beginnings of Japanese art.

New York: Weatherhill, 1973.

Farris, William Wayne. Population, Disease, and Land in Early Japan, 645-900.

Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1985.

Ford, Barbara Brennan. "The Arts of Japan." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Summer 1987).

Habuta, Yoshiyuki. Kofun. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 2011.

Hanihara, Kazuo. “Dual Structure Model of the Population History of the Japanese.” Japan Review, Vol. 2 (1991): pp. 1-33.

Isozaki, Arata. Japan-ness in architecture.

Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006.

Kidder, Edward J. Himiko and Japan’s elusive chiefdom of Yamatai: archaeology, history and mythology. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.

Kumar, Ann. Cultivating Japan: rice, genes, language and the Yayoi Revolution. New York: Kegan Paul International, 2006.

Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese art.

Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Miki, Fumio. Haniwa, the clay sculpture of protohistoric Japan. Tokyo: C.E. Tuttle, 1960.

Omoto, K., and Saito N. “Genetic Origins of the Japanese: A Partial Support for the Dual Structure Hypothesis.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 102 (1997): pp. 437-446.

Pearson, Richard. “Chiefly Exchange Between Kyushu and Okinawas, Japan, in the Yayoi Period.” Antiquity Vol. 64, No. 245 (1990): pp. 912-22.

Hong, Wontack. Ancient Korea-Japan relations: Paekche and the origin of the Yamato dynasty. Seoul: Kudara International, 2010.

Rhee, Song Nai, Melcin Aikens, sung Rak choi, and Hyuk-jin Ro. “Korean Contributions to Agriculture, Technology, and State Formation in Japan: Archaeology and History of an Ephocal Thousand Years, 400 BCE-600 CE.” Asian Perspectives Vol. 46, No. 2 (2007): 404-459.

Hudson, Mark J. Ruins of Identity Ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands. University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.

Seagrave, Sterling. The Yamato Dynasty: the secret histroy of Japan’s Imperial family.

New York: Broadway Books, 1999.

Hudson, Mark, and Gina L. Barnes.

“Yoshinogari: A Yayoi Settlement in Northern Kyushu. Monumenta Nipponica. Vol. 46, No. 2 (1991): pp. 211235.

Totman, Conrad. The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Preindustrial Japan.

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.