Jomon Archaeology and the Representation of Japanese Origins

HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE FAR EAST 587 YANGJIN P AI< and HYUNG IL PAl both explore in the British Museum last year on the Painted the tensions within the practice and politics Tombs of Koguryo, which highlighted the de of Korean archaeology. South Korea is, of course, plorable conservation of these treasures. accessible and very conscious of its past, even FUMIKO IKAWA-SMITH's concluding paper though much of this is physically beyond the draws out some of the common themes which modern territorial boundaries. PAl discusses how highlight the links between the national the creation of modem Korean identity is bound heritages in this disparate region. In compar up with archaeological activities, and PAK ex ing the five papers, she identifies four useful plores two early states on the Korean Penin common points of reference: the nature of ar sula. Intriguingly, the shared heritage and history chaeology in east Asia; the role of national iden of the two Koreas forms an unbreakable link, tity and origins; the management of cultural in spite of the modern political divide. The west heritage and tourism; and the development of is becoming increasingly aware of the richness concepts of national identity, the 'other' and of Korean cultures, as shown by the exhibition cultural origins. R.eferences BARNES. G. 1999. The rise of civilisation in East Asia: The ar~ Journal of East Asian Archaeology. Forthcoming. chaeology of China, Korea and Japan. London: Thames & Hudson. Opposite. Location map o/the Far East, showing 1 Vietnam: 2 The Korean peninsula in the lst-3rd centuries AD; 3 Japan; 4 central China. Jomon archaeology and the representation of Japanese origins JUNKO HABU & CLARE F AWCETI* Key words: Jomon period; Sannai Maruyama site, Japanese archaeology, nationalism, mass media, cultural tourism Since 1992, on-going excavations of the Early to 5 links drawn by Japanese intellectuals be Middle Jomon period Sannai Maruyama site tween modem Japanese and their supposed (3500-2000 DC) have uncovered the large size and Jomon ancestors. complexity of this prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlement. Sannai Maruyama, furthermore, has The Sannai Maruyama site become the first Jomon site in Japan to attract The Sannai Maruyama site is a large Joman the attention of not only archaeologists, but also period settlement located in Aomori Prefecture, the media and the public. This paper argues that Japan. The site dates primarily from the mid Sannai Maruyama's popularity is due to dle of the Early Jomon period to the end of the 1 the recent increased visibility of Jomon ar Middle Jomon period (c. 3500-2000 BC). Ar chaeology, chaeological excavation at Sannai Maruyama 2 the dissemination of excavation results by has revealed an enormous site containing over site archaeologists, 700 pit-dwellings, approximately 20 long 3 the pride of local people in the site, houses, about 100 remains of raised-floor build 4 the use of archaeology by the local govern ings, approximately 250 adult grave pits and ment to promote tourism, and 800 burial jars for infants or children, several .,. Habu. Department of Anthropology, 232 Kroeber Hall. University of California, Berkeley CA 94720~3710. USA. [email protected] Fawcett, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, 5t Francis Xavier University, P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish NS, Canada B2G 2W5. [email protected] ANTIQUITY 73 (1999): 587-93 588 SPECIAL SECTION large middens and mounds containing garbage Pearson 1992). Developing from the lithic-based such as potsherds, stone tools, food remains Palaeolithic, the pottery-producing Jomon is and backdirt from houses (Okada 1998). In characterized by the presence of large settle addition, over 40,000 boxes of artefacts including ments and shell-middens, dependence on a stone tools, potsherds, clay figurines, bone tools, hunting, gathering and fishing economy, sophis clay, stone and bone ornaments, wood artefacts, ticated technologies and complex ritual. In rush and bark baskets and lacquered plates, contrast, the Yayoi period is characterized by bowls and combs have been uncovered, cata reliance on rice agriculture, the use of metal logued and stored for analysis (Okada 1994; tools and ritual objects and clear evidence of Okada & Habu 1995; Okamura 1995). social stratification. The following Kofun pe When, in 1994, excavations by the Board of riod represented ancient state fonnation, and Education of Aomori Prefecture revealed the vast saw the construction of large burial mounds, size, complexity and richness of the site, Sannai many of which were built in a characteristic Maruyama became a focus of public attention. 'keyhole-shape' . Finds and interpretations of the site were pub The number of archaeological sites excavated lished in Japanese newspapers and magazines annually in Japan has risen rapidly since the and reported on television news programmes. early 1960s, as Japan developed into a major More than a million tourists have visited the site world economic power. In 1996 alone, approxi to see excavated artefacts and features. Sannai mately 11,000 site excavations were carried out Maruyama, furthermore, has been the topic of throughout the Japanese archipelago (Okamura many academic and semi-academic conferences. 1997). The vast majority of these excavations This paper asks how and why archaeologi were rescue projects conducted by administra cal, popular and mass media representations tive archaeologists prior to the construction of of Sannai Maruyama have presented this Jomon public or private development projects. Japa period site as a key to understanding Japanese nese archaeology enjoys wide publicity through cultural identity. Such an understanding is sig the mass media and considerable public en nificant because, until the 1990s, the Japanese couragement and support. public and mass media did not focus on sites from the Jomon period (c. 10,000-300 Be) as The construction of Japanese ethnic and sources of knowledge about the origins of the national identity in the historic and Japanese people and culture. Rather, in the prehistoric past popular imagination, the roots of the Japanese Although we will never know with certainty if people, culture and nation were linked to the people living in the Japanese archipelago dur process of state formation associated with the ing the Kofun period shared an ethnic iden Yayoi (c. 3rd century Be-AD 3rd century) and tity, present-day Japan is one of the only modern Kofun (c. 4th-7th century) periods. The past industrial states that has not consciously dis two decades have seen tanceditselffrom its ethnicity (Porter 1997: 107). 1 new expressions of Japanese nationalism, In Japan, as in some other Asian nations, na including a search for Japanese identity tionalism and ethnicity go hand-in-hand. As in the prehistoric past, several authors have painted out, for most Japa 2 the discovery of rich Jomon sites and nese, to be a national implies that one speaks 3 increased acknowledgement of the possibil- the Japanese language, shares physical char ity of cultural diversity in Japan. acteristics with other Japanese nationals and In the 1990s, these factors have resulted in the has a Japanese cultural background (Befu 1993b; possibili ty of an intense and sustained focus Mouer & Sugimoto 1986; Oblas 1995; Sugimoto on Tomon archaeology as a source of knowl & Mouer 1989). edge about Japanese cultural origins. The process of nation-building and the con struction of the modem Japanese ethnic and Archaeology in contemporary Japan national identity can be traced to the decades Japanese prehistory and proto-history have tra spanning from Meiji restoration of 1868 until ditionally been divided into four periods: the the Japanese defeat in 1945. This process was Palaeolithic, Jomon, Yayoi and Kofun (Aikens the result of conscious cultural policies cre & Higuchi 1982; Barnes 1993; Imamura 1996; ated and implemented by political elites HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE FAR EAST 589 (Fujitani 1993: 84; Gluck 1985). The focus of be both naIve and impossible (1996: 47). He Japanese nationalism in the years leading up to concludes that there needs to be a change of and during World War II was the ideology of focus from Japanese origins and the definition tennosej, or emperor worship. The politics of pre of contemporary Japanese ethnic or national war emperor worship, furthennore, made the identity towards an .archaeology examining interpretation of archaeological artefacts in terms diversity in the archaeological record of Japan. of peoples , including the ancestral Japanese peo Ikawa-Smith (1995) argues that this sense of plet difficult This was because archaeologists had homogeneity has profoundly influenced the to avoid interpretations of archaeological evi interpretation of Japanese archaeology since dence that would question historical interpre archaeologists have focused their efforts on tations based on assumptions about the sanctity understanding the creation and development of the imperial lineage. These assumptions were of the Yamato state, and put cultural continu found in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, ancient ity at the centre of their description of Japa Japanese textual sources compiled during the nese prehistory and history. This has occurred 7th and 8th centuries. To avoid these ideologi in books aimed at the general public, even cal and political problems, archaeologists pro though most archaeologists are conscious of the duced detailed and apolitical typological studies cultural and physical

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