© Lonely Planet 38

History Ken Henshall ANCIENT JAPAN: FROM HUNTER-GATHERERS TO DIVINE RULE Once upon a time, two deities, the male Izanagi and the female Izanami, came down from Takamagahara (The Plains of High Heaven) to a watery Ken Henshall teaches world in order to create land. Droplets from Izanagi’s ‘spear’ solidified Japanese Studies at the into the land now known as Japan. Izanami and Izanagi then populated University of Canterbury, the new land with gods. One of these was Japan’s supreme deity, the sun New Zealand. He is well goddess Amaterasu (Light of Heaven), whose great-great-grandson Jimmu known for his many was to become the first emperor of Japan, reputedly in 660 BC. books on Japanese Such is the seminal creation myth of Japan. More certainly, humans history, literature, society were present in Japan at least 200,000 years ago, though the earliest human and language. remains go back only 30,000 years or so. Till around the end of the last ice age some 15,000 years ago, Japan was linked to the continent by a number of land bridges – Siberia to the north, Korea to the west, and probably Taiwan-China to the south – so access was not difficult. Amid undoubted diversity, the first recognisable culture to emerge was the neolithic Jōmon (named after a ‘rope mark’ pottery style), from around 13,000 BC. The Jōmon were mostly hunter-gatherers, with a preference for coastal regions, though agriculture started to develop from around 4000 BC and this brought about greater stability in settlement and the emergence of larger tribal communities. The present-day indigenous Ainu people of northern Japan are of Jōmon descent. From around 400 BC Japan was effectively invaded by waves of immi- grants later known as Yayoi (from the site where their distinctive reddish wheel-thrown pottery was first found). They first arrived in the southwest, probably through the Korean Peninsula. Their exact origins are unknown, and may well be diverse, but they brought with them iron and bronze technology, and highly productive wet rice-farming techniques. In general Jōmon pottery vessels they were taller and less stocky than the Jōmon – though a Chinese docu- dating back some 15,000 ment from the 1st century AD nonetheless refers to Japan (by this stage years are the oldest quite heavily peopled by the Yayoi) as ‘The Land of the Dwarfs’! known pottery vessels in Opinion is divided as to the nature of Yayoi relations with the Jōmon, but the world. the latter were gradually displaced and forced ever further north. The Yayoi had spread to the middle of Honshū by the 1st century AD, but Northern Honshū could still be considered ‘Jōmon’ till at least the 8th century. With the exception of the Ainu, present-day Japanese are overwhelmingly of Yayoi descent. Other consequences of the Yayoi advent included greater intertribal/re- gional trade based on greater and more diverse production through new

c 13,000 BC c 400 BC 3rd century AD

First evidence of the hunter- The Yayoi people appear in Queen Himiko reigns over gatherer Jōmon people, southwest Japan (probably Yamatai (Yamato) and is ancestors of the present-day via Korea), practising wet rice recognised by Chinese visitors Ainu people of northern Japan, farming and using metal tools, as ‘over-queen’ of Japan, at that and producers of the world’s and spread gradually east and time comprising more than a earliest pottery vessels. north. They also promote inter- hundred kingdoms. The Yam- regional trade and a sense of ato clan’s dominance continues territoriality. hereafter. lonelyplanet.com HISTORY •• Ancient Japan: from Hunter-Gatherers to Divine Rule 39 technologies, but at the same time increased rivalry between tribal/regional groups, often over resources, and greater social stratification. Agriculture-based fixed settlement led to the consolidation of territory and the establishment of boundaries. According to Chinese sources, by the end of the 1st century AD there were more than a hundred kingdoms in Japan, and by the mid-3rd century these were largely subject to an ‘over-queen’ named Himiko, whose own territory was known as Yamatai (later Yamato). The location of Yamatai is disputed, with some scholars favouring northwest Kyūshū, but most favouring the Nara region. The Chinese treated Himiko as sovereign of all Japan – the name Yamato eventually being applied to Japan as a whole – and for her part she acknowledged through tribute her allegiance to the Chinese emperor. On her death in 248 she is said to have been buried – along with a hundred sacrificed slaves – in a massive barrowlike tomb known as a kofun, indicative of the importance of status. Other dignitaries chose burial in similar tombs, and so from this point on, till the establishment of Nara as a capital in 710, Japan is usually referred to as being in the Kofun or Yamato period. The period saw the confirmation of the Yamato as the dominant – indeed The name of Japan’s most imperial – clan in Japan. Their consolidation of power often appears to famous mountain, Fuji, is have been by negotiation and alliance with (or incorporation of) power- an Ainu name for a god ful potential foes. This was a practice that Japan was to continue through of fire. the ages where possible, though it was less accommodating in the case of perceived weaker foes. The first verifiable emperor was Suijin (who died around 318), very likely of the Yamato clan, though some scholars think he may have been the leader of a group of ‘horse-riders’ who appear to have come into Japan around the start of the 4th century from the Korean Peninsula. The Kofun/Yamato period saw the adoption of writing, based on Chinese but first introduced by scholars from the Korean kingdom of Paekche in the mid-5th century. Scholars from Paekche also introduced Buddhism a century later. Buddhism was promoted by the Yamato rulers as a means of unification and control of the land. Though Buddhism originated in India it was seen by the Japanese as a Chinese religion, and as such was one of a number of ‘things Chinese’ that they adopted to achieve recognition – especially by China – as a civilised country. Through emulating powerful China, Japan also hoped it too could become powerful. The desire to learn from the strongest/best is an enduring Japanese characteristic. In 604 the regent Prince Shōtoku (573–620) enacted a constitution of 17 articles, with a very Chinese and indeed Confucianist flavour, esteem- ing harmony and hard work. Major Chinese-style reforms followed some decades later in 645, such as centralisation of government, nationalisation and allocation of land, and law codes. To strengthen its regime, under Emperor Temmu (r 673–86) the imperial family initiated the compilation of

c 300 Mid-5th century Mid-6th century

Suijin is the first verifiable Writing, in the form of Chinese Scholars from Paekche intro- emperor of Japan, possibly characters, is introduced into duce Buddhism, the texts of arriving as the leader of ‘horse- Japan by scholars from the which are able to be read by a riders’ from Korea but in any Korean kingdom of Paekche. now literate elite, who use it to event almost certainly affiliated Using Chinese characters to unify and control the nation. with the Yamato clan. express spoken Japanese leads to an extremely complex writ- ing system.