Key Terms- Prehistory

Geography

Four Main Islands of Japan: Honshū (lit., “main land”), Kyūshū, Shikoku, Hokkaidō Bodies of Water: Tsushima Strait, Inland Sea, Sea of Japan (N.B., controversial name) Regions: Kantō, Kansai, Yamato Plain

Chronology

Jōmon Period, 14,000 BCE – 300 BCE (global warming around 10,000 BCE, peaks ca. 2500 BCE, cooling from ca. 1500 BCE)

Yayoi Period, 300 BCE – 300 AD Iron Age

Kofun Period, ca. 3rd – 7th centuries

Asuka Period, ca. 6th c. – 710 CE.

Yamato Clan and Polity, ca. 5th c. to present

Jōmon Culture

Lack of metalworking

Sedentary (not H/G)

Hunted fish and game

Cultivated Plants

Managed trees

Used lacquer

Perhaps cultivated rice

Ceramics: coil-built, open pit (up to 900 C) Appliqué Stamps Ropework Wooden tools

Dogū

(Clay figurines)

“Jōmon Venus”

Middle Jōmon

National Treasure excavated from the Tanabatake Archaeological Site in Nagano Prefecture.

Yayoi Civilization

7yrs after Jōmon, in Yayoi site (1884) Also in Tokyo

Wet rice cultivation

Silk weaving

Metalworking: BRONZE

Swords

Moats around settlements

Raised storehouse architecture

Rise of political polities

E.g., Queen Himiko of Yamatai

Dotaku

Bells

Kofun period, late 4th–early 5th century

TOMB OF EMPEROR NINTOKU.

Haniwa

(Funerary figurines)

Magatama

(Comma-shaped stones)

Anagama kilns (lit., “cave kilns”)

allows for stoneware and firing

Sueki ware

Kofun (Tumulus) period, ca. 550-600

Stoneware clay with natural ash glaze 52.7 x 46.4 x 46.4 cm