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The Origins of the Japanese

The origins of the Japanese people and their culture date back to a time of remote antiquity of which we have almost no knowledge. As a result, there are still many unanswered questions and numerous areas of dispute and contention. Evidence of the origins of the Japanese comes from three main sources: archeological remains, written Han Chinese documents and early Japanese records,¹ and as the results of studies in comparative linguistics² (Sansom, 1976; Reischauer, 1988).

No traces of paleolithic (early Stone Age) culture have been distinguished in Japan, but two types of neolithic (late Stone Age) culture have been identified: Jōmon (named after a characteristic “rope-pattern” type of pottery) and Yayoi (named for a kind of pottery found at a place of that name). Technically, Jōmon pottery is considered to be inferior to Yayoi, but artistically, it is more advanced (Sansom, 1976, p. 2). Both kinds of pottery have been discovered throughout the Japanese archipelago, but the Jōmon type is more predominant in the north and east while Yayoi pottery is found more extensively in the south and west. The culture of the Yayoi period (300 BC–250 AD) is thus thought to have originated in Kyushu between the third and second centuries BC, and is characterized by the wet cultivation of rice and the introduction of metals such as bronze and iron. The neolithic culture of Japan is felt to have reached high levels of development and it is, therefore, thought to have been of very long duration (ibid., p. 4). It came to an end with the introduction of metal culture from China, but lasted until the first century BC in the west, the second century AD in central Japan, and in the far north until c. 1000 AD. Bronze Age culture had reached its height in China during the Chou dynasty (1122–221 BC), and spread slowly to southern Manchuria, Korea, and then to Japan; with the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) China entered the Iron Age. No sooner did the Bronze Age begin in Japan, however, than it was eclipsed by the Iron Age culture of a rapidly expanding Han civilization from China.³ As a result, Japan is said to have had no true Bronze Age culture of its own.

Jōmon pottery

Jōmon Clay Figurine

Jōmon Architecture

Yayoi Village

Japan is thought to have endured numerous waves of migration during her long prehistory, and so “the Japanese race is a compound of elements drawn in ancient times [mainly] from different parts of the Asian mainland. The order in which these elements arrived and the proportions in which they are mixed cannot be definitely stated, [however]” (ibid., p. 1). The Japanese archipelago acted as a kind of cul-de-sac for tribes migrating through Asia, driven eastward because of hunger, fear, or perhaps the desire for change. The most predominant racial strain is considered to have been from Mongol tribes arriving through Korea. Their influence is seen in a variety of aspects of Japanese life: the earliest religion (Shinto) has much in common with the Shamanism of north-east Asia, weapons discovered at archeological sites resemble those of Mongolian peoples, and the Japanese physical type is Mongoloid (i.e., Japanese people have eyelids with a “Mongol [epicanthic] fold” and babies are born with a characteristic “Mongol spot”). However, there are also some features from southern China evident in Japan, including the wet cultivation of rice and the Japanese physique, which is more like the southern Chinese than their northerly taller and sturdier neighbors. There are even proto-Malay traces in the Japanese racial make-up probably due to migrations along the kuroshio (the Black Current) from Indonesia, Malaysia, and even Polynesia (Sansom, 1976, p. 6; Reishauer, 1988, p. 34). All of these migrations displaced the original inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago, known as the Ainu, a Caucasoid people resembling the tribes of eastern Siberia. The Ainu have a characteristic hairiness of face and body, accounting perhaps for the somewhat greater hairiness of the Japanese compared with other Mongoloid peoples, and until the eighth century AD they occupied the northern third of Honshu (today less than 20,000 survive in Hokkaido and they are on the brink of extinction). By the Christian era in the West, there was, however, a fairly uniform civilization in Japan. Racial and ethnic blending and fusion had taken place, and even though migrations continued from the Korean peninsula up until the eighth century AD, “the Japanese developed a picture of themselves as a racially distinct and ‘pure’ group, often portrayed in terms of a single great family” (Reischauer, 1988, p. 34). From the eighth century until the present day, however, there has been virtually no infusion of new blood into Japan (ibid.).

The first glimpse of early Japanese life is afforded by Han Chinese records of the 3rd century AD—the Japanese are described as a people having sharp class distinctions, making their living by agriculture and fishing, and divided into a hundred or more tribal units, some with women rulers (Reischauer, 1988, p. 42). Japan was known to the Chinese of this time as the “Kingdom of Wa,”⁴ as well as the “Queen’s Country.”⁵ These Han dynasty records also describe the early Japanese as follows:

They take their food with their hands, but have wooden trays . . . to place it on. They are a long-lived race, and persons who have reached 100 are very common. All men of high rank have four or five wives; others two or three. There is no robbery or theft, and litigation is infrequent. The men, both small and great, tatoo their faces and work designs on their bodies. They have distinctions of rank, and some are vassals of others. (Sansom, 1976, pp. 29-30)

Han historians also recorded with admiration the gentleness and loyalty of Japanese women, that theft was almost unknown, and that the laws and social customs of the Japanese were very strict (ibid., p. 52). It is clear, however, that indigenous Japanese culture was not at a very high level at this time. There was a scanty population in small groups of dwelling houses along the coasts or on the banks of streams. Rice was cultivated and rice wine was made from very early times. Fishing and hunting were important, and the population was settled in numerous, small agricultural communities. Garments were primitive, although there was free use of jewelry and semi-precious stones (ibid., p. 45).

Starting in the 3rd century AD, it is thought that Japan was overrun by waves of mounted invaders from the Korean peninsula, and during the next three centuries large burial mounds were built suggesting concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of a military upper class (Reischauer, 1988, p. 42). These sepulchral mounds were of enormous size and were composed of great piles of earth over a stone burial chamber. These tombs were found chiefly in western and central Japan and contained metal weapons, armor, helmets, and horse-trappings (Sansom, 1976, p. 12). This period, called the Kofun (Tomb) era (250–646 AD), marks the beginning of state formation in Japan.

Kofun Burial Mound

By the end of the first century AD, some clans in Kyushu, making use of superior weapons and equipment derived from Korea and China, began to push eastward and assert their authority. They slowly proceeded along the Inland Sea until they reached the Yamato (Nara) plain, where they established a central state. By the sixth century AD, this central state had gained some control over western and central Japan, perhaps as far north as Sendai. At this time, the political and economic organization of the region was still relatively undeveloped, with semiautonomous tribal units owning the land and pledging allegiance to the central clan at Yamato (Sansom, 1976, p. 24).

Virtually all cultural influences on the early Japanese derived directly or indirectly from continental China, which at a time when Japanese life was still rudimentary, possessed perhaps the most highly developed civilization in the known world. Because of Japan’s geographical placement on the outer extremity of the Pacific Rim, civilization was a comparatively late development in the region. As Sansom (1976, p. 39) notes, “in studying early Japanese society, one is impressed by its [isolation and] late development. We are accustomed to think of the history of Asian cultures as reaching far back into an enlightened antiquity; but this is by no means true of Japan.” Reischauer (1988, p. 41) concurs: “The [Japanese] islands were thousands of years behind Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and China in the introduction of agriculture and centuries behind in the use of bronze and iron.” It is thought that these metals, as well as more advanced agricultural techniques, entered Japan at the same time in the third and second centuries BC, due to contact with China. Japan’s political relations with the mainland also commenced at a very early date, not later than the first century BC (Sansom, 1976, p. 41).⁶ Japan even maintained a foothold on the Korean peninsula during the first centuries AD and was continually involved in political intrigues among the kingdoms there. There was also frequent intermarriage between the ruling houses of Japan and Korea. Chinese writing was officially adopted at the beginning of the fifth century AD, which was a landmark in Japanese history as it “shaped the subsequent development of nearly every Japanese institution,” but it is a mistake to assume, as is sometimes done, that the influence of China was of no great importance up until this time. In fact, Chinese influence was a persistent, increasing, and overwhelming factor of early Japanese life starting from the first century BC (ibid., p. 44).

NOTES

1. The two official Japanese records which are sources of information, the Kojiki (“Record of Ancient Things”) and Nihongi (or more correctly, Nihon-shoki: “Chronicles of Japan”), written in 712 AD and 720 AD respectively, are considered to be somewhat tendentious works in which myth and legend and history were combined to enhance the prestige of the ruling dynasty, and should be viewed with caution (Sansom, 1976, p. 20).

2. Comparative linguistics has analyzed Japanese in relation to a variety of other languages in an attempt to shed light on its origins. Japanese is classified as belonging to the Ural-Altaic language family along with such languages as Finnish, Turkish, Mongolian, and the dialects spoken by the Tungusic tribes of eastern Siberia (Miller, 1982).

3. Han culture at this time was like “a gigantic explosion of energies slowly stored up since the dawn of Chinese civilization.” It thrust out and expanded throughout Asia in all directions (Sansom, 1976, p. 17).

4. Because the character “wa” had the meaning of dwarf, this could have been a kind of epithet frequently used by the Chinese in relation to other peoples, or the Japanese may indeed have been short in stature.

5. This perhaps indicates a matriarchal lineage in early Japanese culture.

6. Thus, as Sansom (1976, p. 41) points out, Japan’s isolation is a relatively late phenomenon in her history.

DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

1. Discuss the teaching of history in Japanese schools, what students are taught, and how they are taught it. In your opinion, what can be done to improve the teaching of history so that Japanese young people can have a better understanding of their own culture?

2. It is said that the Japanese are a homogeneous people, often likened to one large tribe. Discuss this point of view from the perspective of your reading on the origins of the Japanese.

3. Why is it so difficult to obtain reliable information about the origins of the Japanese?

4. In what ways are modern Japanese similar to, or different from, the descriptions provided by Han Chinese records of the 3rd century AD?

5. Discuss the influence of China and Korea on the development of Japanese culture from its origins to the present day.

6. In 2001, a 65 million yen research project entitled “An Interdisciplinary Study of the Origins of the Japanese Peoples and Cultures,” was carried out with government cooperation, culminating in an NHK documentary and book series called, “The Japanese: The Long Journey” (see Appendix A). In this investigation, researchers conducted a study of the facial features of 1,047 randomly selected Japanese. Of them, 35.1% were found to fit the northern Asian type, commonly found in the people of northern China; 22% were categorized as Korean Peninsula; 28.3%, southern China; 13.3% Indochina; and 5.1% fitted the facial features typical of the southern Pacific region. Genetic and archaeological analysis indicates that Japan has been a grand melting pot of peoples who came here from Siberia via the Ice Age landbridge through Sakhalin; from northern and southern Asia via the Korean Peninsula; and by boat from Indochina and Polynesia via the Ryukyu archipelago. The high percentage of “northern Asian” faces is mostly a legacy of the large-scale immigration from the mainland through Korea, and the subsequent population explosion that began some 2,300 years ago in the early Yayoi Period. Discuss the multi-ethnic origins of the Japanese from the perspective of this NHK study.