A Journey Through History: Yayoi – Part One (The Spread of Rice Culture)
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The present article has been conceived as a two-part piece. In this first part we will focus on the development of what came to be known as Yayoi culture (Yayoi bunka 弥生文化), its spread throughout Kyūshū and the southern part of Honshū, as well as its interaction with Jōmon populations. In the second complementary article, which will soon be published, we will focus more on the Yayoi populations themselves, their socially defining activities and village structure.
The Late ‘Discovery’ of the Yayoi Period
Neil Gordon Munro, 1863–1942 a Scottish physician and anthropologist who defended the theory of a transitional period between Jōmon and the Yamato kingdom.
Before continuing our journey through Japanese history, let’s first make a short detour to understand how the Yayoi period (Yayoi jidai 弥生時代 10th century BC – 3rd century AD) came to be defined as such. The nomenclature of this era comes from an archaeological site situated at Yayoi-cho neighborhood in the Tōkyō metropolis, where pottery unrelated to Jōmon culture was unearthed for the first time in 1884. However, formal reports of such findings were only made in 1923, and no name was attached to this new type of ceramics. By then, many scholars were already considering the idea of a transitionary period between Jōmon and the Yamato kingdom, which would explain the otherwise sudden transition between hunter-gatherer practices and a structured state emulating the bureaucracy of the Chinese empire.
Yayoi was officially declared as a Japanese historical period only in 1943, after the discovery of the Toro village site in Shizuoka City, which provided irrefutable evidence of a culture that did not fit Jōmon descriptions. One aspect of the Yayoi period that probably slowed the recognition process was its extension, both in time and geographically. Evidence proves that rice culture, closely related to the Yayoi culture, was introduced to Kyūshū as early as the 9th century BC. Yayoi villages were found from northern Kyūshū up to Shizuoka prefecture, but not further north, as they were progressively outnumbered by Jōmon dwellings on the eastern part of Honshū and Hokkaidō. The reason behind such a clear demarcation line probably was a thick cryptomeria forest that dissuaded those new colonizers to proceed further north. Jōmon and Yayoi people co-existed peacefully, conducting many exchanges, to the point that by the 2nd century AD the late Jōmon population in the Tōhoku region learned how to cultivate rice. Defining the end of the Yayoi period is a complicated task as well, as villages progressively merged to form incipient kingdoms, successively subdued by the Yamato kingdom sometime between the 3rd and 5th century AD. The only written records of that time are either Chinese chronicles, which do not provide exact details, or compilations of the mythical history of the early Japanese imperial family, Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), written several centuries after the events.
A view of the Toro archeological site as it looked like upon its discovery, Shizuoka prefecture. © 江戸村のとくぞう
A Brave New Culture
We concluded the previous article by mentioning how rice was already being cultivated in the northern Kyūshū by the late Jōmon period. Rice culture was likely introduced to Japan by continental settlers who migrated from inner China and Korea, bringing their knowledge and customs with them. Bone studies and archaeological findings suggest that such migrants did not replace the indigenous populations but rather integrated into their communities or, at least, co-existed with them. Yayoi people’s skeletons appear to be bigger than their Jōmon counterparts, probably due to better living conditions, but do not present enough structural differences to suggest a replacement of population. Nonetheless, migrants had a significant role in shaping a new lifestyle based on agriculture, iron casting and trade, to some extent similar to what was happening on the continent. A commonly accepted theory, the acculturation one, claims that indigenous communities absorbed those migrants, learned their customs and this is how the Yayoi culture emerged. Such a transition from the Stone Age into the Iron Age happened over the span of several centuries, almost a millennium if we include also the Jōmon of the northern regions.
Reconstruction of a middle Yayoi village at the Yoshinogari site in Saga prefecture, Kyūshū. ©Saigen Jiro
Soon, some Kyūshū people started to seek new territories and mineral ores to exploit, rapidly moving through the coast up to the Kinki region in the Kansai Plain. In their wake rice culture and iron casting were propagated, creating new Yayoi villages and acculturating Jōmon communities. These two practices are probably the most socially defining aspects of the Yayoi culture. Both were intrinsically related, as many wooden farming tools were reinforced with iron components. Rice culture implied more better harvests and nourishment, while iron also offered settlers more solid and effective weapons to defend their lands. The downside of it, however, were more serious tribal rivalries, because the sentiment of possession was enhanced by managing rice paddies and the newly acquired weapons spawned fiercer conflicts, as it has been frequently witnessed by findings related to the middle stage of Yayoi (5th century BC – 1st century AD).
Aerial view of the Haru no Tsuji archeological site, Iki, Nagasaki prefecture.
Rice Culture, a Socially Defining Activity
As mentioned, rice culture was likely introduced to Japan through the Korean peninsula, but archaeobotanical research identified its origin within the Yangtze delta region. This initial spread of rice culture might have been caused by population movements following the fall of the Zhou dynasty (1046 – 314 BC) who reached, directly or not, the Japanese islands.
The probable expansion path of wet rice culture from the Yangtze delta region to the Japanese archipelago
Yayoi communities initially tried to farm rice along the coasts with little successs due to rather sterile soils, forcing them to also rely on hunter-gatherer practices. However, it did not take too long for these communities to make their way to higher lands, clearing forests to convert them into fertile rice paddies. Irrigation was implemented early on and Yayoi villages relied both on dry and wet cultivations, improving farming management and producing great harvests. The communities required important efforts, both in terms of manpower and time, to successfully manage rice cultivation, but the results did follow and allow them to prosper. A cycle was set in motion: the more food was produced, the more the community could grow and farm new lands. Moreover, compared to chestnuts and other perishable foods, rice was significantly easier to be stored and communities could be fed constantly throughout the year.
As communities grew, cooperation became a survival factor, strengthening social bonds within a village. Specialized structured were devised to fulfil certain roles, such as watchtowers to protect the village and elevated storehouses to shelter the harvested rice from parasites and mice infestations. Rice was commonly dried, or even toasted, to extend its shelf life, and it is quite common to find traces of roasted rice within Yayoi potteries, a feature that came to be used to identify crafts of this period. It is very likely that Yayoi communities knew how to cultivate other types of grains such as millet, soybeans, peas, barley and wheat. It is also believed that some sort of primitive fruit cultivation was practiced, probably involving some varieties of wild peaches, grapes and berries. Initially farmers used wooden and stone tools, but by the middle Yayoi virtually all tools were reinforced with iron components and late Jōmon stone knives were replaced by iron ones. By then some villages specialized in agriculture and relied on trade to meet their needs, while other communities were scattered across the islands in search of new lands and iron ores.
Rice fields surrounding the reconstructed Yayoi site of Toro, Shizuoka prefecture. © Halowand
Iron – a Primitive Pull Factor of Inner Migrations
The Japanese were first introduced to iron by the same continental migrants who brought them rice culture. Early Yayoi (10th – 5th centuries BC) iron items were likely imported through trades during this stage as the further the archaeological sites are from the coasts, the scarcer iron tools become. Both by observation and through acculturation Yayoi people ended up mastering iron casting, as it is suggested by the popularisation of iron tools across Yayoi territories, which cannot be explained solely by trade with the continent. This hypothesis is also supported by archaeological findings, as primitive furnaces have been unearthed in Ōita and Miyazaki prefectures.
Iron was an important resource for all Yayoi people. As already mentioned, farmers needed it to strengthen their tools, fishermen used it to forge more resistant hooks and harpoons, carpenters could develop more effective tools for their crafts, while the emerging warrior class could use stronger weapons. Despite being highly deceptive, therefore complicating archaeological studies, iron proved to be of great help to scholars when establishing that trade was an important component of the Yayoi culture. Iron and bronze objects have been frequently found far away from sites they were expected to be found at, suggesting both trade practices and movements of populations. This iron boom likely generated a need to acquire more materials to forge and might be one of the reasons why Yayoi populations spread so quickly in the southern regions of Honshū.
However, the rapid expansion of Yayoi people was abruptly halted by a dense forest of cryptomeria trees situated in the region of modern Shizuoka prefecture. In the end, only nature could slow down the wake of this cultural revolution, and Yayoi populations decided to consequently inhabit the closer Kinki region as it offered the best conditions for them to prosper. In spite of that, while Yayoi people settled down, the same does not apply to their tools and knowledge, which slowly propagated among the neighbouring Jōmon villages and ultimately reached the northern Tohoku regions.
Mount Fuji, Kitayama, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, Japan. © Kvnga
A Natural Wall Separating Yayoi and Jōmon
During the early to middle stages of Yayoi, many people left Kyūshū for the Kinki region, crossing the Shimonoseki strait and roaming through the western coasts of Honshū. Those roamers reached what became their final destination in the span of three generations. On their path emerged many important settlements that later spawned properly structured villages, like Izumo, one of the most important kingdoms of the period that followed.
A simplified map of Yayoi culture expansion path
Discouraged by the density of the cryptomeria wall they faced, the Yayoi people stopped their expansion and started founding villages and shaping their environment. Strong tribes soon emerged and proceeded to federate neighbouring villages under their guidance. This ultimately led to the formation of the Yamato kingdom, whch later subdued all the other strong tribes, but this is a matter for another article.
Yayoi and Jōmon villages coexisted in a relatively peaceful way along this natural line of modern Shizuoka prefecture. Scholars suggest that those populations sought after different environments, reducing possible conflicts over land possession and its management. Trades and cultural exchanges happened quite frequently as it is shown by a progressive adoption of rice culture and iron tools by the Jōmon dwellers. At the same time, some aspects of Jōmon culture permeated Yayoi villages, among them cord marking techniques used in the process of firing pottery.
A cord marked Yayoi pottery, 1st–3rd century BC, unearthed at Kugahara, Tokyo metropolitan area, in dispaly at Tokyo National Museum. ©Daderot
To sum up, the Yayoi period was a time of important revolutions, both in technical and social terms. The first rulers of Japan were emerging, as a period of internal war was about to explode under the pressiure of expanding communities. Most of said tensions might have been provoked or exacerbated by the practice of rice culture and iron casting, as they both profoundly impacted social life and behavioural patterns of the Yayoi people. In the next article we will focus further on some socially defining practices of the time, so stay tuned for more Yayoi culture!
Written by Marty Borsotti