Editorial
As our Editor-in-Chief notes in his brief comment at the start of the major originalcontribution to this issue, a thought-provoking paper by one of the grandees ofEuro-American archaeological thinking, Professor Sander van der Leeuw, Japanese
Journal of Archaeology, is marking its ﬁfth anniversary. In Japan, the life historyof children is marked in particular on their third, ﬁfth and seventh birthdays, withthe festival of shichi-go-san, involving special visits to Shinto shrines dressed up inspectacular formal clothes. It is one of Japan’s cutest festivals, and also, in this age ofdecreasing population numbers in Japan, an increasingly poignant expression of thehopes and dreams placed upon the next generations.
Over the past ﬁve years Japanese Journal of Archaeology has been proud to introduce
new voices in Japanese archaeology along with studies by more established ﬁgures,to showcase the most excellent examples of innovative, collaborative and international
research of relevance to Japanese archaeology. At our recent Editorial Board Meeting
there was considerable discussion over the mission statement of the Journal, in particular
in regard to what is pertinent to Japanese archaeology today, and into the future.
Japanese Journal of Archaeology is precisely what its title proclaims: it aims to publish
1) archaeological studies of the Japanese archipelago, and 2) archaeological studies
of other regions relevant to the Japanese Archaeological Association. In this age ofever-increasing globalization, archaeology as a whole, wherever and by whomever it ispracticed, has the potential to be relevant to the Japanese Archaeological Association.
Celebrating our ﬁfth birthday, it is instructive to review the words of the Editor-in Chiefwhen the journal was inaugurated, http://www.jjarchaeology.jp/contents/wf_editor.html,
in characteristic form questioning the very notion of ‘Japanese archaeology’ at all.
In 2018 the Japanese Archaeological Association will celebrate a signiﬁcant milestoneof its own: its 70th birthday. Established in the aftermath of the disaster of the mid-20thcentury, with a membership of just 81, the Association now boasts over 4000 members.
The second part of this issue, which presents the major accomplishments of Japanesearchaeology in the previous year, as reviewed by the Association, provides a timely
snapshot of the tremendous diversity and scope of archaeology as practiced in Japan.
Professor van der Leeuw celebrates the ‘undisciplined’ nature of our discipline andreiterates one of the core reasons for continuing to dig up the material vestiges of thepast: no two excavations are the same. The Japanese Archaeological Association has
demonstrated over the decades how a degree of order can be brought to archaeology

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through the actions of its practitioners, and its reports are testimony to the continued,
indeed enhanced, signiﬁcance and relevance of expertise borne of experience in this posttruth world. The fruits of the multitude of unrepeatable experiments with the fragile andﬁnite traces of past human activity that comprises the archaeological process requires thegreatest sophistication of methodology and interpretation on the part of the archaeologist.
It is the hope of all of those involved in the Japanese Journal of Archaeology that as
we look forward to more milestones in the future, the Journal will continue to attractand inspire contributors and readers wanting to expand the all the frontiers of ‘Japanese’archaeology, wherever and whomever by it is practiced.
Simon KanerCo-EditorNorwich, March 2018

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