ARCHAEOLOGIA JAPONICA

Yayoi Period
ISHIDA Tomoko1
The academic research to reconsider a framework for and diversity of “Yayoi culture”
progressed with the increase in excavations and the accumulation of basic data.
Study about changes in settlement patterns was active. At the symposium “Social
Changes from the Yayoi Period to the Kofun Period as Seen from a Dynamic Phase ofSettlement” by Kodaigaku-Kenkyukai, there was discussion about a temporal change ofrelations between groups and a comparison between regions in a long-term viewpoint. Thiswas considered from several standpoints: stages of the change of locations and structureof settlements, functional division between settlements by production and ritual, relationsof living areas and graves, and so on. In addition, to grasp the phenomenon of eachregion, the mechanism of social change was considered. MIZOGUCHI Kōji discussed thecorrelation between transformation of communication and stratiﬁcation of communities(“When the World Changes: An Archaeological Approach through a Case Study ofthe Middle Yayoi Period in Northern Kyushu,” Quarterly of Archaeological Studies,
Vol.61 No. 3, pp. 50–70). WAKABAYASHI Kunihiko suggested the formation processof a wide area society in Yayoi period was a chain of multi-layered ranges of society(“The Theoretical Framework of the Structure of Community in the Yayoi Period,” The
Archaeological Series of Doshisha University, 11, pp. 171–184). As a premise of settlement
studies, it is important to consider the change of landscape and the relationship between
settlement type and land use based on a highly precise geological survey presented byŌBA Shigenobu (“Yayoi Period Landscape and Land Use in the Southern Kawachi Plain,”
Journal of the Japanese Archaeological Association, No. 38, 47–65).
The subsistence activity of the Yayoi period, especially based on food production byrice-paddy cultivation, was examined from the viewpoint of activity location, cultivatedplants and tools. The gradual change of agricultural techniques in the Yayoi period wasclear. In the beginning of the Yayoi period when paddy-rice farming began, the naturalterrain was used without making cleared ﬁelds (NASU Hiroo, “The Initial Form of Riceand Millet Cultivation during the Final Jomon-Yayoi Transition Era from the View ofArchaeobotanical Weed Assemblages,” Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese
1 c/o Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities, Kagoshima University, 1–21–30 Korimoto, Kagoshima

890–0065, Japan(ishida@leh.kagoshima-u.ac.jp)

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Title ●●●● IN JAPANHistory, Vol. 185, pp. 95–110). Then, an intensive irrigation system was established until
the latter Yayoi period and the use of the large-scale ﬁelds brought improvement to andstability of production capacity. This continued to the Kofun period (EURA Hiroshi,“Agriculture Base in the Beginning of the Kofun Period,” A Report of Research of theMuseum of Yayoi Culture, Vol. 7, pp. 1–18). Because cultivated plants were detected byimpression replica investigation, a variety of aspects became clear. In the Final Jomon
to Yayoi transition period, cultivars ﬂowed into the Japanese archipelago as a set, notonly rice but also millet (NAKAMURA Yutaka and NAKAZAWA Michihiko, “TheResearch of Seeds on Pottery by Impression Replica Investigation in Tokushima Region,”
SEIRAN, No. 10, pp. 47–56). Then, in some regions, the compound cultivation of riceand cereals were carried out until Final Yayoi (ENDŌ Eiko, “Agriculture of the Yayoi
period in Kantō Region as Seen from Cultivated Plants,” 60th Annual Meeting of theSociety of Archaeological Studies, p. 56). SHITARA Hiromi argued that “an agriculturalcultural complex” was formed in each region during the Yayoi period, depending on
the relationship with the tradition of the Jomon culture and inﬂuence from East Asia
(The Jomon and Yayoi Societies, Keibunsha: Tokyo). About the use of wooden tools,
the result of study on reconstruction of manufacturing processes of archaeological barkstring remains was important (URA Yōko, “A Fundamental Study on Identiﬁcationof Archaeological Bark String Remains,” 31st Annual Meeting of the Japan Society
for Scientiﬁc Studies on Cultural Property, pp. 240–241). Recently, tree-ring cellulose
oxygen isotopic dating is promoted, and the accumulation of further data is expected.
The circulation of valuable items in the Japanese archipelago was considered basedon social background; political and economic trends of Mainland China and theKorean Peninsula, negotiations and hierarchical relationships and transformation of therelations between regions. Until recently bronze ware, ironware and beads were often
studied according to materials used, but a more complex argument beyond material of
manufacture is progressing. This year, many molds made by clay and stone, including theoldest mirror mold found in Japan, were excavated at the Sugu-Utakata site (Kasuga-city,Fukuoka Prefecture). It is an opportunity to reexamine assumptions about the start ofbronze production in the Japanese archipelago, the introduction of production technology
and its development. The spread of ironware in Yayoi society was considered from amultidirectional approach: examination of use traces of grindstones different from stone
tools and ironware, and the approach to the spread of ironware from the processing tracesof wooden goods. As a result, there are differences in point in time, location and function,and these clariﬁed a complicated aspect of the spread of ironware (“Problems of theSpread of Ironware from Wooden Goods,” 24th Regular Meeting of Tokai Region of theSociety of Archaeological Studies). The distribution and the circulation of comma-shaped
beads in particular were discussed (TANIZAWA Ari, “Inter-Regional Relationships in the© Japanese Archaeological Association97

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Late to Final Yayoi Periods: Seen from the Distribution Pattern of Comma-Shaped Beads
in Western Japan,” Quarterly of Archaeological Studies, Vol. 61 No. 2, pp. 65–84). Theinterchange about vermilion was also important (MINAMI Takeshi et al., “Identiﬁcationof Original Sources of Vermilion Collected from Burial Mounds Using Three Methods
for Sulfur, Mercury, and Lead Isotopes,” 31st Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for
Scientiﬁc Studies on Cultural Property, pp. 110–111). Pottery study is advancing on thepoints of reﬁning chronologies for each region and understanding the circumstances ofacceptance of foreign pottery. In the circulation of these materials, it is necessary to pay
attention to the network of coastal areas across the seas.

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