A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower (91 page)

13
Katayama 96, p22.

14
See Okazaki 93, p271, and Barnes 93a, pp168–70.

15
To try to reflect the changes over time it is often broken into sub-periods. However, new discoveries mean that divisions between sub-periods become blurred and new sub-periods are added, producing a confusing picture. For example, ‘Middle J
mon’, which refers to approximately 3500 BC – 2000 BC, was coined when the J
mon period was deemed to start around 7000 BC but
is now very far removed from the actual middle of the period. To avoid confusion I deliberately omit reference to sub-periods.

16
Regarding population see Kidder 93, pp63–8, Kidder 83, p74, and Farris 85, p3.

17
Kidder 93, pp70–6.

18
See Pearson 92, p28, regarding views on egalitarianism, and pp81–2 regarding hierarchy.

19
Pearson 92, p63.

20
For a range of heights, see Pearson 92, p152, Kidder 77, p32, Barnes 93a, p77, and Katayama 96, pp22–3. Katayama also believes that skeletal heights increased during the period by some 2 cm through micro-evolution.

21
Between 1900 and 2001 heights of 20-year-olds increased dramatically from 160.9 to 172.2 cm for males and from 147.9 to 159.0 cm for females. (See
Asahi Shimbun Japan Almanac
04, p201.) Presumably this reflects greatly improved diet, health, and general living conditions.

22
See Ossenberger 86 and Dodo 86, and also Katayama 96 and Pearson 92 (p63).

23
Genetically, the situation is quite complicated and at times confusing, and much research still remains to be done. It would appear that in present-day terms the Ainu are closest to the Nivkhs of Sakhalin and Kamchatka, but the D haplogroup people to which the Ainu in particular belong are believed to have originated in East Africa some 50,000 years ago, working their way eastwards along the coast of what is now India into Southeast Asia and then north along the coast to Siberia. The Ry
ky
ans also appear to have to belonged to this group, settling in the Ry
ky
Islands and southern Japan around 30,000 years ago, whereas the J
mon/Ainu probably arrived in Japan via a northerly land bridge some 15,000 years later. What is clear is that, despite their relatively Caucasian features, the Ainu are not genetically European, as was once believed.

24
See for example
IPS News
, 11 June 2008, at
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42738
. The resolution was unanimous.

25
In mid-2003 a team from the National Museum of Japanese History, led by Harunari Hideji and Imamura Mineo, announced that carbon dating had indicated that certain Yayoi pottery was around 500 years older than originally believed, and on the basis of this suggested the start-date for the period should be around 1000 BC. This is not yet accepted as definite, but there appears to be growing support for pushing back the start date of Yayoi at least several centuries, perhaps with a title such as ‘Earliest Yayoi’. See for example Keally 2006 and Shoda 2007.

26
See Bowles 83, p34, Pearson 92, pp129–31, Bleed 83, p160, and Katayama 96, pp23–8 for brief discussion of these differing views. See also Hanihara 91. As an example of divided opinion, Aikens and Higuchi (82, p180) comment that continental immigrants were few in number, while Pearson (92, p131) remarks that a considerable population probably arrived. It was once felt possible that there was no real immigration at all and that gradual evolution could explain differences between J
mon and Yayoi (for example Suzuki 69). However, recent genetic research – in addition to obvious physical differences – confirms that immigration took place. (See Katayama 96, pp23–8.)

There is also some disagreement on the exact route the immigrants took within Japan, but wider acceptance as to the route by which they arrived in the country, which is felt to be via Korea. However it is not clear whether the point of origin was Korea itself or China.

27
The precise ‘home’ of the Yayoi people in mainland Asia is not yet established. See Rasteiro and Chikhi 09.

28
Barnes 93a (p185), Kidder 83 and 93, and Pearson 92. For detailed discussion of cultural development in Hokkaid
during the ancient historical periods see Aikens and Higuchi 82.

29
The above description draws particularly on the
Wei Chih
account discussed later in the text, but also on Kidder 93, pp97–8.

30
Kidder 93, p106.

31
Wa
was originally written with a character used by the Chinese with the uncomplimentary meaning of ‘land of dwarfs’, and possibly pronounced Wo rather than Wa. The character now used for Wa means ‘harmony’, and is also able to be read in Japanese as ‘Yamato’. See entry 7153 (p1062) in
Mathews’ Chinese-English Dictionary
.