Jo ̄mon and Yayoi: premodern to hypermodernFukuoka prefecture, in the area thought to have been the location of the country of Na, men-
tioned in early Chinese chronicles, to which we will return below (2010); and kingly graves of
the kingdom of Matsuro at Sakura no Baba in Shiga prefecture, reinvestigated over sixty years
after their initial discovery (2008).^7
Performativity is recognized as an important component in human development, and the
regularity of these exhibitions, along with others at more local levels and the public open excava-
tion days, along with the ubiquity of archaeological parks and museums across Japan ensures that
archaeology has a high profile in contemporary Japan. The drive to display is perhaps part of our
shared human heritage.^8 In early modern Japan, objects from antiquity were acquired to be
appreciated mainly in private, with a small group of friends. Today, archaeological antiquities
from the Jōmon and Yayoi periods are exhibited in public in Japan on a massive scale.
In recent years archaeological artifacts have traveled overseas to be exhibited in major cities in
many countries, returning to Japan with new value and prestige acquired through this role of
cultural ambassadors, contributing to Japan’s soft diplomacy. Iconic objects from the Jōmon and
Yayoi along with other periods inspire public art as part of attempts to reinvigorate a sense of
local identity through association with particular forms of ancient material culture. Hence we
find manhole covers along the Shinano River bearing images of Jōmon flame pots, bronze Jōmon
dogū figurines adorning the main street in Aomori, and telephone boxes with roofs inspired by
terracotta figurines (haniwa) near Saitobaru in Miyazaki—whence Jinmu, the legendary founder
of the imperial line, is thought to have commenced his great progress that ultimately led to Nara
and the establishment of the Yamato dynasty.
Archaeology in contemporary Japan is for the people. During the early modern period,
however, while objects from antiquity occasionally came to the attention of a privileged class of
cognoscenti and literati, they were objects of curiosity, to be appreciated from an aesthetic per-
spective, and were only rarely used to challenge pre- existing conceptualizations of the ancient
world as set down in texts like the Kojiki (“Record of Ancient Matters”; completed in 712), and
the Nihon shoki (“Chronicle of Japan”; dating to 720). They were acquired and admired by col-
lectors, who enjoyed viewing and handling them with their friends, and to an extent they fueled
the curiosity about the natural world and the past that characterized Early Modern antiquarian
discourse.
With the advent of modernity, and the drive toward “civilization and enlightenment,” some
of these material traces of antiquity were put on display for the general public for the first time.
Some of the more pioneering antiquarians of the later nineteenth century, such as Minamushi
Sanjin, the nickname given to Toki Gengo (1836–1900), found it advantageous to put the dis-
coveries from his diggings on display in the neighborhood of where he made his discoveriesü
perhaps to encourage locals to reveal further sites. Antiquities also featured in the great exhibitions
of the later nineteenth century; they became important in legitimating Japan’s claim to be a new
world power.^9
Networks of antiquarians
In 1872 one of the first major public displays of ancient ceramics and stone tools was organized
by Baron Kanda Takahira (1838–1898), who, in his 1884 publication, Prehistoric Stone Tools,
noted that there were over one hundred individuals who regarded themselves as antiquarians in
early Meiji Japan.^10 As mentioned previously, Peter Bleed has provided an excellent introduction
to antiquarian activity during the Edo period, in which he introduced some of the major figures,
dividing their scholarship into three categories: historical, practical, and avocational. Bleed
argued that the Juxi school of Neo- Confucian philosophy favored by the Tokugawa authorities