Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

development of agriculture. In fact, ar-
chaeologists have dated some ceramic
sherds (pottery fragments) found in
Japan to before 10,000 BCE—older than
sherds from any other area of the world.

MIDDLE JOMON POTTERY
In addition to rope markings, incised
lines and applied coils of clay adorned
Jomon pottery surfaces. The most im-
pressive examples come from the Middle
Jomon period (2500–1500 BCE). Much of
the population then lived in the moun-
tainous inland region, where lo-cal vari-
ations in ceramic form and surface treat-
ment flourished. However, all Jomon
potters shared a highly developed feeling
for modeled, rather than painted, ce-
ramic ornament. Jomon pottery displays
such a wealth of applied clay coils,
striped incisions, and sometimes quasi-
figural motifs that the sculptural treat-
ment in certain instances even jeopar-
dizes the basic functionality of the vessel.
Jomon vessels served a wide variety of
purposes, from storage to cooking to
bone burial. Some of the most elaborate
pots may have served ceremonial func-
tions. A dramatic example (FIG. 8-2)
from Miyanomae shows a characteristic,
intricately modeled surface and a partially sculpted rim. Jomon pottery
contrasts strikingly with China’s most celebrated Neolithic earthen-
wares (FIG. 7-2) in that the Japanese vessels are extremely thick and
heavy. The harder, thinner, and lighter Neolithic Chinese earthenware
emphasizes basic ceramic form and painted decoration.

YAYO I Jomon culture gradually gave way to Yayoi (ca. 300 BCE–
300 CE). The period takes its name from the Yayoi district of Tokyo,
where evidence of this first post-Jomon civilization was discovered, but
the culture emerged in Kyushu, the southernmost of the main Japanese
islands, and spread northward. Increased interaction with both China
and Korea and immigration from Korea brought dramatic social and
technological transformations during the Yayoi period. People contin-
ued to live in pit dwellings, but their villages grew in size, and they de-
veloped fortifications, indicating a perceived need for defense. In the
third century CE, Chinese visitors noted that Japan had walled towns,
many small kingdoms, and a highly stratified social structure. Wet-rice
agriculture provided the social and economic foundations for such de-
velopment. The Yayoi period was a time of tremendous change in Japa-
nese material culture as well. The Yayoi produced pottery that was less
sculptural than Jomon ceramics and sometimes polychrome, and they
developed bronze casting and loom weaving.

MAP8-1Japan before 1333.

Heian (Kyoto) Uji

Ise

MiyanomaeIna Edo (Tokyo)

Kamakura

Sakai

Heijo (Nara)

PACIFIC

OCEAN

PACIFIC

OCEAN

ChinaEast Philippine SeaPhilippine Sea

Sea

East

China

Sea

Sea of

Japan

Sea of

Japan

Korea

Strait

Korea

Strait

Sea of

Okhotsk

Sea of

Okhotsk

Mt. Fuji

Honshu

Shikoku

Kyushu

Hokkaido

CHINA

KOREA

RUSSIA

JAPAN

GUNMA

OSAKA

KYOTO

NARA

MIE

KAGAWA

NAGANO

0 200 400 miles

0 200 400 kilometers

8-2Vessel, from Miyanomae, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, Middle Jomon
period, 2500–1500 bce.Earthenware, 1 112 – 3 high. Tokyo National
Museum, Tokyo.

Jomon pottery is the earliest art form of Japan. Characteristic features
are the applied clay coils, striped incisions, and quasi-figural motifs that
in some examples jeopardize the functionality of the vessel. 1 in.

208 Chapter 8 JAPAN BEFORE 1333