Jōmon Culture: Japan’s Ancient Hunter-Gatherers

After the Last Glacial Maximum, the Japanese archipelago, which lies just east of China, was separated from mainland Asia by the rising sea, resulting in the formation of the unique Jōmon culture. While rice cultivation began in southern China around 8000 BCE, almost exclusive hunting, gathering, and fishing continued for thousands of years in Japan. Agriculture did not begin in the Japanese archipelago until around 800 BCE. However, this does not mean that there was no interaction with the surrounding East-Asian region. In fact, earrings similar to those found in Southeast Asia and southern China have been excavated throughout the Japanese archipelago at sites associated with the early Jōmon period (circa 5000–3520 BCE). In the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River in northeastern China, nephrite jade earrings began to appear around 8,000 years ago. At the Kuwano Ruins in Fukui Prefecture, slit-disc earrings and other accessories dating back to 7,000 years ago were found. Analyses of the stone used to make them has revealed that they were made on the Chinese mainland or Korean peninsula.

In the final Jōmon period (circa 1500-800 BCE), millet and rice were introduced to the Japanese archipelago, and grain cultivation began. In northern Kyushu near the Korean Peninsula, an agricultural society based on paddy rice cultivation was established, and over the next 500 years, paddy rice cultivation and agriculture in general spread to eastern Japan.

Historic records from the Edo period (1603-1868) indicate that there were many transient populations from the Philippines, Taiwan, and China entering and exiting Japan in the past. Conversely, the Japanese traveled throughout East Asia prior to Japan’s long period of self-imposed isolation from the 1630s to 1853. People of the Jōmon period also sailed the open seas in wooden canoes, so it is thought that there would have been frequent interactions with other peoples of East Asia, even if only in a limited way. In fact, the remains of a woman with distinct Jōmon DNA have recently been discovered on the Korean peninsula. It is almost certain that more compelling evidence of Jōmon trade and migration will be found outside Japan in the years to come.

It is difficult to know the religion, beliefs, and spiritual culture of the Jōmon people. Nevertheless, archaeologists have inferred the spiritual culture of the Jōmon period from clay figurines, animal-shaped clay objects, and other artifacts excavated from archaeological sites.

Clay figurines depicting women, dating from the late Palaeolithic period, a period which spans all of human history until the end of the last Ice Age, have been found all over the world. These clay figurines, clearly depicting a female body, are thought to represent female fertility.

Earthenware, and decorations on pottery, representing animals such as boars, bears, snakes, and frogs have also been found. The fertile wild boar, powerful bear, and repeatedly shedding snake may have symbolized immortality, while the amphibious frog may have symbolized the ability of a creature to transcend boundaries like entering different worlds.

Although there is no clear evidence, it is likely that the Jōmon people, like other hunter-gatherers around the world, and the Ainu people of Hokkaido, held pantheistic or animistic beliefs.

The Jōmon people carefully buried their dead, often with ornaments, pottery, and stone tools as burial goods. Sometimes the dead were buried in the center of the village, and in other cases they were buried close to their dwellings. In some cases, the dead were buried once, and when they were reduced to bones, they were dug up and carefully reburied. The appearance of Jōmon-period graves indicate that the Jōmon people were not afraid of the dead but felt close to the spirits of their ancestors.

There are no notable disparities in Jōmon graves or in the burial goods found, so it is believed that there were no major differences in social stratification throughout the Jōmon period. However, there may have been religious leaders, such as shamans, sorcerers, and witch doctors. There may also have been natural leaders who were well-liked. However, there does not seem to have been an institutionalized status hierarchy. Jōmon people, who lived by hunting, gathering, fishing, and simple plant cultivation, had no need for a powerful political elite.

Similar to modern hunter-gatherers, the Jōmon people would have eaten a much wider variety of foods than modern-day city dwellers. In fact, the Ainu of northern Japan, who share much more of their DNA with the ancient Jōmon people than any other group of modern humans, have identified 300 different foods consumed as part of their traditional diets. The Jōmon’s sources of protein alone would have included arboreal animals, which live in trees; terrestrial animals, which live on the ground; fossorial animals, which live underground; and aquatic animals, which live in water.

In terms of plants, the Jōmon people consumed items that would rarely appear on the menu of a modern restaurant. Some of the mainstays of the Jōmon diet would have been chestnuts and acorns! However, these food sources often required elaborate processing, like being soaked in ash and water, to make them both edible and palatable.

Finally, although their diets were extremely varied and seasonal, it is thought, based on the study of modern hunter-gatherers, that they spent no longer than 3 to 4 hours a day in collecting the calories required for their survival. What did they do with the rest of the day? Clearly they used some of their time to develop artistic and spiritual traditions as is evidenced by the exquisite pottery unearthed at this site and many others throughout Yamanashi and the rest of Japan.

Obsidian is natural glass that results from the cooling of volcanic lava. As the splitting of obsidian produces very sharp edges, these sharp edges were used as a material for making tools by globally distributed Palaeolithic peoples for tens of thousands of years. The skills needed to produce useful tools from this raw material would have been as valuable as the resource itself.

Although Japan is dotted with numerous volcanoes, there are only a limited number of sites where the Jōmon people mined this valuable resource, and one of the closest sites is nearby in Nagano Prefecture, perhaps just a few day’s walk from the Umenoki site (about 49 kilometers). It is almost certain that obsidian was a valuable trading good, and it might be interesting to imagine what the local people at this site could have offered in exchange for something that was as indispensable to their lives as semiconductors are to our lives in the twenty-first century.

Metalworking techniques had not yet developed in the Japanese archipelago when the Jōmon people thrived here between circa 14000 and 800 BCE. They made all their tools from the stones, animal bones, antlers, and wood they could find. Virtually all tools made from organic substances decompose and are lost to time, but stone tools are almost always unearthed wherever ancient archaeological sites are excavated. The stone tools used by Jōmon peoples vary by period and region, but the main tools include polished stone axes for felling trees, obsidian arrowheads for hunting, tapered stone tools for digging the ground, and flat stones accompanied by grinding stones for processing hard fruits and nuts. By examining the chemical composition ratios of these stone tools, we can infer the subsistence activities of Jōmon peoples.

Stone tools were made of suitable stones according to their functions. For stone axes, hard, heavy stones with comparatively greater density are suitable, for example, green tuff or serpentine. For tools such as arrowheads, which require sharp edges, obsidian and chert are suitable. The Jōmon people were particularly keen of obsidian. Obsidian is a hard, dark, glasslike volcanic rock formed by the rapid solidification of lava without crystallization. It is easy to work and produces sharp edges when hit precisely. Furthermore, the black to almost transparent color of obsidian is also a reason for its appeal.

Although there are over 100 source-sites for obsidian across the Japanese archipelago, there are only a limited number of high-quality obsidian centers that can be mined using Jōmon-era techniques. In the Chubu region (the center of the main island of Honshu), the obsidian source areas of the Kirigamine Plateau in Nagano Prefecture are “Hoshigatou” and “Hoshikuso-tōge”. In these obsidian fields, there are many holes where obsidian was clearly mined by the Jōmon people. Interestingly, people in the more recent past referred to the pieces of obsidian that glittered on the ground as stars.

Mined obsidian was distributed from person to person and from village to village through reciprocal networks of exchange. In one case, obsidian was carried from the Kirigamine Plateau in Nagano Prefecture to a site on the southern tip of Hokkaido, 650 km to the north. The exchange and distribution of obsidian allowed for the movement of people and information over a wide area. This can be seen in Jōmon pottery. The middle Jōmon pottery (circa 3520–2470 BCE) excavated at the foot of Mt. Yatsugatake in the Chubu region (the central part of Japan west of Tokyo) and the middle Jōmon pottery found in the western part of the Kanto Plain (Tokyo and surrounding area) are very similar.

In many museums throughout Japan, the houses the Jōmon are depicted as having lived in are actually too sophisticated. It seems probable that the Jōmon would have lived in less elaborate dwellings not too dissimilar to what European explorers found the indigenous peoples of the Americas inhabiting some 500 years ago. Unfortunately, the organic materials used for constructing these dwellings have long since decomposed, so we can only make educated guesses as to how their dwellings looked. What we do know is that the pit houses were round and they were reconstructed often. Here at the Umenoki site, we have found evidence of about 150 pit dwellings, but we think that only a fraction of them would have been occupied at any one time. Thus, it appears that the dwellings were abandoned for newer dwellings as the older ones became dilapidated.

Our reconstructed pit houses have a single entrance, an opening in the roof for smoke to escape, and a few other openings similar to windows, although the only thing we can be sure of is that the dwellings were round and there was a place for a fire. If you attend a Jōmon reenactment experience, be prepared for campfire smoke. Our ancient ancestors undoubtedly breathed smoke from the fires they lit inside their dwellings. We are sorry if this inconveniences you.

You’ll see that we have recreated a hard-packed floor with a built-in stone hearth. Above the sunken floor area we have built a dome-like structure from wooden posts, tree bark and earth. In fact, the houses we have constructed look as unobtrusive as they can possibly be. These houses are constructed by volunteers using the tools that would have been available to the Jōmon people. That means stone axes and obsidian cutting tools.

Posts used for the pit dwellings are charred to prevent rot and insect damage. It is almost certain that the Jōmon would have understood the benefits of charring posts as charcoal left over from fires would have demonstrated anti-pest qualities.

Unfortunately, most organic materials used for making Jōmon clothing have long since decomposed, so we can only make educated guesses as to how their clothing looked. It is certain that animal skins would have been used as the winters in Japan are quite cold. We have attempted to recreate clothing using natural fibres, but there is no evidence of the use of anything resembling a loom for cloth production. If you come to the Umenoki site for a Jōmon experience, you can try on some of the clothing we have made. We have tried to remain loyal to the motifs you can see on Jōmon pottery. Looking at the clothing of Ötzi the Iceman, whose 5,300-year-old mummified body was discovered in the European Alps, it seems entirely possible that the Jōmon would have worn similar animal hide coats, animal skin leggings, fur hats, and hay-stuffed shoes.

The pottery characteristic of the late Jōmon period was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay. Interestingly, the Japanese word Jōmon, literally, straw rope pattern; is derived from such decorations.

Due to warming climatic conditions, and the rudimentary practice of planting food-bearing trees and plants nearby their settlements, the Jōmon people enjoyed a relatively “sedentary” lifestyle and this era coincides with the production of the most extraordinary examples of their pottery (about 5,000 years ago).

Artistically speaking, this pottery, doki, seems too whimsical for the Stone Age. Some of these pots were used to store and cook food, but others appear far too elaborate for such uses. As human remains have been discovered in some pots, it is certain that the pottery had some ritualistic significance in the lives of the Jōmon people. Such pots may even have been akin to religious art.

Instead of offering a window on the past, these pots raise fundamental questions about how we perceive ancient cultures. Picasso famously said after viewing the cave art at Lascaux, “We have invented nothing new.” Collections of Jōmon pots definitely leave the same impression.

The pots where built up by successive layers of coils and then decorative elements were applied to the surface of the pots. From what modern researchers can gather, the Jōmon people did not bake their pots in a kiln, rather, the pots appear to have been baked on top of or under an open fire. While some pots are clearly meant for cooking, others were used for storing food. Furthermore, traces of lacquer have been identified inside pots which appear to have been used for storing foods.

Although the Jōmon had developed distinct styles for their highly decorative pots, their dogu, human figurines, have all the hallmarks of other prehistoric cultures. When you see the similarity between Jōmon figurines, Vinča figurines of southeast Europe, and Cucuteni-Trypillian figurines of eastern Europe, you can only imagine that humans, regardless of geographical location and local conditions, have similar tendencies. These simple, yet beautifully crafted figurines often celebrate female fertility. Thus, it is almost certain that such figurines had ceremonial significance in the lives of our ancient ancestors.

Due to warming climatic conditions starting some 6,000 years ago, and the rudimentary practice of planting food-bearing trees and plants nearby their settlements, the Jōmon people enjoyed a relatively “sedentary” lifestyle and this era coincides with the production of the most extraordinary examples of their pottery. This period roughly predates or is contemporaneous with the beginning of the Archaic or Early Dynastic period of Egypt, before the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza. About the time the Jōmon people reached the zenith of creativity, the climate in Japan, and indeed globally, was experiencing a warming trend. This change in climate would have caused sea levels to rise, forcing the Jōmon to move farther inland, and the temperate forests of Japan would have begun to produce abundant fruits, nuts, etc. This is seen as one of the primary reasons why the Jōmon could have established villages far from the sea. It seems reasonable to assume villages by the sea would be possible for bands of hunter-gatherers, but the mountainous interior of Japan would usually not be so productive as to allow for semi-permanent settlements. Indeed, it is certain that villages existed along the Japanese seashores as middens of shellfish have been identified far inland, demonstrating that the seas have receded since the end of the extreme warming event. It is interesting to note that the time Jōmon people flourished roughly coincides with the drying of the Sahara and the subsequent migration of people to the Nile, where the ancient Egyptians established some of their first communities.

Why didn’t the Jōmon people adopt agriculture? First, there were no indigenous cereal grains that could sustain them. Rice arrived with the ancestors of the modern Japanese as they made their way from the asian mainland, yet, it appears that the Jōmon continued to thrive as hunter-gatherers despite this revolutionary development. Second, at the height of their cultural complexity, which we assume accompanied their best historical living conditions, there was no need for agriculture. The natural world provided everything they needed in order to thrive. In recent centuries, many surviving groups of hunter-gatherers resisted abandoning their ways of life in the forests, deserts and arctic tundra. Because these habitats had sustained their ancestors for millennia, they saw no reason for change. The introduction of cereal grains to such people would probably have been pointless. In fact, when forced to change, the results have often been disastrous, that is, indigenous peoples, when forced to give up their traditional ways of life, often experience extreme declines in health and well-being.

There is very little of Jōmon history that is conclusive, however, starting in the 1990s, rapid advances in genetic analyses revealed much more than was previously known. It appears that the ancestors of the Jōmon people walked into the Japanese archipelago as much as 38,000 years ago, when great swathes of the earth’s land surface was covered by gargantuan ice sheets, via a land bridge from northeast Asia (modern-day Siberia). This would time their arrival in Japan at about 10,000 years before modern humans are thought to have begun to migrate to North America via the Bering Strait land bridge. It also seems likely that the ancestors of the Jōmon people were following migrating megafauna like woolly mammoths when they crossed the land bridge to Japan. It has also been proposed that the ancestors of the Jōmon people may have followed a southern route into Japan.

Today, the indigenous Ainu of Northern Japan and the Ryukyuan people of Okinawa are the most closely related to the ancient Jōmon people. Furthermore, most modern Japanese share about 9% to 13% of their DNA with the ancient Jōmon people, so there clearly was contact between the Jōmon people and the modern Japanese who arrived from the Asian mainland starting just over 2,000 years ago. As science continues to make advances in the study of DNA, it is certain that we will learn even more about the ancient Jōmon people.

The Jōmon period is the time in Japanese prehistory, dated between circa 14000 BCE to 800 BCE, during which the Japanese archipelago was inhabited by a distinctive hunter-gatherer culture. The Jōmon, who lived a relatively sedentary existence, had advanced cultural complexity despite the absence of sophisticated agricultural practices. Due to this cultural complexity, excavations of prehistoric Jōmon sites continue to reveal elaborate pieces of pottery that defy the notion of what hunter-gatherer peoples were capable of given what many perceive was an existence characterized by a constant search for food. It appears, however, that when provided with ideal conditions, which the Jōmon experienced some five or six thousand years ago, humans often turn their attention to creative pursuits.

This archaeological site was occupied approximately 5,000 years ago by bands of Jōmon hunter-gatherers who lived here for a total of about 500 years. We are not sure why the site was abandoned, but our best guess is that access to local food sources such as chestnuts may have been impacted by the global climate event known in palaeoclimatology as the 4.2-kiloyear event. The event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene epoch characterized by dry and cool climatic conditions in many parts of the world and is believed to have played an important role in the collapse of major ancient civilizations.

There are approximately 150 former pit dwellings that have been identified at Umenoki, with only 10% excavated so far. The excavation project, which was mostly undertaken by volunteers, took 4 years to complete and we believe that we currently only have about 1% of the potential artifacts on display in our museum’s reception center. Most of the artifacts were found at a depth of about 30 to 40 cm. As the site is on the side of a hill, silt would have been constantly eroded making it possible to find artifacts quite easily. It is certain that there are many more sites still to be found, but those in the valley below could be located several meters below the modern land surface, making them all but impossible to find.