History of Asia

The birth of humankind and the beginning of Japanese culture

Human ancestors appear at the end of the Tertiary period in the geological age division about 5 million years ago. Ape / Original / Old It is thought that tens of thousands of years ago, newcomers who are comparable to modern humans will appear after the evolutionary stage.

Newcomers began to hunt and collect wild animals and plants to live, and then cultivate plants to raise animals. As farming and livestock farming progressed, human society was rapidly formed. ..

Around 7000 BC, [ Fertile Crescent in Mesopotamia, Egypt ], Agricultural and livestock farming was actively carried out in the area. Eventually, under the rule of a mighty king, huge structures such as pyramids and temples were built, and a method of recording in hieroglyphs and cuneiform was devised.

The culture of agriculture and livestock has been transmitted from Europe in the west to China and the Eurasian Continent in the east, and the Greek and Roman cultures in the west and the Han and Indian cultures in the east have blossomed in about 4000 years. There was an exchange of East-West culture called Silk Road.

Eventually, the great migration of the Germanic people became active, the Roman Empire in the west was destroyed, the Han empire was divided, and the invasion of the northern peoples led to the Sixteen Kingdoms era. The Germanic people, who started their activities in new places due to the movement of the people, created a new rule system centered on the Frankish kingdom, and a feudal society was created in honor of Christianity.

On the other hand, in China, Sui and Tang based on the Ritsuryo system unified the continent, and its culture prospered and was handed down to Song. Around the same time, the Islamic empire, which began with Mahomet, was born in the arid region between the east and west, and the unique culture of Islam flourished and reached its heyday in the 8th and 12th centuries.

In response to such movements in the world, in the Japanese archipelago, Japanese society, which has progressed from the Paleolithic period of the Pleistocene to the Jomon period of the complete New Age, adopted the agricultural culture of China and the Korean Peninsula, created the Yayoi culture, and became a nation. Introduced the Ritsuryo system and created an ancient nation.

The introduction has become very long, but today I would like to write about the beginning of Japanese culture.

The beginning of the Japanese

As mentioned earlier, human beings are monkeys, originals, old people, new people . Evolved in the order of.

Hamakita Man in Shizuoka Prefecture found in the Japanese archipelago , Okinawa Prefecture Minatogawa Man All human skeletons such as are known to be in the rookie stage. These are Liujiang in southern China It is thought that it is common to the Jomon people, and it will be inherited by the later Jomon people.

Some of the newcomers who reached Southeast Asia who moved north reached the Japanese archipelago by around 40,000 to 30,000 and became the ancestors of the Jomon people. On the other hand, the races that adapted to the cold regions toward Siberia formed as modern Japanese by interacting with the Jomon people who lived southward.

Paleolithic-Neolithic Life

Nowadays, I don't know metal tools, stone tools and stone tools Was used.

Archaeologically, the Paleolithic era was used for lithic reduction. , The Neolithic era when the stone tools were used It is classified as. Previously, it was thought that the Japanese archipelago had no Paleolithic era, but Iwajuku Ruins in Gunma Prefecture. The confirmation of lithic stone tools proved that there was a Paleolithic culture in various parts of the Japanese archipelago.

People of this era hunting and collecting plants I lived mainly in.

For hunting, knife-shaped stone tools and projectile points Stone Spear attached to the tip of the stick Large animals such as Naumann elephants, Otsunojika, and elks I was catching. As a result, people have moved within a certain range in search of prey and plants. I used to live in what is now called a tent-style hut so that I could move easily.

It seems that the number of people living together was a family unit of about 10 people.

By the end of the Paleolithic era, small stone tools called microliths flowed from Siberia, and the culture of microliths spread in Japan.

Points of the Paleolithic era in Japan!
  • Lithic reduction Hunter-gatherer I was living a life
  • Typical ruins are Iwajuku Ruins

The beginning of Jomon culture

From Wikipedia "Jomon pottery"

In the Holocene 10,000 years ago, the entire earth became warm, and the current Japanese archipelago was completed due to the rise in sea level, and the temperature became close to the present.

Due to these changes in the natural environment, people's lives have changed significantly, and Jomon culture Has begun. Its feature is the hunting bow and arrow for shooting small and medium-sized animals that have increased due to the extinction of large animals. Earthenware and stone tools was.

For earthenware, Jomon is attached by rolling a rope to flatten the surface. Jomon pottery because it often had a pattern called Is called. It was also characterized by the fact that there were many thick brown people baked at low temperatures.

The Jomon period is early, early, early, middle, late, late It is classified into 6 stages of.

Since the Jomon period is from about 13000 years ago to the 4th century BC, it is a very long time. The Edo period is only 260 years old ~

As I mentioned earlier in the Jomon people's love affairs, we know that people around this time had a similar culture to us.

First of all, people at this time had to secure food.

In the first half of the Jomon period, chestnuts, walnuts, tochi, acorns In addition to collecting nuts and yams, management and expansion of chestnut forests, cultivation of beans, etc. I was also doing it. In addition, some agricultural culture that occurred during the Yayoi period such as rice, wheat, millet, and Japanese millet. It is also believed that it had begun.

Due to the rise in sea level, the Japanese archipelago has become an island with many coves, and the fishing industry has developed.

From the ruins of various places, shell mounds from the Jomon period were found, and from there, bone tools such as fishing hooks and harpoons, stone weights, and earth weights were found, and it can be seen that fishing using nets was carried out. Also, dugout canoe It was also found that the Jomon people who were found on Izu Oshima and Hachijojima had ocean navigation.

The diversification of foods such as seafood and mountain food has stabilized people's lives and made people's housing conditions more permanent. The house is a pit-house that is dug into the ground and covered with a roof. I made and lived there. In addition to housing, storage pits and graveyards store food Furthermore, it seems that it was like an apartment house, which is larger than a normal pit-house that can accommodate about 20 to 30 people.

The Jomon archaeological site in North Tohoku and Hokkaido, which has become a World Heritage Site, is known as a representative archaeological site. , Among them, Sannai Maruyama Site in Aomori Prefecture Is famous.

Please refer to the illustrations for details in this article.

The point of the Jomon period!
  • Hunting / Gathering Lifestyle that sometimes farms in the main
  • Because it warmed up and became the main hunt for small animals, bow and arrow To be used
  • Ground stone tool Pithouse while using Life in
  • The famous ruins are Sannai Maruyama Ruins in Aomori Prefecture.

The Jomon people are believed to have spiritual power in all natural objects and phenomena, which is called animism. And he prayed for a rich harvest by avoiding disasters by magic. The clay figurines and stone sticks used for these ceremonies have been excavated at the ruins.

In addition to these customs, it is known that the custom of tooth extraction that was performed as an adult and that the dead were buried by burial, and it is believed that there was already a feeling of respect for the dead.