Episode 26: Japan – Geography and Early Cultures

Foundations of Eastern Civilization

Dr Craig Benjamin (2013)

Film Review

This introduction to ancient Japanese civilization begins with a discussion of its geography, climate and early archeological record.

The 1,500 mile-long archipelago of Japan consists of four main islands and thousands of smaller ones. It’s climate ranges from chilly temperate in the north to subtropical in the south. Owing to its relative isolation from the Asian continent, it successfully resisted two attempted Mongol invasions and was of no interest to expansionist Chinese emperors.

Owing to its location in the Pacific “ring of fire,” it is very tectonically active with frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions. Its rugged mountain ranges are still quite young and unsuitable for farming. However its narrow coastal plains (comprising 13% of Japan’s total area) are have very fertile volcanic soils, with plentiful fresh water (from snow melt and a long growing season. This is where Japan’s first farmers settled.

Archeologists have found stone tools dating from 400,000 years ago, left (they believe)r hominid ancestors (most likely Homo erectus).

The first Homo sapiens appear to have crossed a land bridge from the Asian continent during the last Ice Age (between 35,000 and 50,000 BC). They were most likely following ancient mega fauna (bison, elk and elephant).

According to their remains, Japan’s Paleolithic humans were affluent foragers, owing to plentiful fish, forest products and boar and deer that crossed the land bridge from either China or Korea. Tools they left behind include arrows, traps, nets with sinkers, canoes. They lived in semi-permanent villages, traded between islands and domesticated dogs. Some of them left sculpted stones (20,000 – 10,000 BC) shaped like human beings. Around 12,0000 BC, they also developed the world’s  first (Jomon) pottery made of baked clay around 12,000 BC.

The first evidence of agriculture (cultivation of rice and millet) dates from around 5,000 BC, along with the first full scale villages and large communal store houses. Bronze appeared in Japan around 300 BC, among the Yayoi culture. Genetically distinct from the Jomon, they are believed to have immigrated from Korea.

Wet rice farming was introduced to Japan during the early Yayoi period. By the seventh century AD, it had spread throughout Japan. More productive than dry rice farming, this enabled the accumulation of surpluses and the emergence of class society.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5808608/5808663