A community with this technology would enjoy a considerable advantage over one with Jomon culture as there is greater food supply and food source stability, improved food storage capacity, and therefore the ability to support a larger population, as well as more powerful weaponry. Not surprisingly the new Yayoi culture spread rapidly and quickly overwhelmed the Jomon culture, spreading all the way to northern Honshu. This new culture is believed to have dominated human settlement in Japan for about 500-600 years. The name of this era - Yayoi - is simply the name of the area in Tokyo in 1884, where archealogists first encountered the pottery of this period.

Metalworking: The Yayoi culture had iron objects and tools from the beginning of the period. Iron implements would have included tools such as axes, sickles and hoes used for agriculture, felling of trees etc, but also of weapons including arrowheads, knives, and swords. Communities with Jomon period technology needed to quickly adapt the new culture, or be displaced. Iron implements rust quickly so few artifacts are discovered, but there is ample evidence that they seem to have been widely distributed.

On the other hand, bronze implements do not appear in archealogical excavations until slightly later in the period. This is significant. It indicates that the Yayoi culture that formed in Kyushu must have borrowed knowledge from the culture of the Han dynasty (206 BC- AD 220) of China. Chinese technologies were adopted by human settlements on the Korean peninsula and from there transmitted to Kyushu across the Tsushima straits, which are only (50 miles) wide at their narrowest point. Tsushima island lies halfway between the Korean peninsula and Kyushu, and excavations since September 1999 in the mountains of the island have uncovered a Yayoi Period settlement that appears to be the capitol of the Tsushimakoku kingdom that was mentioned in the Chinese Wei Chronicle.

The bronze works that have been rececoved include weapons such as spears, halberds, and swords, as well as mirrors and small taku (a Chinese bell-shaped object of devotion). The weapons recovered do not appear to have been used, and they may have been symbols of rank, or kept as precious objects.

Rice Agriculture: The introduction of rice cultivation, and wet-rice (irrigated) cultivation in particular, transformed the economy of the Japanese archipelego from a mix of hunter-gathering/slash & burn agriculture to one that was capable of supporting permanent villages, full or partial division of labour, and larger population density.

All of the early Yayoi period excavations contain both the marks of rice husks and carbonized grains. This indicates that rice was the defining reason for the Yayoi, and the pottery we associate with it. Rice agriculture was probably transmitted via the Korean peninsula from the Yangtze river delta of mainland asia (now the area centered around Shanghai).

It is not clear as to whether rice as a crop and wet-rice (irrigated) cultivation as an agricultural method arrived in Japan simultaneously. There is some evidence that the rice crop was first grown in dry fields or in marsh areas, which would indicate that the Yayoi people initially did not know how to cultivate via the wet-rice method, or that the communities did not initially have the food surpluses and storage required to set aside the large amounts of time, labour and organization required. The main evidence for this is the fact that at one stage of the Yayoi period, the communities were building their settlements on hills or high ground. This is in contrast to the usual Yayoi practice of building on flat alluvial (low lying areas near rivers) areas. Yayoi people did not have the capability of building long canals for irrigation, so the hill top settlements were either an indicator of dry-rice cultivation, or they were defensive settlements to protect the community.

Whether this was the case or not, wet-rice cultivation was adopted fairly early in the period (probably within as little as 100 years), and spread extremely quickly throughout the proto-Japanese community. In sites throughout modern Japan, archaelogists have been able to identify the outlines of ancient rice paddy fields, irrigation channels and drains. Different fields were frequently marked by wooden stakes, and the fields are often very close to the sites of Yayoi settlements.

Settlements/Culture: With one notable exception, Yayoi people lived in the same kind of pit-type or circular dwellings of the Jomon period. The exception was the introduction of raised-floor structures. These structures appear to have been primarily built to improve food storage (ie storage of the rice harvest). Elevating the floor reduced food loss due to spoilage from dampness or rodents. Buildings such as these were not possible until the Yayoi period due to the lack of iron tools. With secure food storage, communities grew in size and could support full or partial division of labour - leading to the application of knowledge of textile weaving (using simple looms) and to improved tool manufacture. This division of labour is also indicated by the graves, which strongly suggest that there was a class structure in place. Yayoi people buried their dead in large ceramic urns or stone coffins. These were common in northern Kyushu, Tsushima and on the Korean peninsula (where the practice seems to have originated from). Most graves are surrounded by earth mounds or stone circles and are in clusters - indicating the existence of burial grounds. In some graves, archaelogists have found artifacts buried with the dead, including swords, mirrors, beads, shell necklaces etc. Interestingly, the graves in which artifacts have been found are larger, separated from the other graves by a ditch, and often have a dolmen. This indicates not just a class structure, but considerable influence on Yayoi culture from mainland Asia. Dolmen are large stone slabs supported over a grave by a number of smaller stones. Dolmen were common in Korea and Northern China, and these megaliths or their variants are found across the continent as far as Europe.

There are some differences in Jomon and Yayoi skeletal remains, however these are probably due to improved nutrition and diet. The people towards the end of the Yayoi period appear to have been largely similar to the proto-Japanese of the Jomon Period. That is to say, that while there was undoubtedly considerable migration from the Korean Peninsula and/or China bringing the new culture, the migration was either insufficient to change the overall genetic makeup of the proto-Japanese, or predominantly of male migrants - resulting in immediate intermarriage with the Jomon/Yayoi people. It is also likely that there was little significant genetic difference between proto-Japanese and the communities on the mainland at this stage.

Previous: Mesolithic - Jomon Period (9500 BP to c. 2250 BP) | Next: Early Chinese records of Japan

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