informal fence and entrance gate. The purpose of a residential garden and gate is not so much to impress others as to provide a sense of intimacy and relaxation in an otherwise busy world.
Pre-Buddhist Cultures
In prehistoric times, people entered Japan from various parts of Asia. Originally hunters and gatherers, these early inhabitants eventually developed pottery, agriculture, permanent settlements, and increasingly sophisticated types of architecture. People were organized into clans, one of which gradually assumed dominance to establish the Yamato State and an imperial line that is still on the throne today.
Preceramic Period (?-10,000 BCE)
During the last Ice Age (Pleistocene Epoch), much of the water in the oceans was captured by glaciers, thereby lowering sea levels around the world. Some time before the end of the Pleistocene, when Kyushu and Hokkaido were still easily accessible from the Asian mainland because of low sea levels, different groups of hunting and gathering peoples entered Japan. Some entered southern Japan via the Korean Peninsula; some entered northern Japan via the northern island of Sakhalin; while others may have come directly from the south by boat.
Thus the Japanese people are not a homogeneous race as many believe. These early Paleolithic inhabitants had a variety of sophisticated stone tools but they lacked pottery or settled agriculture. Very little is known about their appearance or way of life, though archaeological evidence is gradually accumulating.
A flat-land building (heichi jūkyo) in which poles were sloped to the top and thatched, serving as both walls and roof. The ground served as the floor.
Jōmon Period (100000-300 BCE)
About 12,000 years ago, when the Ice Age ended, the climate warmed and sea levels climbed, cutting Japan off from the mainland. A new culture was born in the rapidly spreading deciduous forests, and pottery came into use. These ceramic people are called Jōmon (meaning "rope-marked") due to the practice of decorating their coil pottery by pressing a piece of rope into the damp surfaces of newly made vessels, some of which were utilitarian while others had wildly exuberant shapes. The Jōmon people continued the hunting and gathering way of life of their ancestors, supplemented by small-scale horticulture, including some grains. Recent evidence suggests that toward the end of the Jōmon Period, inhabitants in temperate regions of Japan may have experimented with wet rice agriculture on a small scale.
A flat-land building reconstructed at the Ikegami-sone prehistoric site, Osaka Prefecture, in which the thatched roof is supported on walls made of reed-covered poles.
Jōmon buildings can be classified in different ways. According to one classification system, heichi jūkyo (flat-land dwellings), originally developed in the preceramic period, were simple structures in which the ground served as the floor; tateana jūkyo (pit dwellings) were roofs, or walls with roofs, constructed over circular or rectangular pits; and hottatebashira tatemono (buildings with poles sunk in the ground) were larger buildings with a floor and a roof supported by a post-and-beam structure in which the posts were buried directly in the earth, rather than resting on rocks as in much of the architecture in later periods. Sometimes the floor of the latter was at ground level (hiraya tatemono), and at other times it was raised off the ground (takayuka), as in the case of storehouses or observation towers.
Pit houses were not suitable for wet areas or in places where there was inadequate drainage. Under the right conditions, however, pit houses helped provide protection against cold in the winter and heat in the summer.
Temporary flat-land structures, pit houses, and raised floor structures all continued to be employed in the Yayoi Period and even persisted into historic times for use by commoners. Until recently, it was believed that elevated storehouses were first developed in the Yayoi Period. Recent findings, however, indicate that storehouses had earlier, Jōmon origins.
Flat-land buildings, such as this temporary birthing structure, used until recently to provide ritual isolation for mother and infant, continued into historic times.
Yayoi Period (300 BCE-300 CE)
Around 300 BCE, or a little earlier, new people and cultural influences arrived from the Korean Peninsula, bringing metallurgy, large-scale wet rice agriculture based on irrigation, and wheel-made pottery. Originally centered in northern Kyushu, the Yayoi people initially appear to have fought the indigenous Jōmon people, but eventually mingled and interbred with them. This mixture provided the basis for the present-day Japanese people and culture. Many of the distinctive traits of Japanese culture date from these People of Wa, as they were called in early Chinese historical records. Some scholars believe that the Ainu, currently found only in Hokkaido and Sakhalin, may be descendants of a northern branch of the Jōmon people that escaped physical and cultural blending with the Yayoi people. The origins of the Ainu, however, are controversial.
The increased prosperity brought by the new way of life, with its intensive wet rice agriculture, created distinctions in wealth and an incipient class structure. An increase in population and social stratification eventually led to over 100 small states under the control of a variety of clans known as uji. The clan chief was both the secular and religious leader.
Elevated storehouses, used to protect rice, eventually developed into early Shinto shrines. Based on a model at the National Museum of Japanese History.
Tomb Mound Period (300-710 CE)
By 300 CE, one or more of the Yayoi uji appears to have gained some preeminence over the other clans, giving rise to a succession of imperial dynasties that culminated in the Yamato State of the mid-sixth century.
The Yamato State, based in the area around the current cities of Nara, Kyoto, and Osaka (the Kinki area), controlled a large area, stretching from Kyushu in the west to the Kanto area in the east. The present imperial family of Japan, said to be the longest lived royal dynasty in the world, is believed to be descended from the ruling family of the Yamato State.
The Tomb Mound Period, which derives its name from the common practice of burying royalty and high-ranking clan officials in stone tombs covered with large earthen mounds, lasted from around 300 CE (or a little earlier) until 710. It thus overlaps with the coming of Buddhism in the middle of the sixth century. Buddhism, which was brought from China and Korea, introduced the advanced civilization of the continent, thereby bringing the prehistoric era to an end. Tomb mounds, however, continued to be built for another 200 years or so.
Pit Dwellings
A pit dwelling was constructed by digging a hole about a meter deep and leaning poles against a rectangular framework to create sloping sides. Thatch was tied to the reinforced sides, leaving openings at the top for smoke to escape.
Reconstructed Jōmon and Yayoi Settlements
Reconstructing the past is popular in Japan. The Japanese are intensely interested in their origins and are willing to travel to out-of-the-way places to visit archaeological sites. Various levels of government have responded by investing heavily in reconstructing buildings and other architectural
