Year: 1992
Type: article
Abstract: T he Yayoi 弥生 was the period in w hich agriculture came to form the basis of society in a laree part of the Japanese archipelago.It is often dated from 300 bc to ad 300， th o u e h in parts of western Ja p a n wet rice farming began a century or more earlier.The end of the Yayoi was m arked by the appearance in the third century of kofun, standardized keyhole-shaped tomb mounds.Although there is disagreement over both the exact chronology of this transition and the difference between standardized and pre-standardized mounds, the majority of Japanese archaeologists now believe the Yayoi ended by about ad 250 in the west ern archipelago.Limitations of space make it impossible to present a general discussion of Yayoi culture here.A recent review can be found in H udson (1990), but the reader should be aware that many areas of debate still remain.One such problem is the degree of continental immigration into Yayoi Japan -something that has obvious consequences for our understand ing of ritual continuities with the Jom on.The Yayoi is partially protohistoric, since the Eastern H an and Wei dynastic histories (Hou H a n shu 後漢書 and Wei zhi 魏志〉contain short descriptions of the Wa 倭 people.Although there have been suggestions that "Wa" was used to refer to a distinct ethnic group, it is probably best understood as a general term for the inhabitants of at least western Japan in the third century ad.As the earliest historical account of Japan, the Wei zhi is a veritable mine of information on the customs and lifestyles of the Late Yayoi/Early Kofun periods.It tells us, for example, that "in their worship, men or import-AC： K N O W 'L E D G E M E N T S ：1 wovild like to thank the foUowinsr people who were kind enousrh to provide advice and assistance of various sorts
Author: Mark J Hudson
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W187683384