Prompted to gather a list of informative websites for the study of ancient Japan, I went through my ever-growing list of Firefox bookmarks and found the following. Some take a while to load, but all should still be working–I just went through them. I can’t assure you that all the websites are 100% accurate. Some just have good pictures and others are just interesting. As usual, put more stock in the museum or university websites, but just because a site is privately owned and operated doesn’t mean it isn’t trustworthy. Also, make sure you check out the links on the sites below as many lead to more good articles within the same website. If you have any questions, comments, or additions to this list, please let me know. *This list is currently under construction.*
Ancient Japan Make sure you click the links, as they lead to more articles.
This is a portal to many other sites
C.T. Keally’s Japanese Archaeology Pages
List of kofun in Gumma Prefecture
Conditions Prior to the 6th Century
Conqest of the Emishi
Archaeology Stories
This site has no tolerance for ultra-nationalism, to put it plainly! I haven’t read more than a few paragraphs of one of the articles, so I can’t rate the site’s accuracy.
Hokkaido Obsidian Obsidian is interesting, as it was used by Paleolithic peoples for weaponry.
Skull Ritual I have never heard of this before. Like I said in my intro, some sites are just interesting. This would be one of them.
Jomon archaeology
Japanese Roots This is one of the first websites that got me interested in the issue of Japan’s place in East Asian history. Interesting.
“Mirrors in Tombs at Nara” Discussion -There are links to other messages, as well.
If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s reading PMJS can be rewarding.
Colorful site on the Kojiki
The China History Forum can have some good threads related to ancient Sino-Japanese relations.
The Samurai Archives Citadel focuses more on medieval Japanese history, but there are occasionally some good threads on ancient Japanese history.
The Shogun-ki is led by a friend of mine. He’s currently looking into the Koyo Gunkan and other texts related to Takeda Shingen’s death. I include this link because he has a post about Professor Gina L. Barnes’ presentation at UH-Manoa on her new book about state formation in Japan.
The Saitobaru Burial Mounds are a huge cluster of kofun
