If you have done any reading on ancient Japan, the name Yoshinogari 吉野ヶ里 should bring to mind images of a walled, watchtower-equipped, moated village complex.
I will briefly discuss Yoshinogari to kill three birds with one stone: (1) Yoshinogari is a notable location mentioned in any book focusing on early Japan; (2) it is a good representation of the fortified villages of the time period; and (3) broad changes that affected the village, itself, also affected the path of the country, as well.
Yoshinogari is located in Saga Prefecture, Kyushu, near the Ariake Sea. It’s the subject of a very interesting Hudson and Barnes Monumenta Nipponica article entitled “Yoshinogari: A Yayoi Settlement in Northern Kyushu“.
During the Yayoi Period, as Totman lays out, small villages of “five to ten houses and 50-75 residents” gradually combined and transformed into communities of “hundreds or perhaps one to two thousand people by the end of the Yayoi” (42). He calls these enlarged communities, “fortified bastions”, which is a very apt term because moats and watchtowers certainly give no other image. It was during this time of political consolidation — communities banding together and forming chiefdoms or kingdoms of varying size — that Yamatai, Izumo, Kibi, and other such chiefdoms were at their prime.
Yoshinogari, as a settlement, was no difference: archaeologists can trace its evolution. Onwards from 200 BC, Totman notes that hunting was given up for agriculture and stone implements were discarded for iron. As mentioned in previous posts, social stratification was emerging during the Yayoi Period. Looking at the Yoshinogari grave goods and the presence of a large, segregated burial mound (a very early type of kofun 古墳 that lacked the characteristic keyhole shape and, if I remember correctly, moat) we can see this evidenced perfectly. Similar to the goods received later by Yamatai’s Himiko, the ruler at Yoshinogari no doubt was involved in trade: with both “the Ryukyus and the continent”. An older theory even posits Himiko as the ruler of Yoshinogari, but the evidence is not too kind to that theory.
Totman says that Yoshinogari’s “pre-eminence…persisted at least into the second century CE”; this means that the heyday of Yoshinogari generally preceded that of Yamatai’s Himiko (who lived in the first half of the 3rd century).
Besides villages becoming large communities that were equipped with moats, watchtowers, and other defenses against the growing spread of domestic warfare, the Yayoi population became segregated (I’m bringing that up again). We can look at 3rd century Japanese conditions by analyzing a quite famous Chinese history: the Gishi Wajinden. English translations can be found online here and here (the latter is an annotated section on Himiko). J. Edward Kidder, Jr., however, has a brand new translation in his “Himiko and Japan’s Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai” that is heavily annotated, as well.
The Gishi Wajinden has sparked great debate on the location of Himiko’s chiefdom of Yamatai, for the directions and distances are incorrect and confusing.
The text describes the Japanese people (the Wa 倭 people) as a very “natural” group of people: they rely on the world around them. Interestingly, body paint of “pink and scarlet” is mentioned. Kidder has a fascinating discussion on the use of cinnabar in early Japan and such pigments were used in wall decorations in kofun (mostly located in Kyushu). For images of such decorated kofun, do an image search for 装飾古墳 or check earlier links on this blog for good websites or PDFs.
The text says that there were no horses in Japan. This passage is obviously a staple in the argument that there were no horses in Japan prior to the 5th century introduction of them by Koreans. While it would seem natural that if there were horses in Japan when the visiting Chinese observers wrote they would be included in a list of the present animals, I am still skeptical. The visiting Chinese surely had most of their contact with the upper stratum of Yayoi society — if anyone were to own horses it would be them, naturally, correct? However, since the text mentions the absence of horses, we can lean towards the conclusion that there weren’t any. I seem to be stuck with the mindset that there were horses prior to said 5th century introduction and even though their numbers greatly decreased, it is improper to say that Japan lacked horses in general. Perhaps I’m being overly picky (of course I am), but I feel that the issue is interesting enough to be strict in the matter. Either way, a good discussion of the issue can be found in Kidder’s Himiko book.
And now for something completely interesting: what weapons did the Wa people use for invasion and slaughter?”‘Their weapons are spears, shields, and wooden bows made with short lower part and long upper part; and their bamboo arrows are sometimes tipped with iron or bone”‘ (43).
These pictures are from my private collection — when I was a foreign exchange student in Kyoto.
Another very interesting topic is that of Yayoi divination: “‘Whenever they undertake an enterprise and discussion arises, they bake bones and divine in order to tell whether fortune will be good or bad. First they announce the object of divination, using the same manner of speech as in tortoise shell divination; then they examine the cracks made by the fire and tell what is to come to pass’” (44). Kidder mentions that porpoise and boar bones were used and Philippi (the translator of the most recent edition of the English-language Kojiki) notes the magical importance placed on deer scapulae in such divination ventures.
Our knowledge of Himiko warns us that shamans were not uncommon in ancient Japan. “’When [the ancient Japanese] go on voyages across the sea to visit China, they always select a man who does not arrange his hair, does not rid himself of fleas, lets his clothing get as dirty as it will, does not eat meat, and does not approach women. This man behaves like a mourner and is known as the fortune keeper. When the voyage turns out propitious, they all lavish on him slaves and other valuables. In case there is disease or mishap, they kill him, saying that he was not scrupulous in his duties’” (44). This figure, that of the professional abstainer, is quite intriguing.
The Japanese seem to be a very animistic people. The Yayoi people practiced “Shinto”. The word we are quite familiar with is in quotes because it’s not what we are familiar with. The Shinto we all know and love had its main origins in the Meiji Period of reform. What I’m about to describe is my take on Yayoi religious practices: the natural geography of the archipelago made segregated communities natural. Therefore, each community would have different customs and beliefs, to some extent. Therefore, religious practices and deities would also be quite diverse from one end of the country to the next. Different racial groups would naturally have different belief systems and deities. Until the different groups reached a greater level of mixing, such diversity would make for a broad spectrum of cultic activity. Animism and natural spiritualism prevailed, making the scattered “Wa” people wary of natural phenomena that we have come to understand.
Lastly, it is during the Yayoi Period that large burial mounds appear. There are different camps and disagreements concerning the evolution of the kofun, so it can’t be expected that any blog post will be comprehensive on the subject. The people discussed in the Gishi Wajinden bury their dead in a burial mound and observe a period of mourning and related ritual activity (including water purification) (45). While the text is not specific, it can be assumed that this practice refers to important individuals in the community: archaeological evidence has shown us that there were public cemeteries for commoners and segregated burial mounds for the elite.
