Advances in Understanding Early Agriculture in Japan

Six episodes-the Jomon, Yayoi, Tohoku Yayoi, Satsumon and Ainu, Okhotsk, and Gusuku-of agricultural development are examined. These events involve both indigenous adaptations as well as migration and diffusion to and within the Japanese archipelago. All but Jomon subsistence adaptations began as a result of migration and diffusion. Jomon populations engaged in niche construction/anthropogenesis that ranged from annual plant encouragement and probably management, lacquer tree (Toxicodendron verniciflua) and nut tree (Castanea crenata and Aesculus turbinata) management, and probable domestication of barnyard millet and soybean as well as cultivation of bottle gourd and hemp and possible cultivation of Perilla and adzuki. These characteristics place the Jomon in a middle ground that is neither hunting and gathering nor traditionally conceptualized agriculture. A brief comparison with China shows late Upper Paleolithic and Early Neolithic/Early Jomon similarities that can inform discussions about agricultural origins. The Okhotsk raised pigs, grew a few crops, hunted and gathered; this culture also does not fit traditional definitions of an agricultural economy. The other episodes involve forms of agriculture similar to those found in mainland East Asia.