Settlements

The apparent absence of any fortifications or refuge sites throughout the entire Jomon - more than 10,000 years - is striking and suggests the absence of organised warfare, that is, large-scale armed conflict between polities/ communities.

Yayoi settlements with ditches appear during the Initial phase at the Naka and Etsuji sites (Fukuoka). Inside the ditch of the latter, houses of Korean (Songgukri) type have been found. Ditched settlements continue to be built during the Early Yayoi, for example at Itazuke, Ishizaki Magarita and Nabatake in Fukuoka and Saga prefectures. At Itazuke, the V-shaped ditch is fully preserved and totally enclosed the village in an oval measuring 110 metres from north to south and 81 metres from east to west. The ditch's width varies between 1.5 metres and 4.5 metres and its depth ranges between 0.7 metres and 2.3 metres. Each side of the ditch was bordered with an earthen bank. There is only one interruption (4 m wide) in the south-west to allow passage. An inner ditch delimitates a small area in the north-west part of the village containing storage pits. The ditch was no longer used during the Middle Yayoi occupation of the site.

In his study of Japanese enclosed settlements of the Yayoi and Early Kofun periods, Arbousse-Bastide found that 18 per cent of the sites in his database (600 sites) date from the Initial and Early Yayoi, about 35 per cent from the Middle Yayoi, 44 per cent from the Late Yayoi and only 3 per cent from the Early Kofun.^[334] The majority (70.5 per cent) of the sites are situated at relatively elevated altitudes on plateaus, hills or river terraces.

Construction of the Warrior’s Image and the Symbolism of Weapons

From an iconographic point of view, the Yayoi people have left us few traces of their artistic production. The few human representations we have are of hunting scenes or representations of individuals wearing costumes that have been interpreted as ‘shamans' performing ‘rituals'. There are a few representations of armed individuals on some bronze bells (dotaku) and pottery. For example, ajar from the Shimizukaze site (Nara) has an incised scene on the shoulder depicting two human figures each holding a shield and a halberd and wearing a possible feathered cap associated with images of a raised-floor building, a wounded deer and four fish.

The Origins of Violence and Warfare in the Japanese Islands of domination is often expressed by war-like images in different media.^[335] In the Yayoi, such representations of warriors can mostly be seen in tombs.

In northern Kyushu during the Middle and Late Yayoi periods, bronze and iron weapons are associated with elite groups whose tombs were constructed apart from the burials of commoners, which did not contain any such prestige goods. In western Japan outside Kyushu, these weapons are generally not found in tombs until the end of the Late Yayoi, even if bronze was known and used to make large bronze bells and bronze weapons (swords and halberds) that were buried in hoards, sometimes with bells, as at the Kojindani site in Shimane. These hoards are generally interpreted as ‘ritual' deposits, but the standardisation in size of the 358 bronze swords seen at Kojindani also suggests that they may have been used as a proto-currency in trade and exchange.

During the Late Yayoi period in Kyushu, while bronze weapons disappeared and were replaced by iron weapons, very large bronze spearheads were produced. These spearheads are too soft to have been used as weapons due to the high lead content in the alloy, and are clearly symbolic. The fact that their distribution in the western Inland Sea area is mutually exclusive with that of the bronze bells which were produced in the Kinai (Kyoto-Nara) area and distributed in the eastern Inland Sea area is remarkable and a sign that both were used as political symbols and/or prestige goods.^[336]

It is also interesting to note that in the richest tombs of the Yayoi period, the most numerous grave goods are Chinese bronze mirrors. For example, in the Fukuoka prefecture, the Mikumo Minami Shoji 1 tomb produced thirty-five mirrors with one bronze sword, two bronze spear­heads and one bronze halberd. The Middle Yayoi Suku Okamoto D tomb produced about thirty bronze mirrors, five bronze spearheads, two bronze swords and one bronze halberd. In the Late Yayoi, thirty-nine bronze mirrors and only one iron sword were found from the Hirabaru tomb. The leaders of these communities seem to have had a dual role and image: one more ‘spiritual', symbolised by the bronze mirrors, and one more ‘warlike', symbolised by the weapons.

MARK HUDSON, RICKJ. SCHULTING, LINDA GILAIZEAU