This blog is to introduce the Jomon culture (about 14,000 BC – about 300 BC) to the non-Japanese- speaking people, by means of a book of photographs, “Jomon Museum,” by Tadahiro Ogawa. This blog contains more than 550 amazing images of artifacts from the Jomon period, along with easy to understand descriptions of each photos (read more “about this blog” page). Just by looking at those photos and reading the descriptions, you will be able to gain a basic understanding of the people and the culture. We look forward to receiving your comments and/or opinions from you, so that we can share our knowledge and perspectives to deepen our understandings of ancient world cultures.
Tabel of Contents
Contents
1. Jomon people - People who started to use fired pots 
2. Subsistence - Gathering, hunting, and fishing days: Pottery and stone tools, the earth as their home 
3. Adorning and Dressing - Using clay and stones, bones and shells, and plants and lacquer 
4. Elaborately Decorated Pottery - Decorations and protrusions that overwhelm their practicality 
5. Messages in the Decorations - Figures of humans and animals 
6. Human Figures - What the clay and stone figures expressed 
7. Relics of Prayers - Communal space for festivals and prayers: Stone objects and stone circles
Note: The terms used to describe the chronological dates in this book are loose approximations of time spans because Mr. Ogawa prefers his readers to understand the Jomon culture without delving into detailed academic discussions. But based on his mention of the middle of the Jomon period as around 5,000 years ago, the following terms used in the translation would approximately indicate the periods below:
“beginning of the Jomon period”: About 13,500 – 9,000 BC
“first half of the Jomon period”: About 9,000 – 3,000 BC
“early Jomon period”: About 5,000 – 3,500 BC
“middle Jomon period”: About 3,500 – 2,500 BC
“late Jomon period”: About 2,500 – 1,000 BC
“latter half of the Jomon period”: About 3,000 – 9,000 BC
“end of the Jomon period”: About 1,000 – 9,00 BC
Style note: Modified Hebon system is employed for Romanization of foreign languages throughout the text. Macrons that indicate long vowel sounds in Japanese words, e.g., Chubu, Jomon, Kyoto, are omitted, following common usage in Japan. Proper names are in regular type, and italics are used only in the first appearance of the Japanese terms that are specific to fields.