History is easy to remember if you study after grasping the general flow, and as the flow of Japanese history, Paleolithic-Kofun period I would like to write about the flow.
This will be made into a series, so if you want to grasp the flow, please read it in the order of Heian period, Nara period, Kamakura period.
Related articles are written in detail with important words and phrases, so if you want to know more about policies and events, please jump to the link.
Paleolithic [Where did the Japanese come from? ]
The time when Honshu in Japan had a climate as cold as Siberia today. It is said that people who chased large beasts such as mammoths settled down and became the main hunting life using stone tools and stone tools, but there were also people who came from the south instead of one route. It seems that.
It is said that people began to live in the Japanese archipelago until a long time ago, and it was the established theory that it did not exist in the Japanese archipelago during the Paleolithic period. However, the established theory was overturned by the discovery of a lithic reduction device about 24,000 years ago from the cliffs of the Kanto Loam Formation.
After that, Paleolithic ruins were discovered one after another in Japan, stone tools were discovered from the Iwajuku ruins, and in the vicinity of Lake Nojiri, we human beings' direct descendants [ newcomers ] Is said to have lived.
They were originally the Japanese archipelago, but it is said that they separated from the continent around 20,000 years ago and became their current form. Around that time, a newcomer was born.
The Japanese archipelago was separated from the continent, but at that time the sea was covered with ice during the glacial period and it was continuous, so people in Siberia and northern Asia went south to Hokkaido while hunting Naumann elephants and mammoths. It is believed that it was.
However, the roots of the Japanese are not limited to humans related to Hokkaido, but there were also people who traveled from the Korean Peninsula to Kyushu and from Southeast Asia on the Kuroshio Current.
It is now believed that these humans came to the Japanese archipelago and mixed together to become the ancestors of today's Japan.
Jomon period ... Eating habits are upgraded by the invention of earthenware! !!
Japan, which was connected to land, is now an island country. Warming began, large beasts disappeared, and food acquisition was changed to the main collection. Almost at the same time, the use of earthenware will begin for sedentary life and food processing in pit-houses.
Although animals have become smaller due to warming, the number of people has increased to 270,000 in a warm climate in the middle of the Jomon period, partly due to the abundance of plants such as chestnuts and acorns.
Even in the Jomon period, it was the established theory that small groups were formed by hunting and harvesting and moved to seek food without settling, but the excavation of the Sannai Maru site in 1994 led to the traditional Jomon people. The image will be overturned.
From the early to mid-Jomon period, a village of hundreds of people was formed at the ruins, and the land was reorganized, with a residential area, a plaza, a tomb, and a garbage dump. What we can see from this is that the Jomon people have settled there for generations.
In addition, obsidian from Hokkaido, amber from Iwate prefecture, and jade from Niigata, which are the raw materials for arrowheads and cutlery, have also been excavated from the ruins, which is evidence that there was trade between distant settlements.
It is none other than the invention of [earthenware] that the Jomon people's eating habits have become dramatically richer.
With the invention of earthenware, it became possible to boil food, and it became possible to work on hard food that could not be eaten before, and the quality of food has improved dramatically. The stable diet and the settlement of people progressed, and the technology and culture were born there.
Yayoi period ... The beginning of rice making
Our generation learned that rice cultivation also began in the Yayoi period.
However, research has progressed and these established theories have been overturned, and it has been found that fossil rice has been excavated from the strata since the early Jomon period, and it is known that rice cultivation * has been carried out in some areas.
It seems that the rice technology for mass-producing rice came from the late Jomon period to the Yayoi period, and it is said that it came along the Korean Peninsula route. According to one theory, the people of the Yangtze River basin came to the Japanese archipelago as migrants due to the migration of ethnic groups to the top of the ball due to the war on the Chinese continent (partly due to the cold weather).
In just about 100 years, it spread to the main plains of western Japan and settled in eastern Japan. It seems that it did not settle in the cold Tohoku and Hokkaido regions. It is only after the Heian period that rice cultivation has taken root in the Tohoku region, which is now called rice.
The harvested rice was stored in a stilt warehouse, and the necessary amount was threshed to produce brown rice and white rice. And it was cooked and eaten with Yayoi pottery made at this time.
It was during the Yayoi period that a disparity society was created for the first time.
In the hunting and harvesting era when we were procuring food, we had a surplus in our daily lives, so there was no disparity or competition for it.
However, in the Yayoi period, paddy rice cultivation produced surplus grains, and it became possible to store them in stilt warehouses.
People learned to save their fortune.
It is a sad human saga to give birth to the fire of conflict if there is property ...
In other words, the improvement of rice cultivation technology has brought [war] to people in exchange for abundant food.
What was initially a small settlement (mura) changed into a large-scale political group (Kuni) through integration and reorganization, and in the latter half of the Yayoi period, Japan became a state of civil war.
In this way, Kuni, who has the power to control the civil war, will form a nation.
As the battles repeat and the group grows, the leader of that group is born. This has been led by those who bring abundant food.
Rice production requires a systematic process from sowing to harvesting. As a result, agricultural management experts reigned as rulers in this era, as they were required to have the ability to plan the farming of the entire village and bring people together.
It is said that there were more than 100 small countries around the 1st century BC in Japan, where the civil war continued.
Himiko of Yamatai country
It is reported that Japan was in a state of constant civil war even in the latter half of the 2nd century.
However, peace will come with the birth of a woman in the long-lasting internal turmoil.
That person is [Himiko], and according to China's post-Kan book, [Japan had dozens of countries including Yamatai, but when Himiko became the queen of Yamatai, 30 countries The Yamatai National Union was born in cooperation].
What kind of person was Himiko in Yamatai? ??
She became a queen at the age of 15, and apparently lived in the depths of the palace, surrounded by 1,000 slaves, barely visible in front of the people. She remains single throughout her life, and when she closes her life, more than 100 people say she has followed her.
She is said to be a shrine maiden who can hear God's will, and she listens to God's voice to make predictions, pray for God and make it rain, and to calm God's wrath in the event of a natural disaster. Was there.
However, Himiko did not end with this, sending diplomatic messengers to Wei, collecting taxes from her small country, and focusing on trading with the Korean Peninsula. In this way, Himiko dominated not only politics and religion, but also the economy.
Kofun period ... The first unified government, the Yamato Imperial Court
Japan in the 4th century is called the [blank 4th century] because the records of Japan from the death of Himiko to the 5th century are extremely scarce.
According to [Gwanggaeto the Great Monument], one of the few historical sources that fills the void is that in 391, Wa advanced to Korea and followed Baekje and Silla, and Japan at the end of the 4th century had already attacked foreign countries. It is speculated that a unified nation with enough power to enter was formed.
It can be seen that the Yamato administration was formed by the fact that an old burial mound was suddenly born at this time. The tumulus was built in the latter half of the 3rd century to the 7th century, but you can see that the scale is clearly different from that of the Yayoi period.
There are various theories and mysteries about how the Yamato administration was born, but it is certain that it expanded its power by following the great kings and other powerful tribes. The power is said to have reached Saitama Prefecture, centering on the Nara Basin.
In addition, a surname system and a national structure system (guaranteeing the authority of the region but seeking service to the Yamato administration) will be established in order for the powerful tribes to govern the region.
As a result of the introduction of Buddhism and the full-scale confrontation between Mr. Soga and Mr. Mononobe, who were also influential tribes, Mr. Mononobe, who was in charge of the ritual, fell. Buddhism spread nationwide, and Soga gradually took control of politics. Soga assassinated Emperor Sushun, who was dissatisfied with it.