The First Japanese: The Paleolithic Period in Japan

 

Original art by Teruya Yamamoto

Part One: The Age of the Gods

There are many retellings of the beginning of the Age of the Gods.

This is one such retelling.

There was a time when the Heaven and the Earth were not yet separated. Yin and Yang had not been divided. Everything existed as one in a chaotic, egg-like mass. And so, this mass chaotically yet naturally divided into two. One side contained everything pure and clear within the mass and ascended to become Heaven, forming relatively quickly. The other side contained everything heavy and impure, settling down to slowly form the Earth with some difficulty, going through a phase where the lands floated upon the Earth as if the Earth were water. 

During this primordial time, a cloud-like mist existed in the Void between Heaven and Earth. Inside this mist was an abstract shape sometimes described as a reed-shoot before immediately transforming into a human shape. This was the first god, divine being or kami. While it became as one, it was truly three and took many names that sources differ on but they are said to be pure males who ascended into the Plain of High Heaven before they hid themselves away. At some point after they came into being, the Heaven and the Earth would complete their coalescence. 

Artist depiction of the Big Bang from Ivey Business Journal

Over time, more deities were born of varying generations, lineages and pairs, ultimately ending with the birth of the sibling deities of Izanagi, the older male, and Izanami, the younger female. The other kami ordered the siblings to go down to the Earth and to create and bring order to the land, giving them a jeweled-spear to complete this act. And so, Izanagi and Izanami went to the Floating Bridge of Heaven to look down upon the Earth. It was then that they realized that there was indeed land below them and they plunged the spear into the water together to search for it. Their search stirred the oceans and brine, ultimately forming Onogoro Island. 

And so, the two gods descended onto Onogoro Island and decided to dwell there on the Earth. They created a great palace for them to live in as well as a heavenly pillar. The two fell in love and decided to continue their task of bringing about order with the creation of nations while being husband and wife. So, upon Izanagi's suggestion, Izanami would go right and Izanagi would go left around the pillar and, upon reuniting, Izanami spoke. "How delightful! I have met with a lovely youth." she said. Izanagi was outraged that she, a woman, would speak first which was against their ritual. "I am a man and by right should have spoken first. How is that on the contrary, thou, a woman, shouldst have been the first to speak? This was unlucky." However, the two still decided to create a child. 

Izanagi and Izanami on the Floating Bridge of Heaven by DeviantArt user lady-voldything

What came from this union was the birth of the leech, a simple being that could not stand upright. Another birth from this union was Ahaji Island, a simple island that the two were not impressed with. The two returned to Heaven to report their circumstances and the gods revealed that the origin for these abominations was because Izanami spoke first during their ritual. Seeking to rectify their mistake, the two returned to Onogoro Island and repeated the ritual. 

This time, Izanagi spoke first. "How delightful! I have met a lovely maiden. In thy body is there aught formed?" he asked. Izanami replied "In my body there is a place which is the source of femininity."Izanagi answered with "In my body again there is a place which is the source of masculinity. I wish to unite this sourceplace of my body to the sourceplace of thy body." and so, the two became husband and wife. This time, their union was a luckier one as they produced multiple islands and lands, including the area that will one day become known as Japan. 

Izanagi and Izanami go about the heavenly pillar by Tumblr user traindork

They continued to create children as divine beings of rivers, trees, mountains, lakes and the wind while their leech child, still unable to even stand after three years of life, was placed in a handmade boat and sent up a river. 

One day, Izanami and Izanagi spoke. "We have now produced the great island country with the mountains, rivers, herbs and trees. Why should we not produce someone who shall be the lord of the universe?" And so, the couple is said to have created three more children. The first was Amaterasu, the sun goddess whose light shone throughout the world. Izanagi and Izanami celebrated the birth of Amaterasu, saying "We have had many children, but none of them have been equal to this wondrous infant. She ought not to be kept long in this land, but we ought of our own accord to send her to Heaven and entrust her the affairs of Heaven." During these days, Heaven and the Earth were not far and one could travel between the two through a simple ladder which Amaterasu used to return to Heaven. The next child to be born was Tsukiyomi, the Moon god who was the consort of Amaterasu and was sent to Heaven to share in her government. Susanoo was the next child to be born with a fierce temper and a nature to give in to cruelty. Susanoo caused much chaos and destruction in the world and the gods criticized him as being exceedingly wicked and unfit to rule over the world, expelling him away. 

Finally, Izanami began to give birth to her last god. This kami was more destructive than its kin and Izanami took ill, vomiting and excreting other liquids and matter I'd rather not talk about, all of which became their own kami. Feverish and finally actually burning, Izanami was killed to give birth to the fire god, Kagutsuchi. Izanagi ran to Izanami's body and cried, his tears becoming kami as well. Izanagi decided that a new child was decidedly not worth the life of his wife and he drew his sword, slaying Kagutsuchi. Pieces of Kagutsuchi became their own kami and the dripping blood also became their own kami as well. Izanagi was grieved and he solemnly buried Izanami.

The death of Izanami. Original artist unknown

As time went by, Izanagi continued to grieve for Izanami, finally deciding to return to her burial place. On his way, he received messages from messengers from Yomi, the underworld, who conveyed a message from Izanami: "I and thou have produced countries. Why would we seek to produce more? I shall stay in this land and will not depart along with thee." Nevertheless, Izanagi continued on to his wife's burial place. To his surprise, he found Izanami appearing seemingly alive and well by her grave and the two began to talk. 

"Thine Augustness, my lovely younger sister! I have come because I sorrowed for thee. The lands that I and thou made are not yet finished making, so come back!" Izanagi pleaded. 

"My lord and husband, why is thy coming so late? I have already eaten of the cooking-furnace of Yomi. Nevertheless, as I reverence the entry here of thine Augustness, my lovely elder brother, I wish to return. Moreover, I will discuss it particularly with the deities of Yomi. Nevertheless, I am about to lie down to rest. I pray thee, do not thou look on me." Izanami said. With that, Izanami disappeared into a palace as the scenery shifted. It became clear to Izanagi that something was wrong and that he was not where he thought he was. After Izanami was in the palace for a long time, Izanagi lit a torch and entered the palace to see his wife, opposing her demands from him. It was there that Izanagi saw that Izanami was, in reality, a walking corpse, putrid with maggots and evil gods called Thunders. Izanagi was shocked by the appearance of his wife and realized where he was. 

Izanagi discovers Izanami in Yomi by Gil Zilka

"Nay! I have come unawares to a hideous and polluted land!" he cried as he ran away. In rage, Izanami called out: "Why didst thou not observe that which I charged thee? Now I am put to shame. Thou has seen my nakedness. I will in turn see thine." With that, Izanami sent out the Thunders, Shikome or ugly female spirits and 1,500 warriors of Yomi to pursue Izanagi and kill him. Izanagi drew and brandished his sword as he ran, throwing down parts of his clothes that turn into foods like peaches to distract and slow down his enemies. He would give thanks to the peach, declaring "Like as ye have helped me, so must ye help all living people in the central land of reed plains when they fall into bad circumstances and be harassed," giving peaches a sacred role. 

After creating a river that separated himself from the evil gods, Izanami herself pursued Izanagi. However, Izanagi had reached the pass into the land of the living where he lifted a humongous boulder and placed it at the entrance of Yomi, blocking off Izanami. Izanagi called out to his wife: "Our relationship is severed. I will not submit to be beaten by a relation. It was weak of me at first to sorrow and mourn on account of a relation."

Izanagi and Izanami's final conversation by Warwick Goble

Izanami replied "My dear lord and husband, if thou sayest so, I will strangle to death the people of the country which thou dost govern, a thousand in one day." 

Izanagi responded: "My beloved younger sister, if thou sayest so, I will in one day cause to be born fifteen hundred. Come no further."

And with that, Izanagi turned to go on his way, leaving the dark province of Izumo to Onogoro Island. After first purifying himself and re-creating the gods Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susanoo, Izanagi would begin his mission of populating his nation with 1,500 people every day in his never ending struggle against Izanami. Such was the tragedy of the patriarch and matriarch of the Age of the Gods.

Part Two: Geography and Early People

According to the stories told generation by generation by the people of Japan, the story of Izanagi and Izanami is where the story of Japan begins with the birth of the islands and Izanagi and Izanami's never-ending struggle. While Izanagi populated Japan, Izanami swore to destroy and kill Izanagi's children. But in the end, the living would always outnumber the dying. 

But what does the archaeological and genetic record say? How does science understand the very beginning of Japan and the first people to call the land home? This is the story of Japan in the Paleolithic Period. Now, while the Paleolithic can be used as a term for a certain era worldwide, in Japan, the term means something more specific. "Paleo" literally means "old" with "lithic" meaning "stone", making the Paleolithic Period the "Old Stone Age," the era in which humans used stone for making tools to go about their daily lives. This is in contrast to the Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age which is defined by the presence of agriculture, changing the lives of prehistoric people forever and putting humanity on the road to nation-states.

In Japan, Japanese history has been divided into distinct periods and eras in a uniform historiography. For a long time, it was believed that the first inhabitants of Japan were the Jomon people and their heyday was known as the Jomon Period. However, new discoveries have confirmed that people did in fact predate the Jomon people and this whole period before the beginning of the Jomon Period that started around 16,000 years ago is known collectively as the Paleolithic Period in Japanese historiography. 

A map of the Earth during the Ice Age by Reddit user Vality7

So, what do we know about Japan in the Paleolithic Period? Well, to understand this, we need to go back in time to the Last Ice Age, a time where much of Earth's water was kept locked away in glaciers and the sea levels were much lower than they are today. Around the eastern hemisphere, humans struggled to survive by hunting, fishing and gathering edible plants, fruits and vegetables. As the name of the Stone Age suggests, people used stone to cook their food, create spear tips, adorn their axes and so on in the harsh environment that was around ten degrees Fahrenheit, or 5 degrees Celsius lower than today. Various megafauna, or large animals, served both as hunting targets as well as potential predators that could hunt down humans. Megafauna wasn't the only thing our human ancestors had to look out for. Besides Homo sapiens, other human species like the ancestral Homo erectus were still around. Erectus in particular had become dominant in East Asia and could hunt down and kill humans. 

Though Homo sapiens had still not left their homeland of Africa (for the most part), Erectus, as well as other human species like the enigmatic Denisovans, roamed Asia. At this point in time, the land that would become known as Japan existed as a peninsula or land bridge with the rest of the East Asian continent. While there is no direct proof of Homo erectus in the land that would become Japan, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume Homo erectus following their prey could have entered Japan long ago. There have been attempts to prove Erectus' presence in Japan but many of these have been forgeries. But the absence of evidence is not proof of absence. As what we know about Homo erectus and the Paleolithic world expands, we may find that Erectus in fact lived in many places we have not yet found proof for such as Japan or the Americas. Nevertheless, Erectus seems to have gone extinct or developed into different species by around 100,000 years ago and likely disappeared from Japan as well at this time during the difficult Ice Age to which they were not accustomed. 

Reconstruction of Homo erectus by the Neanderthal Museum

Humans would not return to the land of Japan for tens of thousands of years until we get the first confirmed record of people moving into Japan. If Homo erectus had been the first humans to call Japan home, these new inhabitants to recolonize Japan were very, very different. These people came from the south, crossing from Taiwan either through land bridges or even using some form of rudimentary sea craft to reach their destination, traveling through the lands that would one day become the Ryukyu island chain before eventually reaching Kyushu and mainland Japan, reaching the north of Honshu. Whether or not there were land bridges at this time are disputed, but it seems the migration may have been sparked by a large population density on continental East Asia as well as the migration of large prey into Japan.

These people were an Australo-Melanesian hunter-gatherer people known as the Hoabinhian people. Originally classified as a specific group of people in Neolithic Vietnam, the Hoabinhian culture has been studied and fully-realized by further study to be a basal source of ancestry in East Asia and beyond. The Hoabinhians were descendants of the first wave of long-lasting human migrants out of Africa from the event known as Out of Africa II around 100,000 years ago. Pushes into India and the birth of the Ancestral South Indians by around 70,000 years ago continued that southern dispersal along the coast until these people emerged in Southeast Asia. By 40,000 years ago, the Hoabinhians, a branch of these early travelers, had become widespread in East Asia as they hunted their prey like the Naumann elephant, brown bears, giant deer, tigers, wolves and monkeys.

The Temuan people and other Pre-Austronesian groups of Southeast Asia are said to have the most Hoabinhian DNA. Photo by Wikipedia user Mor ajani  

The population of Southeast Asia had become denser over time, making hunting difficult. As Hoabinhians learned about the lands filled with not-yet-hunted animals in the northeast, they began to migrate from places like Taiwan into Japan. And so, around 38,000 years ago, the Hoabinhians arrived in the southern Ryukyus, slowly moving up through Kyushu and into Honshu, hunting and fishing as they traveled. How far they reached into Hokkaido and beyond is unknown but the fact that people with some sort of Australo-Melanesian DNA could be found in Beringia and contributed to the American Indians shows that, if not Hoabinhians, then a related people reached as far as the northeast extremity of Siberia.

Upon entering Japan, archaeology and genetics know these Hoabinhians by a new name, that being the Minatogawa people, named after the original specimen located in Okinawa, an island to the south of Japan. Perhaps these were 1,500 people Izanagi would refer to. The Minatogawa people brought with them conical-style ground stone and polished stone, a tool they created significantly earlier than the rest of the world who might not develop them for another 20,000 years. In addition to this, they soon established trading routes that showed evidence of sea-faring, especially as tools were built from obsidian, a resource they may only have had access to due to a mine in Kozushima beyond the sea. Advanced technology, tools, seafaring and obsidian working were all characteristics of Paleolithic Japan.

Reconstruction of the Minatogawa people, the first Homo sapiens inhabitants of Japan. Art by Teruya Yamamoto.

While they were relatively advanced from a technological standpoint, the geography of Japan was not kind to the Minatogawa. This was a time where Japan underwent much volcanic and seismic activity. Finally, around 29,000 years ago, the Aira-Tanzawa volcanic mountain range in Kyushu suddenly and violently erupted, creating a huge crater in Kyushu known as the Aira caldera. This powerful volcanic eruption threw soot and smoke out into the air, darkening Japan's skies and covering the land with ash across Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and even reaching Okinawa and the Korean Peninsula, if it was a peninsula. 

The Aira-Tanzawa ash-fall devastated Japan's environment and shook up the environmental order. As large prey began to disappear in concordance with the gradual warming of the Earth, the Minatogawa found themselves with less resources over time. The Minatogawa, on isolated islands at least, already lived in small, isolated clans. The sudden destruction of their order threw their life into disarray. It appears some of the Minatogawa began to eat each other, capturing and killing each other, breaking the victims bones, eating the and discarding the remainder of the bodies in a trash pile with the rest of the remains of their prey. The Minatogawa just barely clung on to life. 

Map of the Aira-Tanzawa ash-fall by Wikipedia user Pekachu

When food becomes scarce, Paleolithic people often become more violent. The Aira-Tanzawa event marks a new period within the Paleolithic where the Minatogawa began to create more weapons and knives. Perhaps this was due to escalated violence between each other.

Nevertheless, over time, this age of strife would come to an end. Nature heals. And Japan's environment stabilized as an abundance of food returned to the country by around 25,000 years ago, thousands of years after the initial volcanic bombardment. The Minatogawa are able to lift their heads and face a brave new world. 

On the other hand, the abundance of food will attract a new group of people to dare to cross the land bridge or, depending on which theory you subscribe to, the sea. Once again, people from the continent will play a role in the soon-to-be island country. 50,000 years ago, a new group of people entered north and Central Asia. These Eurasians eventually split, with one group headed west, known as the West Eurasians. Their descendants will include groups like the famous Cro-Magnon man of yore in Europe. The other group, headed east, would naturally become known as the East Eurasians. However, the group that made their way into Japan was not of a predominantly Eastern lineage but a Western lineage. At some point, around 38,000 years ago, around the same time the Hoabinhians were first arriving in the Ryukyus, a group of West Eurasian Hunter Gatherers had split off from their main lineage and began to make their way back east, even going into a land other humans had never dared to enter before: The Arctic Circle. Along the way, they did indeed interbreed with East Eurasians who contributed around 22% to their genome. These new, mostly West Eurasian peoples would become known to archaeologists as the Ancient North Siberians or Yana people. The Yana people explored the frontiers of the Arctic Circle (during the Ice Age, no less) and through this lifestyle, they became quite the resilient people. However, as the Last Glacial Maximum commenced around 33,000 years ago and reached its maximal apex 26,000 years ago, the Yana were unable to continue their way of life in the north. Moving south with the glaciers, the Yana also followed their prey, eventually coming upon the land of Japan through the north, likely crossing through land bridges that connected the continent and Sakhalin to Hokkaido and Honshu. 

A reconstruction of an Ancient North Eurasian, descendants of the Ancient North Siberians, by Ancestral Whispers

The Yana made the crossing around 25,000 years ago into Hokkaido, making the mountainous region their new home, isolated while other members of their genome would spread to other parts of Eurasia, eventually giving rise to their more famous Ancient North Eurasian descendants who would play a role in the creation of American Indians in the east and Indo-Europeans in the west. But this is not their story and so we shall not focus on them. 

By around 20,000 years ago, the Yana began to make their way into Honshu, crossing over and encountering the Minatogawa people who had made Japan their home thousands of years earlier. Based on the genetic record, the Yana and the Minatogawa did not fight one another like interactions between later groups to immigrate to Japan. Rather, they easily and quickly mixed with each other and Yana and Minatogawa DNA became widespread not just in Hokkaido and Honshu but across the range of land held by the two Paleolithic peoples. This friendly relationship may have been built on the fact that there was an abundance of food in Japan and the two groups did not see one another as enemies or rivals but rather as roommates and neighbors, sharing the world created by Izanagi and Izanami together.

Reconstruction of a fully-admixed Jomon from 2,700 years ago by Ancestral Whispers

From this point onward, culture in Japan becomes more complex with simple dwellings and communities on strategic locations like rivers. Technology improves with the Yana's unique style of making stone tools called Yubetsu or the Araya industry. Burial practices begin to become widespread, even on the remote southern islands. The Yana also introduced microblades, a type of archaeological culture that was not associated with their original Yana ancestors from the Arctic but became representative of Paleolithic Japanese culture. Starting 20,000 years ago and really coming into being 16,000 years ago, the Yana and Minatogawa mixed into the ethnogenesis of a new group, a group that would come to define Japan's history for thousands of years. Though they were of varying DNA admixture between Yana and Minatogawa, that is, between West Eurasian Siberians and Southern East Asians depending on where in Japan they were, events were coming that would isolate Japan for thousands of years and leave them to themselves. The mixture of these two groups would become known as the Jomon people, the representatives of the Jomon Period in Japan. 

And so, with the evolution of the Minatogawa and Yana into the Jomon, what is traditionally thought of as the Japanese Paleolithic Period comes to an end and the Jomon Period begins. From the first of the Hoabinhians in Japan to the birth of the Jomon, we have covered 22,000 years of Japanese history and one that is fundamental to life in the region. Though the Jomon would only make up of, on average, 10% of the later Japanese population today, these mysterious groups capture the attention of historians, Japan lovers, ethnologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists all around the world due to their unique and separateness from the rest of the East Asian continent. They survived perilous journeys by sea and disastrous volcanic catastrophes and rapidly moving glaciers and the unforgiving cold of the North Pole. Though they are not really with us anymore, Izanagi's 1,500 people have left their mark. 

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By Andrew Eubanks