The Jomon period (縄文時代, Jōmon-jidai?) lasted from about 10,000 BC to 300 BC.
The first signs of civilization and stable living patterns appeared around 10,000 BC with the Jōmon culture, characterized by a mesolithic to neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer lifestyle of wood stilt house and pit dwelling and a rudimentary form of agriculture. Weaving was still unknown and clothes were often made of bark. Bear worship was common, as many place names still today have the word "kuma" (bear) in them. Around that time, however, the Jomon people started to make clay vessels, decorated with patterns made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks (Jōmon means "patterns of plaited cord"
. Some of the oldest surviving examples of pottery in the world may be found in Japan, based on radio-carbon dating, along with daggers, jade, combs made of shells, and other household items, although the specific dating is disputed. The household items suggest trade routes existed with places as far away as Okinawa. Many believe and DNA analysis suggests that the Ainu, an indigenous people found mostly today on the northern island of Hokkaidō, but previously had lived on Honshū, and potentially other groups, as mentioned in the Kojiki, such as the tsuchi-gumo (English: dirt spiders), are descended from the Jomon and thus represent descendants of the first inhabitants of Japan. Also, entire wood dwellings (that normally would rot away) have been dug up in northern Japan that were preserved in ice, dated back to before 8000 BC (radio-carbon dating).
According to disputed archeological evidence based on carbon-14, the Jomon people created the first known pottery type in the world, dated to the 11th millennium BC. The Jomon people(s) were making clay figures (one popular type called dogu that was buried with the dead) and vessels decorated with patterns made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks with a growing sophistication.The Yayoi period (弥生時代, Yayoi jidai?) lasted from about 300 BCE (although this date is debated) to 250 CE. It is named after the section of Tokyo where archaeological investigations uncovered its first recognized traces.
The start of the Yayoi period around 300 BCE marked the influx of new practices such as rice farming, shamanism and iron and bronze-making brought by migrants (i.e. Yayoi-jin) from outside of Japan. As for the wet paddy rice growing, It has been assumed that the origin is Chinese Yunnan which is abundant in the flora now, but the theory goes that the origin is the Yangtze River, in which the downstream is powerful .The tribes structured over time into many small countries (国, kuni or koku?), and alliances and warfare led to the emergence of larger and more organized entities.
Japan first appeared in written history in 57 CE with the following mention in China's Book of Later Han: "Across the ocean from Luoyang are the people of Wa (in Chinese, "Wo" or "dwarf state"
. Formed from more than one hundred tribes, they come and pay tribute frequently."
China's Book of Wei in the 3rd century evoke the country of Yamataikoku, unifying some 30 smaller countries and ruled by a shaman queen named Himiko.Yamato polity (大和政権, Yamato polity?) was the main ruling power in Japan from the middle of the 3rd century until 710. The Kofun period (mid 3rd century - mid 6th century), is defined by a tumulus-building culture; the keyhole-shaped tumuli are called kofun. The Asuka period (mid 6th century - 710), is defined as the time in which the capital was in Asuka, near present-day Nara.
During the 5th and 6th centuries, there was much contact between the Korean kingdoms such as Baekje and the Yamato state. Some of the results of this contact were the introduction of Buddhism to Japan by people from Baekje, and military support given by the Yamato state to Baekje.
The Kofun period, beginning around CE 250, is named after the large burial mounds (古墳, Kofun?) that appeared at the time. The Kofun period saw the establishment of strong military states centered around powerful clans, and the establishment of a dominant polity centered in the Yamato area, from the 3rd century to the 7th century, the Yamato Court, origin of the Japanese imperial lineage. The Yamato Court, suppressing the clans and acquiring agricultural lands, maintained a strong influence in the western part of Japan (the Asuka region). Based upon the Chinese model, they developed a central administration and an imperial court system and society was organized into occupation groups.
Several proto-state formations rivalled, possibly representing different ethnic backgrounds. There are hypotheses of a couple of bigger migrations waves of continental population to central areas of Japanese islands during this period, each bringing something vitally new or becoming a basis of a polity formation.
The Asuka period (飛鳥時代, Asuka period?) is when the proto-Japanese Yamato polity gradually became a clearly centralized state, defining and applying a code of governing laws, such as the Taika Reform and Taihō Codes. The introduction of Buddhism led to the discontinuing of the practice of burial mounds, or kofun.
Buddhism was introduced to Japan by Baekje, to which Japan provided military support, and it was promoted by the ruling class. Prince Shotoku devoted his efforts to the spread of Buddhism and Chinese culture in Japan. He is credited with bringing relative peace to Japan through the proclamation of the Seventeen-article constitution. He wrote in a letter to the Emperor of China that the 'Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises' (Japan) sends a letter to the 'Emperor of the land where Sun sets' (China), thereby implying a declaration of equal footing with China which angered the Chinese emperor.
Starting with the Taika Reform Edicts of 645, Japanese intensified the adoption of Chinese cultural practices and reorganized the government and the penal code in accordance with the Chinese administrative structure (the Ritsuryo state) of the time. This paved the way for the dominance of Confucian philosophy in Japan until the 19th century. This period also saw the first uses of the word Nihon (日本
as a name for the emerging state.
The Nara period of the 8th century marked the first emergence of a strong Japanese state. Started in 707, the move of the capital under Empress Genmei to Heijo-kyo, present-day Nara, was achieved in 710. The city was modelled on the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Chang'an (now Xi'an).
During the Nara Period, political developments were quite limited, since members of the imperial family struggled for power with the Buddhist clergy as well as the regents, the Fujiwara clan. Japan did enjoy friendly relations with Silla as well as formal relationships with Tang China. In 784, the capital was moved again to Nagaoka (to escape the Buddhist priests) and then in 794 to Heian-kyo, present-day Kyoto.
Historical writing in Japan culminated in the early 8th century with the massive chronicles, the Kojiki (The Record of Ancient Matters, 712) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720). These chronicles give a legendary account of Japan's beginnings in which the people were descendants of the gods themselves. According to the myths contained in these 2 chronicles, Japan was founded in 660 BC by the ancestral Emperor Jimmu, a direct descendant of the Shinto deity Amaterasu, or the Sun Goddess. The myths also claim that Jimmu started a line of emperors that remains unbroken to this day. However, historians believe the first emperor who actually existed was Emperor Ōjin, though the date of his reign is uncertain. For most of Japan's history, actual political power has not been in the hands of the emperor, but in the hands of the court nobility, the shoguns, the military and, more recently, the prime minister.
The Heian period (平安時代, Heian period?), lasting from 794 to 1185, is the final period of classical Japanese history. It is considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially in poetry and literature. In the early 11th century, Lady Murasaki wrote the world's oldest surviving novel called The Tale of Genji.
Strong differentiations from Asian mainland culture traits emerged (such as an indigenous writing system, the kana). Chinese influence had effectively ended with the last imperial-sanctioned mission to Tang China in 838, due to the decline of the Tang Dynasty, although trade expeditions and Buddhist pilgrimages to China continued.
Political power in the Imperial court was in the hands of powerful aristocratic families, especially the Fujiwaras who ruled under the titles Sessho and Kampaku (regents).
The end of the period saw the rise of various military clans. Towards the end of the 12th century, conflicts between those clans turned into civil war (the Hōgen and Heiji Rebellions, followed by the Genpei war), from which emerged a society led by samurai clans, under the political rule of a shogun.