Japanese Prehistoric Art

Japanese prehistoric art is a wide-ranging category, spanning over the Jōmon (c. 10,000 BCE – 350 BCE^[1]) and Yayoi periods (c. 350 BCE – 250 CE), and the entire Japanese archipelago. Including Hokkaidō in the north, and the Ryukyu Islands in the south which were, politically, not part of Japan until the late 19th century.

Much about these two periods remains unknown, and debates continue among scholars regarding the nature of these cultures and societies of the period. Also including their number and the extent to which they can be considered to be united, uniform cultures across the archipelago, and across time.

^ The Jōmon people were largely displaced by (or gave way to, becoming)the Yayoi people around 300 BCE, and later the Yamato polity in the center of Honshū and further south and west, those scholars who equate the Jōmon people with the Ainu and other native groups of the north (Tōhoku) and Hokkaidō state that it lasted much longer. The natives of Tōhoku were largely displaced in the 10th-11th centuries CE. (Frederic, Louis (2002). "Jōmon-jidai." Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.)

[1] The Jōmon people were largely displaced by (or gave way to, becoming)the Yayoi people around 300 BCE, and later the Yamato polity in the center of Honshū and further south and west, those scholars who equate the Jōmon people with the Ainu and other native groups of the north (Tōhoku) and Hokkaidō state that it lasted much longer. The natives of Tōhoku were largely displaced in the 10th-11th centuries CE. (Frederic, Louis (2002). "Jōmon-jidai." Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.)

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