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People first arrived on the Japanese archipelago from the continent around 40,000 years ago, long before the land was known as “Japan.” Research suggests homo sapiens spread out from Africa to regions across the world some 50-60,000 years ago before eventually reaching the Japanese islands on the far side of Asia too. The first arrivals lived in small nomadic groupings. These communities began making earthenware about 15,000 years ago, extremely early in the context of world history. This was a painstaking, time-consuming task and the heavy, bulky pottery objects were difficult to carry around. Indeed, the advent of earthenware production broadly coincides with the period when people began living in fixed settlements. These pottery objects came to be decorated with rope made from twisted plant fibers, for example, or with patterns made by wrapping rope around a rod and rolling it across the clay surface. These cord patterns are known as “jōmon” in Japanese, which is why this era of pottery production is known as the “Jōmon period.”

The transition to sedentary lifestyles led to generations of people being born and dying in the same place. There was still no agriculture, but folk began to adapt to their environments by adopting rules governing how to live, work, hunt and fish, for example, with tools and tool-using techniques also becoming more functional and refined. People also spoke the same dialects and inherited gestures, customs, mythologies and musics, with this giving rise to a sense of clan and home. In this way, the growth of settled communities led to an ever-deepening feeling of “us” and “them.” Pottery evolved as a means of expressing this new sense of belonging. Now, people could recognize a certain pottery shape as “our shape” or a certain pattern as “another tribe’s pattern,” for example, with this leading to a greater diversity of shapes and designs. Japan is a long country, with Honshu alone stretching around 1,500km from north to south. A sophisticated culture bloomed here during the Jōmon period, one aptly symbolized by the richly-individualistic designs of its earthenware.

Tokamachi City Museum

Tokamachi City Museum TOPPAKU reopened in 2020 following renovation work. One of its three permanent exhibitions focuses on the “Jōmon Period” and displays 57 deep pots, including examples of flame-style pottery and crown-style pottery. These items were excavated from the Sasayama Site and are collectively designated a National Treasure. The museum also has an exhibition about the traditions and history of the “Snow Country,” the name given to Niigata when it is enveloped in thick snow for nearly half a year, from December to April. The third permanent exhibition is entitled “Textile History” and it explores textiles, a major industry in the area from the Yayoi period (ca. 4th century BC–mid-3rd century AD) to the present day.