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Yayoi people

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Reconstructed bust of a young Yayoi boy

The Yayoi people (弥生 人, Yayoi jin) were an ancient people that immigrated[1] to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period (300 BC–300 AD) and are characterized by the existence of Yayoi material culture.[2][3][4][5] Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1000 and 800 BC, but this date is contested.[1] The people of the Yayoi culture are regarded as the spreaders of agriculture and Japonic languages throughout the whole archipelago and had both local Jōmon hunter-gatherer and mainland Asian migrant ancestry.[6]

Origin

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The terms Yayoi and Wajin can be used interchangeably, though Wajin (倭人) refers to the people of Wa, and Wajin (和人) is also used as a name for the modern Yamato people.[7]

The definition of the Yayoi people is complex: Yayoi describes both farmer-hunter-gatherers exclusively living in the Japanese archipelago and their agricultural transition. Yayoi people refers specifically to the mixed descendants of Jōmon hunter-gatherers and mainland Asian migrants, who adopted (rice) agriculture and other continental material culture.[8]

There are several hypotheses about the geographic origin of the mainland Asian migrants:

According to Alexander Vovin, the Yayoi were present in the central and southern parts of Korea before they were displaced and assimilated by arriving proto-Koreans.[18][19] A similar view was raised by Whitman (2012), who further noted that the Yayoi are not closely related to the proto-Koreanic speakers and that they arrived in Korea later from Manchuria around 300 BC and coexisted with proto-Japonic speakers. Both influenced each other, and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.[20]

Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, suggested that immigrants from the Korean Peninsula initiated the Yayoi period in Japan. Citing research findings, he stated that Yayoi Japan likely received millions of immigrants from Korea. These immigrants, during the Yayoi transition, are believed to have overwhelmed the genetic contribution of the indigenous Jōmon people, whose population was estimated to be around 75,000 at that time.[21]

In recent times, through archaeological and genealogical research, Japanese scholars have largely associated the origin of the Yayoi people with the Korean peninsula and have stated their impact in terms of shared ancestry between the two modern populations.[22]

Lifestyle

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Yayoi attire

The Yayoi population is believed to have been heavily agricultural[23] and shamanistic oriented, being thought to be the precursor of Shintoism, worshipping animals and spirits.[24] Though the origins are still debated, the Yayoi group is believed to have been the people who first introduced rice farming to Japan.[23]

Genetics

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Summary

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Main articles: Genetic history of East Asians § Japanese people, and Genetic and anthropometric studies on Japanese people

The Yayoi period population is inferred to have been culturally close to the pre-Koreanic Mumun pottery period populations of the southern Korean peninsula, which may have been speakers of Peninsular Japonic languages.[25][26] Genetically, the Yayoi group is often associated with the Y-Haplogroup O1b2 (SRY465, M176) [ja] which is commonly found in modern day Japanese and Korean populations. Anthropologically, it is considered to be genetically diverse and can be divided into three separate, but related groups: early-Yayoi (弥生初期), middle-Yayoi (弥生中期), and late-Yayoi (弥生後期) settlers.[27] Although the groups all share the unique O1b2 ancestry, early-Yayoi period people possessed more Jōmon ancestry[27] whereas the later-Yayoi settlers possessed more mainland Asian ancestry[28] with the latter bearing heavy resemblance with ancient Koreans from the Three Kingdoms period.[29]

Impact on modern populations

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Genetically, the Yayoi people (especially the later-Yayoi settlers) are believed to be a major component of the genetic makeup for the modern Japanese people[30] and are believed to be the contributing factor for the diminishment of the previously dominant Jōmon ancestry, commonly associated with the mtDNA Haplogroup M7a [ja]. Today, modern Japanese people possess around an average of 9% (±3%) of Jōmon ancestry with the highest reaching around 12%.[31] In comparison, Koreans possess more Yayoi ancestry than the Japanese, only carrying 6% (±3%) of Jōmon ancestry in total, sometimes going low as 3%.[32]

Physical appearance

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Early Yayoi immigrants had often wholly large and flat features, large facial height, round eye orbits, and large teeth,[33] while other early Yayoi specimens, such as those from the Shinmachi Dolmen Cluster displayed features closer to the earlier Jōmon people, such as a shorter face, short stature, and Jōmon-style tooth extraction. One Yayoi specimen reconstructed in 2025 displayed transitional features, retaining the characteristics of a Jōmon person, but also having other characteristics such as less prominent cheekbones and a longer face.[34][35]

Sea people

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Some historians call the Yayoi people the "Sea people (海人族/Kaijinzoku or Amazoku, 海神族/Watatsumizoku)," postulating that they migrated to Japan via the sea from elsewhere. This idea began with finding Kara-styled bronzewares and shipwreck remains on the coasts of the Korean peninsula,[36] prompting some historians to suggest that there was a group of seafaring people who entered Japan via Korea from the seas during the Yayoi period.

Multiple theories about their geographic origin exist, including the Korean peninsula,[36] Southeast Asia,[37] and South China. However, the theory of the Sea people is deemed merely hypothetical due to lack of evidence, and support for it has diminished over the years in favor of more grounded descriptions in terms of the Yayoi people.

Language

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Main article: Classification of the Japonic languages

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Shinya Shōda (2007). "A Comment on the Yayoi Period Dating Controversy". Bulletin of the Society for East Asian Archaeology. 1. Archived from the original on 1 August 2019.
  2. ^ "Yayoi Period (300 BCE – 250 AD) | Japan Module".
  3. ^ "Timelines: JAPAN | Asia for Educators | Columbia University".
  4. ^ "Pitt Rivers Museum Body Arts | Bronze mirror".
  5. ^ Keally, Charles T. (3 June 2006). "Yayoi Culture". Japanese Archaeology. Charles T. Keally. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  6. ^ Boer, Elisabeth de; Yang, Melinda A.; Kawagoe, Aileen; Barnes, Gina L. (2020). "Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2: e13. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.7. ISSN 2513-843X. PMC 10427481. PMID 37588377. S2CID 218926428.
  7. ^ David Blake Willis & Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu: Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity, Archived 6 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine, p. 272: ‘“Wajin,” which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read “Yamato no hito” (Yamato person)’.
  8. ^ Boer, Elisabeth de; Yang, Melinda A.; Kawagoe, Aileen; Barnes, Gina L. (2020). "Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2: e13. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.7. ISSN 2513-843X. PMC 10427481. PMID 37588377. S2CID 218926428. The term Yayoi has four uses, which can create much confusion. First, it is the designation of the period beginning with the introduction of rice agriculture around 1000 BC until the advent of the Mounded Tomb Culture in the third century AD. Yayoi is a period designation exclusive to Japan; it includes both farmers and hunter–gatherers and entails the agricultural transition in a time-transgressive and regionally disparate process. Second, 'Yayoi people' may refer to anyone living in the Japanese Islands in the Yayoi period, or third, Yayoi may refer specifically to admixed people (Mumun + Jōmon in varying in proportions and across great distances). Fourth, Yayoi may indicate acculturation: the adoption of (rice) agriculture (and other continental material culture) by Jōmon-lineage people in the Yayoi period. All of these conflicting aspects of Yayoi must be kept in mind and clearly defined in any discussion.
  9. ^ Diamond, Jared. "In Search of Japanese Roots". Discover Magazine.
  10. ^ Watanabe, Yusuke; Naka, Izumi; Khor, Seik-Soon; Sawai, Hiromi; Hitomi, Yuki; Tokunaga, Katsushi; Ohashi, Jun (17 June 2019). "Analysis of whole Y-chromosome sequences reveals the Japanese population history in the Jomon period". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 8556. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.8556W. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44473-z. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6572846. PMID 31209235.
  11. ^ ロシア極東新石器時代研究の新展開 Archived 26 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
  12. ^ 崎谷満『DNA・考古・言語の学際研究が示す新・日本列島史』(勉誠出版　2009年)(in Japanese)
  13. ^ 徳永勝士 (2003)「HLA と人類の移動」『Science of humanity Bensei 』(42), 4–9, 東京：勉誠出版 (in Japanese)
  14. ^ 岡正雄『異人その他 日本民族=文化の源流と日本国家の形成』 言叢社 1979 (in Japanese)
  15. ^ "Javanese influence on Japanese". Languages of The World. 9 May 2011. Archived from the original on 25 July 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  16. ^ 鳥越憲三郎『原弥生人の渡来 』(角川書店,1982)、『倭族から日本人へ』(弘文堂 ,1985)、『古代朝鮮と倭族』(中公新書,1992)、『倭族トラジャ』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1995)、『弥生文化の源流考』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1998)、『古代中国と倭族』(中公新書,2000)、『中国正史倭人・倭国伝全釈』(中央公論新社,2004)
  17. ^ 諏訪春雄編『倭族と古代日本』(雄山閣出版、1993)また諏訪春雄通信100
  18. ^ Janhunen, Juha (2010). "Reconstructing the Language Map of Prehistorical Northeast Asia". Studia Orientalia (108): 281–304. there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state (in the southwest) was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized.
  19. ^ Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean". Korean Linguistics. 15 (2): 222–240.
  20. ^ Whitman, John (1 December 2011). "Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan". Rice. 4 (3): 149–58. Bibcode:2011Rice....4..149W. doi:10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0. ISSN 1939-8433.
  21. ^ Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton & Company. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  22. ^ 水野, 文月 (15 October 2024). "弥生時代人の古代ゲノム解析から渡来人のルーツを探る". 東京大学 大学院理学系研究科・理学部 (in Japanese).
  23. ^ Jump up to: a b Kazuo, Miyamoto (2019). "The spread of rice agriculture during the Yayoi Period: From the Shandong Peninsula to the Japanese Archipelago via the Korean Peninsula". S2CID 209506890.
  24. ^ "Ancient vessel depicting 'bird-costume shaman' found for 1st time in eastern Japan". Mainichi Daily News. 19 November 2020.
  25. ^ Whitman, John (14 December 2011). "Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan". Rice. 4 (3): 149–158. Bibcode:2011Rice....4..149W. doi:10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0. ISSN 1939-8433.
  26. ^ "Archaeological Explanation for the Diffusion Theory of the Japonic and Koreanic Language | Collections | Kyushu University Library" (in Japanese). hdl:2324/1812319. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  27. ^ Jump up to: a b 弥生人ＤＮＡで迫る日本人の起源」 [The origin of Japanese people approaching with Yayoi DNA]. ja:サイエンスZERO (Television production) (in Japanese). NHK. 23 December 2018.
  28. ^ Nakao, Hisashi; Kaneda, Akihiro; Tamura, Kohei; Noshita, Koji; Nakagawa, Tomomi (2 April 2024). "Macro-Scale Population Patterns in the Kofun Period of the Japanese Archipelago: Quantitative Analysis of a Larger Sample of Three-Dimensional Data from Ancient Human Crania". Humans. 4 (2): 131–147. doi:10.3390/humans4020008. ISSN 2673-9461.
  29. ^ Gelabert, Pere; Blazyte, Asta; Chang, Yongjoon; Fernandes, Daniel M.; Jeon, Sungwon; Hong, Jin Geun; Yoon, Jiyeon; Ko, Youngmin; Oberreiter, Victoria; Cheronet, Olivia; Özdoğan, Kadir T.; Sawyer, Susanna; Yang, Songhyok; Greytak, Ellen McRae; Choi, Hansol (8 August 2022). "Northeastern Asian and Jomon-related genetic structure in the Three Kingdoms period of Gimhae, Korea". Current Biology. 32 (15): 3232–3244.e6. Bibcode:2022CBio...32E3232G. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.004. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 35732180.
  30. ^ プレジデント 公式チャンネル (25 December 2024). 【9割は「外来種」日本人のDNA】縄文人と弥生人は違う種だった？/人類は1万年前よりバカになっている？/沖縄3割･アイヌ7割「日本人の二重構造モデル」/国立科学博物館館長･分子人類学者篠田謙一氏に聞く – via YouTube.
  31. ^ "「縄文人」は独自進化したアジアの特異集団だった！ : 深読み". 読売新聞オンライン (in Japanese). 15 December 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  32. ^ Gelabert, Pere; Blazyte, Asta; Chang, Yongjoon; Fernandes, Daniel M.; Jeon, Sungwon; Hong, Jin Geun; Yoon, Jiyeon; Ko, Youngmin; Oberreiter, Victoria; Cheronet, Olivia; Özdoğan, Kadir T.; Sawyer, Susanna; Yang, Songhyok; Greytak, Ellen McRae; Choi, Hansol (8 August 2022). "Northeastern Asian and Jomon-related genetic structure in the Three Kingdoms period of Gimhae, Korea". Current Biology. 32 (15): 3232–3244.e6. Bibcode:2022CBio...32E3232G. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.004. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 35732180.
  33. ^ Miyazato, Eri; Yamaguchi, Kyoko; Fukase, Hitoshi; et al. (2014). "Comparative analysis of facial morphology between Okinawa Islanders and mainland Japanese using three-dimensional images". American Journal of Human Biology. 26 (4): 538–548. doi:10.1002/ajhb.22560 – via Wiley Online Library.
  34. ^ "「のっぺり顔」ではない弥生人 九州北部で発掘された人骨から復元：朝日新聞". 朝日新聞 (in Japanese). 23 February 2025. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  35. ^ Isomura, Yukio; Sakai, Hideya (2012). (国指定史跡事典) National Historic Site Encyclopedia. 学生社. ISBN 978-4311750403.(in Japanese)
  36. ^ Jump up to: a b 澤田洋太郎『日本語形成の謎に迫る』（新泉社、1999年）
  37. ^ 次田真幸『古事記 （上） 全訳注』講談社学術文庫 38刷2001年（初版 1977年）ISBN 4-06-158207-0 p.192
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