Reconstructed raised storage building, Yoshinogari, Saga prefecture

Japanese Art with Chelsea, Part 2
Or, Rice, Bells, and Granaries, Oh My!
THE YAYOI PERIOD

My apologies for the ridiculous title — I couldn’t think of anything more clever (and that’s saying something, since that title is clearly too cheesy for its own good)… Anyway, the Yayoi period! Around 400 BCE, a break occured between the Jōmon peoples and a new kind of peoples, called the Yayoi. Like the Jōmon people, the Yayoi had a stationary life around the area of modern-day Tokyo (then called Yayoi — thus the period’s namesake), but unlike the Jōmon, Yayoi life centered around rice cultivation. The central symbol of that life, that was often manifested in art, was the rice granary (see right). This building was a raised structure meant for food storage, likely the extremely important rice crop.

Dōtaku, Tokyo National Museum

The immense importance of rice is clear by looking at a very different object associated with the Yayoi, the dōtaku, or bell-shaped bronze. On this dōtaku, left, (click on the image and zoom in! The TMN has an incredible photo collection), you can see images of daily life on it; including hunting and rice cultivation. Unfortunately, the image on the site only shows the front of the dōtaku, but there is a roughly drawn image on the back of it of the rice granary, which shows its importance. Even today, rice granaries signify indigenous Japan — something that has great resonance, because a lot of early Japanese techniques were borrowed and adapted from mainland Asia (Korea and China). And speaking of techniques borrowed, the bronze casting technique was, indeed, one adapted from Korea. The exact purpose of the dōtaku bells is unknown, but art historians guess that they had a ritual function, and were interestingly seen but not heard: there’s no evidence of the bells ever having been struck.

Yayoi Jar, Tokyo National Museum

To wrap things up, let’s tie it back to ceramics — because those jars didn’t just go away. In the Yayoi period, vessels became rounder and more perfected, though perhaps still done by hand and definitely still low-fired. Many of the vessels, in fact, emphasize the roundness of their form, and also the form’s functionality, as in the one to the right, where we see lightly etched lines surrounding and drawing attention to the neck of the jar, where one would have held it. Because this is the only decoration (quite a change from the Flame-Style vessels in the Jōmon period, eh?), one really ‘gets’ how to use the pottery — and also understands that it is a very functional object.

In 250 CE, there’s another change, as emperors gain power and tombs have to be built — and guarded. But that’s a story for another post!

Coming Up: Big Mounds, Little People — The Kofun Period

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Chelsea | art, chelsea, guest column | Sunday, June 24th, 2007 | Trackback