Taiwan's Glory

Takeshi Kaneshiro

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Red Cliff (video)

 

The Warlords (video)

 

Confession of Pain (video)

 

Perhaps Love (video)

 

House of Flying Daggers (video)

 

Turn Left, Turn Right (video)

 

Returner (video)

 

Chungking Express (video)

 

 

 

 

• Taiwan's Glory
  • A-mei
  • Takeshi Kaneshiro
  • Yuan T. Lee
  • Ang Lee
  • Cho-liang Lin
  • Chien-ming Wang
  • Chang Yung-fa
  • Luo Dayou
  • Teresa Teng
  • Momofuku Ando

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

 

Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武), born October 11, 1973, is a famous Asian actor of mixed heritage - his father is Okinawan (Ryukyu Islands) and his mother is Taiwanese.

 

Biography

Takeshi Kaneshiro is of both Japanese and Taiwanese ancestry. With a mother from Taiwan and a father from Okinawa, Kaneshiro was born and raised in Taipei, and is a Japanese citizen.

He has two brothers (7 years older; 1 year older). In a recent interview in Hong Kong, 23 December 2007, Kaneshiro mentioned that he has one elder brother. After being bullied at a regular Taiwanese high school, the Gaoxong Preparatory School, over his mixed heritage, he enrolled at English-based Taipei American School, which enabled him to converse in English, making him effectively multi-lingual considering his fluency in Mandarin, Taiwanese (his first-spoken language), and Japanese. As a result of his varied background, Kaneshiro can speak with varying degrees of fluency in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese. It was while he was studying there that he began doing TV commercials, and he decided to quit school in order to pursue a singing and acting career.

 

Career

In 1992, Kaneshiro made his singing debut, entering the business with the nickname Aniki, meaning 'older brother' in Japanese. His debut album was Heartbreaking Night (1992). Contracted to EMI, he wrote many of his own Mandarin and Cantonese songs. The following year, his popularity propelled him into acting and he no longer produces any commercial music. He later stated that acting comes to him more naturally, while his singing capabilities are not up to scratch and best left to the "professionals," including his favorite singer Jacky Cheung. Kaneshiro maintains that singing is only his hobby.

His first movie was Executioners (1993) and this was followed by the critically acclaimed Wong Kar-Wai film Chungking Express (1994) and a string of other Hong Kong movies. Later, Kaneshiro starred in the highly successful Japanese TV mini-series God, Please Give Me More Time (1998), allowing him to branch into Japanese movies such as Returner (2002). Kaneshiro's work, however, is more heavily concentrated in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He also became well known in the video game industry portraying the samurai warrior Samanosuke in the Capcom hit Onimusha. In a June 2007 article on the movie site Ain't It Cool News, it was revealed that Kaneshiro will be in the Onimusha movie, reprising his role as Samanosuke and for a 2011 release.

Kaneshiro is often praised for having "chameleon-like" acting skills due to his ability to adapt to a wide variety of roles. He became a superstar playing oddball and forlorn characters and has proven impossible to typecast. Director Peter Chan, of the Chinese musical Perhaps Love, which Kaneshiro starred in, has been quoted as saying "I am willing to exchange my 11 nominations for the nomination of Takeshi for Best Actor award. My greatest regret is Takeshi Kaneshiro wasn't nominated." Despite this, he continued to receive rave reviews for a spectacular performance of a vulnerable yet angry and ultimately maturing character.

Outside of the entertainment business, Kaneshiro has acted as a spokesperson and model for Emporio Armani Underwear (2008) as well as , Prada (1998), Lifecard credit card company, VAIO personal computer, Honda, Lipice lips moisturizer, SonyEricsson, Pocari Sweat soft drink, Morinaga chocolate, Volvic, GEOS (eikaiwa) (language school), Petronas oil company, Japan Asia Airways, Hyundai Motor Company, Toyota MarkX ZiO, Mitsubishi Galant, NTT docomo the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan, NTT Yellow Pages, Shiseido, Lycos, UCC Ueshima Coffee Co., Kadokawa Shoten a well-known Japanese publisher based in Tokyo, Rice Burger, Roasted barley tea, One2Free (HK), and Kiwi cold drink.

About his personal life Kaneshiro has been quoted as saying “If one day I get married and have kids, I will probably be one of those men who really care for the family. I will eat at home every day, and help with the chores and take care of the children.”

 

 

 

Onimusha: Warlords

Onimusha: Warlords, released in Japan as Onimusha (鬼武者), is the first game of the Onimusha series, released for the PlayStation 2 at first. It went through many changes and was released as Genma Onimusha for the Xbox. The game was also ported to PC Windows as Onimusha: Warlords, although this version was only released in Asia. Also Onimusha: Warlords was originally going to be for the PlayStation, but since the release of the PlayStation 2 (Onimusha: Warlords was about 50% done at that time) it was moved to the PlayStation 2.

The game features samurai Samanosuke Akechi (明智左馬介), modeled after actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, determined to save Princess Yuki (雪姫) of the Saito clan and defeat Nobunaga, resurrected after signing a pact with demons. The game also features Kaede, an expert female ninja who provides Samanosuke with information. Kaede was originally sent to assassinate Samanosuke by the Iga ninja clan for reasons unknown, but she did not kill Samanosuke for reasons that were also unknown, rather developing trust and deep feelings of love (as shown in Onimusha Blade Warriors) for the samurai and agreeing to join him as his confidant. Samansosuke travels throughout all of Inabayama Castle where he searches for clues of Princess Yuki's whereabouts, finds special weapons, and solves various puzzles.

 

 

Albums

Year	Title	Label	Notes
1992	Heartbreaking Night (分手的夜裡)	Philips, Polygram	Mandarin album (Release date: September 1992)
1993	Just You and Me (只要你和我)	Philips, Polygram	Mandarin album (Release date: June 1993)
1993	Reliable Best Friend (可依靠的好朋友)	Unknown	Mandarin album (Best of 1992-1993) (Release date: 1993)
1994	Tender Superman (溫柔超人)	Philips, Polygram	Mandarin album (Release date: February 1994)
1994	Ideal Lover (標準情人)	EMI	Mandarin album (Release date: December 1994)
1994	Missed Date (失約)	EMI	Cantonese album (Release date: December 1994)
1995	For My Beloved (給我心愛的人)	EMI	Cantonese album (Release date: June 1995)
1995	Secretly Drunk (偷偷的醉)	EMI	Mandarin album (Release date: October 1995)
1996	No Matter How Hard (多苦都願意)	EMI	Mandarin album (Release date: October 1996)
1996	Memories (精選集 Memories)	Unknown	Mandarin album (Release date: 1996)
1998	Best Collection (金城武的精選歌集)	Unknown	Mandarin album (Release date: 1998)

 

Movie Soundtracks

Year	Title	Track Featuring Takeshi	Notes
2005	Perhaps Love (如果愛)	No.4 Forgot Who I am (忘了我是誰) (duet with Zhou Xun 周迅), No.6 Beautiful Story (美麗故事) (duet with Ji Jin Hee 池珍熙), No.10 Crossroad (十字街頭) (duet with Zhou Xun 周迅), No.11 What If (假如) (Solo)	Mandarin album (Release date: 2005)

 

 

Map of the Ryukyu Islands

 

The Ryukyu Islands, in Japanese called the Nansei Islands (南西諸島, literally Southwest Islands), are a chain of Japanese islands in the western Pacific Ocean at the eastern limit of the East China Sea. They stretch southwest from the island of Kyūshū to the island of Taiwan. The islands are administratively divided into Satsunan Islands to the north, belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, and Ryukyu Shotō to the south, belonging to Okinawa Prefecture, Japan (Yoron Island is the southernmost island of the Satsunan Islands and Yonaguni the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands). The largest of the islands is Okinawa Island.

 

 

Ryukyuan People

Ryukyuans (Japanese: 琉球民族) are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The generally recognized subgroups of Ryukyuans are Amamians, Okinawans, Miyakoans, Yaeyamans, and Yonagunians. Their languages, such as Uchinaguchi, make up the Ryukyuan language family, one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other one being Japanese and its dialects. These languages are, in fact, different from Japanese and cannot be understood by a native Japanese speaker without some effort.

 

Ryukyuan Ethnic Identity and Pride

The culture of Ryukyuans, though closely related to Japanese culture, is nonetheless distinctive in that it historically received much more influence from China and has separate political and religious traditions. The Ryukyuan people's marine environmental protection awareness is very strong. Traditionally, Okinawans have a very tightly-knit family life and enjoy close personal friendships, which contributes to dietary factors that make Uchinanchu among the longest-lived people in the world. Uchinanchu tend to see themselves as bound together by their home island and, especially among older Uchinanchu, will always consider themselves from Okinawa ("Uchinā" in Okinawan) first and Japan second.

Okinawan food is rich in vitamins and minerals and is a good balance of protein, fats, and carbohydrates. Although rice is a staple food, pork, seaweed, rich miso (fermented soybean) pastes, and black sugar all feature prominently in native cuisine. Most famous to tourists is the bitter melon, gōya, which is often mixed into a rice dish called gōya champurū. The taste of goya can best be described as an acquired taste by some, but others will describe its unique flavor as one that is approximated by no other vegetable, as it has the taste of "a demon's bitter toenails".

Native Uchinā religion places strong emphasis upon the role of the women in the community, with women holding positions as shamans and guardians of the home and hearth. Shi-shi lion dog statues can often be seen on or in front of houses—this relates to the ancient Uchina belief that the male spirit is the spirit of the outside and the female spirit is the spirit of the inside. To prevent the negative interaction or conquering of the inside spirit by the outside, the male spirits will go into the shi-shi statues while the man is inside and enter him again when he leaves. Most Okinawans are not serious adherents to this religion anymore, but many older Uchinanchu try to teach about the old ways, including dances and the language.

Uchinānchu are known as a peaceful people and have always considered the arts and music as more honorable than combat skills, but if need be they will defend their honour. This can be evidenced by the revelation that, in feudal Japan, it was almost mandatory to show martial awareness by keeping a daishō (matched pair of large and small swords) in the tokonoma (living room alcove), but Uchinanchu always had a sanshin (a sort of Asian guitar or lute) in their tokonoma.

In modern times, the old dances and songs are making a resurgence as young Uchinanchu and even foreigners with mixed blood get more into their unique culture. Once again the sanshin and chants can be heard over fires at the festivals.

During the occupation by Japan in the mid-15th–16th centuries, the Uchinanchu were completely disarmed of all bladed weapons by the Japanese (who feared revolt). The techniques of self-defense and using farm tools as weapons against armed opponents—called Karate by today's martial artists—was created totally by Uchinanchu who probably incorporated some gong fu and native techniques from China into a complete system of attack and defense known simply as Te (literally meaning "hand(s)," but with a strong connotation of "manoeuvre(s)"). These martial arts varied slightly from town to town, and were named for their towns of origin, examples being Naha-te (currently known as Goju-Ryu), Tomari-te and Shuri-te. These martial arts are also making a resurgence in Okinawa as young people once again look to their ancient past for a proud tradition of self-defense and inner calm.

 

Early History

The descent of the modern-day Ryukyuan people is disputed. One theory claims that the earliest inhabitants of these islands crossed a prehistoric land bridge from modern-day China, with later additions of Malays, Micronesians, and Japanese merging into the population. Another theory, based mostly on evidence from studies of physical anthropology and genetic research, proposes that the modern Ryukyuans and people of Southern Kyūshū are more closely related to the prehistoric inhabitants of the Japanese islands. This population is known in Japan as Jōmon-jin (縄文人) or "People of the Jōmon Era". The scientists who have developed this theory explain that the mainland Japanese are rather a complex mix of prehistoric Japanese aborigines and immigrants who originated in the ancestral populations of various continental Asian peoples, especially those who came from what are now Korea and China.

Early Chinese visitors noted the hospitality of the islanders, as well as the sharp economic divisions between the small upper class and the impoverished masses. Along with the arrival of European explorers in the nineteenth century, the Ryukyuans also came into contact with the Dutch, the Portuguese, the English and others, who always noted the hospitality of the natives.

The dominant economy has historically been based on the farming of sugar cane (uuji), and later on, the sweet potato. Other farmed items include guava, banana, papaya, and tobacco.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Ryukyuans traded from Java to Japan, as well as with China and Korea. This led to an increased level of prosperity for the kingdom.

 

Ryūkyū Kingdom

The Ryūkyū Kingdom (琉球國) was an independent kingdom which ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th century to the 19th century. The Kings of Ryūkyū unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Sakishima Islands near Taiwan.

History: In the three Ryūkyū historical annals—Chūzan Seikan (中山世鑑, Mirror of Chūzan), Chūzan Seifu (中山世譜, Genealogy of Chūzan), and Kyūyō (球陽, Chronicle of Ryūkyū)—the history of the Ryūkyū Kingdom began with the Tenson Dynasty (天孫王朝, Dynasty of Heavenly Descent), which was said to have lasted 17,000 years. Many historians today believe that this is a mythological legend created in the 16th or 17th century to lend more legitimacy to the ruling dynasty, the Shō family, over other local aristocratic families.

The Tenson Dynasty ended with three kings of the Shunten Line (舜天王朝), lasting from 1187 to 1259. According to Chūzan Seikan, written by Shō Shōken, the founder of the dynasty was a son of Minamoto no Tametomo, a Japanese aristocrat and relative of the Imperial family. Minamoto no Tametomo was exiled to the Izu Islands after he failed to gain power in the Kyoto court; he then fled and drifted to Ryūkyū, where his son Shunten established their own dynasty. Some Japanese and Chinese scholars claim that the Shunten dynasty was again invented by the Shō family historians, for the same reason that they created the Tenson legend.

In the 14th century, small domains scattered on Okinawa Island were unified into three principalities: Hokuzan (北山, Northern Mountain), Chūzan (中山, Central Mountain) and Nanzan (南山, Southern Mountain). This was known as the Three Kingdoms or Sanzan (三山, Three Mountains) period. These three principalities, or tribal federations led by major chieftains, battled, and Chūzan emerged victorious, receiving Chinese investiture in the early 15th century. That is to say, the leaders of Chūzan were officially recognized by China as the rightful kings over those of Nanzan and Hokuzan, thus lending great legitimacy to their claims, if not victory outright. The ruler of Chūzan passed his throne to king Hashi; he received the surname "Shō" from the Ming emperor in 1421, becoming known as Shō Hashi (尚巴志). Hashi had already conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, uniting the island of Okinawa for the first time, and founding the first Shō Dynasty.

Shō Hashi adopted the Chinese hierarchical court system, built Shuri Castle and the town as his capital, and constructed Naha harbor. Several generations later, in 1469, King Shō Toku died without a male heir; a palatine servant declared he was Toku's adopted son and gained Chinese investiture. This pretender, Shō En, began the Second Shō Dynasty. Ryūkyū's golden age occurred during the reign of Shō Shin, the second king of that dynasty, who reigned from 1478 to 1526.

Asian Trade (15th–16th Century): Diplomatically, the kingdom established tributary relations with China during its Ming and Qing Dynasties. It also developed trade relations with Japan, Korea and many Southeast Asian countries, including Siam, Pattani, Malacca, Champa, Đại Việt, and Java.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ryūkyū Kingdom emerged as the main trading intermediary in Eastern Asia. Japanese products—silver, swords, fans, lacquer-ware, folding screens—and Chinese products—medicinal herbs, minted coins, glazed ceramics, brocades, textiles—were traded within the kingdom for Southeast Asian sappanwood, rhino horn, tin, sugar, iron, ambergris, Indian ivory and Arabian frankincense. Altogether, 150 voyages between the kingdom and Southeast Asia on Ryūkyūan ships were recorded, with 61 of them bound for Siam, 10 for Malacca, 10 for Pattani and 8 for Java, among others.

Commercial activities in the kingdom diminished around 1570 with the rise of Chinese merchants and the intervention of Portuguese and Spanish ships, corresponding with the start of the Red Seal Ship system in Japan.

Japanese Invasion (1609): Around 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked the Ryūkyū Kingdom to aid in his campaign to conquer Korea. If successful, Hideyoshi intended to then move against China. As the Ryūkyū kingdom was a tributary state of the Ming Dynasty, the request was refused. The Tokugawa shogunate that emerged following Hideyoshi's fall authorized the Shimazu family—feudal lords of the Satsuma domain (present-day Kagoshima prefecture)—to send an expeditionary force to conquer the Ryūkyūs. The occupation of the Ryūkyūs occurred fairly quickly, with a minimum of armed resistance, and King Shō Nei was taken as a prisoner to the Satsuma domain and later to Edo—modern day Tokyo. When he was released two years later, the Ryūkyū Kingdom regained a degree of autonomy; however, the Satsuma domain did seize control over some territory of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, notably the Amami-Ōshima island group, which was incorporated into the Satsuma domain.

The Ryūkyū Kingdom found itself in a period of "dual subordination" to Japan and China, wherein Ryūkyūan tributary relations were maintained with both the Tokugawa shogunate and the Ming Chinese court. Since Ming China prohibited trade with Japan, Satsuma domain, with the blessing of the Tokugawa bakufu (shogunal government), used the trade relations of the kingdom to continue to maintain trade relations with China. Considering that Japan had previously severed ties with most of the European countries except the Dutch, such trade relations proved especially crucial to both the Tokugawa bakufu and Satsuma han which would use its power and influence, gained in this way, to help overthrow the shogunate in the 1860s.

The Ryūkyūan king was a vassal of the Satsuma daimyo, but his land was not counted as part of any han (fief): up until the formal annexation of the islands and abolition of the kingdom in 1879, the Ryūkyūs were not truly considered part of Japan, and the Ryūkyūan people not considered Japanese. Though technically under the control of Satsuma, Ryūkyū was given a great degree of autonomy, to best serve the interests of the Satsuma daimyo and those of the shogunate, in trading with China. Ryūkyū was a tributary state of China, and since Japan had no formal diplomatic relations with China, it was essential that Beijing not realize that Ryūkyū was controlled by Japan—if they did, they would end the trade. Thus, ironically, Satsuma—and the shogunate—was obliged to be mostly hands-off in terms of not visibly or forcibly occupying Ryūkyū or controlling the policies and laws there. The situation benefited all three parties involved—the Ryūkyū royal government, the Satsuma daimyo, and the shogunate—to make Ryūkyū seem as much a distinctive and foreign country as possible. Japanese were prohibited from visiting Ryūkyū without shogunal permission, and the Ryūkyūans were forbidden from adopting Japanese names, clothes, or customs. They were even forbidden from acknowledging their knowledge of the Japanese language during their trips to Edo; the Shimazu family, daimyo of Satsuma, gained great prestige by putting on a show of parading the King, officials, and other people of Ryūkyū to and through Edo. As the only han to have a king and an entire kingdom as vassals, Satsuma gained significantly from Ryūkyū's exoticness, reinforcing that it was an entire separate kingdom.

When Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry sailed to Japan to force Japan to open up trade relations with the United States in the 1850s, he first stopped in the Ryūkyūs, as many Western sailors had before him, and forced the Ryūkyū Kingdom to sign Unequal Treaties opening the Ryūkyūs up to American trade. From there, he continued on to Edo.

Following the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji Japanese government abolished the Ryūkyū Kingdom, formally annexing the islands to Japan as Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. The Amami-Ōshima island group which had been integrated into Satsuma domain became a part of Kagoshima prefecture. King Shō Tai, the last king of the Ryūkyūs, was moved to Tokyo and was made a Marquis (see Kazoku), as were many other Japanese aristocrats, and died there in 1901. There were various suppressed proponents of independence from Satsuma/Japan during this period, and from China as well, to which Ryūkyū was a tributary state. Qing China made some diplomatic protests to the Japanese government, but these proved to have little effect. However, no significant popular movement arose during this time.

 

After World War II

After World War II, the Ryukyus, like the rest of Japan, were occupied by the U.S., but the U.S. maintained control of Okinawa even after the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, which went into effect on April 28, 1952. Many soldiers stationed in the Ryukyu islands during World War II took aboriginal brides with them once the war ended. Twenty years later, in 1972, the Ryukyus were returned to Japan. Perceived discrimination against Ryukyuans by mainland Japanese is the cause of some resentment. Furthermore, due in part to the intense fighting in the islands during World War II, many Ryukyuans are strongly anti-military. Okinawa comprises just 0.6% of Japan's total land mass, yet U.S. military bases use about 10% of all the land in the Ryukyus, including 18.8% of the land on Okinawa Island itself. Many feel that they bear more than their fair share of the U.S.-Japan security alliance, and the presence of the military remains an issue in local politics.

 

Cultural Influences

Okinawan culture bears traces of its various trading partners. One can find Chinese, Thai and Austronesian influences in the island's customs. Perhaps Okinawa's most famous cultural export is karate, probably a product of the close ties with and influence of China on Okinawan culture. Karate is thought to be a synthesis of Chinese kung fu with traditional Okinawan martial arts. A ban on weapons in Okinawa for two long periods after the invasion and forced annexation by Japan during the Meiji Restoration period also very likely contributed to its development.

Another traditional Okinawan product that owes its existence to Okinawa's trading history is awamori—an Okinawan distilled spirit made from indica rice imported from Thailand.

 

First Documentation and Origins of Ryukyuan People

Chinese historical writings first mentioned the Ryukyus during the 6th-7th centuries (the Sui Dynasty). Exact details of these early voyages are still unknown, and it is widely believed that the ancient Ryukyus (Liuqiu) described by the Chinese consisted of the modern day Ryukyuan Islands, Taiwan, and parts of the Philippines. The Ryukyu Islands were inhabited early in historical times, by migrants believed to have crossed into the northern Amami-Uchinā Islands via Kyushu. Multiple waves of migrants, including those related to the Jomon, and later, newcomers from Kyushu continued to populate these islands. While there is evidence of early habitation, the current population of the Ryukyus is of the same basic genealogical stock as other Japanese, though with a relatively higher contribution of Jōmon elements.

The kinship between the Ryukyuan languages and the Japanese language suggests a common origin in the language of immigrants from continental Asia to the archipelago. This is however controversial and not widely accepted. See the articles on the Yayoi and Kofun cultures for more.

 

 

Jōmon Period

 

The Jōmon period (縄文時代) is the time in Japanese prehistory from about 14,000 BC to 400 BC. The term "Jōmon" means "cord-patterned" in Japanese. This refers to the markings made on clay vessels and figures using sticks with cords wrapped around them as well as to the pottery techniques of the Jōmon people.

 

Incipient and Initial Jōmon (14,000 – 4000 BC)

More stable living patterns gave rise by around 14,000 BC to a Mesolithic or, as some scholars argue, Neolithic culture, but with some characteristics of both. Possibly distant ancestors of the Ainu aboriginal people of modern Japan, members of the heterogeneous Jōmon culture (c. 14,000-300 BC) left the clearest archaeological record. They were related to the nearby Jeulmun culture of Korea.

Early Pottery: According to archaeological evidence, the Jōmon people created amongst the first known pottery vessels in the world, known as Jōmon Pottery, dated to the 14th millennium BC, as well as the earliest ground stone tools. The antiquity of this pottery was first identified after the Second World War, through radiocarbon dating methods.

Archaeologist Junko Habu claims that "The majority of Japanese scholars believed, and still believe, that pottery production was first invented in mainland Asia and subsequently introduced into the Japanese archipelago." and explains that "A series of excavations in the Amur River Basin in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that pottery in this region may be as old as, if not older than, Fukui Cave pottery".

The Jomon era pottery was called Jomon doki. Jomon means patterns of rope, and most earthware resembled designs made by rope. First they wet the soil and made a rope out of it (wring it into a rope). Then they gave it the desired shape with their hands. Mostly they ate or stored their food in the pots they made.The Jōmon people were also making clay figures and vessels decorated with patterns of a growing sophistication made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks.

Neolithic Traits: The manufacturing of pottery typically implies some form of sedentary life due to the fact that pottery is highly breakable and thus generally useless to hunter-gatherers who are constantly on the move. Therefore, the Jōmon people were probably some of the earliest sedentary or at least semi-sedentary people in the world. They used chipped stone tools, ground stone tools, traps, and bows, and were probably semi-sedentary hunters-gatherers and skillful coastal and deep-water fishermen. They practiced a rudimentary form of agriculture and lived in caves and later in groups of either shallow pit dwellings or above-ground houses, leaving rich middens for modern archaeological study.

Population Expansion: This semi-sedentary culture led to important population increases, so that the Jōmon exhibit some of the highest densities known for foraging populations. Genetic mapping studies by Cavalli-Sforza have shown a pattern of genetic expansion from the area of the Sea of Japan towards the rest of eastern Asia. This appears as the third most important genetic movement in Eastern Asia (after the "Great expansion" from the African continent, and a second expansion from the area of Northern Siberia), which suggests geographical expansion during the early Jōmon period. These studies also suggest that the Jōmon demographic expansion may have reached America along a path following the Pacific coast.

 

Early to Final Jōmon (4000 – 400 BC)

The Early and Middle Jōmon periods saw an explosion in population, as indicated by the number of excavations from this period. These two periods occurred during the prehistoric Holocene Climatic Optimum (between 4000 BC and 2000 BC), when temperatures reached several degrees Celsius higher than the present, and the seas were higher by 5 to 6 metres. Beautiful artistic realisations, such as highly decorated "flamed" vessels, remain from that time. After 1500 BC, the climate cooled, and populations seem to have contracted dramatically. Comparatively few archaeological sites can be found after 1500 BC.

The Early Jōmon is the first stage in the Jomon era of Japanese pre-history. The Jomon period itself ranged from 10,000 to 300 BC. This stage lasted from 4000 to 3000 BC. The Early Jomon is characterized by the high sea level (2 to 3 meters higher than the modern day) and a significant population increase. This period saw a rise in complexity in the design of pit houses, the most commonly used method of housing at the time. The Middle Jōmon covers the period of Jōmon history from 3000 to 2000 BC. Following the Early Jōmon period, the Middle Jōmon periods saw an explosion in population, as indicated by the number of excavations from this period. These two periods correspond to a portion of the prehistoric Holocene climatic optimum (between 4000 and 2000 BC), when temperatures were several degrees Celsius higher than the present and the seas were five to six meters higher as well ("Prehistoric Japan", Imamura). Beautiful artistic realizations, such as highly decorated flamed vessels, remain from that time.

The Late Jōmon covered the period of history from around 2000 to 1000 BC, while the Final Jōmon spanned from around 1000 to 400 BC. This was a period of crisis for Jōmon populations: after 1500 BC, the climate cooled, and populations seem to have contracted dramatically. Comparatively few archeological sites can be found after 1500 BC.

By the end of the Jōmon period, a dramatic shift had taken place according to archaeological studies. New arrivals from the continent seem to have invaded Japan from the West, bringing with them new technologies such as rice farming and metallurgy. The settlements of the new arrivals seem to have coexisted with those of the Jōmon for some time. Under these influences, the incipient cultivation of the Jōmon evolved into sophisticated rice-paddy farming and government control. Many other elements of Japanese culture also may date from this period and reflect a mingled migration from the northern Asian continent and the southern Pacific areas. Among these elements are Shinto mythology, marriage customs, architectural styles, and technological developments such as lacquerware, textiles, laminated bows, metalworking, and glass making. The Jōmon is succeeded by the Yayoi period.

 

Japanese Paleolithic

The Japanese Paleolithic covers the period from around 100,000 to 30,000 BC, when the earliest stone tool implements have been found, to around 14,000 BC, at the end of the last Ice-age, which corresponds to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period. The 35,000 BC date is most generally accepted: any date of human presence before 30,000–35,000 BC is controversial, with artifacts supporting a pre–35,000 BC human presence on the archipelago still being of questionable authenticity.

Paleoanthropology: The Paleolithic populations of Japan, as well as the later Jōmon populations, appear to relate to an ancient Paleo-Asian group which occupied large parts of Asia before the expansion of the populations characteristic of today's people of China, Korea, and Japan.

Skeletal characteristics point to many similarities with other aboriginal people of the Asian continent. Dental structures belong to the Sundadont group, mainly distributed in ancient populations of South-East Asia (where current populations belong to the Sinodont group). Skull features tend to be stronger, with comparatively recessed eyes.

Sinodonty and Sundadonty: Anthropologist Christy Turner identified two patterns, Sinodonty and Sundadonty, for East Asia, within the "Mongoloid dental complex". The latter is regarded as having a more generalised, Australoid morphology and having a longer ancestry than its offspring, Sinodonty.

Sino and Sunda refer to China and Sundaland, while 'dont' refers to teeth.

He found the Sundadont pattern in the Jōmon of Japan, Taiwanese aborigines, Filipinos, Indonesians, Thais, Borneans, Laotians, and Malaysians, and the Sinodont pattern in the inhabitants of China, Mongolia, eastern Siberia, Native Americans, and the Yayoi.

Sinodonty is a particular pattern of teeth common among Native Americans and some peoples in Asia, in particular the northern Han Chinese and some Japanese populations. The upper first two incisors are not aligned with the other teeth, but rotated a few degrees inward, and, moreover, they are shovel-shaped; the upper first premolar has one root (whereas the upper first premolar in Caucasians has normally two roots). The lower first molar in Sinodonts has three roots (whereas it has two roots in Caucasians).

In the 1990s, Turner's dental measurements were frequently mentioned as one of three new tools for studying origins and migrations of human populations. The other two were linguistic methods like Joseph Greenberg's mass comparison of vocabulary or Johanna Nichols's statistical study of language typology and its evolution, and genetic studies pioneered by Cavalli-Sforza.

Today, the largest number of references on the web to Turner's work are from discussions of the origin of Paleo-Indians and modern Native Americans, including the Kennewick Man controversy. Turner found that the dental remains of both ancient and modern Indians are more similar to each other than they are to dental complexes from other continents, but that the Sinodont patterns of the Paleoindians identify their ancestral homeland as north-east Asia. Some later studies have questioned this and found Sundadont features in some American peoples.

The Australoid race is a broad racial classification. The concept's existence is based on the typological method of racial classification.　They were described as having dark skin with wavy hair, in the case of Aboriginal Australians, or hair ranging from straight to kinky in the case of Melanesian and Negrito groups. According to this model of classification, Australoid peoples ranged throughout Australia, New Guinea, and Melanesia, as well as parts of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Southern India. In the mid-twentieth century an argument emerged that Australoids were linked to proto-Caucasoids.

The aboriginal populations of the Ainu, today mostly confined to the northern island of Hokkaidō, appear to be the descendants of these Paleolithic populations, and display features that have, in the past, been interpreted as Caucasoid, but today tend to be considered more generally as part of that early Paleolithic human stock.

Genetic analysis on today's populations is not clear-cut and tends to indicate a fair amount of genetic intermixing between the earliest populations of Japan and later arrivals (Cavalli-Sforza). It is estimated that 10 to 20% of the genetic capital of the Japanese population today derives from the aboriginal Paleolithic-Jōmon ancestry, with the remainder coming from later migrations from the continent, especially during the Yayoi period.