William Wayne Farris. 1998. Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures Issues in the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu. 239 pages, plus 93 pages of notes, references, and an index.
For most of us in the west, there is little access to Asian archaeological studies. William Wayne Farris's 1998 book, Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures, provides welcome insight into recent understandings of the historical period of Japan, consisting of the 700 years from AD 100 to 800. In his book, Farris not only describes results of recent research, but also the knotty problems inherent in any culture's investigation of its past.
Farris's book begins with a short discussion of the available historical texts, and then identifies four major topics of interest: the question of Yamatai, the political relationship between Korea and Japan from 350 to 700 AD, the interaction of Japan with the mainland beginning in the 7th century AD, and that interaction as its expressed in the wooden writing tablets recovered from archaeological sites of the period.
Farris's book begins with a short discussion of the available historical texts, and then identifies four major topics of interest: the question of Yamatai, the political relationship between Korea and Japan from 350 to 700 AD, the interaction of Japan with the mainland beginning in the 7th century AD, and that interaction as its expressed in the wooden writing tablets recovered from archaeological sites of the period.
While historical documents are not known in Japan until the 7th century A.D., fragmentary records and information concerning the archipelago are known from Korea and mainland China starting around the 1st century B.C. The primary source of information for this period is a document called the Wei Chih, or History of the Wei Dynasty, written by the Chinese scholar Chen Shou in 280 A.D. The location and configuration of Yamatai, a 2nd and 3rd century A.D. Japanese location known in the Wei Chih as the Land of Wa, has long been debated in Japanese history. Yamatai was probably a loose confederation of villages with economies based on rice farming and fishing, with bronze and limited iron metallurgy, although there is no real consensus among Japanese researchers concerning its polity strength or location.
Discussion of the connection with Korea and the mainland of China is fraught with controversy, as is true for any discussion concerning the genesis of a particular set of traits. Archaeological evidence has shown that, contrary to tradition, much of the technology in Japan during the 4th through 8th centuries A.D. was imported from Korea and China, including iron and military equipment, architectural methodologies, jewelry manufacture, and possibly some language characteristics. http://erclk.about.com/?zi=12/Zn%5bbrhttp://erclk.about.com/?zi=12/Zn%5d
Although its difficult as an outsider to know how complete Farris's work is, the text provides what seems to be an excellent overview of Japanese history, as it is understood by Japanese researchers today; his acknowledgments and notes are almost entirely those of Japanese archaeologists and historians. I recommend this text to anyone wishing to gain a current perspective on Japanese history and archaeology.
Although its difficult as an outsider to know how complete Farris's work is, the text provides what seems to be an excellent overview of Japanese history, as it is understood by Japanese researchers today; his acknowledgments and notes are almost entirely those of Japanese archaeologists and historians. I recommend this text to anyone wishing to gain a current perspective on Japanese history and archaeology.
