【Japanese Tour Guide’s History of Japan-2】Birth of the Japanese archipelago&The Paleolithic Period-1
hi everyone welcome to the online lecture history of Japan i’m at Iwajku ruins in Midori city Guma Prefecture why because this is very important epoch making discovery site in the history of Japan i tell more details later learning is never ending journey there are so many things I still don’t know and want to know about history of Japan even more so in ancient times that’s why scientific approach plays very important role to understand about it in these days many matters have proven by scientific technology and analysis in this video I want to talk about ancient times as far as I currently understand how the Japanese archipelago was formed where did the Japanese people come from and why I visited [Music] ruins okay let’s move on first how the Japanese archipella was formed making the long long history into very quick and simple story japanese archipelago was formed due to plate movement and volcanic activity the illustration is a very rough topographic map it’s created based on an image from the fossil magnum museum website about 20 million years ago base of today’s Japan was a part of Eurasian continent green’s continent blue’s ocean since then parts of the continent were removed from the main continent due to volcanic activities and fault movement as the gap between the continent and the Japanese archipelago widened this area subsided and sea water flowed into the area this area became the sea of Japan the image is Japanese archipelago about 17 million years [Music] ago the different movements of the plates gradually split the Japanese islands in half this is what they looked like about 16 million years ago the area marked with the red circle was filled with seawater and became a straight eventually due to plate movement and volcanic activity the eastern and the western parts gradually joined together again and became what Japan looks like today the border between these two islands is called foramagna means a geological trench in Latin here is an enlarged image between the yellow lines is formagna as you can see Tokyo is right on top of it it was Dr henrik Edomun Nam who named this trench for Magagna he was a German geologist whose main work during his 10 years stay in Japan was to become the first professor of the department of geology at the University of Tokyo where he trained Japanese geologists and engaged in geological surveys of the Japanese islands and completed the first full scale geological map of Japan the figure on the right shows a cross-section view of the force magna it’s also created based on the image from the Fossam Magna Museum website to the east are the 2,000 m high mountains known as Ichigo Mountains and to the west are the 3,000 m high mountains called the northern Japanese Alps four whole sabi was conducted to determine the depths of the fossamagna but didn’t reach the old rock 6,000 m below the surface was the deepest that could be drilled this means that the force magnet is deep enough to almost completely fit the world’s highest Mount Everest as I mentioned this place was ocean so fossils of whales fish and shellfish have been found here sediments from the surrounding mountains gradually transform the sea into land in addition volcanic activity began to occur beneath the force magnet due to the collision of subterranean plates resulting in the formation of many volcanoes some of them are still active mount Hooji is one of them the white circle in the left figure is Mount Huji the area circled in red to the west of the fossa magna boundary is also known as a jade production area since prehistoric times and here at Fossam Magna Park in Itoo city you can see the faults on the western boundary of the formagna under the islands these four plates are still moving now that’s why we have many earthquakes active volcanoes and onen all over Japan onen ooh I love it there are so many different types of onen please enjoy them when you come to Japan this is today’s Japan about 70% of the archipelago is mountains and forest and from the mountain areas so many rivers flow to the sea as you see it Japan is blessed with nature it may be easy for you to imagine how Shinto s were cultivated about Shinto I talked about it in the last video if you missed it please watch next where did the Japanese people come from the origin of present human race is Africa back in about 200,000 years ago it’s established common theory today from there human race started moving to different directions according to the latest genetic studies it’s quite possible that humans arrived in Japan about 40,000 years ago this is a rough topographic map about 30,000 years ago and shows how Japanese archipelago looked like at the time it was a ice age depending on the time the sea level between about 40,000 to 20,000 years ago was about 80 to 120 m lower than today japan and Eurasian continent were much closer there was a time when they were almost connected so people from north west and south could easily move to Japan some scholars said people lived in the Pacific region used to dug out canoes and sail to Japan okay let’s move on to the next topic why I visited Uajiku ruins because this is the place where the great discovery of the century took place tools in the stone age but first let me talk about Japanese soil japanese islands are almost entirely covered with volcanic ash and of course Kanto area including Tokyo let’s take a look under it kto Lombats is composed mainly of volcanic ash which was deposited before the German period until the end of World War II it was common knowledge in academic circles that there were probably no humans in the Japanese archipelago before the German period when volcanoes were erupting frequently for example around Iguains Mount Haruna erupted about 50,000 years ago mount Akagi did about 40,000 years ago mount Asama repeated eruption many times from about 30,000 to 10,000 years ago the mountains are part of Forza Magagna volcanic ash flew from far away too even from Kushu Island still active volcano mount at erupted about 90,000 years ago and ash reached today’s Tokyo about 30,000 years ago ash of Ayra reached Iwajiku iajuku museum provided an image of the strata you can see different volcanic activity in different times more clearly the lowest strata is the oldest look at the layers of volcanic ash from Mount Haruna Mount Akagi and Mount Asama the thinnest strata is ash flew from long way in Kyushu it’s about 5 cm thick looking at these records it’s easy to imagine what will happen when the eruption occurs and you may think nobody could live under this difficult [Music] condition however in 1946 surprising news opened the door of the doubt tatahiro Aawa a native archaeologist discovered obsidian stone tools in the KTO Loma bats here during Iuku human races were already here in Japan before the German period and in 1949 Mr aawa and the archaeological laboratory of Major University excavated that Iiku ruins i was surprised when I saw the tools what Mr aawa found at the museum it’s very beautiful i stared at it for a while after his epochm discovery and successful excavation of the ruins led to the discovery of a series of the prej sites throughout Japan the number of the pjan period sites in Japan identified today exceeds 10,000 amazingly one of them older than I ruins is in big city Tokyo in 1974 many stone tools including some partially polished stone tools back in about 38,000 years ago were found at the construction site of new elementary school in Koda City it’s now called Suzuki ruins and was designated as national historic site in 2021 the tools of the site were also found in Canto Lombeds volcanic ash flew from Mount Huji Mount Hakon and Mount Hagi mount Huji is a popular destination among tourists and Hakon is very famous for onsen resort today also like Iuku volcanic ash from Karodra in Kyushu flew here please keep a close eye on KTO long beds volcanic ash is acidic soil so it said that even if human bones were present they would most likely have been dissolved by chemical reactions however in the strata at some sites stone tools and lined up stones can be found in the volcanic ash layers we can assume that someone brought them here after volcanoes erupted even though you don’t see any human bones and trace of the activity they may have made stone tools or baked food there based on this fact we can say that human race might already existed in Japan about 40,000 years ago when it was in the ice age and volcanic activity was high i’m just impressed by our ancestors vitality to overcome many huge natural disasters and to pass the balance of life to us [Music] talking about the definition of the stone age there is difference between world and Japanese history simply speaking there are two types of stone tools chipped and polished ones the world history divides a period into the polyorithic and the Neolithic the main feature that distinguishes these periods is the presence or absence of polished stone tools and it has been explained that no polished stone tools existed in the palaric period in Japan the German period is considered by many researchers to correspond to the Neolorithic however during the earliest stage of the polarithic in the Japanese archipelago from 37,000 to 35,000 years ago stone axis with polished edges have been found in a wide area from north to south the ones found at the suski ruins were about 38,000 years ago here in Japan polish stone tools were discovered in the stratum of the pylorithic period which had been believed that polish stone tools did not exist it’s confusing isn’t it that’s why there is a movement to call the palaric in Japan the period personally speaking that’s worth considering because most names of the period in Japanese history were named after the sites and capital cities that played very important role in each time but academic circle do not agree on the definition of the polarizic period in the Japanese history in addition there are stories in many places that stone tools older than 37,000 years ago have been excavated but some researchers and academic circle have questioned about these cases they have not been clarified [Music] yet the mystery depends these are the topics I told you in this video well let’s move on to the next Japan travel tips i want to show some places I’ve shown in this video mount Huji the highest and holy mountain in Japan it’s one of the symbols of Japan and it’s active volcano there are five legs around it and the mountain shows different view from each direction and the mountain also shows you different color from the morning to the sunset beautiful contrast between the mountain and pagoda at arakurafui sangen ginga is very famous scenic spot now the mountain behind lake kawaguchi is also beautiful mount Huji in the background the thatch roof houses look like something out of a fairy tale at Yashino Satona close to Lakesai climbing season is normally from July 1st to September 10th many Japanese people climb to the top to see sacred sunrise from there close to the top there are huts normally people stay there and wake up at almost midnight and start climbing because there are already long line of the people who wants to see the sunrise mountain weather is changeable please plan properly and be well prepared when climbing mountains if you don’t have time for climbing you can go up to the fifth station of the mountain where is one of the starting points for climbing from there you’ll see the top of the mountain very close and stunning panoramic view of mountain ranges over 3,000 mters to go up there you can use tour bus departing from Tokyo or Kawokucho station or hiring private car is also good idea there are many realans and hotels around Lake Kawaguchi day trip from Tokyo is possible too let’s move from Muji to here it’s one of major and popular onsen resort in Japan there are so many realans and hotels with onen free pass allows you to travel around Hakon by taking different transportation you can ride on mountain trains pinuro railway ropeway buses and the parrot shape on Lake Ashi you’ll enjoy beautiful nature with less walk volcanic gas is rising at Oagdani if weather is nice you’ll see Mount Fuji from there mount Fuji and red to gate of Hakon Ginga at Lake Ash is beautiful contrast after the tour of course enjoy onen just sit back and relax while in Japan do what Japanese do mount at the world’s largest caldera from east to west about 18 km from north to south about 25 km inside the outer rim volcanoes are still active you can get closer to the crater it’s scary but around there you’ll see pastoral scenery like Ka and Saseni panoramic view from Daiko is stunning it’s highly recommended dao literally means the place you can see big Buddha from here you see lying Buddha in these pictures the left side of each is the head of Buddha you’ll see how so big the caldera is the prairie and rice patty fields surrounded by the mountains are beautiful about 50,000 people living in the caldera with active volcano still today close to the mountains there is Kokawa onen nostalgic atmosphere makes you to spend a relaxing time that’s all thank you for watching see you next time
【Table of contents】
00:00 Introduction
01:11 How the Japanese archipelago was formed?
06:03 Where did the Japanese people come from?
07:15 Why I visited Iwajuku Ruins?
10:34 The old ruins in big city Tokyo
11:24 Mystery of Kanto Loam Beds
12:25 Definition of the Stone Age Classification
14:43 Japan Travel Tips – Mt. Fuji
16:44 Japan Travel Tips – Hakone
17:46 Japan Travel Tips – Mt. Aso
18:57 Special Thanks, Thanks and Closing
【Source of reference】*All in Japanese
●Books●
○History of Japan
斎藤成也.『核DNA解析でたどる 日本人の源流』. 河出書房新社. 2017年
田中英道. 『日本国史(上)』. 育鵬社. 2022年
藤岡信勝, 他.『検定不合格 新しい歴史教科書』. 自由社. 2020年
他
●Web site●
岩宿博物館
https://www.city.midori.gunma.jp/www/contents/1000000000589/index.html
【公式】竹田恒泰チャンネル 2. 『竹田学校』. 2020年
テンミニッツTV
【核DNAから探る】日本列島人は、どこからやって来たのか？｜斎藤成也. 2021年
フォッサマグナミュージアム
他
【Source of pictures and music】
Aso City
ColBase
Google Earth Pro
Google Earth Studio
Itoigawa Tourism Association
Kagoshima Prefecture and Kagoshima Prefectural Visitors Bureau
Kodaira City
Kumamoto Prefecture – Kumamoto Prefectural Tourism Federation
Naruko Spa Tourist Association
Oita Prefectural Tourism Association “Tourism Oita”
Photolibrary
Photo AC
学習プリント.com
Audiostock
【Note】
・Movies of the lecture is based on reference of books and movies about history of Japan.
If I find out new information, I’ll share those to you. If I find out correction about the contents, I’ll revise it.
・I sometimes state my point of view in the movies.
・I do content planning, photo taking, video shooting, recording, editing by myself to produce the movie.
Although I’m an amateur creator of the movie, I try to improve my skill to produce better quality contents.
・About the name of persons. In Japan, the family name comes first and the given name comes after. But in this video, for convenience, the given name comes first and the family name comes after, in accordance with the viewers in many Western countries.
【Contact】
masashi.kaki.design@gmail.com
#HistoryOfJapan #Paleolithic #JapaneseTourGuide
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