Neolithisation and Modernisation:
Landscape History on East Asian Inland Seas

uchiyama Junzo RIHN

lindstrÖm, Kati Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, University of Tartu

bausch, Ilona Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University fukasawa Yuriko Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University gillam, Christopher South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina haruta Naoki Faculty of Education, Kumamoto University hong, Sungheup Department of Anthropology, Chonnam National University hosoya Aoi RIHN iida Taku National Museum of Ethnology ikeya Kazunobu National Museum of Ethnology Kaner, Simon The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures kim, Jangsuk Department of History, Kyung Hee University koyama Shuzo RIHN makibayashi Keisuke RIHN nakai Seiichi Faculty of Humanities, Toyama University nakajima Tsuneo RIHN nakamura Oki RIHN popov, Alexander Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, Far East National University seguchi Shinji Shiga Prefecture Cultural Properties Protection Association yasumuro Satoru Faculty of Economics, Kanagawa University zeballos velarde, Carlos Renzo RIHN

This project aims at reconstructing historical landscape change in the Japan Sea and East China Sea areas. Our research concentrates on two periods of revolutionary landscape change, Neolithisation and Modernisation. The present project uses a holistic human sciences perspective to explicate the formative history of the present-day landscape and to offer new insight into the concept of the “cultural landscape”.

Research background and objectives

Project focuses on the landscape change in the East Asian Inland Seas (Fig. 1a), a region of rich cultural and landscape diversity, from the end of Ice Age up to the present day, with particular emphasis on the processes of Neolithisation and Modernisation. We hope to develop a more subtle and profound understanding of landscape and environmental issues in this region, and so to inform a solid landscape protection and development agenda.

Earlier described as a static composition, landscape is now considered as an evolving, recursive process of interaction between the physical environment found in a certain place and the culture and the value system of the people who inhabit it (Fig. 2). In the course of their everyday activities, people apply their environmental perceptions and skills to change their environment according to their values and beliefs. The resulting landscape will become the nexus of identity for the next generation, which will in turn alter its environment according to its abilities and imagination. Since landscapes are the stages of everyday life, landscape study can reveal how and why environmental issues arise and can best be addressed. Understanding the historical and cultural processes involved in landscape formation will help contemporary societies to address the disappearance of landscape diversity and design well-grounded landscape protection policies for the future.

Results to date

The project has eight regional work groups, each carrying out research in a key area of the East Asian Inland Seas (Fig.1b). Research focuses on four umbrella topics: (1) The birth and expansion of agriculture; (2) Waterfronts, including water bodies, waterways and rice paddies; (3) Migration and colonisation as forces of landscape change; (4) Travel and creation of mental landscape images. Special attention has been paid to three following major aspects of landscape formation in the region.

(1) Modernisation as seen from Neolithisation

What do the landscape changes associated with Modernisation have to do with Neolithisation? It was previously thought that the “Neolithic revolution,” when agricultural societies and large-scale settlements emerged and the basic elements of modern landscapes were established, was an event that occurred in a relatively short period of time. If, however, we refer to humankind’s increasing capacity to exploit their environments compared to earlier hunter-gatherer societies, “Neolithisation” should be defined as a process of human adaptation to the natural environment since the end of the last Ice Age. As aggressive resource use and increasing regional interdependency are characteristic of the present day as well, the period of Modernisation can be seen as a climax-or intensification of-Neolithisation.

(2) The cultural functions of inland seas

Seas have an immeasurable impact on their surrounding landscapes. Our Hokkaido workgroup describes how inland seas enable migrations and new colonisations, transforming indigenous spiritual and sustenance landscapes and imposing new settler landscapes. Okinawa, in contrast, was positioned as an outpost of trade between Japan and China. Its extensive coastlines and marine environments have shaped the regional landscapes from within, bringing about specific regional sustenance patterns and religious world views. At times, the maritime and continental influences interact, as in the Primorye Region, where the continental influence of Korean settlers blended with that of the new European settlers who arrived across the sea.

(3) The creation of mental landscape images

What is the impact of culture’s mental structures on landscapes? What do great cultural systems like religion have to do with landscape and environmental issues? We explore one instance in Japan. With the rise of Buddhism in the Nara period (AD 710-794), the killing of living beings, including animals and fish, was prohibited. Since the Middle Ages, hunting and fishing were strictly prohibited within 2 li (roughly 1.3 km) of the temples, but this area was gradually redefined according to the area directly visible from the temple. Both the ban and its gradual redefinition, have had a large impact on resource use and the natural environment of the Japanese archipelago.

Topics for the future

NEOMAP researchers participate in many public events designed to increase public awareness about landscape and environmental issues. As visualization is a useful tool for making specific historical data accessible to nonacademic audiences, in the next years our publications will emphasize the creation of landscape database and atlas. Superimposing the landscapes of Neolithisation and Modernisation on one single map can lead us to new discoveries about historical human-nature interrelationships and enhance consciousness about environmental issues.

We also hold regular seminars in and outside RIHN and present our results at international worskhops and symposia. NEOMAP is active in international collaboration, and has organised joint activities with scholars from Estonia, Belgium, Holland, UK and Germany.