Early Japanese Urbanism: A Study of the Urbanism of Proto-historic Japan and Continuities from the Yayoi to the Asuka Periods.

Abstract

The way in which Japanese archaeologists and historians see their past has created two separate systems of periodization causing many issues for dating certain material of the same age. As a consequence of the retro-projection of present day social and political perspectives onto the past, the sequence has become fragmented. Part of the issue lies in assumptions about the nature of urbanism and the state, stemming from the Japanese model of urbanism. This is tied directly to the influence of Chinese grid style cities used as capital cities from the late 7th century onwards. Before this, other different forms of "capital" can be identified, for example in the Asuka and Naniwa areas, associated with the initial formation of the state. The Asuka area in particular was the residence of elites and the location of local crafts, associated with shrine and tombs spread out over a wide area. This may therefore be an example of a low-density dispersed urban environment. The thesis aims to demonstrate that this is the case.