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I I A S N e w s l e t t e r | # 3 4 | J u l y 2 0 0 41 2
By Ann Kumar
I t is known that Japan underwent arevolutionary transformation in the
Yayoi period (from c. 300 BC to250–300 AD) which saw the introduc-tion of an advanced and expansionistwet-rice civilization, sophisticatedmetal-working and other technologies,a centralizing religion, and a hierarchi-cal society culminating in aking/emperor. One of the great mys-teries of Japanese history is why, afterthe 10,000-year stasis of the hunter-gatherer society of the preceding J_monperiod, there was such a completetransformation in the Yayoi period.
Skeletal evidence indicates thatimmigration rather than local innova-tion was the key to this transformation.The appearance not just of agriculture,itself a major advance, but of sophisti-cated metalworking and a fully devel-oped court civilization provides furthersupport for the conclusion that outsideinfluence rather than the more gradualprocess of local evolution was respon-sible.
Bronze and ironThough research on bronze and iron
age civilizations in Java has been min-imal, it is known that metalworkingdeveloped earlier there than in Japan.There is a striking typological similari-ty between Yayoi artifacts – bells,blades, and pottery for example – andtheir Javanese counterparts. This is notjust the sort of generic similarity onemight expect of objects with the samefunction, but extends to design featuresunrelated to function, the repertoire of
motifs used and the details of the dec-oration. Thus Yayoi pots, with their clas-sic shapes and restrained geometricdecoration, are as similar to Javanesepots as they are dissimilar to the undis-
ciplined form of earlier J_mon pots.The striking similarities between
these artefacts relate not only to formand decoration, but also, particularlyin the case of weapon blades, to spe-cific techniques of production. A num-ber of early Japanese blades have thecharacteristic asymmetric flaring atthe base of the blade that unites all kris(traditional Javanese blades) into a sin-gle family. More significantly, the krisand the Japanese sword blade aremade using the same specialized tech-nique. In the case of other artefacts,such as masks and architecture, theresemblance between the Javaneseand Japanese examples is so strongthat earlier Japanese and Germanscholars have remarked on it and won-dered what the historical explanationmight be.
To provide this historical explanation,I have used a ‘consilience of induction’strategy, a term first used by WilliamWhewell (1840) and later by Darwin inOrigin of Species. This strategy takes
many separate lines of evidence fromdifferent groups of phenomena orclasses of facts to form an integratedexplanatory framework.
Rice, religion and DNAThe relationship between the differ-
ent types of cultivated rice is complexand cannot be explored here. It is suf-ficient to point out that Morinaga’swork (1968) has demonstrated thatJavanese rice (javanica) was the closestrelative of ordinary Japanese rice, andvice versa. This establishes the firstdemonstrably genetic as opposed totypological link between Java and Japan.Rice, the basis of the Yayoi civilization,also had a parallel religious significancein Java and Japan.
This is reflected in the myth, com-mon to both, of the angel who descend-ed from the moon to bring rice tomankind, and whose heavenly robeboth Javanese rulers and Japaneseemperors must don at the time of theiraccession.
Other shared myths are that of thesea goddess who gives rulers dominionover the undersea world and the worldof the spirits, and the secular myth ofthe radiant prince, peerlessly beautiful,superbly attired, phenomenally accom-plished in all the arts, and of hyper-refined sensitivity. This prince, calledPanji in Java and Genji in Japan, epito-mizes the highest imaginable attain-
ment that urban court life seemed tomake possible. The ensemble of cultscalled Shinto also corresponds to equiv-alent cults in Java.
There is also genetic evidence of con-tact between Java and Japan. The posi-tive evidence of earlier studies usingindicators such as teeth, skulls andblood has been confirmed by theauthor’s study (1998) of d-loops (the d-loop is part of mitochondrial DNA),which shows that Japanese and Indone-sians share sites (particular locationson the d-loop) not found in other Asianpopulations. This indicates that therehas been not only great cultural andtechnological influence from Java, butalso significant numbers of migrants.
LanguageIt is axiomatic that any contact of the
magnitude suggested by the evidenceso far must have involved language con-tact and borrowing. Diverse theoriesconcerning the relationships of theJapanese language have been put for-ward by researchers, and Japanese hasbeen linked to languages from Basqueto Tamil. The most favoured candidatefor a genetic relationship with Japaneseis Korean. Though there may indeed bea distant genetic relationship with theKorean language, Korean cannot havebeen the language of the immigrantswho brought the innovations of theYayoi period. If this had been the case,attempts to prove the relationshipbetween Japanese and Korean using thecomparative method (which can cer-tainly reach as far back as the Yayoi peri-od) would have succeeded by now.
The author and Rose (2000) pre-sented data which clearly establish lin-guistic borrowing (rather than a genet-ic relationship) by an earlier form ofOld Japanese, not from Korea, but froman antecedent of Old Javanese. This lin-guistic data was statistically evaluatedusing Bayesian probability. Further-more, the linguistic evidence elucidatesmany different aspects of the contact –directionality (demonstrating that theborrowing was indeed from Java toJapan, not the other way round), preciselocation of the donor language, inten-sity of contact, and imported ideas andconcepts which, by their nature, cannotbe found in archaeological remains.Thus we find words referring both toknown Yayoi innovations such asswords, warehouses, fences, rice-mor-tars, plates, cloth, and baskets (materi-al objects) as well as to concepts of kin-ship, royalty and divinity, and the ideaof the divinity of royalty.
Some of the borrowed words arefrom the high-culture end of the lan-guage spectrum, such as Old Javanesematur, ‘to present, offer, tell or report toperson of higher rank’, which was bor-rowed by an antecedent of Old Japan-ese as matur- ‘to give or present some-thing to a person of high rank/God; tooffer prayers’. It was also used as the‘humble auxiliary’ matur-. This usageas an affix indicating humble speechshows that it had in Old Japanese thefull range of meanings it had in Old
Javanese – including speaking to asuperior – and which it still has in Mod-ern Javanese, where it is used as a hum-ble auxiliary verb in expressions like‘my humble answer/question/respect/thanks’.
At the other end of the language spec-trum, we find the borrowing of less cul-turally loaded everyday words such assosok, to pour, and tutup, to cover. Thesewords are both basic vocabulary andverbs, categories that are known to beborrowed only in cases of intense lan-guage contact.
Thus the ‘consilience of induction’strategy shows that there has been sig-nificant cultural influence and at leastsome migration (determining howmuch requires further research) fromJava to Japan. Despite our instinctiveresistance to the idea, the Javanese did,in fact, sail ‘up the map’ to Japan –which is also the direction the currentsflow in. (The Austronesian ancestors ofthe Javanese had made the more diffi-cult journey southwards from Taiwanat a much earlier date).
Though many adherents of the pre-vailing belief in the Korean origin ofearly Japanese civilization regard thiscounter-proposal as outrageous, it is infact supported by more compelling evi-dence than competing hypotheses, andthis evidence cannot be disregarded.
This research sheds new light on thedevelopment of Japan and Java. Itdemonstrates that the court civilizationof Java is actually much older, andmuch more indigenous (rather thanderived from India as is often sup-posed) than has previously been real-ized. The research also provides a newperspective on the way gender rela-tionships are perceived in different civ-ilizations, since this particular civiliza-tion was one in which women wereseen as the bearers of precious giftssuch as rice and cloth, and divine pro-tectors of kings. Finally, it also helps toexplain the resilience of Javanese civi-lization in the face of external culturalinfluence and foreign conquest. <
References
- Kumar, Ann (1998) ‘An Indonesian Ele-
ment in the Yayoi?: The evidence of Bio-
logical Anthropology’ in Anthropological
Science, 106(3): 265-276
- Kumar, Ann, and Rose, Phil (2000) ‘Lexi-
cal Evidence for Early Contact Between
Indonesian Languages and Japanese’ in
Oceanic Linguistics, 39(2): 219-255
- Morinaga, T. (1968) ‘Origin and Geo-
graphical Distribution of Japanese Rice’
in Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly
3(2): 1-5
- Whewell, William (1840) The philosophy of
the inductive sciences, founded upon their
history, London: J.W. Parker
Ann Kumar is chair of the board of faculties
and reader, Centre for Asian Societies and
Histories, Australian National University.
Her current research interests include Panji
theatre in Java and Bali, and Indonesian
peace movements.
Japan’s Javanese ConnectionIt is part of our received wisdom that Japan has had very little historical connection withJava. This article argues that Java has, in fact, had a substantial influence on thedevelopment of early Japanese civilization and presents evidence of this contact.
Research >Japan & Java
> Research & Reports
This article gives the background and substance of a paper presented at the International Symposium, Non-Javanese,
not yet Javanese, and un-Javanese: Encounters and Fissures in a Civilization, organized by the Department of Languages
and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania of Leiden University. The IIAS sponsored symposium, held 23-26 March
2004 in Leiden, focused on different interpretations of Javanese identity and interactions with non-Javanese identi-
ties, past and present.
Bronze bell from the
Middle Yayoi period
(c. 100BC-100AD)
‘though many adherents of the prevailing belief inthe Korean origin of early Japanese civilization
regard this counter-proposal as outrageous, it is infact supported by more compelling evidence than
competing hypotheses’
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