Because Japan is an island, it was isolated from the advances on mainland Asia. So whereas the culture on Asian neighbors China and Korea were getting more and more modern, the culture in Japan stayed in a stone age for a much longer time. The isolation, as we shall see, was good for protecting Japan and its people but would often cause Japan to fall behind the rest of the world technologically. This first section of Japanese history is about Japan's first settlements and earliest civilizations. Within several hundred years, these earliest of Japanese looked and spoke much like the Japanese of today.
Yayoi(300BC-300AD)
During the Jomon period of time, a new culture established itself- the Yayoi. The Jomon later assimilated into the Yayoi, a farming and thus technologically superior society, whose culture introduced the Korean methods of irrigated (wet) rice cultivation, weaving, and metalworking (which brought more advanced tools and warfare techniques). The Yayoi were originally emigrants from southeast Asia who were escaping the invading Chinese Han armies or escaping a drought that would later cause the Gobi desert's forming.
Even though the Yayoi also had remarkable pottery, they didn't develop a writing or monetary system. Women, however, were held in high regard
and perhaps even served as clan leaders. The Yayoi civilization lived in houses with thatched roofs and used an advanced system of irrigation and drainage.
The culture was named Yayoi after the Tokyo suburb, Yayoicho, where evidence of this culture was discovered in 1884. Certain Japanese scholars believe that these people would eventually become the Japanese people we know today. The Yayoi lived in clans which were called uji. Each clan had a leader who would perform religious and military duties. The religion was similar to but much cruder than modern day Shinto. The ancient Yayoi worshippers later marked the spots where Shinto shrines would be built. The Yayoi believed in a form of shamanism and were in awe of many natural gods, since Japan does have more than it fair share of natural disasters. The religious duties were specific to each clan since each clan associated itself with a single god,
called a kami. Kamis were basically gods of nature or natural forces. If an uji was conquered by another
uji, then to the victor would be the conquered uji's kamis.
During this time period, clans started the tradition of building immense burial grounds for their fallen leaders. The tradition lasted
for over 300 years and at the end of the seventh century, 20,000 of these mounds had been built. The Yayoi people had a practice of burying their dead along with swords, beads and mirrors under great mounds of earth, occasionally marked with large stones.