Conjuring Up Prehistory: Landscape and the Archaic in Japanese Nationalism

This study considers the ways in which archaeology and landscapes of the archaic have been appropriated in Japanese nationalism since the early twentieth century, focusing on the writings of cultural historian Tetsurō Watsuji, philosopher Takeshi Umehara and environmental archaeologist Yoshinori Yasuda.

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Walter Benjamin observed that it is precisely the modern which conjures up prehistory. From Yanagita’s ‘mountain people’ to Umehara’s ‘Jōmon civilisation’, Japan has been an especially resonant site of prehistories imagined in response to modernity. Conjuring Up Prehistory: Landscape and the Archaic in Japanese Nationalism looks at how archaeology and landscapes of the archaic have been used in Japanese nationalism since the early twentieth century, focusing on the writings of cultural historian Tetsurō Watsuji, philosopher Takeshi Umehara and environmental archaeologist Yoshinori Yasuda. It is argued that the Japanese nationalist project has been mirrored by the continuing influence of broader Romantic ideas in Japanese archaeology, especially in Jōmon studies.