The emergence of ‘Transeurasian’ language families in Northeast Asia as viewed from archaeological evidence

From a linguistic standpoint, Proto-Japonic and Proto-Koreanic are assumed to have split off the Transeurasian languages in southern Manchuria. The linguistic idea that Proto-Japonic came earlier than Proto-Koreanic in the chronological scheme means that the Proto-Japonic language first entered the Korean Peninsula, and from there spread to the Japanese archipelago at the beginning of the Yayoi period, around the 9th century BC, while the arrival of Proto-Koreanic in southern Korea is associated with the spread of the rolled rim vessel culture around the 5th century BC. The genealogical sequence of the Pianpu, Mumun and Yayoi cultures, which shared the same pottery production techniques, indicates the spread of Proto-Japonic. On the other hand, migrants moved from Liaodong to the Korean Peninsula and established the rolled rim vessel culture. This population movement was likely due to social and political reasons as the Yan state enlarged its territory eastward. The Proto-Koreanic of the rolled rim vessel culture later spread to the Korean Peninsula and gradually drove out Proto-Japonic, becoming the predecessor of the Koreanic. In this paper, I examine the spread of Proto-Japonic and Proto-Koreanic in Northeast Asia based on archaeological evidence, focusing especially on the genealogy of pottery styles and pottery production techniques.

The Ideological Background of Japanese Expansionism, C. 1900

This paper examines the ideologies informing the expansion of Japanese rule at c. 1900. The core feature discussed is the idea of tenka (天下; literally translated: all under heaven), constituting the group of ruled in terms of a universalist indigenat (kokumin 国民), which allowed its expansion beyond the Japanese archipelago at government discretion. The concept of the universalist indigenat, having been tied to the Confucian perception of the world as a well-ordered and change-absorbing entity, conflicted with the European concept of the nation as a particularistically conceived type of group, tied to the perception of the world as a dynamic and largely unruly entity. During the latter third of the nineteenth and the early years of the twentieth century, some Japanese intellectuals came to appreciate the dynamism enshrined in the European perception of the world and worked it into established universalism. The fusion produced a powerful ideology of colonial expansion targeted primarily at East and Southeast Asia as well as the South Pacific. By contrast, European military strategists and political theorists, unaware of the Japanese strategic conceptions, expected that solely Russia formed the target of Japanese military expansion.

First record of the terrestrial predatory leech, Orobdella kawakatsuorum Richardson, 1975 (Clitellata, Hirudinea, Erpobdelliformes), from Moneron Island, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

The terrestrial predatory leech of the genus Orobdella Oka, 1895 is recorded for the first time from Moneron Island, which is located southwest of Sakhalin, Russia. Morphological characteristics of the Moneron Orobdella clarify its taxonomic identification as O. kawakatsuorum Richardson, 1975, which is indigenous to Hokkaido Island in the Japanese Archipelago. The occurrence data extends the northernmost range of the genus Orobdella and shows that the leech fauna is shared between Moneron Island and Hokkaido.

The Japanese wolf is most closely related to modern dogs and its ancestral genome has been widely inherited by dogs throughout East Eurasia

The Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax Temminck, 1839) was a subspecies of the gray wolf that inhabited the Japanese Archipelago and became extinct 100-120 years ago. In this study, we determined the whole genomes of nine Japanese wolves from the 19th- early 20th centuries and 11 Japanese dogs and analyzed them along with both modern and ancient wolves and dogs. Genomic analyses indicate that the Japanese wolf was a unique subspecies of the gray wolf that was genetically distinct from both modern and ancient gray wolves, lacking gene flow with other gray wolves. A Phylogenetic tree that minimizes the effects of introgression shows that Japanese wolves are closest to the dog monophyletic group among the gray wolves. Moreover, Japanese wolves show significant genetic affinities with East Eurasian dogs. We estimated the level of introgression from the ancestor of the Japanese wolves to the ancestor of East Eurasian dogs that had occurred in the transitional period from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, at an early stage after divergence from West Eurasian dog lineages. Because of this introgression, Japanese wolf ancestry has been inherited by many dogs through admixture between East Eurasian dog lineages. As a result of this heredity, up to 5.5% of modern dog genomes throughout East Eurasia are derived from Japanese wolf ancestry.

Contribution of conspecific negative density dependence to species diversity is increasing towards low environmental limitation in Japanese forests

Species coexistence is a result of biotic interactions, environmental and historical conditions. The Janzen-Connell hypothesis assumes that conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD) is one of the local processes maintaining high species diversity by decreasing population growth rates at high densities. However, the contribution of CNDD to species richness variation across environmental gradients remains unclear. In 32 large forest plots all over the Japanese archipelago covering > 40,000 individual trees of > 300 species and based on size distributions, we analysed the strength of CNDD of individual species and its contribution to species number and diversity across altitude, mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation and maximum snow depth gradients. The strength of CNDD was increasing towards low altitudes and high tree species number and diversity. The effect of CNDD on species number was changing across altitude, temperature and snow depth gradients and their combined effects contributed 11–18% of the overall explained variance. Our results suggest that CNDD can work as a mechanism structuring forest communities in the Japanese archipelago. Strong CNDD was observed to be connected with high species diversity under low environmental limitations where local biotic interactions are expected to be stronger than in niche-based community assemblies under high environmental filtering.

Medicine in Japanese Buddhism

Buddhist institutions were first established in the Japanese archipelago in the 6th century ce. In the same period, the ruling families incorporated Chinese-style medicine and Daoist ritual healing techniques into Japanese culture and society. By the 8th century, Buddhism had become a dominant cultural force in Japan. The Japanese Buddhist textual tradition was shaped by translations from Sanskrit into classical Chinese, and Chinese texts remained paramount for all branches of scholarship. In the ensuing centuries, a rich and hybrid ritual, material, and intellectual culture emerged from combining these various religious and scholarly traditions, as well as elements of the local tradition of kami神 (gods) worship. This also resulted in a distinct tradition of Buddhist medicine, which blossomed in the Kamakura period (1185–1333). The esoteric (or tantric) tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism with its idea of mutual empowerment (kaji加持) and unification of the ritualist and a buddha, bodhisattva, or other Buddhist deity, directing their power to heal, protect, etc., was the prevailing paradigm. Other traditions developed over the course of the centuries, too, notably Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen Buddhism, and the vinaya restoration movement (Shingon Ritsu). These also had an impact on the ideas and practices of healing and medical care. All shared the aim of providing the means for salvation and ultimate liberation from sickness and suffering. Lay patrons in early and medieval Japan funded the construction of hospitals and other care facilities as well as medicinal gardens. The Japanese monastics who studied the classical Chinese medical texts and treated their patients following the ideal of the compassionate bodhisattva were also familiar with basic ideas from Indian Āyurveda from translated sutras and commentaries. As such, etiology and diagnosis in the Japanese Buddhist context included epistemic and cosmological thought from both China and India. In the Buddhist context, rituals such as elaborate fire-offering ceremonies (goma護摩) were commonly used to take care of patients of all ages. Buddhist treatments also included empowered medicines, acupuncture, and moxibustion. Buddhist priests provided palliative care, and deathbed rituals were conducted to protect the dying from evil forces and prepare them spiritually for a good death and future birth. Buddhist medical practitioners not only included monastic doctors, usually called sōi僧医 in modern literature, but also various kinds of exorcists and healers. These groups produced talismans and amulets, and offered protective rituals within the paradigmatic framework of Japanese Buddhism. Pilgrimage to sacred sites at Buddhist temples provided a way for monastics and lay people to find healing and support. The external treatment of afflictions often went hand in hand with internal, mental, or cognitive methods such as various forms of meditation. These methods were primarily practiced by the monastically trained, but some, such as naikan内観, “internal observation,” were practiced by a wider circle of practitioners. Buddhistic methods were also used to treat animals.