ARCHIVED ONLINE LECTURE - Jomon Repotted: The Potential Impact of Jomon World Heritage

Date
Wednesday 12 March 2025

Time
12.00pm (GMT) / 9.00pm (JST)

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Booking Details
Free - On Zoom
Please register for the webinar in advance from the link below. After registering, you will receive a automated confirmation email with meeting access details (please check your spam folder if you don't receive any emails).

The Japan Society is delighted to partner with Circle of Japanese Art London to host a zoom lecture by Professor Simon Kaner, Executive Director at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Head of the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute, and Director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of East Anglia.

In July 2021 17 prehistoric Jomon sites, dating from 16,000 to 2500 years ago, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They include sites with some of the earliest known ceramic containers, stone circles, settlements (including the largest known Jomon village), shell middens containing clues to Jomon cuisine, cemeteries and more. This followed on from the first major exhibition dedicated to the Jomon at the Tokyo National Museum which travelled to Paris in 2018. In 2023 the immense obsidian source at Shirataki, in Engaru Town in Hokkaido and centre of the Shirataki Geopark was given a cultural designated equivalent to a National Treasure. Other Jomon sites, including the famous Kasori shell mounds, are valued in the same way, complementing the National Treasure designation of 5000 year old Flame pots from Niigata and several Jomon dogu ceramic figures. All of this is testimony to the ongoing ‘Jomon Boom’ in Japan. This talk will reflect on the re-evaluation of the place of what has become known as ‘The Jomon’ in Japanese (pre)history.

Simon Kaner MA Cantab, PhD (2004) is Executive Director at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Head of the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute, and Director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is an archaeologist specialising in the prehistory of Japan. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London since 2005, he has taught and published on many aspects of East Asian and European archaeology. He has undertaken archaeological research in Japan, the UK and elsewhere and worked for several years in archaeological heritage management in the UK. His recent publications include The Power of Dogu: ceramic figures from ancient Japan (2009), which accompanied a major exhibition at the British Museum. Other works include Jomon Reflections: Forager Life and Culture in the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago by Kobayashi Tatsuo (2005)

Image: Final Jomon ceramics from the Korekawa site, Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture, around 2500 years old. Courtesy Hachinohe City Board of Education.

If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.

In Partnership with: Circle of Japanese Art London