October 10, 2010
Eggplant and the Korean Origins of the Japanese
At these times of strife and intra-Asian discord it is nice to remember that the Japanese probably came from Korea.
It is a sad fact that in Japan, the Korean origins of the Japanese is downplayed. The Japanese say that yes, some peoples did come from the Korean peninsula but that these people were visitors from the continent, or that they interacted with the indeginous people bringing technology, and similar peaceful explanations. These explanations give the impression of a continuity between the ancient Joumon people of Japan, whose history stretches back thousands of years, and the later Yamato people that unify Japan under their rule in the 4th and 4th centuries.
There is clearly a great deal of discontinuity in form of Japanese culture at the time. Jomon culture is very different to the Yayoi and Kofun (ancient tomb) cultures that succeeded it.
The Japanese however usually explain these differences
in terms of technological changes, particularly with reference to the arrival of wet field rice technology from the mainland. The Koreans, in other words, were not the ancestors of the Japanese, but the bringers of grains of rice and the knowledge of how to grow it. The arrival of rice, it is argued, created new wealth, new leaders to emerge (from within the indeginous population) and hence the differences between the ancient Joumn and Kofun/Yayoi cultures.For me, this theory does not hold water. The least of the theory's troubles is that, as shown by recent archeological evidence, rice was already present and consumed by the Jomon people hundreds of years before the changes that it was supposed to have brought about. The height and bone structure of the two peoples should put an end to the continuity myth alone. The genetic changes were quite profound. And the Japanese mythology mentions the importance of the Korean peninsula. When for example Jinmu Tenno set up court in Kyushu before moving towards Nara, he did so because the region was close to the Korean peninsula. The Korean author of a book on the Korean origins of the Japanese people, as traced in Japanese myth points out in the foreword that, when the Paechke kingdom was anhiliated the Nihon shoki records the people of Japan lamenting "Ah, will we never be able to vist the graves of our ancestors."
It does not bother me that the Japanese may have been invaded and conquered by Koreans, that their genes, their blood line, the culture and probably even the emperor is probably to a large extent Korean in origin. But I guess that to some Japanese this theory may sound a bit like the theory exposed by Clifford Worley to Vincent Concotti in True Romance: "You're part Eggplant." This theory wherein one in which one country overuns, rapes, dominates another is I believe, simplistic and chauvinist, and yet closer to the historical relatity of the interaction between the Joumon and the peoples of the Korean peninsula than the version of history taught in schools. The part of the story that I definately do not agree with is the chauvinism - I like eggplant. Being part Korean sounds like something to be proud of.
The more that the Japanese come to terms with this ancient history the more that they are likely to feel a sense of community with their neighbours. And that would be a very good thing.