Time of Dawn (print version)

CulturE-ASEF / Asia-Europe Cultural Exchange
URL: http://culture-asef.org/english/txt/2004/japan-expoi/index.html

(Print version)

Time of Dawn
Japan's Archaeology and History up to the first Emperors

(Press information from the organizers)

Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim (Germany)
25 July – 24. October 2004
Website: www.reiss-museum.de

Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (Germany)
20 November 2004 - 31 January 2005
Website: www.berlinerfestspiele.de/gropiusbau
Email: organisation@gropiusbau.de

An exhibition of the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums Mannheim, the Office of Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho) and the Japan Foundation Tokyo in cooperation with the Research Institute of Cultural Properties, Nara. With support from the Japanese ministry of culture, the Japanese Cultural Institute Cologne and the Japanese Embassy in Berlin

About the Exhibition

An exhibition is devoted worldwide for the first time to the entire early history of the Japanese islands, from the earliest evidence of settlements to the first palaces of the Japanese emperors. The findings of the last decades are spectacular and have been widely discussed; they have contributed to opening a new view to the relations between Japan and the East Asian and Southeast Asian world.

The Reiss-Engelhorn Museums of Archaeology and Ethnology in Mannheim have taken the initiative and conceived the exhibition over a period of many years together with one of the curators who also worked in Japan. Agreements reached with the most important museums and collections of Japan have made it possible to bring this eminent exhibition to Germany.

Around 1500 objects from 55 different Japanese museums and institutions will be displayed on a surface area of 2000 square metres. Many of the objects belong to the most important and valuable cultural heritage of the nation. "Time of the Dawning" presents spectacular findings and national treasures that mark the historical understanding and self-perception of present-day Japan and illustrate the upheavals and continuities in the history of Japan.

The exhibition carries important research findings beyond Japan’s borders for the first time and will surely inspire and fascinate both experts and the general public. Numerous originals, illustrations, reconstructions and models of palaces as well as multimedia and interactive components will make this exhibition a unique experience of the highest quality and a journey through the early history of Japan.

The exhibition covers the era from the first and earliest settlement of the Japanese islands at least 40,000 years ago up to the introduction of Buddhism in the 6th century and the Asuka and Nara period (7th/8th century AD). It was above all in the Nara period that the great palaces were built; their continued effect is evident to all visitors of Nara. The exhibition focuses on the three main eras of the Jômon, Yayoi und Kofun periods, and is divided into three main thematic areas: the relationship to nature and the environment; social structures and kinds of settlement; burial cult and religion.

Arrangement of the exhibition
1. Prologue. The birth of the Japanese world.
The period from 40,000 to 12,000 BC
2. The oldest ceramics of the world. The life of the hunter and gatherer culture.
Jômon period (10,000 BC to 500 BC)
3. The age of rice cultivation begins. Complex communities develop.
Yayoi period (5th to 3rd centuries BC)
4. Awakening of the socially structured society. The period of the keyhole-shaped burial mounds.
Kofun period (3rd century BC to 7th century AD)
5. Epilogue: Far-reaching changes.
Buddhism prevails. The court society develops.
Asuka period, Nara period (7th/8th century)
6. Outlook: continuity and change.
Jewellery and clothing from the Jômon period to the Nara period: Japanese archaeology today

Current Presence and Reflection on History
The image of present-day Japan is determined by the simultaneousness of modern life, which aims for technological progress and economic expansion, as well as by the immediate confrontation with a tradition whose roots reach far back to archaic times. This is evident not least in the extent and importance given to the science of archaeology in Japan today. Japanese archaeology with its research findings is among the most modern of its kind in the world and has had unprecedented success after the war, with tens of thousands of excavations and innumerable objects. This is reflected in the exhibition. The importance of "Time of the Dawning" is thus not only clearly discernible in the fact that it is the very first time worldwide that such an extensive exhibition covering a time period of some 40,000 years with the four main epochs of the Jômon period, the Yayoi period, the Kofun period as well as the Asuka und Nara period is being shown in Germany and Europe. The exhibition must also be seen as particularly outstanding with regard to the archaeological findings made available to the exhibition by 55 Japanese museums and institutions. A first-rate team of experts has taken on the responsibility of preparing both the exhibition and the accompanying publications and thus guaranteed the solid scientific foundation of the exhibition.

The Publications on the Exhibition

Two publications have appeared on the occasion of the exhibition: The catalogue follows the structure of the "Time of the Dawning" exhibition in its individual chapters and presents the exhibits in excellent colour photographs. Each object is extensively described, but also shown within the context of its respective excavation site and time of origin by means of lengthy essays. Japan’s leading archaeologists are the authors. An introduction to "The Birth of the Japanese Chain of Islands" is followed by chapters on such topics as "Evidence of Early Settlements: The First People – The Palaeolithic Age", "The World of the Hunter and Gatherer Culture – The Jômon Period", "The Age of Rice Cultivation and the Establishment of Complex Communities – The Yayoi Period", "The Age of the Keyhole-shaped Burial Mounds and the Awakening of the Division of Work and hierarchically structured Society – The Kôfun Period" and "The Far-reaching Changes – The Asuk and Nara Period". The leitmotif of "upheavals and continuities" that runs through the exhibition also marks the final chapter on "Jewellery and Clothing from the Jômon Period to the Heian Period".

For the first time a volume of essays can be presented in German on Japanese pre- and early history. It came about after five years of preparation for the exhibition project "Time of the Dawning". The research and achievements of Japanese archaeology have never been extensively presented in the German-speaking world.

So this handbook is an introduction to a whole new area of world archaeology. The wealth of findings and objects of the numerous and highly successful excavations in Japan will be introduced through this publication. There is hope that it will inspire renewed interest in Japanese archaeology. The handbook "Time of the Dawning" brings together essays by the most noted archaeologists of Japan. An undertaking of this magnitude with more than eighty authors has not even been realised in this form in Japan before.

Catalogue volume
"Time of the Dawning – Japan’s Archaeology and History up to the first Emperors". Catalogue volume. Publications of the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums Volume 10. Edited by Alfried Wieczorek, Werner Steinhaus, Research Institute of Cultural Properties, Nara. ISBN-Nr. 3-927774-17-0, c. 400 pages with c. 500 illustrations. Price at the museum: 27.50 EUR.

Handbook
"Time of the Dawning – Japan’s Archaeology and History up to the first Emperors". Handbook edited by Alfried Wieczorek, Werner Steinhaus and SAHARA Makoto. Publications of the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums Volume 11. Editors: Alfried Wieczorek, Werner Steinhaus, Research Institute of Cultural Properties, Nara. ISBN-Nr. 3-927774-18-9, c. 600 pages with c. 450 illustrations. Price at the museum: 27.50 EUR.

Total cost for both publications: 45 EUR (at the exhibition)

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