English-Language Bibliography for
Jomon Subsistence and Diet Studies

The following are some useful general publications in English on Japanese prehistory. They all contain information on Jomon subsistence. (black discs = original publication checked; white circles = original publication not yet checked)

• Aikens, C. Melvin, and Takayasu Higuchi. (1981). Prehistory of Japan. New York: Academic Press.

• Aikens, C. Melvin, and Song Nai Rhee (eds). (1992). Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites. Pullman: Washington State University Press.

• Akazawa, Takeru, and C. Melvin Aikens (eds). (1986). Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Japan: New Research Methods. Bulletin No. 27. Tokyo: The University Museum, The University of Tokyo.

• Barnes, Gina L. (1993). China, Korea, and Japan. London and New York: Thames & Hudson.

• Chard, Chester S. (1974). Northeast Asia in Prehistory. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

• Habu, Junko. (2004). Ancient Jomon of Japan. Case Studies in Early Societies 4. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (very good section on the Jomon diet Chapter 3, "Subsistence strategies," pp. 57-78)

• Imamura, Keiji. (1996). Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

• Kidder, J. Edward, Jr. (1959). Japan before Buddhism. New York: Praeger.

• Kobayashi, Tatsuo. (2004). Jomon Reflections: Forager Life and Culture in the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago. Ed. Simon Kaner and Oki Nakamura. Oxford, England: Oxbow Books. (excellent section on the Jomon diet Chapter 5, "Nurturing the Jomon: food, drink and the blessings of nature," pp. 72-97)

• Koyama, Shuzo, and David Hurst Thomas (eds). (1981). Affluent Foragers: Pacific Coasts East and West. Senri Ethnological Studies 9. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.

• Pearson, Richard J., Gina Lee Barnes and Karl L. Hutterer, (eds). (1986). Windows on the Japanese Past: Studies in Archaeology and Prehistory. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan.

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• Minagawa, Masao. (1995). Tanso-chisso doitai ni motozuku kodaijin no shokuseitai no fukugen (Reconstruction of ancient subsistence through stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen). Atarashi Kenkyuho wa Kokogaku ni Nani o Motarashita ka (What Have the New Research Methods Brought to Archaeology?). Kubapuro (revised). [in Japanese]

The following are specific references in English on Jomon diet and subsistence. (black discs = original publication checked; white circles = original publication not yet checked)

Supplementary bibliography.

• Aikens, C. Melvin. (1981). The last 10,000 years in Japan and eastern North America: Parallels in environment, economic adaptation, growth of societal complexity, and the adoption of agriculture. In: Shuzo Koyama and David Hurst Thomas (eds), Affluent Foragers: Pacific Coasts East and West, pp. 261-273. Senri Ethnological Studies 9. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.

• Aikens, C. Melvin, Kenneth M. Ames and David Sanger. (1986). Affluent collectors at the edges of Eurasia and North America: Some comparisons and observations on the evolution of society among north-temperate coastal hunter-gatherers. In: Takeru Akazawa and C. Melvin Aikens (eds), Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Japan: New Research Methods, pp. 3-26. Bulletin No. 27. Tokyo: The University Museum, The University of Tokyo. [available at: http://www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/publish_db/Bulletin/no27/no27003.html]

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1969). Body size composition of the fish from the Jomon shellmounds in Japan and its implications in studies of the fishing activities of the Jomon shellmound people. Jinruigaku Zasshi (The Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon), 77: 154-178. [in Japanese with English abstract]

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1972). Report of the Investigation of the Kamitakatsu Shell-Midden Site. Bulletin 4. Tokyo: The University Museum, The University of Tokyo.

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1980). Fishing adaptation of prehistoric hunter-gatherers at the Nittano site, Japan. Journal of Archaeological Science, 7: 325-344.

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1981). Maritime adaptation of prehistoric hunter-gatherers and their transition to agriculture in Japan. In: Shuzo Koyama and David Hurst Thomas (eds), Affluent Foragers: Pacific Coasts East and West, pp. 213-260. Senri Ethnological Studies 9. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1982a). Jomon people subsistence and settlements: Discriminatory analysis of the later Jomon settlements. Jinruigaku Zasshi (Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon), 90(Supplement): 55-76.

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1982b). Cultural change in prehistoric Japan: Receptivity of rice agriculture in the Japanese archipelago. In: Fred Wendorf and Angela E. Close (eds), Advances in World Archaeology, vol. 1, pp. 151-212. New York and London: Academic Press.

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1986a). Regional variation in seasonal procurement systems of Jomon hunter-gatherers. In: Takeru Akazawa and C. Melvin Aikens (eds), Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Japan: New Research Methods, pp. 73-89. Bulletin No. 27. Tokyo: The University Museum, The University of Tokyo.

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1986b). Hunter-gatherer adaptations and the transition to food production in Japan. In: Marek Zvelebil (ed.), Hunters in Transition: Mesolithic Societies of Temperate Eurasia and Their Transition to Farming, pp. 151-165. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1986c). Variability in the types of fishing adaptation of the later Jomon people, ca. 2500 to 300 BC. In: G. N. Bailey and J. E. Parkington (eds), The Archaeology of Hunter-Gatherers Subsistence Economies in Coastal Environments, pp. xx-xx. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [appears to be an erroneous citation]

• Akazawa, Takeru. (1987). Variability in the types of fishing adaptation of the later Jomon hunter-gatherers, c. 2500 to 300 BC. In: Geoff Bailey and John E. Perkington (eds), The Archaeology of Prehistoric Coastlines, pp. 78-92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [cited as 1988 and pp. 76-90 in some sources]

• Akazawa, Takeru, and Kiyoaki Maeyama. (1986). Discriminant function analysis of the later Jomon settlements. In: Richard J. Pearson, Gina Lee Barnes and Karl L. Hutterer (eds), Windows on the Japanese Past: Studies in Archaeology and Prehistory, pp. 279-292. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan.

• Akazawa, Takeru, and Hitoshi Watanabe. (1968). Restoration of body size of Jomon shellmound fish (preliminary report). Proceedings of the VIIIth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, vol. III, pp. 193-197.

• Bleed, Peter. (1992). Ready for anything: Technical adaptation to ecological diversity at Yagi, an Early Jomon community in southwestern Hokkaido, Japan. In: C. Melvin Aikens and Song Nai Rhee (eds), Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites, pp. 47-52. Pullman: Washington State University Press.

• Chisholm, Brian, Hiroko Koike and Nobuyuki Nakai. (1992). Carbon isotopes determination of paleodiet in Japan: Marine versus terrestrial resources. In: C. Melvin Aikens and Song Nai Rhee (eds), Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites, pp. 59-67. Pullman: Washington State University Press.

• Crawford, Gary W. (1983). Paleoethnobotany of the Kameda Peninsula Jomon. Anthropological Papers 73. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

• Crawford, Gary W., William M. Hurley and Masakazu Yoshizaki. (1978). Implications of plant remains from the Early Jomon, Hamanasuno site. Asian Perspectives, 19(1): 145-155.

• Crawford, Gary W., and Hiroto Takamiya. (1990). The origins and implications of late prehistoric plant husbandry in northern Japan. Antiquity, 64: 889-911.

• Fujita, Hisashi. (1995). Geographical and chronological differences in dental caries in the Neolithic Jomon Period of Japan. Jinruigaku Zasshi (Anthropological Science), 103: 23-37.

• Hiraguchi, Tetsuo. (1992). Catching dolphins at the Mawaki site, central Japan, and its contribution to Jomon society. In: C. Melvin Aikens and Song Nai Rhee (eds), Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites, pp. 35-45. Pullman: Washington State University Press.

• Hongo, Hitomi. (1989). Freshwater fishing in the Early Jomon Period (Japan): An analysis of fish remains from the Torihama Shell-mound. Journal of Archaeological Science, 16: 333-354.

• Hurley, William M. (1974). The Hamanasuno project. Arctic Anthropology, 11(Supplement): 171-176.

• Kawamura, Yoshinari. (1991). Quaternary mammalian fauna in the Japanese islands. Daiyonki Kenkyu (The Quaternary Research), 30: 213-220.

• Kawamura, Yoshinari. (1994). Late Pleistocene to Holocene mammalian faunal succession in the Japanese islands, with comments on the Late Quaternary extinctions. Archaeozoologia, 6(2): 7-22.

• Koike, Hiroko. (1973). Daily growth lines of the clam, Meretrix lusoria -- A basic study for the estimation of prehistoric seasonal gathering. Jinruigaku Zasshi (Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon), 81: 122-138.

• Koike, Hiroko. (1975). The use of daily and annual growth lines of the clam Meretrix lusoria in estimating seasons of Jomon Period shell gathering. In: R. P. Suggate, and M. M. Cresswell (eds), Quaternary Studies, pp. 189-193. Wellington: The Royal Society of New Zealand.

• Koike, Hiroko. (1979). Seasonality of shell collectinig activity and accumulation speed of shell-midden sites in Kanto, Japan. Daiyonki Kenkyu (The Quaternary Research), 17: 267-278. [in Japanese with English abstract]

• Koike, Hiroko. (1980). Seasonal Dating by Growth-line Counting of the Clam, Meretrix lusoria: Toward a Recnstruction of Prehistoric Shell-Collecting Activities in Japan. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.

• Koike, Hiroko. (1986a). Jomon shellmounds and growth-line analysis for molluscan shells. In: Richard J. Pearson, Gina Lee Barnes and Karl L. Hutterer, (eds), Windows on the Japanese Past: Studies in Archaeology and Prehistory pp. 267-278. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan.

• Koike, Hiroko. (1986b). Prehistoric hunting pressure and paleobiomass: An environmental reconstruction and archaeozoological analysis of a Jomon shellmound area. In: Takeru Akazawa and C. Melvin Aikens (eds), Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Japan: New Research Methods, pp. 27-53. Bulletin No. 27. Tokyo: The University Museum, The University of Tokyo.

• Koike, Hiroko. (1992). Exploitation dynamics during the Jomon period. In: C. Melvin Aikens and Song Nai Rhee (eds), Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites, pp. 53-57. Pullman: Washington State University Press.

• Koike, Hiroko, and Brian Chisholm. (1991). Paleodiet of hunter-gatherers in Japan estimated by ¹³C-¹⁵N and lipid analyses. Daiyonki Kenkyu (The Quaternary Research), 30: 231-238.

• Koike, Hiroko, and N. Ohtaishi. (1987). Estimation of prehistoric hunting rates based on the age composition of sika deer (Cervus nippon). Journal of Archaeological Science, 14: 251-269.

• Kotani, Yoshinobu. (1981). Evidence of plant cultivation in Jomon Japan: Some implications. In: Shuzo Koyama and David Hurst Thomas (eds), Affluent Foragers: Pacific Coasts East and West, pp. 201-212. Senri Ethnological Studies 9. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.

• Koyama, Shuzo. (1978). Jomon subsistence and population. Senri Ethnological Studies, 2: 1-65. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.

• Koyama, Shuzo. (1981). A quantitiative study of wild food resources: An example from Hida. In: Shuzo Koyama and David Hurst Thomas (eds), Affluent Foragers: Pacific Coasts East and West, pp. 91-115. Senri Ethnological Studies 9. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.

• Koyama, Shuzo. (1992). The Pleistocene food crisis and Jomon pottery. In: International Research Center for Japanese Studies (eds), Japanese as a Member of the Asia and Pacific Populations, pp. 187-197. Kyoto: International Research Center for Japanese Studies.

• Matsui, Akira. (1991). The role of wetland sites in Japanese prehistory. EAANnouncements, 5: 8-10. (East Asian Archaeology Network News)

• Matsui, Akira. (1996). Archaeological investigations of anadromous salmonid fishing in Japan. World Archaeology, 27: 444-460.

• Minagawa, Masao, and Takeru Akazawa. (1989). Dietary patterns of Japanese Jomon hunter-gatherers: Stable nitrogen and carbon isotope analyses of human bones. Proceedings of the Circum-Pacific Prehistory Conference, Section III-B, pp. 25-28. (Seattle)

• Minagawa, Masao, and Takeru Akazawa. (1992). Dietary patterns of Japanese Jomon hunter-fisher-gatherers. In: C. Melvin Aikens and Song Nai Rhee (eds), Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites, pp. 59-67. Pullman: Washington State University Press.

• Nishida, Masaki. (1981). Man-plant relationships in Jomon period and the emergence of food production. Kokuritsu Minzokugaku Hakubutsukan Kenyu Hohoku (Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology), 6(2): 234-255. [in Japanese with English abstract]

• Nishida, Masaki. (1983). The emergence of food production in Neolithic Japan. Journal of Anthropological Science, 2: 305-322.

• Pearson, Richard J., and Kazue Pearson. (1978). Some problems in the study of Jomon subsistence. Antiquity, 52: 121-27.

• Roksandic, Zarko, Masao Minagawa and Takeru Akazawa. (1988). Comparative analysis of dietary habits between Jomon and Ainu hunter-gatherers from stable carbon isotopes of human bone. Jinruigaku Zasshi (Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon), 96: 391-404.

• Rowley-Conwy, P. (1984). Postglacial foraging and early farming economies in Japan and Korea. World Archaeology, 16(1): 28-42.

• Suzuki, Takao. (1998). Indicators of stress in prehistoric Jomon skeletal remains in Japan. Jinruigaku Zasshi (Anthropological Science), 106-S: 127-137.

• Takahashi, Ryuzaburo, Takeji Toizumi and Yasushi Kojo. (1998). Archaeological studies of Japan: Current studies of the Jomon archaeology. Nihon Kokogaku (Nihon Kokogaku: Journal of the Japanese Archaeological Association), 5: 47-72.

• Toizumi, Takeji. (1994). Seasonality of the Jomon fishery determined from shell-midden deposition: A case study at the Ikawazu shell-midden site, central Japan. Archaeozoologia, 6(2): 95-110.

• Tsukada, Matsuo, Shinya Sugita and Yorko Tsukada. (1986). Oldest primitive agriculture and vegetational environments in Japan. Nature, 322: 632-634.

• Turner, Christy G. II. (1979). Dental anthropological indications of agriculture among the Jomon people of central Japan. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 51: 619-635.

• Watanabe, Hitoshi. (1972). The Ainu Ecosystem. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

• Watanabe, Makoto. (1974). Various patterns of man's adaptation to the natural environments in the Jomon Age. Daiyonki Kenkyu (The Quaternary Research), 13: 160-167. [in Japanese with English abstract]