94
5 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (2)
5.4 Evidence for a Second-Wave Spice Island Colony
in Southern Japan
In contrast to these wide margins and the indirect and circumstantial evidence on
which dating for an earlier colony depends, Ann Kumar and Phil Rose have presented evidence from many sources for a far more tightly dated second-wave colony
in southern Japan [5]. The evidence they gather has been used to support a specific
claim for the establishment of a Javanese kingdom in southern Japan in the Yayoi
period (300 BC–AD 300). It is hardly surprising that it is easier to find dating evidence for the establishment of a second-wave colony in southern Japan than for a
colony that may have been established there 2,000 or 3,000 years earlier. In terms
of our paradigm, the return to global warmth after about 400 BC in the southern
hemisphere, and possibly a little later in the northern hemisphere, provides the early
margin for a second-wave Japanese colony. For a later margin, a possible date is
supplied by traditional evidence showing that the Kuro Shio Current was still being
used as a major migration and exploration path in AD 460 when, by our calculation
(see Chapter 19), Irapanga led a migration fleet of six canoes to Hawaii from the
Spice Islands (see Chapter 19). Recent archaeological and linguistic evidence presented by Terry Jones and Kathryn Klar for second-wave Polynesian contact with
America between AD 300 and AD 800, however, extends this margin [6]. That both
Japan and Hawaii would have acted as rest and supply stations en route to southern California in both periods seems probable. And it also seems probable that, as
elsewhere in the Pacific, a second-wave colonization of southern Japan followed an
earlier colonization.
Kumar and Rose’s evidence for a Javanese kingdom in southern Japan in the
Yayoi period accords with the early margins for second-wave colonization, although
it fails to match the later margins suggested by traditional evidence and by the
American archaeological evidence that we shall consider in Chapters 6 and 8. Some
of the evidence Kumar and Rose consider is specific and clearly dates to the Yayoi
period, but much of it is undifferentiated chronologically and, we believe, can just
as reasonably be used to argue for the existence of an earlier Spice Island colony in
southern Japan.
Kumar and Rose call on evidence from a range of sources: craniometric, cranioscopic, dental, genetic, archaeological, horticultural, linguistic and cultural. The
evidence is tied to Indonesia generally and Java specifically [2, 5]. This is largely
because Kumar and Rose chose available Javanese and Japanese written records
from the Yayoi period as the material base for establishing linguistic evidence for
an Indonesian/Japanese connection. Some of the archaeological evidence Kumar
cites – for example, the similarity between Javanese krises and Japanese swords of
the Yayoi period and similarity in accession rites in Java and Japan – also appear
to be specific to Java and to the Yayoi period, but most of their evidence cannot
be chronologically differentiated: notably the craniometric, cranioscopic, dental,
genetic and cultural evidence linking Indonesian and Japanese populations. This
evidence appears to support significant genetic and cultural interchange between
colonizing Spice Island populations and established Japanese populations over a
5 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (2)
5.4 Evidence for a Second-Wave Spice Island Colony
in Southern Japan
In contrast to these wide margins and the indirect and circumstantial evidence on
which dating for an earlier colony depends, Ann Kumar and Phil Rose have presented evidence from many sources for a far more tightly dated second-wave colony
in southern Japan [5]. The evidence they gather has been used to support a specific
claim for the establishment of a Javanese kingdom in southern Japan in the Yayoi
period (300 BC–AD 300). It is hardly surprising that it is easier to find dating evidence for the establishment of a second-wave colony in southern Japan than for a
colony that may have been established there 2,000 or 3,000 years earlier. In terms
of our paradigm, the return to global warmth after about 400 BC in the southern
hemisphere, and possibly a little later in the northern hemisphere, provides the early
margin for a second-wave Japanese colony. For a later margin, a possible date is
supplied by traditional evidence showing that the Kuro Shio Current was still being
used as a major migration and exploration path in AD 460 when, by our calculation
(see Chapter 19), Irapanga led a migration fleet of six canoes to Hawaii from the
Spice Islands (see Chapter 19). Recent archaeological and linguistic evidence presented by Terry Jones and Kathryn Klar for second-wave Polynesian contact with
America between AD 300 and AD 800, however, extends this margin [6]. That both
Japan and Hawaii would have acted as rest and supply stations en route to southern California in both periods seems probable. And it also seems probable that, as
elsewhere in the Pacific, a second-wave colonization of southern Japan followed an
earlier colonization.
Kumar and Rose’s evidence for a Javanese kingdom in southern Japan in the
Yayoi period accords with the early margins for second-wave colonization, although
it fails to match the later margins suggested by traditional evidence and by the
American archaeological evidence that we shall consider in Chapters 6 and 8. Some
of the evidence Kumar and Rose consider is specific and clearly dates to the Yayoi
period, but much of it is undifferentiated chronologically and, we believe, can just
as reasonably be used to argue for the existence of an earlier Spice Island colony in
southern Japan.
Kumar and Rose call on evidence from a range of sources: craniometric, cranioscopic, dental, genetic, archaeological, horticultural, linguistic and cultural. The
evidence is tied to Indonesia generally and Java specifically [2, 5]. This is largely
because Kumar and Rose chose available Javanese and Japanese written records
from the Yayoi period as the material base for establishing linguistic evidence for
an Indonesian/Japanese connection. Some of the archaeological evidence Kumar
cites – for example, the similarity between Javanese krises and Japanese swords of
the Yayoi period and similarity in accession rites in Java and Japan – also appear
to be specific to Java and to the Yayoi period, but most of their evidence cannot
be chronologically differentiated: notably the craniometric, cranioscopic, dental,
genetic and cultural evidence linking Indonesian and Japanese populations. This
evidence appears to support significant genetic and cultural interchange between
colonizing Spice Island populations and established Japanese populations over a