Gallery1
Gallery One explores the processes shaping Japanese culture between the time when humans first appeared in the Japanese archipelago in the Paleolithic age, and the time of the Nara court in the eighth century, when a Tang China-inspired imperial, bureaucratic polity emerged that is known as the "Ritsuryo-State." Many artifacts guide us into the world of prehistoric and early Japan-Jomon pottery; Yayoi metal work that bespeaks exchanges with the Asian mainland; relics from the burial mounds of the Kofun (tomb-mound) period; and offerings from Okinoshima Island that illuminate the origins of shrine worship. The architecture of the Heijo-kyo Palace and documents from the eighth-century Shosoin Imperial Storehouse are presented here as well.