Jomon Ware

Jomon Ware Ceramics II 2010

Why Create Art? Different people and cultures create art for different reasons……  Practical (functional)-Greek civilization used pottery to store harvested food and water in  Personal-Artists make work for no specific function  Cultural-Egyptian made canopic jars hold organs of the dead

Jomon People 

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Pre-literate Japanese culture First to settle in Japan’s outlying islands 9000 to 300 BCE Oldest known form of pottery Made the most powerful and dynamic examples of coil work that exist.

Above and Beyond… 

This culture made functional pottery beyond anything required in a simple object for practical use.

A special society 

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Its distinctive style came from a hunting and gathering society. Historically, storage vessels were not produced until people settled into the agrarian way of life and relied upon tilling the soil for planting and harvesting crops.

Who are the artists? 

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"Often vessels were decorated with patterns made by pressing cord onto the damp clay (jomon means "cord markings"). Jomon usually crafted their vessels by building them up with coils of clay

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They fired them in bonfires at relatively low temperatures. It is thought that Jomon pottery was made by women, as was the practice in most early societies, especially before the use of the potter's wheel.

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Other early Jomon pots have pointed bottoms. Notice burn marks along the sides It is thought they must have been planted firmly into soft earth or sand, then used for cooking Other early vessels were crafted with straight sides and flat bottoms, a shape that was useful for storage as well as cooking and eventually became the norm.

Middle Jomon

Dogu figurine

Early Jomon

Late Jomon

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It is thought that this group of people were able to develop such elaborate pottery because of the relative peacefulness of the islands. There was lush vegetation, plenty of fish, and no invaders due to the water surrounding the islands. They were free to enjoy the luxury of making these artistic objects