Dawn of Japan: Emperor Jimmu with his Gods and Warriors on Third-Century Bronze Mirrors (Forschungen zur Archaologie Aussereuropaischer Kulturen)

Beautifully presented and absolutely fascinating.

Over the past 50 years Michael P. Speidel has contributed a great deal to advancing the understanding of many topics related to ancient warfare and the warriors who participated in it. This book sees him working in concert with a Japanese antiquarian examining a bronze mirror, dated to the 3rd century, that now resides in the Tokyo National Museum.This particular mirror is unique in the number and character of human figures portrayed, and has proven an enigmatic object of interest. By analysing the mirror's imagery, and comparing it with certain later Japanese tomb drawings and other mirrors showing similar themes, Speidel & Fukushima interpret the mirror as being an historical record, albeit involving many mythical elements, of "Emperor" Jimmu's invasion of Yamato from Kyushu. The mirror shows warriors who for the most part fight hand-to-hand, carrying shields rather than bows; a time before the way of horse and bow changed the nature of Japanese warfare. Its details are not only corroborated by later-dated archaeological records, but mesh well with the even later written records of the 8th century, that have - until now - been dismissed as mere myths by historians.According to Speidel & Fukushima's analysis, the legendary Emperor Jimmu is not only Japan's first historical personage (even if none of the other "later" legendary emperors existed), but can be dated, to the 3rd quarter of the 3rd century. The mirror records his allies (or to be more exact, their leaders) as well as his enemies; female shamans were clearly were still held in the highest regard in his time.Perhaps more interestingly (from a wider perspective) is their take on early religion in Japan, which given the evidence of these pictorial sources, would seem to be very much focussed on the afterlife, which is exactly the opposite of the orthodox position.The book's 150-odd pages include over 60 illustrations and plates, many full-page, and include pictures both with and without interpretation lines; the authors thus let the reader evaluate for themselves the strength of their visual interpretations. Unfortunately these are not usually on the same page, making side-by-side comparisons sometimes difficult, but this is no doubt a technical problem to do with printing, beyond the authors' control.I found this book to be a most interesting read, and I wonder how it will influence the study of Japanese (pre-)history in the years to come; as is often the case, such interesting research is only possible with a cross-disciplinary team (or in this case, pair) of investigators.The only reason I can't give the book 5 stars is its price - as is typical with many small print-run books, the price asked is vastly in excess of what any casual purchaser is likely to pay (I didn't personally pay for my copy). This is a shame, as it deserves a wider readership than just those like myself whose primary interest is ancient warfare. Its reinterpretation of what may be taken to be *the* founding myth of Japan must surely be of great importance to anybody with an interest in Japanese culture.