Cherry Blossoms and Sannai Maruyama Historical Site in Japan (Part I)
My cherry blossom viewing trip to Northeast Japan and the Sannai Maruyama Historical Site we visited as a spontaneous addition and pleasant surprise
In this post, in connection with Chapter 4 of The Dawn of Everything, I would like to share with you my cherry blossom viewing trip to Northeast Japan back in April, along with a tourist attraction we visited as a spontaneous addition and pleasant surprise: the Sannai Maruyama Historical Site. Read on for cherry blossoms, our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and, of course, brilliant quotes from The Dawn of Everything. The article is split into two parts. Part I here focuses on the trip and the book, and Part II (to be published soon) will offer a detailed introduction to Sannai Maruyama!
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Perhaps the most interesting part of translating a book (just as in reading one) is that the authors' words sometimes take us to unexpected destinations. The Dawn of Everything offers, of course, a wonderful intellectual journey, but as I translate and read, I sometimes become curious about the actual places and things described by the authors.
A few years ago, I translated Father Barry Martinson’s root-seeking journey to Lebanon, From Mountain to Mountain, which certainly piqued my curiosity about the country. But Lebanon was too far away, so instead, I asked Father Barry for his mother’s lemon bar recipe and baked some lemon bars in place of embarking on a journey (I even included a note about the recipe on page 203 of the book). My baking, however, didn’t quite meet my expectations; in fact, I had completely forgotten about having made lemon bars until the editor, Yahan, remembered and reminded me.
In 2020, I translated Wang Gungwu’s memoir, Home is Not Here, and really enjoyed his descriptions of his childhood and youth in Malaysia, Singapore, and other places. I even planned a trip to Singapore, though in the end, I couldn’t make it.
As for The Dawn of Everything, given the vast geographical and historical scope of the work, it never occurred to me while translating it that I might one day visit any of the sites mentioned in the book. Yet, as life is always full of surprises, I found myself near one of those sites this April.
I have always wanted to see the flower raft at Hirosaki Castle in Japan (cherry blossom petals gathering on the moat like a bamboo raft). No matter which year I decide to go, I have to be at the mercy of the unpredictability of cherry blossoms—so why not this year? After all, I’ve finally finished translating The Dawn of Everything and deserved a long vacation, so I booked a flight for the end of April.
From the time I booked my flight until the actual departure, I watched the cherry blossom forecasts fluctuate, and my mood rose and fell along with them, all the way to the day of our departure. We hopped on the Shinkansen to Hirosaki the same day we landed in Tokyo. Fortunately, the flowers were still in bloom, and cherry blossom petals had already formed beautiful rafts on the moat of Hirosaki Castle, tempting me to float on them. Two days later, we headed to Hakodate, where the cherry blossoms were in full bloom at Goryokaku Park. The cherry blossoms in Japan, combined with the rich viewing culture, create an exceptionally romantic scene.
While checking out tourist attractions around Hirosaki, I found that the Sannai Maruyama site mentioned in The Dawn of Everything was nearby! Since we were already in Hirosaki, it only made sense to pay a visit.
Hunter-Gatherer Societies That Are Neither Simple Nor Boring
Sannai Maruyama is one of the representative sites of hunter-gatherer societies. When we think of hunter-gatherers, several labels often come to mind, such as “primitive” economies and “simple” societies, all of which are associated with “archaic” times and considered unremarkable. The Dawn of Everything tells us that none of these labels are accurate and that the archaeological evidence presents quite a different story.
Chapter 4, “Free People, the Origin of Cultures, and the Advent of Private Property,” examines the origins of these labels. It notes that people have been obsessed with the “origin of inequality” and thus have sought to understand what constitutes an “egalitarian society.” However, the meanings of “inequality” and “equality” are often vague. Does equality mean that “everyone is more or less equally wealthy,” “everyone has equal access to knowledge,” or “everyone is equal before the gods” in a society where it is agreed that the most important thing is one’s relationship with the gods? (p. 126)
Therefore, to study what constitutes equality, they established “some universal, objective standards”: the hierarchy of modes of subsistence (from hunting and gathering to horticulture, agriculture, and industrial civilization) and the linear evolution stages (from bands and tribes to chiefdoms and states) were created. (p. 126)
As a result, “primitive” hunter-gatherers naturally lived in “egalitarian bands.”
However, we will see that this is far from the truth when we take a closer look at hunter-gatherer sites. For example, consider the remains at Poverty Point, created by Native Americans around 1600 BC:
Archaeologists believe these structures at Poverty Point formed a monumental precinct that once extended over 200 hectares … the first Eurasian cities … began as settlements of roughly 200 hectares in total. Which is to say that their entire layout could fit quite comfortably within the ceremonial precinct of Poverty Point. Like those early Eurasian cities, Poverty Point … formed the core of a much larger sphere of cultural interaction. People and resources came to Poverty Point from hundreds of miles away, as far north as the Great Lakes and from the Gulf of Mexico to the south. (p. 141)
Through the great valley of the Mississippi, and some considerable way beyond, there exist other smaller sites of the same period. The various configurations of their mounds and ridges adhere to strikingly uniform geometrical principles, based on standard units of measurement and proportion apparently shared by early peoples throughout a significant portion of the Americas. (p. 143)
The influence of Poverty Point was so widespread that everyone in the cultural interaction sphere knew the same geometrical principles! They clearly did not live in small bands (at least not always; their cities were larger than early Eurasian cities), nor can they be dismissed as “primitive” or “simple.”
The Sannai Maruyama site in Japan tells another fascinating story. Japanese archaeologists classify it as part of the “Jomon culture,” and the rich heritage of the Jomon people even inspired the graphic design of the contemporary video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild! I took many photos to share with you. Here are two of the most famous structures at the Sannai Maruyama site. These people are clearly neither “primitive” nor “simple.” More photos and an introduction to the site will follow in Part II.