On Jōmon Pottery

“On Jōmon Pottery” by Okamoto Tarō was first published in Mizue in 1952. In the magazine, the broader framework of this essay is titled, “A Dialogue with the Fourth Dimension” (as such, it is also possible to interpret this as the title of the text and “On Jōmon Pottery” as the subtitle”).
Okamoto (1911–1996) is known in and beyond Japan as a leading artist of the postwar Japanese avant-garde. Before World War II, he studied at Sorbonne University in Paris, where he trained in ethnology under Marcel Mauss, the father of French ethnology.
In this essay, Okamoto considers the “wild, riotous forms” of Jōmon pottery not from the positivist perspective of archaeology but rather from an aesthetic and philosophical point of view, praising them extensively, as indicated by phrases like “fiercely tough aesthetic sense,” “an aesthetic that scoops up the viewer’s consciousness from its roots and overturns it,” “peculiar mysticism,” and “the fourth-dimensional characteristics that transcend surface-level reality.” The essay also includes Okamoto’s own ethnographic inquiries, for example drawing out the cosmic worldview of the Jōmon people from their pottery.
Ishii Takumi, author of Jōmon doki no mon’yō kōzō: Jōmonjin no shin’wateki shikō no kaimei ni mukete [Pattern structures of Jōmon pottery: Toward an elucidation of the mythical thinking of the Jōmon people] (Um Promotion, 2009), argues that although Okamoto’s writings on Jōmon pottery have been largely ignored in the field of archeology, his unique insights are in fact greatly valuable from an archeological viewpoint too.

Title

On Jōmon Pottery

Author

Okamoto Tarō

First published

1952

Translation

Justin Jesty

Editing

Yung-Hsiang Kao, Yamamoto Hiroki

Design

Ian Lynam

Theme

Artists' Writings

First Posted Online

2023-03-07

Last modified

2023-03-07

© 2022 Taro Okamoto Memorial Foundation + Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan

The newly published English translations on this website (https://artplatform.go.jp) can be used without permission only for the purposes of education, research, critique, survey, and the like. English translations cannot be copied for the purpose of sale or distribution. You must comply with the Rules Governing the Use of the English Translations.

Citation

Footnote/endnote: Okamoto Tarō, "On Jōmon Pottery," trans. Justin Jesty, Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan, posted March 7, 2023, artplatform.go.jp/readings/R202227.

Bibliography: Okamoto Tarō. "On Jōmon Pottery." Transated by Justin Jesty. Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan. Posted March 7, 2023. artplatform.go.jp/readings/R202227.

Original Japanese Edition

Okamoto Tarō “Yojigen to no taiwa: Jōmon doki ron” in Mizue, no. 558 (February 1952): 3–10; reprinted in Okamoto Tarō, Nihon no dentō [Traditions of Japan] (Tokyo: Kobunsha, 2005), 73–94.

岡本太郎「縄文土器論」『みずゑ』558号（1952年2月）、3–10頁。再録『日本の伝統』光文社、2005年、73–94頁。

National Diet Library(NDL)

First printed: https://id.ndl.go.jp/digimeta/2242039
Reprinted: https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/000007727768

ISBN

『日本の伝統』：9784906708550