Yayoi period / Yayoi district (Tokyo) / Replica made by Kyoto Kagaku / Anthropology and Prehistory department, UMUT

This is the “type” or “first” specimen of the Yayoi style pot, discovered in 1884 at Yayoi district, adjacent to the University of Tokyo campus. It was, then, of an unknown “new” pottery style intermediate between the seemingly older “stone age” (Jomon) and more recent pottery, and was nicknamed “Yayoi pottery.” Active discussion in the latest 1800s led to the recognition of a new pottery style, culture, and prehistoric age, all of which came to be named after the initially found pot. Hence the Yayoi style pottery, the Yayoi culture, and the Yayoi period (500 B.C. to 300 A.D.).