ABSTRACT
We have seen from the evidence presented in the preceding chapters that the Javanese immigrants, though on present evidence a comparatively small group, transformed Japan by the introduction of wet-rice agriculture and many new technologies and skills. From the Javanese loan words in the Japanese language, we can also see that the Javanese brought socio-political ideas such as the distinction between leaders and led, and the importance of showing deference to one’s superiors, now rather clearly demarcated. The sometimes technical and difficult evidence for all this has been described in the preceding three chapters. The book could perhaps have ended there. However, evidence of this type does not cover the whole of human life. It is clear that Yayoi society must have had a more complex religion than the material remains can reveal to us. Though the artefacts of the period include bells and mirrors which clearly were designed for religious and ceremonial purposes (Hudson 1992: 149), it is difficult to guess what ideas and concepts underlie the forms and decoration of these. Even the loan words, though they reveal a great deal, do not supply the religious texts these words were used to compose.
