Simon Kaner is executive director and head of the Sainsbury Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, and director of the Centre fro Japanese Studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich

Vessel with flame-like ornamentation, Middle Jomon period (3,000–2,000 BC), from Sasayama site, Tokamachi-shi. Tokamachi City Museum, Niigata

The precocious potters of ancient Japan

During the Jomon period the Japanese archipelago was home to one of the prehistoric world’s most innovative societies

24 Nov 2018