Nature and Science Treasures of Japan - Part Two: History of the Japanese People

The National Museum of Nature and Science have a proud history of over 130 years. Besides its valuable exhibits in the fields of natural history and the history of science & technology, it also engages in frontier research. The new Natural History Collection Wing, which houses almost all of the more than 4 million items in the natural history collection, was completed in April, 2012. In this 2-part series, Science View steps out of the studio to visit this new Natural History Collection Wing of the National Museum of Nature and Science Tsukuba Research Departments in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture. We view materials not normally displayed to consider the natural world of Japan, how the Japanese people interact with it and also Japan's growth as a technological power.
 

The theme of this, the 2nd program in the series, is the history of the Japanese people. First we visit the human bone collection, which houses samples of Japanese human bones from early to modern eras. We get up close to bones from the Edo period, during the 17th to 19th centuries. Studies of more than 10,000 bones from this period tell us much about the people's daily habits and health issues. What sort of life did they lead, you ask? Traces of disease in their bones provide some answers. The Museum also stores 3,000 year old bones of people from the Jomon Period. The Jomon people lived in Japan from 15,000 to about 3,000 years ago. Then came the Yayoi people, who arrived across the sea from continental China to settle in Japan. Surviving bones and archaeological remains suggest that the 2 people had very different physical features and ways of life. How are they connected to the modern Japanese? Scientists have been studying the mitochondrial DNA in their bones, and their results have revealed a remarkable secret about the emergence of the Japanese people. What could it be? Other scientists have been using mitochondrial DNA to peer much further back in time to discover how people migrated to Japan tens of thousands of years ago. It seems that the ancestors of today's Japanese people arrived from truly diverse places, and that this Far Eastern archipelago was quite a melting pot.

In the 2nd half of the program, we consider the Japanese people through the lens of the history of science and technology. The key to that history is found in the science and technology of the Edo period. 3 nationally designated Important Cultural Properties - a myriad year clock, a celestial globe and a terrestrial globe - hold special importance. How did the Japanese incorporate Chinese and Western technologies to make something unique to Japan? We hear the story while examining 2 of these treasures themselves - the celestial and terrestrial globes. Highly valuable and rarely shown to the public, tune in to see for yourself and learn the secrets they contain.