Satsumon

A type of Haji-like incised-motif pottery made in early Hokkaido and northern Honshu, Japan, from c 4th-14th centuries, and to the culture characterized by this pottery. Satsumon houses are very much like Late Kofun houses. Iron tools were used and cloth was woven. The Satsumon culture is seen as the transformation of a Jomon-type culture, which continued late in northern Japan, as the result of the contacts with Haji-using people to the south. The people are thought to be the ancestors of the historic Ainu.

Name given to the HAJi-like pottery made in Hokkaido and northern Honshu, Japan, from about 800 to 1300, and to the culture characterized by this pottery. Satsumon houses are very much like Late Kofun houses, such as those found at Nakada in central Honshu. Iron tools were used to grow millet, buckwheat and possibly rice, which supplemented the diet of fish and wild plants. Cloth was woven. The Satsumon culture is seen as the transformation of a JoMON-type culture, which continued late in northern Japan, as the result of the contacts with Haji-using people to the south. Satsumon ceramics were no longer made after the 14th century, when they were replaced by iron pots, but the people who had made them are thought to be the ancestors of the historic Ainu.