Des Empereurs et des Tombes. Une archéologie de l'archéologie protohistorique japonaise à l'époque d'Edo

Abstract

Archaeology, at least at its very beginning, in Europe as well as elsewhere, has always been one of the cornerstones of a Nation's past inquiry process. As an academic discipline, it is part and parcel of a Nation-state rising context and therefore matches the same purposes of national identity determination and national legitimacy recognition. Japan is no exception in this respect. This paper specifically deals witn archaeology before archaeology, with the archaeology ol archaeology. It indeed appears crucial, as a preliminary reflexion about « national archaeology » in Japan during Meiji, Taishô, and Shôwa periods, to lay emphasis upon the Edo period's first returns to the past history. Within such a context, we focus our attention on IIIr to Vil1 centuries' keehole shaped mounds (kofun), which had been studied by confucianist scholars of Edo before the rise of social sciences and archaeology during Meiji. We try to determine the status and the pre-modern meaning or these tombs frequently related to the imperial image, as well as their role in the imperial image crafting process, even before the rise of a « national archaeology » in Japan.