Anthropological types

The Japanese are usually referred to the so-called “Japanese” compound anthropological type which occupies intermediate position between the northern and southern Mongoloids and has a sufficient Ainu component. The “Jomon people” (quite short, with round faces, tanned skin, with even small teeth, comparatively thick lips, with broad noses ), who were the earliest inhabitants of the Japanese Archipelago, were typical representatives of the southern Mongoloid race. From the 3rd century BC representatives of the northern Mongoloid race began to arrive to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. They were characterized with bigger height, light skin, oval faces, thin lips, long and wide front teeth (often curved) and thin noses with high bridges. They created the so-called “Yayoi culture” (bronze-iron age) and partly exterminated the “Jomon people”, partly forced them out to the periphery of the archipelago, and partly assimilated with them. The intermingling of these three main groups led to the appearance of the modern “Japanese” anthropological type that combined northern and southern Mongoloid features.

At the same time the north of the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited (through Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands) with migrants from Siberia, the Maritime Province and northern regions of China (Manchuria) who mingled with the local population and that the Ainu people (who still inhabit the Hokkaido Island) originated from.

Portrait of woman. Japan. The Japanese. Early 20th cent.		Samurai in the armor. Japan. The Japanese. Mid-to-late 19th cent.		Portrait of man. Japan, Hokkaido. The Ainu. Mid-to-late 19th cent.
The Ainu  of Hokkaido Island. Japan. The Ainu, mid-to-late 19th c.		The Ainu  in traditional costumes. Japan. The Ainu, mid-to-late 19th c.		Portrait of woman. Japan. The Japanese, by 1886