The Japanese archipelago was first inhabited more than 100,000 years ago, when it still comprised part of the continental Asian land mass. Archaeological discoveries have revealed that the ancient people inhabiting the archipelago in the Old Stone (Paleolithic) age lived mainly by hunting and gathering. The New Stone (Neolithic) age, dating from about 10,000 years ago, witnessed the manufacture of refined stone implements, the development of advanced hunting techniques using bows and arrows, and the production of earthenware containers for cooking and storing food. The era lasting from around 8000 to 300 B.C. is called the Jomon period after the jomon (cord-marked) style of pottery.

Agriculture, primarily rice planting, and metalworking techniques were introduced from the Asian continent around 300 B.C. The inhabitants of Japan used iron farming tools in their daily life to increase agricultural production and bronze swords and mirrors for religious rituals. The division of labor widened the gap between ruling and subject classes at this time, and many small states were formed across the country. The era lasting from 300 B.C. to A.D. 300 is called the Yayoi period after the wheel-turned pottery that was produced during this time.

Gradually the small states were unified, and by the fourth century a strong political authority centered in Yamato (now Nara Prefecture) ruled over the nation. The period from the fourth century through the sixth century saw great developments in agriculture as well as the introduction of Chinese culture, including Confucianism and Buddhism, via Korea. By the end of the fourth century contact had been established between Japan and the kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula. From Korea, such industrial arts as weaving, metalworking, tanning, and shipbuilding, which originally had been developed in China under the Han dynasty, were introduced into the country.

The written form of Chinese, based on ideographic characters, was adopted, and through this medium the Japanese learned the rudiments of medicine, the workings of the calendar and astronomy, and the philosophy of Confucianism. Buddhism was introduced into Japan in 538 from India by way of China and Korea. The Chinese system of government provided a pattern on which Japan's rulers built their own system.

The country's first permanent capital was established in Nara at the beginning of the eighth century. For more than 70 years, from 710 to 784, Japan's Imperial Family resided there and gradually extended its authority across the country. Until then the capital, or the seat of the throne, had been moved frequently within the area around the present cities of Nara, Kyoto, and Osaka.

A new capital, modeled on the Chinese capital of the time, was built in Kyoto in 794. It remained the seat of the throne for more than 1,000 years. This transfer of the capital to Kyoto marked the beginning of the Heian period, which continued until 1192. This was one of the great periods of artistic development in Japan. Contacts with China were interrupted toward the end of the ninth century, and Japan's civilization began to take on its own special characteristics and forms.

This was a process of assimilation and adaptation by which things introduced from outside gradually assumed an essentially Japanese style. The most typical instance of this process was the development during the Heian period of a Japanese script. The complexity of Chinese writing led writers and priests to work out two sets of syllabic systems based upon Chinese forms. By the middle of the Heian period these phonetic alphabets, or kana as they are called, had been improved and brought into fairly wide use, opening the way for a literature of a pure Japanese style, which was to flourish in place of that in the imported Chinese idiom.

Life in the capital was marked by great elegance and refinement. While the court gave itself up to the pursuit of the arts and social pleasures, its authority over the martial clans in the provinces became increasingly uncertain. Effective control of the realm gradually passed out of its hands and became the prize for which two rival military families, the Minamotos and the Tairas, both of which traced their descent from previous Emperors, engaged in one of the most celebrated and hard-fought struggles in Japan's turbulent middle ages. The Minamotos finally prevailed, annihilating the rival Taira clan in the epic Battle of Dannoura on the Inland Sea in 1185.