摘要：Until 1949 when TADAHIRO AIZAWA noticed the possible existence of the non-ceramic industries in Japan on the basis of the findings at a site near Kiryu in the Kanto district, it had been said that the oldest culture in Japan was the Jomon culture characterlized by Jomon pottery. At the site, stone implements were found in a formation called "the Kanto loam layer" which was presumably formed near the end of the Pleistocene period. Thereafter many students including the author have made efforts to collect more data on the subject in all parts of the country. We may summarize the results obtained up to the present as follows.The non-ceramic culture in Japan seems to have lasted for a relatively long time, because there are several distinguishable industries in it which can be recognized by the technological characteristics of the stone implements. Typological as well as stratigraphical studies made it possible to classify the following six different industries:(1) Hand-axe plus Blade industry(2) Blade industry (capable of more detailed classification)(3) Knife-blade industry(4) "Kiridashi"-shaped Knife-blade industry(5) Point industry(6) Microlithic industryThese industries, except for (3) and (4) seem to have spread over almost all the country. From the chronological point of view the industries presumably occured one after another, following the above mentioned sequence from (1) to (6), of which (1) to (5) probably belong to Late Pleistocene and (6) belongs to the earliest part of Holocene. According to the radiocarbon dates the beginning of the Jomon culture is estimated to be between 4000 and 5000 B. C., and the industries from (1) to (5) are comparable to the Palaeolithic and the industry (6) to the Mesolithic in Europe.
