Jomon Culture is the earliest settled culture in Japan. However, this culture did not have a written language, so archaeologists had to determine the way people lived during this time based upon discoveries of artifacts and ruins. The culture is well known from their pottery. According to archaeologists, the oldest pottery found in Japan came from the Jomon Period. The earliest evidence of pottery is thought to be about 9000 years old. Also, Jomon culture is famous for wooden buildings that became the fundamental construction of later Japanese houses. The Jomon people made a living by hunting, gathering, and horticulture. However, people who lived in different areas did not always eat the same plants and animals. Therefore, a trading system among villages developed.

The image below is a reconstruction of a house in Sannai-maruyama ruin, Aomori prefecture. According to research, this house was part of a large village that existed from 5500 through 4000 years ago. It is dated to the middle Jomon Period. The upper left side of the small buildings on the picture are not houses. They are buildings used for food storage. Since temperature and humidity in Japan are high during the summer, the food supply spoils easily or gets moldy. Also, it snows a lot in winter. Therefore, the floor of the buildings are high and the buildings are well ventilated. This type of building is still used in present-day Japan.

The Japanese lands were already surrounded by sea at that time, and it influenced the food culture. The Jomon people went seashell-digging in spring. Since the people ate a great deal of shellfish, many shell mounds were discovered throughout the villages. Because the land by the sea was relatively flat surrounded by mountainous regions, there were abundant sources of a wide variety of food available from both the sea and inland areas. The people caught fish, hunted animals, and gathered wild plants.After the Jomon people started to settle the land, they planted chestnut trees and gathered chestnuts in the fall. A popular Jomon period food was the cookie. The ingredients of the cookie depended on each season. The ingredients were powdery nuts, chopped meat, egg, salt, and water. The cookie is called the Jomon Cookie. It had a high nutritional value so a person just needed several cookies to supplement their daily caloric needs. Today, Japanese people practice seashell-digging and chestnut-gathering as a leisure activity but they still eat the food that they collect..