Teraji on the Itoigawa River was the centre of the jadeite trade, near the only known source of this green stone which was used to make prized ornamental pendants and beads.
Although Jomon communities were economically largely self-sufficient, some commodities that naturally occurred in only a few places, such as asphalt for gluing arrowheads to wooden shafts, were exchanged over long distances.
Obsidian, a volcanic glass from which extremely sharp-edged stone tools could be made, was a very desirable raw material: it was obtained from volcanic outcrops in central Japan, Hokkaido, Kyushu and from across the sea from the islands south-west of Tokyo.
