Excavation and research in many places, including the Iwajuku Archaeological Site (in Gunma Prefecture), revealed that there had once existed a Paleolithic culture on the Japanese archipelago, but things that can be called art and design have rarely been found in the relics of the Paleolithic culture.
日本列島にも旧石器文化が存在したことは、岩宿遺跡（群馬県）をはじめ、各地での発掘調査の結果から明らかとなっているが、日本の旧石器文化の遺物には造形芸術と呼ぶべきものはほとんど存在しない。