Current design discussion generally refers to modern design from the 20th century. However Tane thinks that design can be found in the Jōmon period 10, 000 years ago, within the way of life of the first settlements, where people gathered and lived together.
As the shift was made from the nomadic lifestyle to fixed settlement, designs that gave concrete shape to the soil, fire and other resources were born. The Jōmon people designed based on a ring system. The structure of village society was a ring. For 800 years, others joined this ring and belonged the ring.

Their pit dwellings were designed around a hearth. Tane supposes that they dug holes to contain their fire, burned firewood in the hearth, and built walls to shelter from the wind. The pit dwellings were dug out of the ground. The dug soil was piled on the roof to create a living space that could withstand the harsh cold of winter and the heat of summer. Their earthenware was made by kneading and hardening the soil. They liked making patterns and placed their spirit in the soil in the form of anthropomorphic clay figurines. They used the soil, returned to the soil, and lived together with the soil. The Jōmon lifestyle reveals a design that gives form to things.

The settlement lifestyle has engendered a planned intention to continue to live on the same land, and has created a sense of place and time. This can be seen from the fact that the houses were arranged in a circle with the entrance facing the center. At the center, there was a ring of stones. This central ring was a place where the living paid their respects to and mourned the dead.
“People were born and raised on the land, became adults, grew old and died there. They acquired the wisdom they needed to live for many years on the same land, giving form to the spirit” remarked Tane.