Jomon Prehistoric Sites

Visit date(s): September 29, 30, October 1, 2024

Nearby sites on trip: We were in Shiretoko several days earlier.

Overnight locations: Eniwa, Rusutsu, Hakodate 

Location(s): Some locations were accessible but unstaffed when we visited, so we did not visit all of the associated museums.

• Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles (visited small site center, Chitose City Buried Cultural Properties Center, a few kilometres away, is closed most Sundays)
• Kitakogane (Kitakogane Site Information Center closed at 17:00) (photo of shell mound)
• Takasago Burial and Irie (visited the excellent Irie Takasago Museum between the sites)
• Ofune (visited small site center)
• Kakinoshima (Hakodate Jomon Culture Center closed at 17:00)

Travel method(s): car, foot

Travel duration: We visited the sites as we drove around Hokkaido, staying in different places as we moved around the island.

Visit duration: 1-2 hours per site

OUV: Even visiting only the Hokkaido sites gives an opportunity to see the development of sedentary communities over a span of 5000 years, in coastal and hilltop locations. Each settlement location is close to the coast, so that the bones of many sea dwelling animals were found, while being inland and high enough to offer some protection from flooding, built with grave and midden space nearby. Later sites had ritual and burial areas isolated from residences. There are many more sites in the region that were not included in the designation, so it is also possible to see Jomon artefacts in …

In our July 2023 Japan quest we visited 6 of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites, 5 of them on Hokkaido. All sites visited by rental car.

As our first goal in Hokkaido was Shiretoko National Park, we “elegantly” missed the first possible Jomon Site, the Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles. We could have visited it on the way back west, but as our route was along the southern shore of Hokkaido, we headed for Kitakogane Site as our first site.

The first thing we noticed was the huge, but totally empty parking lot. Either somebody though this site would attract a lot of people - or we arrived “out of season”. Entering the site (free of charge), we found a lush green area with some small replica buildings and several shell mounds. These mounds believed to be garbage at first, but really was burial mounds. Due to type of shells, they found out that the climate was warmer at the time and that they mostly caught fish in nets. There was also a holy place at the settlement. In addition, we found a small museum on site. As this was our first Jomon Site Museum and we found it rather informative and attractive. On display it was mostly everyday items like tools, pottery, hairpins, and combs but also pearls and figurines.

Next in line was the double site, the Irie Site, and the Takasago Burial Site. The Irie site had a slightly different approach by not showing a full …

I played in May 2014 a concert in the big modern concert hall of Hachinohe. During my stay in that city for rehearsals I had plenty of spare time and there seemed very little to see in this modern town. Public transport was only marked with Japanese letters, hardly anybody spoke any English, I felt rather trapped. Unfortunately I did not know about the Korekawa Jomon Site and missed out on that. I am not sure if it existed at that time or not. But after the concert I travelled west with my hosts to Aomori city to the same site that Els has visited, Sannai-Maruyama. 

This is a big modern museum complex: The outside area is impressive with several "reconstructed" buildings. At the few places where you can see original digs you see not much more the holes for pillars. Therefore there must be a lot of experienced guessing work involved in those reconstructions. 

The finds inside the museum are much more 'real'. In my memory the biggest part consisted of pottery. Their pottery seems to be one of the earliest in the world and their artifacts are often very creative. This raises the questions if a people can or should be inscribed for their pottery, meaning for moveable objects. If that were true then the Mexican Olmec culture, which is a bit younger but has even more impressive artifacts including the giant head sculptures should certainly be included as well. Very close to this Museum is …

I don't know what the rank of the 'Jomon sites' is among the current Japanese tentative sites. There's not really one site that jumps out from their current Tentative List, maybe one or two of the early industrial sites could be a good angle for Japan to choose. According to this report, the Tomioka Silk Mill indeed will be next (in 2014).

But you never know, so while travelling between the WHS of Hiraizumi and Shirakami-Sanchi I stopped by at one of the Jomon sites. These are a cluster of 15 prehistoric archeological sites at the northern tip of Tohoku province and the south of Hokkaido. I choose Sannai-Maruyama in Aomori city, both for its accessibility and because it seems to be the most developed location.

Directions by public transport were a bit sketchy, so I took a taxi from Aomori station to bring me some 7km to the outskirts of the city. In a true example of Japanese ways, the taxi driver with whom I had no language in common decided that I should make the best of my visit to Sannai-Maruyama and called ahead with his mobile to announce that an English speaking visitor was to arrive. He then went inside the main building with me to secure that I was given a volunteer guide that spoke English. The girls behind the desk were all very excited having a guest from 'Oranda' anyway.

So I went on to visit the site with the (at …