Kakinoshima Site
Kakinoshima Iseki · 垣ノ島遺跡
Initial to Final Jomon 7000–400 BCE (Jomon 1–6)·Jomon (southern Hokkaido, Minamikayabe)·🇯🇵 Hokkaido, Hakodate City, Minamikayabe district (Oshima Peninsula, Pacific terrace above Kakinoshima River), Japan
About
About Kakinoshima Site
Long-lived Jomon settlement and ceremonial terrace (c.7000–1000 BCE) at Kakinoshima, Hakodate, Hokkaido — 7.6 ha terrace settlement inhabited 6000 years from Early to Final Jomon, with 400+ pit dwellings, large earthwork mound (Japan's largest: 190×32 m × 2 m high), ritual depository, jade and amber workshop, and two huge hollow dogū (Chuku Dogu National Treasure) burial pits. Excavated 2000–10, Kakinoshima yielded 4000+ lacquerware and the earliest collective cemetery in Hokkaido; UNESCO Jomon component (1632-002) showing 6000-year sedentism.
Why it mattersLongest continuous Jomon occupation (6000 years) in Japan; largest earthwork mound (190 m) proves Jomon monumentality without agriculture.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why 190 m earthwork — territorial or mortuary?
- 02Jade–amber trade route to Honshu?
Theories
- 01Sedentary fisher-gatherer complexity model; ritual earthwork as boundary
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.7000 BCE Initial Jomon; moth-mound 3500–1000 BCE
- Period
- Initial to Final Jomon 7000–400 BCE (Jomon 1–6)
- Culture
- Jomon (southern Hokkaido, Minamikayabe)
- Builders
- Jomon fisher-hunter-gatherers (6000-year continuity)
- Purpose
- Permanent terrace village with ceremonial earthwork and collective cemetery
- Abandoned
- c.400 BCE Yayoi transition
- Rediscovered
- 2000–10 Hakodate City excavation
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.7000–5500 BCE
Initial Jomon pit dwellings on terrace above Kakinoshima River
c.3500–1000 BCE
190 m earthwork and hollow dogū ritual depository built
2021
UNESCO Jomon Prehistoric Sites 1632-002 inscription
On the ground
Structures & features
41.9289° N · 140.9475° E · 40 m · 2 mapped features
Giant earthwork mound
earthwork190×32 m × 2 m pounded earthwork (largest Jomon earthwork)
41.9290° N · 140.9473° EHollow dogū depository
ritual depositPit with 2 hollow dogū National Treasures and jade workshop debris
41.9285° N · 140.9478° E
Gallery