Kamegaoka
Kamegaoka Site · Kamegaoka Lacquerware Jomon
Jomon Late 2000–1000 BCE → Final 1000–300 BCE → Yayoi transition·Jomon Late–Final (North Tohoku–Tsugaru lacquer)·🇯🇵 Aomori Prefecture, Tsugaru City, Kizukuri District, Kamegaoka hill on Tsugaru plain north of Goshono (Mutsu Bay headland hinterland), Japan
About
About Kamegaoka
Late–Final Jomon lacquer and jade capital (c.1000–300 BCE) at Kamegaoka hill in Tsugaru — terraced village 8 ha with Japan's densest Jomon lacquerware deposit (27 red-lacquered vessels with 20-layer urushi on chestnut body) and jadeite magatama workshop with Itoigawa jade, excavated 1890s Heikichi Chijiiwa and 1980s Aomori Prefecture. Kamegaoka lacquerware (rouge-polish urushi) is Japan's high craft tradition ancestral to Kofun lacquer; the site shows Tsugaru as lacquer–jade maritime exchange capital facing Hokkaido–Korea bypass.
Why it mattersJapan's lacquer capital and origin of Japanese archaeology historiographically — 20-layer urushi defines Jomon high craft.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01How Tsugaru sustained 20-layer labour for funerary lacquer in hunter-gatherer economy?
Theories
- 01Tsugaru as pre-Yayoi complex hunter–gatherer complexity; lacquer as status maple at Kamegaoka → Oyu prestige
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.1000 BCE Late Jomon terraced phase; lacquer peak 600–300 BCE
- Period
- Jomon Late 2000–1000 BCE → Final 1000–300 BCE → Yayoi transition
- Culture
- Jomon Late–Final (North Tohoku–Tsugaru lacquer)
- Builders
- Tsugaru Jomon lacquer and jade artisans
- Purpose
- Lacquer and jade manufacturing and export centre on Tsugaru–Hokkaido–Honshu exchange neck
- Abandoned
- c.300 BCE shift to Epi-Jomon–Yayoi transculture; Hokkaido trade collapse
- Rediscovered
- 1890s Chijiiwa first Japanese archaeologist note; 1960s museum harvest; 1985 lacquer residue lab
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.1000–600 BCE
Terraced village with urushi sap tapping stands
c.600–300 BCE
27-vessel lacquer deposit with 20-layer polish and jade magatama workshop
1890s
Chijiiwa recognizes Kamegaoka as Japan's first archaeological typology site
On the ground
Structures & features
40.8600° N · 140.3200° E · 35 m · 2 mapped features
Red Lacquerware Pit with 27 Vessels (600–300 BCE)
workshopStacked pit 2×1.5 m with 27 red-lacquered chestnut vessels 20-layer urushi (Late Jomon finest)
40.8605° N · 140.3205° EJade Magatama Workshop on Terrace Edge
workshop12×8 m jadeite magatama workshop with Itoigawa jade blanks and drill cores
40.8595° N · 140.3195° E
Gallery