Toro
Toro Site · Toro Yayoi Settlement
Yayoi Early 300 BCE → Middle 100 BCE → Late 100–300 CE → Kofun·Yayoi (Tōkai–Suruga paddy culture)·🇯🇵 Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka City, Suruga Ward, Toro neighborhood on Abe River alluvial fan (Suruga plain between Mt. Fuji and Pacific), Japan
About
About Toro
Japan's textbook Yayoi paddy village (c.300 BCE–300 CE, peak 1 c. BCE–1 c. CE) at Toro on Abe River fan in Suruga — 7.5 ha lowland settlement with preserved paddy fields 370 paddy plots (20×10 m dib), 12 pit houses and 2 raised granaries preserved in waterlogged peat excavated 1943–47 by Tadashi Goto and wartime Kyoto Archaeological Society during munitions plant construction. Toro is the first waterlogged Japanese site revealing Yayoi wooden spades, shovels and ladder (1.2 m) plus weir water management intact — model for Yayoi paddy hydraulics across Japan, designated Special Historic Site.
Why it mattersTextbook Yayoi paddy exemplar — first waterlogged site with weir and wooden tools; Special Historic Site teaching Japan arch prehistory.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01How Toro weir partitioned Abe sediment vs Tōkai maritime paddy — hydraulics pedigree?
Theories
- 01Suruga as Tōkai paddy hydraulic model diffused to Kanto; Toro fen–farm symbiosis
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.300 BCE Early Yayoi paddies; granaries 100 BCE
- Period
- Yayoi Early 300 BCE → Middle 100 BCE → Late 100–300 CE → Kofun
- Culture
- Yayoi (Tōkai–Suruga paddy culture)
- Builders
- Suruga Yayoi rice farmers
- Purpose
- Abe River fan paddy village with water–forest management and granary surplus store
- Abandoned
- c.300 CE Alluvial avulsion buried paddies under silt; memory kept folk
- Rediscovered
- 1943 Goto team finds spades during Class C war plant excavation; 1947 Special Historic Site
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.300–100 BCE
Early Yayoi paddy and Year-One wooden tool tradition begins
c.100 BCE–100 CE
12 pit houses, 370 paddies, 2 raised granaries and weir operating
1943–47
Goto wartime excavation exposes waterlogged paddy — Japan's first Yayoi image
On the ground
Structures & features
34.9509° N · 138.4084° E · 8 m · 2 mapped features
Paddy Field System (370 plots 20×10 m) with Weir
agricultural370 water-managed paddy dibs 20×10 m with 30 m wooden weir and water gate on Abe fan
34.9512° N · 138.4087° EResidential Core with 12 Pit Houses and Twin Granaries
settlement12 Yayoi pit houses 5 m diameter plus 2 raised-floor granaries on posts with shingle rat guard
34.9505° N · 138.4080° E