12 Kazuno City, Akita

Oyu Stone Circles

Designated as a Special Historic Site on July 19, 1956
Stage IIIa (ca. 2,000 BCE – 1,500 BCE) (Special Historic Site: ca. 2,000 BCE – 1,500 BCE)

Panoramic view of the Oyu Stone Circles: Manza Stone Circle (left) and Nonakado Stone Circle (right)

Sundial-like stonework (Nonakado Stone Circle)

Clay tablet (front and back): This clay tablet shows a simple representation of the human body using puncture marks and numbers from one to six. For example, the mouth is represented with one puncture mark and the eyes with two puncture marks.

Oyu Stone Circles Museum: This facility displays large numbers of artifacts unearthed at the Oyu Stone Circles and provides detailed explanations of the archaeological site.

This site is located in Kazuno City in northeastern Akita Prefecture, on a plateau at an elevation of approximately 180 meters along the Oyu River, a tributary of the Yoneshiro River. It sits close to rivers where salmon and trout migrate upstream and can be caught as food sources. Deciduous broadleaved forests spread in the hinterland.

The site comprises the Manza Stone Circle (52 meters in diameter) and the Nonakado Stone Circle (44 meters), with each stone circle made up of river stones of different sizes arranged in various forms.

Each stone circle is surrounded by the remains of pillar-supported buildings, storage pits, pit graves, and other features, all arranged concentrically. Large numbers of ritual tools have also been unearthed around the stone circles, including clay figurines, clay tablets, animal- and bell-shaped clay objects, stone rods, and stone swords.

The fact that the central stones in these stone circles are arranged in a straight line with sundial-like stonework suggests that people built the stone circles in consideration of the sun’s movements. A straight line drawn between the centers of the stone circles points toward the sunset on the summer solstice.

This component part, dating from the first half of the maturation stage of sedentism, is a ritual archaeological site that centers on stone circles. It is an important archaeological site that attests to a livelihood and rituals and ceremonies in an inland area.

Site tours

Location

Manza, Oyu, Towada, Kazuno, Akita Prefecture

Access

Adjacent to the Oyu Stone Circles Museum

Site guides

Volunteer guides (free, in Japanese, for 30 min.)

Reservations are required 10 days in advance.

Remarks

Hours
April to October: 9:00 – 17:30 (restricted access)
November: 9:00 – 16:00 (closed on Mondays; restricted access)
Closed in winter from mid-November to mid-April.