This is a settlement located on a coast terrace facing the Pacific Ocean. It reveals that there was long-term settlement, for approximately 6,000 years from the first half of the Initial Jomon period to the latter half of the Late Jomon period (approx. 7,000 – 1,000 BC).

The world’s earliest lacquerware products were discovered from a pit grave in Kakinoshima Site B, a site from the first half of the Initial Jomon period (approx. 7,000 years ago), when people started settlements. Many artifacts of that time have been excavated, including 17 clay tablets with footprints as burial goods from pit graves of the latter half of the Initial Jomon period (5,000 BC), a lacquered spouted vessel from the latter half of the Late Jomon period and censer-shaped pottery. These artifacts show a high level of technology, a mature society and a rich spiritual culture at that time.

The U-shaped earthwork mound of more than 190 m in length that was constructed toward the end of the Middle Jomon period to the beginning of the Late Jomon period (around 2,000 BC) is one of the largest earthwork mounds in Japan. It is considered to have been used as a place for offerings and other rituals. The remains comprise a valuable monument that visually shows the social and spiritual transitions at the time.

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Literature

• Jomon [pamphlet in Japanese, 2005] (PDF:3.1MB)
• Hakodate Jomon Culture Center [leaflet in Japanese, 2011] (PDF:3.1MB)
• Jomon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaido and Northern Tohoku, Historic Kakinoshima Site [February 2018] (PDF:4.43MB)

Basic Information