13 Chitose City, Hokkaido

Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles

Designated as a Historic Site on October 23, 1979
Stage IIIb (ca. 1,200 BCE)　 (Historic Site: ca. 1,200 BCE)

Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circle 1: The roughly two-meter-high embankments around this burial circle make a closed space, blocking visitors’ view of the surroundings. The area inside the embankments is more than 990 square meters.

Pit grave: A 62-centimeter-long stone pillar was found standing erect at the center of pit grave 4 in Earthwork Burial Circle 1. It is thought to have served as a tombstone.

Stone rod: A stone rod that was used as a burial good was unearthed from a pit grave at the outer rim of Earthwork Burial Circle 4. At both ends are incised designs and traces of a red pigment.

Chitose City Buried Cultural Properties Center: This facility provides detailed explanations of excavations conducted in the city, as well as the history and culture of the city.

This site is located in Chitose City in central Hokkaido, on a gentle slope at an elevation of 15 to 21 meters at the edge of the Ishikari Depression. 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.

Earthwork burial circles are large communal grave sites created by digging a circular pit and piling the excavated earth around the pit in a ring, with several pit graves inside. This site has nine earthwork burial circles, eight of which are still visually recognizable and measure at least 30 meters in diameter. The largest one measures 83 m in outer diameter and 4.7 m in depth from the crest of the earthwork to the bottom of the pit. As much as 3,000 m³ of earth is estimated to have been excavated and piled up here.

Each burial circle has a cut in the earthwork, which is considered to be a gateway, suggesting that people probably used a fixed approach to enter and exit the burial circles. Many of the pit graves within the burial circles have traces of a powdered red pigment (an iron oxide known as Bengala), and some graves have buried standing stones that are thought to have served as tombstones.

This component part, dating from the second half of the maturation stage of sedentism, is an archaeological site of a cemetery surrounded by large earthworks. It is an important archaeological site that attests to a livelihood in an inland area as well as to a high degree of spirituality, as is shown in the construction of a burial area with a distinctive structure.

Site tours

Location

Chuo, Chitose, Hokkaido

Access

From Osatsu Station (JR Chitose Line):

Approx. 15 min. by car

From Chitose Station (JR Chitose Line):

Approx. 15 min. by car

From Chitose-higashi IC (Doto Expressway):

Approx. 2 min. by car

From the Chitose City Buried Cultural Properties Center:

Approx. 10 min. by car

Site guides

Explanations of the site by a citizen group are scheduled to begin in FY2021. Details will be announced on the City of Chitose website.

Visitor facilities

Name

Chitose City Buried Cultural Properties Center

Address

Osatsu 42-1, Chitose, Hokkaido, 066-0001

Tel.

0123-24-4210 / +81-123-24-4210

Fax.

0123-21-9301 / +81-123-21-9301

Website

Chitose City Buried Cultural Properties Center Exhibition Room (the City of Chitose website)

Hours

9:00 – 17:00

Closed

Weekends (except the second Sunday)
National holidays
Year-end and New Year's holidays (December 29 – January 3)

Admission

Free

Facility guides

Exhibit explanations by specialist staff (free, in Japanese)

Reservations are required.

Facility information

Access

From Osatsu Station (JR Chitose Line):

Approx. 7 min. by car

From Chitose Station (JR Chitose Line):

Approx. 15 min. by car

From Chitose-higashi IC (Doto Expressway):

Approx. 8 min. by car

Mamachi-kun, the mascot of cultural properties in Chitose

Mamachi-kun was inspired by a clay mask from the Final Jomon period unearthed at the Mamachi Site in Chitose City. That mask is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. A replica is displayed at the Chitose City Buried Cultural Properties Center.