15 Toyako Town, Hokkaido

Takasago Burial Site

Designated as a Historic Site on March 19, 2002
Stage IIIb (ca. 1,000 BCE) (Historic Site [Irie Site and Takasago Burial Site]: ca. 3,500 BCE – 800 BCE)

Panoramic view of the Takasago Burial Site

Clay figurines: These were unearthed near the shell mounds.

Irie Takasago Museum: This facility displays artifacts unearthed from the Irie Site and the Takasago Burial Site.

This site is located in Toyako Town in southwestern Hokkaido at lowlands on Uchiura Bay at an elevation of approximately 10 meters. It faces Uchiura Bay, which abounds in aquatic resources. Deciduous broadleaved forests spread in the hinterland.

The site includes shell mounds and a burial area that consists of pit graves and stone arrangements. The pit graves have yielded burial goods such as pots, stone tools, and other stone objects, and a powdered red pigment (an iron oxide known as Bengala)was sprinkled in all the pit graves. Human bones have also been unearthed, including those showing traces of tooth extraction and those of a woman with an unborn baby.

From the shell mounds, shells (from Littorina brevicula, scallops, short-necked clams, etc.), fish bones (from herring, right-eye flounder, tuna, etc.), and mammal bones (from Hokkaido sika deer, dolphins, etc.) have been unearthed. The unearthing of numerous short-necked clams and the bones of right-eye flounders suggests that a sandy beach once extended near the shell mounds and that the site dates from the beginning of a cold period.

This component part, dating from the second half of the maturation stage of sedentism, is an archaeological site of a cemetery accompanied by shell mounds. It is an important archaeological site that attests to the livelihood of people in a coastal area whose rituals and ceremonies show a high degree of spirituality.