The is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

located in the Jike neighborhood of the city of

Hakui, Ishikawa is a city located in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 22,052 in 8566 households, and a population density of 270 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Hakui occupies the southwestern nec ...

in the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2012.

Overview

The Jike Site consists of a number of ruins of a Jōmon and

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

settlement, overlaid with

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

s and

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

s from the

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

and

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

s, buried in the coastal sand dunes in the Terajima-chō and Yanagida-chō neighbourhoods of the city of Hakui at the base of the

Noto Peninsula The Noto Peninsula (能登半島, ''Noto-hantō'') is a peninsula that projects north into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. The main industries of the peninsula are agricultur ...

. The ruins were discovered during the construction of the coastal highway in 1976, and after several years of excavation by Hakui City and Noto Prefectural archaeologists, the large scope of the site and its historical importance was gradually recognised. The site included the foundations of numerous buildings, including 37

pit dwelling A pit-house (or ''pit house'', ''pithouse'') is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, these structures may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a larder ...

s, 44 elevated floor buildings, 22 medieval buildings with earthen walls, salt-making furnaces, blacksmith hearth and other workshops. A wide range of pottery, from

Jōmon pottery The is a type of ancient earthenware pottery which was made during the Jōmon period in Japan. The term "Jōmon" () means "rope-patterned" in Japanese, describing the patterns that are pressed into the clay. Outline Oldest pottery in Jap ...

Yayoi pottery Yayoi pottery (弥生土器 Yayoi doki) is earthenware pottery produced during the Yayoi period, an Iron Age era in the history of Japan, by an Island which was formerly native to Japan traditionally dated 300 BC to AD 300. The pottery allow ...

Haji ware is a type of plain, unglazed, reddish-brown Japanese pottery or earthenware that was produced during the Kofun, Nara, and Heian periods of Japanese history. It was used for both ritual and utilitarian purposes, and many examples have been found ...

Sue ware was a blue-gray form of stoneware pottery fired at high temperature, which was produced in Japan and southern Korea during the Kofun, Nara, and Heian periods of Japanese history. It was initially used for funerary and ritual objects, and origin ...

Sancai ''Sancai'' ()Vainker, 75 is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown (or amber), green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang Dynasty (618� ...

Dehua porcelain Dehua porcelain (), more traditionally known in the West as Blanc de Chine (French for "White from China"), is a type of white Chinese porcelain, made at Dehua in the Fujian province. It has been produced from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to ...

Celadon ''Celadon'' () is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware" (the term specialists now tend to use), and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was ...

and other varieties have been found. Other artifacts include bronze bells,

bronze mirror Bronze mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. This type of mirror, sometimes termed a copper mirror, has been found by archaeology, archaeologists among elite assemblages from various cultures, from Etruscan art, Etruscan Italy to Japan. T ...

s with a design of sea monsters, coins, and metal fittings. Some of the objects found are identical to ritual objects which have been preserved at the

Keta Taisha is a Shinto shrine located in the city of Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. It was the former ''ichinomiya'' of Noto Province. The main ''kami'' enshrined is Ōkuninushi. The shrine's main festival is held annually on April 3. History The origi ...

, which is located 800 meters to the northwest of this site. It is also postulated that this was also a ritual site associated with Keta Taisha, since the buildings are centered on the large pillar buildings in the latter half of the 9th century with a standardized layout. Furthermore, many of the recovered artifacts indicated a strong connection between this region of Japan and the kingdom of

Balhae Balhae ( ko, 발해, zh, c=渤海, p=Bóhǎi, russian: Бохай, translit=Bokhay, ), also rendered as Bohai, was a multi-ethnic kingdom whose land extends to what is today Northeast China, the Korean Peninsula and the Russian Far East. It wa ...

on the opposite coast of the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

, and it is postulated that this was a trading center and a location for the Balhae embassy to stay during its intermittent embassies to the Japanese court. The settlement appears to have been destroyed twice, once in the middle of the Heian period (10th century) and in the late

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

(15th century), from which it never recovered. The site is about 12 minutes by car from

Hakui Station is a railway station on the Nanao Line in the city of Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Lines Hakui Station is served by the Nanao Line, and is located 29.7 kilometers from the end of the ...

on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

Nanao Line The is a railway line in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and the Noto Railway. It runs between Tsubata Station in Tsubata and Anamizu Station in Anamizu. JR West operates the section between Tsuba ...

References

External links

Ishikawa Prefectural information home page

Hakui city official site
{{Authority control History of Ishikawa Prefecture Hakui, Ishikawa Historic Sites of Japan Archaeological sites in Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links