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 ...

with the ruins of a

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 ...

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. ...

government administrative complex located in what is now the Kaneda and Higashioka neighborhoods of the city of

Tsukuba is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 244,528 in 108,669 households and a population density of 862 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 20.3%. The total ar ...

Ibaraki prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

in the northern

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

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 has been protected as a National Historic Site from 2004.

Overview

In the late

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

, after the establishment of a centralized government under the ''

Ritsuryō , , is the historical law system based on the philosophies of Confucianism and Chinese Legalism in Japan. The political system in accord to Ritsuryō is called "Ritsuryō-sei" (律令制). ''Kyaku'' (格) are amendments of Ritsuryō, ''Shiki'' (� ...

'' system, local rule over the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

was standardized under a ''

kokufu are the capitals of the historical Provinces of Japan. History As part of the Taika Reform (645) which aimed at a centralization of the administration following the Chinese model (''ritsuryō''), the kokufu and with it the office of the kokush ...

'' (provincial capital), and each province was divided into smaller

administrative districts Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

, known as (郡, gun, kōri), composed of 2–20 townships in 715 AD. Each of the units had an administrative complex, or built on a semi-standardized layout based on contemporary Chinese design. The Konda Kanga ruins are located on the edge of a plateau, approximately 15 kilometers south of

Mount Tsukuba is an mountain located at the northern-end of Tsukuba, Japan. It is one of the most famous mountains in Japan, particularly well known for its double peaks, and . Many people climb the so-called "purple mountain" every year for the panorami ...

, overlooking the east side of the alluvial lowland in the Sakuragawa basin that extends from the foot of Mount Tsukuba towards

Lake Kasumigaura is the second-largest lake in Japan, located 60 km to the north-east of Tokyo. In a narrower sense and officially, Lake Kasumigaura refers to a waterbody with an area of 167.63 km2. In a wider sense, Lake Kasumigaura can also refer t ...

. The ruins were discovered during expansion work on the schoolyard of Sakura Junior High School in 1959. The traces of several pillared building foundations along with a large amount of carbonized rice was found. Per an

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

in 1984, the platforms for the central building and a large quantity of

roof tile A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...

s were uncovered. Further excavations were conducted in 1999 and 2002, which confirmed the layout to be that of a local administrative center, presumably that of ancient Kawachi-gun in

Hitachi Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...

. The ruins consist of three separate areas: *Shōsōin (Konda Nishitsubo B ruins) - The foundations of a large number of raised floor granaries for storing tax rice, located within an enclosure measuring 110 meter east–west, by 310 meters north–south, surrounded by a moat with a three-meter width and a 1.3 meter depth. The schoolyard where ruins and carbonized rice were discovered in 1959 is the northern half of this complex. *Kanga (Konda Nishi ruins) - Over 100 pillar foundations for at least four of buildings, arranged in a "L" shape, along with the remnants of a well and fence lines *Kuju Higashioka temple ruins - The foundations of a

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 ...

, from which a large number of roof tiles were found. A Buddhist temple located outside the main enclosure was part of the standardized layout of a county-level administrative complex. It appears that the site was occupied from the eighth through the end of the ninth centuries. It is uncertain when the complex was abandoned. The site was backfilled after excavation, and is now an empty field located about 15 minutes by car from

Tsukuba Station is a passenger railway station in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, operated by the third-sector railway operating company Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company. It is numbered "TX20". Lines Tsukuba Station is the northern terminus of t ...

on the

Tsukuba Express The , or TX, is a Japanese railway line operated by the third-sector company Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company, which links Akihabara Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and Tsukuba Station in Tsukuba, Ibaraki. The route was inaugurated on 24 Augu ...

. The Hirasawa Kanga ruins are located 9 kilometers to the northwest.

References

External links

Ibaraki Prefectural Department of Education
{{in lang, ja History of Ibaraki Prefecture Nara period Heian period Tsukuba, Ibaraki Archaeological sites in Japan Historic Sites of Japan Hitachi Province

Overview

See also

References

External links