The , shown on some maps as the Shirokita Central Park Kuirhara ruins, are the site of some ruins of a dwelling found in
Nerima Ward,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
,
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 ...
. Today, a modern (1950s) reconstruction of a
pit-house
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 ...
stands on the site and is registered as a
historic site of Nerima Ward.
History
The ruins were excavated when constructing the athletics and exercise area of in 1955. The name Kurihara was that of a small administrative unit of a village that existed in the area. In a survey conducted between 1955 and 1956, stone tools made of
obsidian
Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...
were excavated from the red soil (
Kantō Plain loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
), and were found to be from the
Paleolithic age
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tool ...
.
Jōmon pottery was recovered, and the site exhibits trace evidence of pit dwellings from the
Yayoi through the
Heian periods (300 BC–1185 AD). The replica structure depicts a pit-dwelling from around the beginning of the 8th century, the early
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 ...
(CE 710 to 794). The reconstruction was designed by
Gaijiro Fujishima, then a professor at the
University of Tokyo, in 1957.
Structure
The remnants of the dwelling were dug down to a depth of 50 cm, and four pillar holes and a clay pot were identified to the north. When restoring the house,
Japanese zelkova was used for the main pillar, and
Japanese cedar
''Cryptomeria'' (literally "hidden parts") is a Monotypic taxon, monotypic genus of Pinophyta, conifer in the cypress family (biology), family Cupressaceae, formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae. It includes only one species, ''Cryptomeri ...
was used for the beams and girders. The pit-house is surrounded by a metal fence and it is normally not possible to go inside.
Image gallery
File:Kurihara-Site.jpg,
File:Kurihara Ruins in Jōhoku-Chūō Park.jpg, Covered in snow in March 2020
File:Kurihara Ruins panorama.jpg, Panorama of the site
File:Rear of Kurihara Ruins in Tokyo.jpg, Rear (north side) of the site
File:East side of Kurihara Ruins in Tokyo, Japan.jpg, East side of the site
References
Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s webpage about the ruins
External links
{{Commons category
Shakuji Jimdo.com
Archaeological sites in Japan
Buildings and structures in Tokyo