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 Furukawa district of what is now the city of Ōsaki,

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

of northern

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 contains a 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 ...

to early

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. ...

''jōsaku''-style Japanese castle. It has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since 1976.

Overview

In the late

, 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, the imperial court sent a number of military expeditions to what is now the

of northern Japan to bring the local

Emishi The (also called Ebisu and Ezo), written with Chinese characters that literally mean "shrimp barbarians," constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region, referred to as in contemp ...

tribes under its control. After the establishment of Taga Castle, Yamato forces gradually pushed into the hinterland of what is now Miyagi Prefecture, establishing several fortified settlements against increasing

opposition. The ruins of a very large fortification were discovered during construction work on the Tōhoku Expressway in 1974, and the site was excavated by the Miyagi Prefectural Board of Education from 1974-1977. The site is in a hilly area on the northern edge of the Ōsaki Plain at an altitude of around 50 meters, and extends 1400 meters east-west by 850 meters north-south. The roughly rectangular compound is surrounded by earthen ramparts,

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

and a wooden

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

. Inside, post holes for buildings and the foundations of

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 have been discovered, along with

Sue pottery 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 ...

fragments and metal implements. From the style of the pottery discovered, the site was dated to the early Heian period. However, the fortification does not appear in any historical records, and there is some uncertainty if this was a ''josaku''-type fortification, or the remains of a fortified government office site for Nagaoka District. Part of the site has been made into an

archaeological park 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 and ...

, which is also known for its cherry blossoms in spring. The site is approximately 30 minutes by car from

Furukawa Station is a junction railway station in the city of Ōsaki, Miyagi, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Furukawa Station is served by the Tōhoku Shinkansen high-speed line from Tokyo to , and also by the local East R ...

on the Tohoku Shinkansen.

References

External links

Miyagi Prefecture official site
{{in lang, ja Ōsaki, Miyagi 8th-century establishments in Japan Archaeological sites in Japan History of Miyagi Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links