A ( ) is a

human settlement In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community in which people live. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of cities ...

(village) surrounded by a

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 ...

. It is thought to be a new settlement boundary facility brought from the continent along with paddy rice agriculture. When a moat is surrounded by a water moat, it is written moat encircling, and when a moat is surrounded by a empty moat, it is written moat encircling to distinguish it.

Roots

The roots of the "moat encircling" and "moat shelter" are thought to be in the middle reaches of the

Changjiang River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

and

South Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

( Xinglongkubo culture), respectively, and in the

Japanese archipelago The Japanese archipelago ( Japanese: , ''Nihon Rettō'') is an archipelago of 14,125 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East China and Philippine seas in the southwest al ...

, and were produced in

Yayoi Era 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 ...

and

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. In the middle reaches of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow ...

, a moat encircling settlement dating back about 8,000 years has been discovered at the Pengtoushan site on the Li Yang Plain in

Hunan Province Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiang ...

.。The diameter of this moat encircling settlement is approximately 200 meters, with the western side connected to a natural river, and a moat approximately 20 meters wide running around the northern, eastern, and southern sides. Although not fully excavated yet, it is the site of rice paddy rice cultivation farming. A moated settlement dating from about 8200 to 7400 years ago has been found at the Xinglongbubo site in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for ...

Red Peak City. The settlement is bounded by a ditch with a long axis of 183 meters and a short axis of 166 meters with a flat shape that goes around an elliptical shape. The ditch is approximately 1.5 to 2 meters wide and about 1 meter deep. About 100 pit houses have been discovered inside the moat encircling the village. The village's occupation is field farming, which includes the cultivation of

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets ...

and other crops.

Japan

Characteristics

Moat encircling settlements are characterized as defenses and bases. The moat encircling the settlement was excavated in a deep V shape and pointed stakes called Gyakumogi were embedded around the moat encircling it, suggesting that the settlement had a defensive character. Large settlements are considered to be political and economic settlements and to have the characteristics of hub settlements because they have been in existence for a long time, have a large population, have small settlements in the vicinity, have residences of chiefs and large dugout buildings for rituals, have produced metalware, and have had exchange goods excavated from remote areas. In the

Wakoku Wakoku is the name used by early imperial China and its neighbouring states to refer to the nation usually identified as Japan. There are various theories regarding the extent of power of the early kings of Japan. According to the Book of Sui and ...

period, which is considered to be the period of the formation of kingship in

, the settlements became more defensive in nature and, together with

hill towns {{Unreferenced, date=May 2010 A hill town is any citadel town built upon hills to make invasion difficult. Often protected by defensive walls, steep embankments, or cliffs, such hilltop settlements provided natural defenses for their inhabitants. ...

, are considered to reflect military affairs trends in the process of the formation of kingship. As the formation of kingship progressed into the Kofun period, the chiefs began to locate their residences outside the community, and moat encircling settlements were gradually dismantled.

Jomon Period

Moat encircling settlements are also found in the southern

Korean Peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

, and in Kitakyushu there are moat encircling settlements from the late Jomon period (4th century BC). The

Jōmon people is the generic name of several peoples who lived in the Japanese archipelago during the Jōmon period (). The Jōmon people may have consisted of multiple groups, which arrived and merged at different times in the Japanese archipelago, using multi ...

tend not to form moat encircling settlements. However, at the Shizukawa 16 site in

Hokkaido is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

Tomakomai City about 4,000 years ago (late middle to early late Jomon), a V-shaped ditch about 1 to 2 meters wide and 2 meters deep with a major axis of 56 meters and a minor axis of 40 A moat encircling settlement was discovered at the Shizukawa 16 site in Shizukawa City. Two circular pit houses were found inside the moat encircling the site, and 15 were found outside the moat encircling the site. It would be different in character from the moat encircling settlements of the Yayoi period. For example, it may have been a space for Jomon rituals. This site is currently the only moat encircling settlement of the Jomon period. Although not a moat encircling settlement, there is a late Late Period double fence in Kami-shinjo, Akita Prefecture, a straight ditch separating a residence and a cemetery in Koba, Ibaraki Prefecture, and a late Late Period to early Late Period Miyago shell mound in Saitama Prefecture. These were used to enclose places of worship, cemeteries, etc., and separate them from places of daily ranking.

Yayoi Period

Moat encircling settlements are thought to have been introduced from the continent at the same time as the rice culture, and to have spread to the eastern part of the archipelago. However, from the late

2nd century The 2nd century is the period from 101 ( CI) through 200 ( CC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. Early in the century, the Roman Empire attained its greatest exp ...

to the early 3rd century, the moat encircling settlements that characterized the Yayoi period disappeared in many areas. This is thought to indicate a major change in

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

from western Japan to the

Tokai Tōkai ( 東海, literally ''East Sea'') in Japanese may refer to: * Tōkai region, a subregion of Chūbu * Tōkai, Ibaraki, a village, also known as "Tokaimura" (Tokai-village) * Tōkai, Aichi, a city * Tōkai University, a private university in T ...

and Kanto region during this period. Moat encircling settlements of this period can be classified into two types: the lowland type, located on slightly elevated alluvial land, and the upland type, located on high ground such as plateaus and hills. The lowland type is surrounded by a water moat, while the highland type is surrounded by a moat shelter. So far, the oldest moat encircling settlement of the Yayoi period has been found at the Etsuji site in Kasuya Town, located on the Genkai Sea coast of northern Kyushu. There are no early moat encircling settlements in the Kinki region, but there is the

Kobe City Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, which ...

Oobiraki site in the first half of the Early Period. The moat encircling the site was 70 meters in diameter and 40 meters in diameter, and 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 larde ...

and a storage pit have been found within the moat. The cross section of the moat encircling the site was V-shaped and inverted trapezoidal, and the ditch was estimated to have been 2 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep. Stone tools made up a large proportion of the stone tools excavated. The Asahi Site in Aichi Prefecture is a settlement of the Middle Yayoi Period and is known as one of the most advanced moat encircling settlements in terms of defensive facilities. It is thought that a large moat was built around the outside of the settlement, and earthen mounds were constructed on the inside with the soil from the moat. Furthermore, a double fence with inverted bushes and random piles were built on the outer side of the moat. Moat encircling settlements that developed after the end of the early Yayoi period are thought to have been established independently in preparation for

Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

between villages, such as land and water conflicts caused by the establishment of rice paddy farming in the areas west of the Nōbi Plain. Around that time, moated settlements appeared at the Itazuke site in

Fukuoka City is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since an ...

, the Ama Ruins in Osaka Prefecture Takatsuki City, and the Ogiya Ruins in Kyōtango, Kyōtango, Kyoto Prefecture. In Itazuke, a V-shaped ditch with a reconstructed width of more than 2 meters and a depth of more than 1 mail in cross section is moated in an oval shape with a long diameter of 120 meters and a short diameter of 100 meters. There are also dwellings and holehouses outside the moat. At the Ougitani site, the moat encircles the village with a ring moat 6 meters wide and 4 meters deep at its widest, or 270 meters long and 250 meters deep at its shortest. It is thought that the mura was defended from these remains. It is also thought that in western Japan, such as Northern Kyushu and the Kinki region, the creation of villages was common at the end of the Early Yayoi Period, when paddy rice agriculture took root. After the middle Yayoi period, moat encircling settlements became widespread in the Kinki region, with large moat encircling moats of 300 to 400 meters in diameter, and people apparently congregated within the moats. In the Late Period, large moat encircling settlements such as the

Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 August 2020) and has a geographic area of 2,440 km2 (942 sq mi). Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasa ...

Yoshinogari site in northern Kyushu, the Amma site and Ikegami Sone site in Osaka Prefecture, the Karako-Kagi site in

Ikegami-Sone Site The is an archaeological site containing the ruins of a large-scale Yayoi period settlement straddling the Ikegami neighborhood in the city of Izumi, Osaka, Izumi and the Sone neighborhood in the city of Izumiōtsu, Osaka, Izumiōtsu in the Kans ...

, and the Karako-Kagi Site in

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

. They were built on low ground and usually have earthworks, which were dug out of the moat (in contrast, earthworks in the

are on the inside of the moat). The purpose of forming a moat encircling a mura to distinguish the interior from the exterior is thought to be to provide a defensive function to protect the settlement from foreign enemies and beasts. Moats are sometimes double or triple moat encircling, and some form long moat encircling belts. It is also thought to reflect the chief power necessary for rice farming, the strengthening of

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, villag ...

cohesion, and the class difference between the inside and outside. In the case of water moats, they can also function as

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

Middle Ages

In the Sengoku era of the late Muromachi period (1336-1573), wars were frequent, and some farm villages built moats around their settlements to protect them from attack. The most important

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Buddhist temples existed in the center, and the larger ones became . Some of the moat encircling the temple still remains today, such as . One of the existing settlements, Hieda moat encircling village (Yamatokoriyama City, Nara Prefecture), is centered around the Uruta Shrine. Takuya Hamano and Genjiro Minoda's book, "A Village with a Hori" (June 1973, Iwasaki Shoten, Boys and Girls Historical Novel Series) is based on the ancient records of Uruta Shrine.

Ancient ruins

There are still a few moat encircling settlements that have remained intact since that time. The remains of Yoshinogari ruins have revealed the whole picture of a large moat encircling settlement. In addition, the recent excavation of the Sutsukabana site in Hakuta-cho, Yasugi City, one of the legendary sites of the Ijanami mausoleum, has attracted much attention.

Early

* Etsuji Site (Kasuya-cho, Fukuoka Prefecture) Late Yayoi Period (Early Yayoi Period), a shallow ditch about 1 meter wide runs twice around the perimeter. This settlement may have been established under the strong influence of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. * Naka Site (Fukuoka Prefecture) Double moat encircling a regular circle, 150 meters in outer diameter.

Last term

It spreads eastward from northern Kyushu to the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osa ...

coastal area and

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait ...

coast. The size is 70–150 meters in diameter, ovoid, small, and does not enlarge into a large annulus. * Itazuke Ruins (Fukuoka City) * Hyakkenkawa Sawada Site (Okayama Prefecture) * Nakanoike Site (Zentsuji City, Kagawa Prefecture) * Daikai ruins (Kobe city, Hyogo Prefecture) * The Ama Site (Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture) * Ougidani Site (Kyotango City, Kyoto Prefecture, formerly Mineyama Town, San'in Region, a double moat encircled by a moat, from which earthenware, stone tools, iron axes, jade making tools, glass blocks, clay flutes, etc. were excavated)

Mid-term and beyond

Harunotsuji Site Harunotsuji Site (also written as Haru-no-Tsuji, ) is an archaeological site of the Yayoi period that is located on Iki island in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island count ...

(Southeast of Iki Island, Nagasaki Prefecture) * Yoshinogari ruins (Saga Yoshinogari Town) * Sutrazukabana site (Shimane Yasugi City) *

(straddling Izumi City and Izumiotsu City, Osaka Prefecture) * Yamatokoriyama City, Nara Prefecture) * Karako-Kagi Site (Nara Prefecture Tawaramoto Town) * Ota-Kuroda Site (Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture) * Asahi Site (located in Kiyosu City, Kasuga Town, and Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture): The site with the most extensive defensive facilities. *

Kanzaki Site The is an archaeological site with the ruins of a moated Yayoi period settlement, located in the city of Ayase, Kanagawa Prefecture in the southern Kantō region of Japan. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2011. Overview Th ...

(located in Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture) * Otsuka-Saikachido Site (Kanagawa

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of ...

)

Existing settlements

Wakatsuki moat encircling settlements (Yamato Koriyama City, Nara Prefecture) and Hieda moat encircling settlement (Yamato Koriyama City, Nara Prefecture) are especially famous as historically important sites, and are also famous as tourist attractions because they are close to Koriyama Station and have parking lots in front of Uruta Shrine in the Hieda moat encircling settlement. There appear to be many of them in Nara Prefecture, but this is simply because Nara Prefecture promotes moat encircling settlements as tourist attractions,Tracing the Roots of Moat Encircling Settlements ( Column）｜Tracing the Roots of Moat Encircling Settlements in Nara Prefecture
/ref> and of course there are moat encircling settlements existing all over Japan.。Moat encircling settlements in Nara Prefecture have been clearly developed as tourist attractions with information boards, but many of the existing moat encircling settlements in Japan are not developed as tourist attractions, but are simply a group of private houses surrounded by waterways with narrow roads that cars cannot pass through and no parking lots. Many moat encircling settlements have been filled in as a result of urbanization, and there are many examples of unmarked, concrete-filled waterways in large cities that are actually remnants of ancient moat encircling settlements. *

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture ...

** Ichimida Terauchi Town (

Tsu City) ** Shiga Prefecture ** Shimoishidera moated settlement (Shiga Prefecture Hikone City) ** Shinkai-cho (Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture) - The site is believed to be the site of a flatland castle of the Shinkai clan, the development lord of the Shinkai area, which was used as a waterway for the village after the Shinkai clan was destroyed in 1558. * Osaka Prefecture ** Kyuhoji Terauchi-machi ( Osaka Prefecture Yao City) ** Keikoji Terauchi-machi ( Osaka Prefecture Yao City) ** Hiranogo moat encircling site ( Osaka Prefecture

Osaka City is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...

Hirano-ku) - The site has not retained its original form as a settlement and the moat encircling has been mostly filled in, but a portion has been preserved and maintained. The Hirano clan's shrine, Kakezu Shrine, and other structures are still in existence. ** Kitsure moat encircling settlement ( Osaka Prefecture

Hirano-ku) - The moat encircling the settlement was reclaimed in the 1960s and turned into a road. Six Jizoson (stone statues of Jizo) that were located at the entrance to the village are still in existence. *

** Milida moat encircling settlement (Nara Yamatokoriyama) - This is a valuable moat encircling settlement in that the features of a moat encircling settlement, such as the intricate roads in the settlement and the "Shichikyoku-ri", a demon gate, are completely extant. It is said to be the birthplace of Hieda Are, the compiler of

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperi ...

, and home to Uruta Shrine, which is dedicated to Hieda Are. ** Wakatsuki moat encircling settlement (Nara Yamatokoriyama) - A valuable moat encircling settlement in that the date of its formation can be supported by data. ** Banjo moat encircling settlement (Nara Yamatokoriyama City) ** Takayasu moat encircling settlement (Nara Ikaruga Town) ** Minami Yagyu moat encircling settlement (

Tenri City is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. The modern city was founded on April 1, 1954, and is named after the Japanese new religion Tenrikyo, which has its headquarters in the city. As of April 1, 2015, the city has an estimated population o ...

, Nara Prefecture) ** Takenouchi moat encircling settlement (

) ** Kayao moat encircling settlement (Nara

) ** Hozu moat encircling settlement (Nara Tawaramoto Town) ** Nango moated encircling settlement ( Hiroryo Town, Nara Prefecture) ** Fujimori moated encircling settlement ( Tamato Takada City, Nara Prefecture) ** Imai moat encircling settlement ( Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture) ** Saga Prefecture ** Naotori Moat Encircling Settlement Creek Park (

Kanzaki City) and others.

References

External links

* {{Kotobank, name=環濠集落, display=環濠集落 Sengoku period Yayoi period Archaeology of China Archaeology of Japan Pages with unreviewed translations