Kakinoshima Site and Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kakinoshima Site

   The Jomon people lived in Japan for more than ten thousand years, and the Kakinoshima site belongs to the story of how they did it. It lies in southern Hokkaido, on the Oshima peninsula, the knuckle of land that reaches toward Honshu across the Tsugaru Strait, with the nearest town of any size, Honcho, about twenty kilometres off. The country here is gentle, a mix of low hills, farmland and a coast that opens to the strait.

   Read the complete Kakinoshima Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kakinoshima Site is where the day begins. Next is Kitakogane Site.

2. 2. Kitakogane Site

   Hokkaido does not usually come to mind when people talk about ancient Japan, yet the shell heaps around Uchiura Bay are some of the oldest signs of settled life in the archipelago. Kitakogane sits on the edge of the bay near Date, roughly halfway between Muroran and the volcanic country around Lake Toya. The Jomon people who lived here gathered shellfish, hunted deer and fished, and they threw the shells onto the same pile for centuries, which is why a modern visitor can read a kitchen midden like a diary. It belongs to the group of northern Jomon sites that UNESCO listed in 2021.

   Read the complete Kitakogane Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kitakogane Site comes up about 174 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles.

3. 3. Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles

   Kiusu sits within the city limits of Chitose, but you would never guess it from the gentle forest and the soft ground underfoot. This is one of the strangest ancient monuments in Japan: circular graves enclosed by a raised embankment of earth, made by Jomon people about three thousand years ago. They dug a great ring pit, piled the soil into a bank around it, and placed their dead inside. The largest circles are many metres across, and the earthworks are still easy to read as mounds, grassy and a bit like a stage set. It forms part of the northern Jomon listing, which UNESCO inscribed in 2021. The reason for such labour is still discussed, but the effort tells you the dead mattered to the group.

   Read the complete Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 285 km into the recorded legs you reach Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles. Next is back through Kitakogane Site.

4. 4. back through Kitakogane Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kitakogane Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Kitakogane Site, late in the day. Next is Kakinoshima Site.

5. 5. Kakinoshima Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kakinoshima Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Kakinoshima Site. That is the ride.