【Reading】いたづけいせき

【English Name】Itazuke Site

A composite archaeological site in Hakata Ward, Fukuoka City, spanning the period from the Final Jomon to the Late Yayoi. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1976.

Located near the center of the Fukuoka Plain, on a plateau at an elevation of 7–9 m and the surrounding lowlands, it is widely known as an important site symbolizing the beginning of the Yayoi period. Rice paddy remains old enough to rank just after the Nabatake site in Saga Prefecture have been detected, making it indispensable for understanding the process of the acceptance of rice cultivation in the Japanese archipelago.

The egg-shaped moat measures about 110 m north–south and about 81 m east–west, with a V-shaped cross-section. More than 200 storage pits have been confirmed around the settlement. In a 1978 survey, paddy-field remains and wooden agricultural tools were detected from a Final Jomon terminal layer even lower than the Early Yayoi stratum, raising the possibility that the origin of rice cultivation is older than previously assumed.

In 1916, a bronze spearhead and sword were recognized inside a jar coffin (kamekan), and the co-occurrence of Yayoi pottery and metal implements was academically reported for the first time. In 1950, the independent researcher Shigeaki Nakahara collected Yuusu-type pottery and Itazuke-type pottery at the same location, drawing wide attention as one of the oldest-class Yayoi sites.

Today it is open to the public as Itazuke Site Park, where the moated settlement has been reconstructed and maintained, and excavated artifacts can be viewed at the adjacent Yayoi-kan. It is a historic site where one can experience the beginning of rice farming, which can be called the origin of sushi.