Itazuke Ruins Yayoi-kan Museum
Being there
Itazuke Ruins and Yayoi-kan Museum is an important archaeological site associated with the Yayoi period, when wet-rice agriculture and new technologies transformed Japanese society. The site contains the remains of an early rice-farming settlement, including reconstructed houses, a moat and rice paddies. Archaeological discoveries include pottery, stone tools and evidence of rice cultivation. The nearby Yayoi-kan Museum explains the excavations and displays artefacts from the site, helping visitors understand how the settlement was organised and how its inhabitants lived. Itazuke is particularly significant because it provides evidence for the early development of wet-rice agriculture in northern Kyushu, a region that played a key role in the introduction of continental technologies and cultural influences to Japan.
The story
Itazuke Site (板付遺跡, Itazuke iseki) is an archeological site with a late Jōmon period to late Yayoi period settlement located in Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. Along with the Nabatake Site in Karatsu, Saga, it is the oldest known rice-growing village site in Japan, and is also the oldest known moated settlement. It was designated as a National Historic Site in 1976, with the area under protection expanded in several times.