Isedotai Site

A quick walk through Isedotai Site tells you less than a slow one — the details are where the history actually lives.

Isedotai has four stone circles, which is unique in Japan — every other Jomon circle site has one or two. They sit on a terrace above the Yoneshiro river with a view to the Shirakami mountains, were built about four thousand years ago, and were found in 1992 during construction of a bypass, which was subsequently rerouted around them.

What came out of the ground alongside them is unusual too: hundreds of clay figurines, many with a distinctive smiling face that has become the site's emblem, along with earrings and ritual vessels. It was inscribed with the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan in 2021. The circles are covered over from November to mid-April to protect the stones from frost.