Oyu Stone Circles

Well knownIn most guidebooks for this region — but rarely with the practical detail.

Researched and written by Hinato

Oyu stone circlesJomonWorld HeritageKazunoSpecial Historic Site

Photo: z tanuki / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0) · original

Oyu Stone Circles survives on maintenance and memory as much as on its original construction — that tension is part of the visit.

Two stone circles, Manza and Nonakado, stand on a river terrace in Kazuno, each a double ring of river cobbles carried up from a stream several kilometres away and laid out about four thousand years ago. Between them, on a line, is the midsummer sunset. Around the rings are the postholes of buildings, storage pits and burials, so this was not an isolated monument but the ceremonial centre of a settled landscape.

The sundial-shaped arrangements at the edge of each circle are the famous element — an upright stone at the centre of a radiating pattern of flat ones. They were designated a Special Historic Site in 1956 and inscribed as part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan World Heritage listing in 2021. The site is free; the museum beside it charges ¥320 and holds the excavated material.

Before you go

Opening hours

Museum 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (April–October) | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM (November–March) | Circles open access

Closed: 29 December – 3 January

Admission

Stone circles free | Museum exhibition ¥320 adults, ¥110 elementary, junior high and high school students

Best time to visit

Late April–October | June for the solstice alignment

Time to allow

60–90 minutes

Access route

Access notes

Manza 45, Towada-Oyu, Kazuno. Car recommended. The stone circles are free to visit. The Oyu Stone Circle Museum charges ¥320 for adults and ¥110 for elementary, junior high and high school students, with group rates for 20 or more; entry to the building itself is free. Closed Mondays from November to March, or the following day when the Monday is a holiday, and 29 December – 3 January.

Beyond the guidebook

**Go to the museum first.** ¥320, and without it the circles read as scattered stones. The excavated material and the reconstruction explain what the arrangement is. **The stones were carried here.** River cobbles from a stream several kilometres away, thousands of them, moved by hand. That is the fact that changes how the site looks. **Midsummer sunset lines up.** The two circles and the setting sun on the summer solstice are on one line. The site is best understood in late afternoon in June. **Shorter winter hours and Monday closures.** From November to March the museum shuts at 4:00 PM and closes Mondays **Combine with Isedotai.** The other Akita circle site in the World Heritage listing is about an hour away in Kitaakita and is a different kind of arrangement.

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