The Kōrokan Site: Where Ancient Japan Met the World
Beneath the lawns of Maizuru Park in central Fukuoka lie the foundations of a building that received envoys from Tang China, the kingdom of Silla, and merchants who carried goods from as far away as the Persian Gulf. This is the Kōrokan, the only one of ancient Japan's three official guesthouses for foreign visitors whose physical remains have been located and excavated. The site sits inside the grounds of Fukuoka Castle, in Jōnai, Chūō Ward, and was designated a National Historic Site in 2004.
For roughly four centuries, from the late 7th to the mid-11th, this was the point where people, ideas, and trade goods entered the Japanese archipelago from the Asian mainland. Diplomats bound for the capital, returning Japanese envoys, and foreign traders all passed through here first.
From Tsukushi-kan to Kōrokan
The Heian court maintained three Kōrokan, lodging and banqueting complexes for official guests, at Heian-kyō (Kyoto), Naniwa (Osaka), and Tsukushi in northern Kyushu. The Tsukushi facility had the deepest roots. It grew out of the Tsukushi-kan, a guesthouse attached to the Dazaifu administration that operated from the late 7th century through the Nara period. As Chinese-style court vocabulary spread, the name shifted to Kōrokan during the Heian period.
Where exactly the Tsukushi Kōrokan had stood was long uncertain. Records placed it somewhere in the Hakata area, but no one could point to the ground. In 1926 the physician and amateur archaeologist Nakayama Heijirō argued that it lay within the Fukuoka Castle precinct. His theory gradually won acceptance, yet a problem remained: the same ground had been built over by the early-modern castle and later by Imperial Army installations, and most scholars assumed any ancient remains had been scraped away.
The answer came by accident. In December 1987, renovation work on the outfield stands of the Heiwadai Baseball Stadium cut into rows of foundation trenches and turned up imported ceramics in quantity. The Fukuoka City Board of Education began full investigations the following year, eventually working across the whole castle site. The central buildings of the Kōrokan turned out to extend across the old stadium and the tennis courts to its south.
What the Excavations Revealed
Archaeologists sorted the remains into five phases, dated mainly by the pottery found with them. The earliest, from the latter half of the 7th century, included post-built halls on both the northern and southern parts of the site, with one cluster ringed by post-hole rows and stone retaining walls.
The second phase, in the first half of the 8th century, is the most legible today. On the south stood a rectangular walled compound entered through a gate, built on foundation trenches, with three latrine pits set to its southwest. A wide moat separated it from a matching northern compound, also rectangular and gated, fronted by a substantial stone wall facing the water. This pairing fits the documentary reference to a "North Hall" of the Kōrokan, lending weight to the identification.
Later phases are harder to read. The third phase, spanning the late 8th to early 9th century, left several buildings on stone footings along with storage pits. The fourth and fifth phases, running from the late 9th into the early 11th century, survive mostly as traces, since later leveling removed the structures themselves.
The artifacts tell the clearest story. Alongside great quantities of roof tiles, excavators recovered celadon from the Yue kilns and Changsha wares of southern China, Islamic earthenware, and Silla pottery from the Korean peninsula. Less expected finds included scales from lamellar armor, small gold objects shaped like arrowheads, and placer gold. Most striking of all were the wooden tablets, or mokkan, pulled from the southern latrine pits. Many are shipping tags inscribed with place names from within the Dazaifu jurisdiction, such as Higo and Miyako districts, while a single example names Sanuki in Shikoku. They list rice, fish, deer and other foodstuffs, almost certainly provisions for entertaining guests. A burnt-earth layer from the mid-11th century, sealing white porcelain bowls, marks the end of the complex.
The Meharu Tile Kiln Site
In 2014 the designation was expanded and the official name changed to "Kōrokan Site, with the appended Meharu Tile Kiln Site." The reason lies about fifteen kilometers west, on a low hillside above the Imajuku plain in Nishi Ward.
Test trenching ahead of a land-readjustment project located the kilns in 2010, and excavation in 2011 and 2012 exposed five well-preserved kilns together with two ash dumps. All were underground climbing kilns cut into the slope. Four shared a stepped firing chamber; the fifth, and latest, used a different design and may have fired both tiles and ordinary earthenware. Layers of charcoal and reduced clay below the final floors show that several of the kilns were fired more than once. Production ran from the late 9th century into the first half of the 10th.
The decisive evidence is technical. The eave-end round and flat tiles from Meharu were pressed in the same molds as tiles excavated at the Kōrokan, down to matching flaws in the mold faces, and the paddle marks on the flat tiles share the same patterns. The kilns were, in effect, the roofing factory for the guesthouse. Finding the production site in such good condition is what made the expanded designation worthwhile, since the two places together document a full supply relationship rather than a single building in isolation.
Visiting the Site Today
The excavated remains of the second-phase compound are preserved where they were found, under the roof of the Kōrokan Site Exhibition Hall in Maizuru Park. Visitors walk above the foundation trenches and stone footings, with a full-scale reconstruction nearby built from Heian-period architectural evidence so the framing and joinery can be understood. Cases display the imported celadon, Islamic ware, and West Asian glass that signal how far the trade networks reached. The hall also explains the ancient latrines and the wooden slips that served in place of paper, a detail that tends to surprise first-time visitors.
The site shares the park with Fukuoka Castle. The stone ramparts, the surviving turrets, and the seasonal cherry blossoms make a natural circuit, and the Fukuoka Castle Mukashi Tanbōkan history center stands a short walk away. The lively Tenjin district and the Ōhori Park lake are both within easy reach for an afternoon.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Fukuoka
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Korokan Ruins/Tsukenahara Tile Kiln Ruins
- [ Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine & Hakata Food Tours ]
Q&A
- What was the Kōrokan used for?
- It was a state guesthouse where the ancient Japanese government lodged and entertained foreign envoys and traders, mainly from Tang China and Silla, and where Japanese missions departed and returned. It functioned as the country's principal gateway to the Asian mainland.
- How was the site discovered?
- Renovation of the Heiwadai Baseball Stadium in December 1987 cut into foundation trenches and a mass of imported ceramics. Systematic excavation by the Fukuoka City Board of Education began the next year and confirmed the long-suspected location within the Fukuoka Castle grounds.
- Why is the Meharu Tile Kiln Site included?
- Tiles from the Meharu kilns in Nishi Ward were made in the same molds as tiles found at the Kōrokan, with matching mold flaws and paddle marks. The kilns supplied the guesthouse, so the two sites were designated together in 2014 to protect the production and consumption ends of the same operation.
- Does it cost anything to visit?
- No. Admission to the Kōrokan Site Exhibition Hall is free. It opens from 9:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 16:30, and closes over the New Year period from December 29 to January 3.
- How do I get there?
- From Akasaka Station on the Fukuoka City Subway Kūkō (Airport) Line, it is roughly a ten- to fifteen-minute walk into Maizuru Park. The exhibition hall sits in the former third bailey area of Fukuoka Castle.
Basic Information
| Name | Kōrokan Site, with the appended Meharu Tile Kiln Site (鴻臚館跡 附女原瓦窯跡) |
|---|---|
| Location | Jōnai, Chūō Ward, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture (Kōrokan); Imajuku area, Nishi Ward (Meharu kilns) |
| Designation | National Historic Site |
| Designated | September 30, 2004; renamed with additional designation of the Meharu kilns on March 18, 2014 |
| Period | Heian period (origins in the late 7th century; in use until the mid-11th century) |
| Designated area | Approx. 49,181 m² |
| Hours | 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30), Kōrokan Site Exhibition Hall |
| Closed | December 29 – January 3 |
| Admission | Free |
| Access | About 10–15 minutes on foot from Akasaka Station, Fukuoka City Subway Kūkō Line |
References
- National Designated Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/401/3407
- Cultural Heritage Online — Kōrokan Site, with the appended Meharu Tile Kiln Site
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/163088
- Fukuoka Castle / Kōrokan Official Site — Kōrokan Site Exhibition Hall
- https://fukuokajyo.com/facility/kourokan-ato-tenjikan/
Last verified: 2026.05.28