An Ancient Cemetery on the Hanazono Hills
The Hanazono Site lies on a low ridge along the southern edge of the Miyoshi Basin, in the inland north of Hiroshima Prefecture. The ridge climbs gently toward JR Miyoshi Station and is known locally as the Hanazono hills. Along its crest, excavators traced a tightly packed group of graves built during the middle and late Yayoi period, roughly two thousand years ago, when rice agriculture had spread across western Japan and farming communities were settling the river basins of the inland country.
The site was found by chance. Between 1977 and 1980 the city of Miyoshi planned a new municipal crematorium on the hilltop, and a survey was carried out before building began. The trenches opened up an old burial ground instead of empty soil. The modern project gave way, and three of the raised burial precincts on the ridge were kept and protected where they stood.
Why the Site Was Designated
Hanazono was registered as a National Historic Site on 27 January 1978, under the category that covers shell middens, settlement remains, tombs and related archaeological sites. The designation rests on what the ridge holds: a cemetery used for only a short span of the Yayoi period, yet crowded with burials and built in two clearly different styles.
One style is the raised, stone-faced precinct that Japanese archaeologists call a daijobo. The builders shaped a level platform on the ridge and finished its edges with stacked and fitted stone, so that the mound presented a deliberate face to anyone approaching. The other style is the square tomb bounded by a shallow ditch, the hokei-shukobo, a form found widely across Yayoi Japan. Seeing the two set side by side along a single ridge is unusual, and it is part of why the site matters. For the northern hill country of Hiroshima, Hanazono is one of the clearest records of how Yayoi communities organised their dead.
Walking the Burial Precincts
The first and largest precinct occupies the highest point of the ridge. The designation record describes it as about 32 metres east to west and 18 metres north to south, with its northern edge built up as a slope and faced with stone to a height of roughly 1.3 metres. That stone-finished north side was the formal frontage of the monument. The east and west edges carry stone facing as well, applied more sparingly, while a shallow ditch one to two metres wide runs along the south.
What the platform contained is striking. The designation count lists 86 burial features set into it: simple pit graves, pit graves lined with stone, and stone coffins. Accounts based on the completed excavation give a much larger number, more than 215 burial features in the first precinct alone, a figure that reflects how much more the dig recovered after the site was first listed. Among the stone coffins are several that are extremely small. These tiny coffins drew particular attention, and they are generally read as the graves of children.
The second precinct stands just to the north-west, its long axis turned slightly from the first. It is a clean rectangle of about 15 by 9 metres, finished on its north side and along both flanks with stone, with a line of stones marking its southern limit. Inside lie a small handful of burials. The third precinct, north of the first and east of the second, has no bounding ditch, so its full extent is unclear, though it too held pit graves and stone coffins.
Beyond these three, on a markedly different alignment, lie square ditched tombs of the second style, each with its own cluster of burials. Stand on the ridge today and the site reads as quiet open ground rather than a built monument; a little imagination is needed to picture the stone-faced platforms as they once were. This is a place that rewards the curious traveller more than the casual passer-by.
Around the Site
Hanazono sits within one of the richest archaeological districts in inland western Japan. A short distance to the east is Miyoshi Fudoki-no-oka, a park of restored tombs, and beside it the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of History and Folklore, which places the Yayoi and Kofun burial culture of the basin in context. It makes the best starting point before walking the sites themselves.
The Miyoshi Basin is known for the square tumulus with four projecting corners, a distinctive late-Yayoi tomb form that developed strongly in this region. The Yatani tomb, an example of that type, lies within the same district, along with the Wakamiya tomb and the prefecturally listed Nikkoji dwelling site. Miyoshi is also home to the kilns of Miyoshi ningyo, a local clay-doll craft, offering a thread of living tradition to set beside the ancient ground.
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Q&A
- How do I reach the Hanazono Site?
- The site is on a hilltop on the south side of JR Miyoshi Station, about a 25-minute walk away. By car it is roughly seven minutes from the Miyoshi interchange on the Chugoku Expressway. Entry is free and the ground is open.
- Is there much to see on site, or is it mainly open ground?
- Hanazono is an outdoor archaeological site rather than a museum. The shape of the ridge and the rough position of the burial precincts can be made out, but the visit is far better with some background. Calling in first at the nearby Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of History and Folklore makes the ground much easier to read.
- What period do the graves belong to?
- The cemetery was built during the middle and late Yayoi period. Some sources extend its use into the very start of the Kofun period. In calendar terms this places the burials roughly within the last few centuries BCE and the first centuries CE.
- What is a stone-faced burial precinct?
- It is a raised burial platform whose edges were finished with stacked, fitted stone. The facing was both practical, holding the earth in place, and presentational, giving the mound a clear front. At Hanazono the north side of the first precinct was treated as that formal face.
- Why were such small coffins found here?
- Several of the stone coffins in the first precinct are unusually small. They are generally understood as burials for children, and their presence shows that the cemetery served a whole community across all ages rather than a select few.
Basic Information
| Name | Hanazono Site (Hanazono Iseki) |
|---|---|
| Location | Tokaichi-cho, Miyoshi City, Hiroshima Prefecture |
| Designation | National Historic Site |
| Date of designation | 27 January 1978 |
| Period | Middle to late Yayoi period |
| Site type | Yayoi-period cemetery, comprising stone-faced raised precincts and square ditched tombs |
| Preserved features | Three stone-faced burial precincts and associated square ditched tombs |
| Access | About 25 minutes on foot from JR Miyoshi Station; about 7 minutes by car from Miyoshi IC on the Chugoku Expressway |
| Admission | Free |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Hanazono Site
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/401/2344
- Cultural Heritage Online: Hanazono Site
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/202616
- Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education, National Historic Site: Hanazono Site
- https://www.pref.hiroshima.lg.jp/site/rekimin/syuhen-hanazono.html
Last verified: 2026.05.22