Karimba Ruins

What Is the Karinba Site?

The Karinba Site occupies a low river terrace and adjoining lowland along the former Karinba River, a tributary of the Chitose River. Discovered in 1999 during road construction for the Danchi-Chūō-dōri municipal road, the area encompasses roughly 70,000 square meters and contains traces of human activity spanning thousands of years — from the Early Jōmon period (around 7,000 years ago) through the post-Jōmon, Satsumon, and Ainu cultural periods.

What makes the site truly remarkable, however, is what was found in its burial ground. Archaeologists have uncovered nearly 300 pit graves dating from the late to final Jōmon period (roughly 3,500 to 2,500 years ago). Among them are four extraordinary "joint burial pits" (大型合葬墓, ōgata-gassōbo) — large oval pits in which multiple individuals were interred together, sometimes as many as six in a single grave. These joint burials yielded a stunning trove of grave goods that has been described as "the most luxurious burial assemblage of the entire Jōmon period."

Why It Was Designated a National Cultural Property

The Karinba Site received two of Japan's highest cultural property designations in quick succession. On March 2, 2005, the site itself was designated a National Historic Site (史跡) by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The following year, on June 9, 2006, a curated set of 397 grave goods recovered from three of the four joint burials — graves no. 118, 119, and 123 — was designated an Important Cultural Property under the official title "Excavated Items from the Burial Pits of the Karinba Site, Hokkaidō" (北海道カリンバ遺跡墓坑出土品).

The reasoning behind these designations is straightforward. More than 120 lacquered objects and roughly 900 stone and clay ornamental beads were recovered from the burials — quantities and varieties never before seen at any other Jōmon site. The collection includes object types that were entirely new to Japanese archaeology: vermilion-lacquered head ornaments, forehead ornaments, ear ornaments, woven waist decoration belts (腰飾り帯, koshi-kazari-obi), and decorative cords. Because the buried individuals' skeletons had largely returned to the soil, these ornaments preserve, in their precise spatial arrangement within the grave, irreplaceable evidence of how Jōmon people adorned the bodies of their dead.

Highlights and Points of Interest

Visiting the Site

The historic site itself is currently a quiet open space marked with an explanatory signboard, monument, and seasonal flower beds. Future plans call for a guidance facility and historic park development. The full archaeological story is best appreciated by combining a brief stop at the site with a thorough visit to the Karinba Exhibition Room at the Eniwa City Local History Museum, where the artifacts are interpreted in context.

Karinba Site (Historic Site): 5-216-7 Kogane-Chūō, Eniwa City. About a 10-minute walk from JR Eniwa Station toward National Route 36.

Eniwa City Local History Museum (Karinba Exhibition Room): 157-2 Minami-Shimamatsu, Eniwa City. Open 9:30–17:00. Closed Mondays (or the following weekday if Monday is a holiday), the last Friday of each month, and from December 28 to January 3. Admission is free.

Surrounding Attractions

Eniwa City sits roughly midway between Sapporo and Chitose Airport, making the Karinba Site an excellent half-day stop for travelers entering or leaving Hokkaido. Nearby attractions include the Hana no Kyoten "Hanafuru" floral park, the Eniwa Tourist Information Center, and the scenic forests and waterfalls of the Eniwa Gorge area to the west. The Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles, a UNESCO World Heritage component of the "Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan," lie just south in neighboring Chitose City — pairing the two sites makes for a deeply rewarding Jōmon-themed itinerary.