A Thousand Spear Points on a River Terrace
On a flat shelf of land high above the Shinano River, in the deep-snow country of Niigata Prefecture, archaeologists once lifted more than a thousand finely worked stone spear points out of the soil. They lay close to fragments of pottery that count among the oldest ever found in Japan. The combination set off one of the longest-running arguments in the country's archaeology, and it is the reason the Hon-no-ki collection is now a national treasure of a particular kind: an Important Cultural Property of the Japanese state.
The finds come from the Hon-no-ki site (Hon-no-ki iseki) in Tsunan Town, in the upper-middle reaches of the Shinano valley. Tsunan calls itself the town of Japan's finest river terraces, and the staircase of flat benches left by the river is exactly where the earliest settlers chose to work and live. The objects belong to the Incipient Jōmon period, the threshold of the Jōmon culture, dated here to roughly 15,000 to 12,500 years ago.
What survives is a working record rather than a display of finished masterpieces. The collection holds over a thousand spear points known in Japanese as yarisaki-gata sentōki, along with early impressed-cord pottery (ōatsu jōmon doki), flaked stone tools, and polished stone axes. The town of Tsunan owns the material, which is housed at the Tsunan Town Buried Cultural Property Center.
An Old Argument, and Why the State Stepped In
The Hon-no-ki collection was designated an Important Cultural Property on September 30, 2020, registered as a single lot of archaeological material. The case for protecting it rests on two things: the quality of the spear points as a record of how they were made, and the place this site holds in the history of Japanese archaeology.
The points are unusual because they preserve the full sequence of manufacture. A flintknapper does not produce a finished point in one motion; the work moves through rough blanks, partly thinned pieces, and final forms, with failures and flakes left behind at each stage. At Hon-no-ki the stages line up clearly, so the collection reads almost like a manual of how a Stone Age toolmaker thought and worked.
Then there is the argument. When the site was excavated in the mid-1950s, the spear points were found in apparent company with very early pottery. That posed a sharp question for scholars of the day. Spear points of this type belonged, in the standard picture, to the pre-pottery (Paleolithic) age, before the Jōmon potters. Pottery marked the start of the Jōmon. So which was it? The exchange that followed, between the archaeologists Sōsuke Sugihara and Chōsuke Serizawa, came to be called the Hon-no-ki debate. One position treated the points as a pre-pottery industry distinct from the ceramics; the other read the points and the earliest pots as belonging together, evidence that the toolmaking tradition carried across the boundary into the first pottery-using communities. The debate shaped how a generation of researchers thought about where the Old Stone Age ends and the Jōmon begins.
Excavation has since clarified the picture on the ground. The investigated ground falls into two areas. At one, the spear-point workshop, points were being made on a slight natural rise more than 15,000 years ago. At the other, impressed-cord pottery together with flaked tools and polished axes was left behind at a later moment, after a landslip came down from the far bank of the river, in the centuries before about 12,700 to 12,500 years ago. The two areas, read together, capture the very interval where stone-tool tradition met the first ceramics.
What to Look For
Approach the spear points as a set rather than one by one. Seen in sequence, they show the toolmaker's decisions: where a blank was thick and needed thinning, where a fault in the stone forced a change of plan, where the final outline was trimmed into shape. Length and width vary across the group, and the variation is itself the information, since it tracks the stages of the work.
The pottery rewards a closer look too. These are not the dramatic flame-style vessels for which this part of Niigata later became famous. They are plainer, older, decorated by pressing cord or a tool into the wet clay, the surface marked rather than sculpted. Set beside the spear points, the sherds mark the moment a community began to cook and store in fired clay, a quiet technological shift with enormous consequences.
One practical note for travelers. Because these are designated objects held by the town, they are not always on permanent view. The pieces appear in special and seasonal exhibitions rather than a fixed display, so it is worth contacting the museum before a trip if seeing the actual artifacts is your goal.
Around Tsunan
The natural home for understanding all of this is Najomon, formally the Tsunan Town Agriculture and Jōmon Experience Center. Rather than a hushed gallery of cases, it is a hands-on place: it rotates exhibits of pottery and stone tools excavated in Tsunan, keeps some pieces you are allowed to touch, and runs workshops in Jōmon crafts such as cord weaving (angin) and pot making. Outside stand seven reconstructed pit dwellings, a small Jōmon village set among beech woods and seasonal fields of sunflowers and buckwheat.
The Hon-no-ki site itself forms part of a larger protected landscape, the Hon-no-ki and Tazawa site cluster, a designated national historic site that spans Tsunan and neighboring Tōkamachi near the meeting of the Shinano and Kiyotsu rivers. This corner of Niigata is also the country of flame-style pottery, the flamboyant Jōmon vessels of a slightly later age, one example of which, from the Sasayama site in Tōkamachi, is a National Treasure. A visit can easily pair the austere beginnings seen at Hon-no-ki with the exuberant ceramics that came after.
Getting here takes a little planning. The usual route runs by the JR Iiyama Line to Tōkamachi, then a local bus toward Unoki-kamiguchi, followed by a short walk. Snow is heavy from winter into early spring, so check seasonal access and opening times in advance.
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Q&A
- Can I see the actual spear points and pottery?
- Not always. The collection is a designated Important Cultural Property owned by Tsunan Town and kept at the town's Buried Cultural Property Center. The pieces are shown in special or seasonal exhibitions rather than on permanent display, so contact the Najomon center ahead of your visit to ask what is currently on view.
- How old are these objects?
- They belong to the Incipient Jōmon period, roughly 15,000 to 12,500 years ago. The spear-point workshop area is the older of the two find spots, while the impressed-cord pottery was deposited somewhat later.
- What was the Hon-no-ki debate?
- It was a scholarly argument from the 1950s onward about where to draw the line between the pre-pottery Paleolithic and the Jōmon. The spear points seemed to appear alongside very early pottery, raising the question: were they a Paleolithic industry, or part of the first pottery-using culture? The site gave the debate its name.
- Is the museum suitable for families?
- Yes. Najomon is built around hands-on experiences, with craft workshops, objects you can touch, and reconstructed pit dwellings set in open grounds. Children can move around and try Jōmon-era activities rather than only looking through glass.
- What else is worth seeing nearby?
- The Hon-no-ki and Tazawa site cluster (a national historic site) lies in the same river-junction area, and the wider region is known for flame-style Jōmon pottery, including a National Treasure example from the Sasayama site in Tōkamachi. Tsunan's river terraces themselves are a noted landscape.
Basic Information
| Name | Excavated Materials from the Hon-no-ki Site, Niigata Prefecture |
|---|---|
| Category | Archaeological materials |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (designated September 30, 2020) |
| Quantity | One lot (over 1,000 stone spear points, with impressed-cord pottery, flaked stone tools, and polished stone axes) |
| Period | Incipient Jōmon (roughly 15,000 to 12,500 years ago) |
| Owner | Tsunan Town |
| Storage | Tsunan Town Buried Cultural Property Center |
| Location | 2348 Nakafukami-kō, Tsunan Town, Nakauonuma District, Niigata Prefecture |
| Public viewing | Not on permanent display; shown in special or seasonal exhibitions. Confirm before visiting. |
| Nearby museum | Najomon (Tsunan Town Agriculture and Jōmon Experience Center) |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database (Hon-no-ki Site Excavated Materials)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/00011930
- Tōkamachi City: Hon-no-ki and Tazawa Site Cluster (National Historic Site)
- https://www.city.tokamachi.lg.jp/soshiki/kyoikuiinkai_bunkasportsbu/bunkazaika/2/gyomu/1590979872180.html
- Tsunan Town: Agriculture and Jōmon Experience Center "Najomon"
- https://www.town.tsunan.niigata.jp/site/kanko/najomon.html
- Tsunan Town: Nationally Designated Cultural Properties
- https://www.town.tsunan.niigata.jp/site/kyoiku/kunibunkazai.html
Last verified: 2026.06.20