North Akita · KitaakitaNo.1255★★Open in map →
Isedotai Site
— Four Jomon stone circles side by side
A late Jomon ritual ground in northern Akita, where four stone circles lie side by side on one terrace. A free guidance museum stands beside the car park, and a path leads from it up to the rings.
- FromTakanosu Station
- ~20 minAkita Nairiku Line, then walk
- Get off atJomon-Ogata Station (Akita Nairiku Line)
- On foot
- Isedotai Site
The sweet spot
It is a World Heritage property, so it is not a hidden spot. What it asks for is planning: it lies on a small local railway in inland northern Akita, and the circles close to visitors from November until spring.
Where it is
34 more notes in Akita · open the map →What to look for
- Isedotai Jomon Museumthe free guidance building by the car park, with the site's finds and a giant replica of its slab-shaped figure
- Stone Circle Aone of the first two rings uncovered, about 32 metres across
- Stone Circle Ban arc rather than a closed ring; a pit grave here held the slab-shaped clay figure
- Stone Circle Cthe largest of the four, 45 metres across
- Stone Circle Dthe fourth ring, confirmed later on the south side of Circle C
How to actually get there
- Takanosu Station → Jomon-Ogata Station (Akita Nairiku Line, under 10 minutes; trains are infrequent).
- Jomon-Ogata Station → Isedotai Jomon Museum (walk about 10 minutes, across the Yuguruma River).
- Start in the museum, then follow the path up to the four stone circles on the terrace.
- Walk back to Jomon-Ogata for a Takanosu-bound train; check the departure time before you leave the museum.
- Akita Nairiku Line from Takanosu, then a walk
- Takanosu is on the JR Ou Main Line between Akita and Aomori, and the limited express Tsugaru stops there. Change to the Akita Nairiku Line, whose platform joins the JR one, and ride to Jomon-Ogata, which takes under 10 minutes. From that unstaffed station the museum is about a 10-minute walk. Trains are infrequent, so pick yours from the timetable before you set out.
- Back to Takanosu from Jomon-Ogata
- Walk back to Jomon-Ogata and take a Takanosu-bound train, then change to the JR Ou Main Line. Gaps between trains are long, so check the next Takanosu departure as soon as you arrive. Reservation-only shared taxis also link the museum with Takanosu Station and Odate-Noshiro Airport.
About the place
Isedotai sits on a river terrace above the Yuguruma River in Kitaakita, in the north of Akita. Four stone circles were laid out here close together, and no other site in Japan has four side by side. Around the rings, excavators found pit graves, post-built structures, storage pits and a ditch, so the stones mark only the centre of a wider plan. Clay figurines and other ritual objects were dug up around them as well. The circles are gathered at the edge of the terrace, and from there the view carries across the basin to the Shirakami mountains.
How to enjoy it
Start in the museum and watch its introductory film, which makes the layout of the rings easier to read once you are on the terrace. Free volunteer guides lead walks in Japanese and must be booked 14 days ahead. Trains on the Nairiku Line are infrequent, so note the next departure from Jomon-Ogata before you set off for the circles.
Background & history
The circles were built in the late Jomon period, roughly 4,000 years ago, beside rivers where salmon and trout ran. Pit graves lie beneath the rings, so the site is read as both a communal cemetery and a place of ritual. It came to light in the 1990s, in excavations ahead of an access road to Odate-Noshiro Airport. In 1996 the road was rerouted so the site could be kept where it was. It became a National Historic Site in 2001, and a guidance museum opened beside it in 2016. In 2021 it was inscribed on the World Heritage list as one of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.
Before you go
- Cash
- Entry to the museum and to the site is listed as free. The Akita Nairiku Line is a separate company from JR, and Takanosu has its own staffed ticket window for it. Free coin lockers are available at the museum and at Jomon-Ogata Station.
- Before you go
- The circles close from November until spring to protect the stones; the city announces each year's opening date, and the season runs to 31 October. The museum and the site close on Mondays (the next day when Monday is a holiday) and from 29 December to 3 January. When the museum is closed, the site is closed as well.
- Another way
- Odate-Noshiro Airport, served by flights from Tokyo Haneda, is about 5 minutes away by car; book a shared taxi or a regular taxi in advance. By car, the Isedotai interchange on the Akita Expressway is also about 5 minutes away, and the museum has a car park.
- After you get off
- Jomon-Ogata is a small unstaffed station on the Akita Nairiku Line. The museum lies south-south-east of it, across the Yuguruma River, about 10 minutes on foot. The path to the stone circles starts from the museum.