Haramachi Cultural Properties 1

更新日:2021年10月05日

1. Sakurai Kofun (Sakurai Ancient Burial Mound)

Type: National designated historic site

Date Designated: November 7, 1956

Location: Haramachi, Kamishibusa, Harada

Google Maps: Sakuraikofun Park

Owner: Minamisoma City

Dimensions: Rectangular burial ground
Span – 74.5 meters    Height – 6.8 meters

Sakurai burial mound

Sakurai Kofun stands on the south side of the Niida River as a designated national historic site since 1956. This large rectangular burial mound is praised for its prominent size among all burial grounds in the Tohoku region. The only larger one in the Hamadori area is the Tamayama Kofun in Iwaki City.

The Sakurai Kofun is thought to have been made during the latter half of the 4th century, based on earthenware that was excavated in an archaeological dig. The people buried here are thought to have been prominent rulers of the area centered around the Niida River, making this an extremely valuable archaeological site for understanding Kofun culture not only in the city but in all of the Tohoku region.

It is said that there used to be many tombs in the area surrounding the Sakurai Kofun, but only 12 remain. In order to preserve the site for future generations, excavation of the burial structure has not been implemented. However, traces of two coffins were found at the top of the burial mound. The connection between these two people buried in Sakurai Kofun is a mystery that remains unsolved.

2. Kyuu Takeyamake Juutaku (Former Takeyama Estate)

Type: Nationally designated important cultural property (building)

Date Designated: March 11, 1976

Location: Haramachi, Kitahara, Otsuka

Google Maps: Takeyamake Juutaku

Owner: Minamisoma City

Dimensions: Beam length – 9-ken (16.4 meters)
Cross-beam length – 4.25-ken (7.7 meters)

Takeyama household home

This structure was built in the latter half of the 18th century, and was designated a nationally important cultural structure in 1971. Its design is the perfect example of the architectural style used by feudal retainers deployed to live in rural districts in the Edo period. These retainers were known as zaigo kyunin.

The grounds of the Takeyama estate covered 4000 square meters with the main manor located approximately in the center. A stable and a shed were attached to the manor on the right side. A storehouse, a lavatory, a retirement home, and a secluded area for relaxing were among the other buildings established around the perimeter of the main manor.

The room for welcoming visitors is slightly larger than average modern-day farmer’s equivalent. The inner tatami room is modestly decorated with a tokonoma (alcove for displaying flowers or art), shelves, and a writing alcove, giving a sense of a certain social standing. The Soma clan was frequently putting out restrictions on building houses, and the build of this manor seems to match the description written in a 1792 housing law record.

The Takeyama estate is open to the public on the second Sunday of April, May, September, and October.

3. Hayama Yokoana (Hayama Tunnel Tomb)

Type: Nationally designated historic site

Date Designated: December 23, 1974

Location: Haramachi, Nakaota, Tenguda

Google Maps: Hayama Yokoana

Owner: Minamisoma City

Dimensions: Depth – 2.9 meters
Width – 2.8 meters   Height – 1.8 meters

In the early morning of April 26th, 1973, a hole opened on Hayama Hill beneath the heavy machinery of a residential land development project. When the surprised workers looked in the hole to see what was inside, they saw the walls of the hole covered in pictures drawn in red paint.

An archaeological excavation was quickly put together, unearthing a tomb created toward the end of the Kofun period in the 500s CE. Images of human figures, horses, and spiralling patterns were painted on the walls and ceiling of the burial chamber using red and white paint. Excavators also unearthed a long gilt bronze sword, iron horse gear, bronze bracelets, glass beads, reddish-brown earthenware known as Haji ware, and blue-gray pottery known as Sue ware from within the burial chamber. Burial mounds covered in murals like Hayama Yokoana are called soushoku kofun, or “decorated burial mounds,” and are mainly found in the Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures on the Pacific coast, as wells as in the Kyushu area.

In order to preserve the area, Hayama Yokoana is open to the public on the second Sunday in April, May, September, and October. The artifacts are on display in the Minamisoma Museum.

Paintings on the inner wall of the burial chamber

Paintings on the inner wall of the burial chamber

Swirl of patterns

Swirl patterns

Tunnel tomb entrance

Entrance

4. Soma Nomaoi

Type: Nationally designated important intangible folk cultural property

Date Designated: May 22, 1978

Managing Organization: Soma Nomaoi Preservation Association

At the forefront of summer festivals in the Tohoku region is Soma Nomaoi, a spectacular event held every year over a three-day period.

Soma Nomaoi began as a sacred ceremony offering a wild horse to the Myouken Shrine, and was later used as a tool in a military exercise. However, from the Meiji period (1868-1912) onward, the festival was taken from the hands of the feudal lords and placed into the hands of the people.

Going back in history, it is said that long ago the Soma clan of the Nakamura domain in Oushu lived in the Soma district of Shimofusakuni (present-day Toride City in Ibaraki Prefecture), and practiced military drills by chasing wild horses in the Koganegahara fields near Nagareyama City in Chiba Prefecture. The event underwent a major transformation beginning in the Meiji period and became a religious festival held at the Soma Ota Shrine, the Soma Odaka Shrine, and the Soma Nakamura Shrine.

Soma Nomaoi is held up as an ancient and long-lasting tradition in which a very large portion of the population of Soma and Futaba areas participate. Hundreds of warrior riding horses and wearing traditional armor known as kacchuu make a procession through the town.

It is held on the last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of July.

Armored horse race

Armored horse race

Sacred flag competition

Sacred flag competition

5. Izumi Kanga Iseki (Izumi Government Office Archaeological Site)

Type: Nationally designated important intangible folk cultural property

Date Designated: February 22, 2010

Location: Haramachi, Izumi, Terauchi

Google Maps: Izumi Kanga Iseki

Owner: Minamisoma City

Dimensions: Roughly 11.5 hectares (115,000 square meters)

Izumi Government Office Site aerial view

Located near the mouth of the Niida River in the Izumi district of Haramachi, Minamisoma, this area was declared a national historic site in 2020, and was allowed to expand its perimeters in February of 2018.

The Izumi Kanga Iseki is the remains of a government office that oversaw the administration of the Namegata District in the Mutsu Province during ancient times (the Nara period through the Heian period). The center of the office’s governmental affairs was the district office building known as the gunchouin. Beginning with that building, other facilities that composed the area’s government office were discovered and evaluated, such as the shousouin which dealt with the collection of taxes, and the datein which accommodated high-level government officials. Around 11.5 hectares were declared a national historic site, allowing a large part of the remains to be preserved.

6. Asahiza

Type: Nationally registered tangible cultural property

Date Designated: April 25, 2014

Location: Haramachi, Omachi 1-chome

Google Maps: Asahiza

Owner: Asahiza General Incorporated Association

Dimensions: 2 wooden stories, iron shingle roofing
Building area – 508 square meters

Asahiza website: http://asahiza.blog.shinobi.jp/

Asahiza Cinema building entrance

This 2-story wooden building with iron shingle roofing was built in 1923 as a theater for both plays and motion pictures. Gallery seats still remain in the building. Asahiza has long been known as a place of entertainment, showing the history of turning playhouses into cinemas. It is still used for special events such as historical film nights and art festivals.

7. Izumi No Ichiyou Matsu (Izumi Single-Needle Pine Tree)

Type: Prefecture designated natural monument

Date Designated: December 27, 1955

Location: Haramachi, Izuimi, Machi-ike

Google Maps: Izumi no Ichiyou Matsu

Owner: Joint ownership by the Izumi district

Dimensions: Height – 9 meters   Root circumference – 3 meters
Circumference at eye-level – 2.7 meters

Izumi single-needle pine tree

This enormous black pine is estimated to be roughly 400 years old. It is particularly unusual even across all of Japan in that it produces both single-needle bundles and double-needle bundles from the same trunk.

In Japan, there are three types of pine trees with bundles of 2 pine needles: the black pine, the red pine, and the Okinawa pine. However, 4 types of pine trees have bundles of 5 pine needles: the Siberian dwarf pine, the Japanese white pine, the Korean pine, and the akami white pine.

According to the Nakamura Clan history book known as the Ososhi, the famous military leader Minamoto no Yoshitsune was returning to Oushuu Hiraizumi when he heard of an immensely rich person living in Izumi. Believing this colossal amount of wealth would lead to disaster in the future, Yoshitsune sent his servant Benkei to set fire to the rich person’s mansion. It is said that Benkei sat in the Izumi single-needle pine tree as he watched the mansion burn, lending the tree the name benkei no koshikake matsu, or “Benkei’s sitting pine tree.”

Two trees existed until the Taisho period, but now only one remains.

8. Izumi Haiji Ato (Izumi Abandoned Temple Site)

Type: Prefecture designated historic site

Date Designated: December 27, 1955

Location: Haramachi, Izumi, Miyamae

Google Maps: Miyamae Area

Owner: Privately owned

Dimensions: Roughly 4000 square meters

Izumi abandoned temple site aerial view

Area in the thin yellow line

The paddy fields and farmlands at the heart of Terauchimae and Miyamae in the Izumi district are dotted with former cornerstones. Other objects have been unearthed, such as carbonized rice and peculiarly patterned roof tiles with a fabric texture (see following section). These discoveries point to the existence of the ruins of a revered temple from the Nara period to the Edo period, and it was declared a prefectural historic site.

Afterwards, as a result of an excavation by an infrastructure maintenance operation in the Takahira area, an area stretching 1 kilometer across Machi-ike, Miyamae, Terauchimae, Machi, and Tatemae was declared to be the range of the historical ruins, covering roughly 120,000 square meters with the Izumi Haiji Ato at the center. At the same time, those characteristics identified the area not as a temple but as the ruins of a district office that governed the Namegata District of the ancient Mutsu Province, which covered approximately the same scope as modern-day Minamisoma City and Iitate Village. These ruins have been recognized nationally as quintessential ruins of a district office.

According to the history recorded in the Shoku Nihongi, a fire broke out in the Namegata District Office in 774. Around 25400 koku or nearly 4.6 million liters of rice grains that had been collected as tax were lost in the fire.

9. Izumi Haiji Ato Excavated Roof Tiles

Type: Prefecture designated important cultural property

Date Designated: September 4, 1956

Location: Minamisoma Museum – Haramachi, Gorai, Deguchi 194

Google Maps: Minamisoma Museum

Owner: Minamisoma City

Number of Pieces: 26 pieces

Roof tiles in various shapes

The Minamisoma Museum has a display of 25 roof tiles and 1 round inkstone face, donated by Sato Sakenobu and Sato Jiro of the Izumi Culture Preservation Group, collected over several years of devoted searching. They caught the eye of Professor Naito Masatsune, and his written materials brought a shower of attention to these artifacts.

Additionally, the design and technique used to create these tiles is very similar to that of the tiles of the Koshinohama Haiji Ato in Fukushima City. This strongly indicates that there was a lively political, economic, and cultural exchange between the two areas at the time of the roof tiles’ creation.

Furthermore, the majority of these artifacts are thought to have the same characteristics as the historic ruins in Sogasawa, Tatemae, and Terauchimae (the ruins of wealthy people in Izumi), which may indicate they are all part of a composite site that has been named the Izumi Haiji Ato.

Roof tiles with the same pattern were discovered in the Tatemae area in 1998 during an archaeological dig.

10. Mokuzou Juuichimen Kanon Ritsuzou (Wooden Kanon Statue with 11 Faces)

Type: Prefecture designated important cultural property (sculpture)

Date Designated: March 30, 1962

Location: Izumi Kanondou – Haramachi, Izumi, Terauchimae

Google Maps: Izumi Kanondou

Owner: Izumi Kanondou

Dimensions: Height – 160.6 centimeters

Wooden kannon statue

The idol of the 11-faced Kanon statue is enshrined within the Izumi Kanon Temple. It stands as a superior piece of work from the closing years of the Kamakura period, and has been designated as an important cultural element by the prefecture.

This statue is 160.6 cm tall, and an old Edo-period technique called yosegi was used to join the front and back carvings at the sides.

The origins of this Kanon statue’s creation are unknown, but according to legend it was a Buddhist image of protection for an influential person in Izumi.

On the right side of the temple’s interior on a 10 cm shelf is an unglazed sentaibotoke, or 1000-body Buddha (manifestation of Avalokitesvara). It has a note of repair from 1691, so it is thought that it was used before then in memorial services for the dead.

The Kanon Temple’s festival day is January 20th. The summer festival is on the 3rd Sunday in July from 10am to 3pm, during which the idol is unveiled.

11. Shohatsu Jinja no Sudajii Jurin (Sudajii Forest at Shohatsu Shrine)

Type: Prefecture designated natural monument

Date Designated: April 11, 1969

Location: Haramachi, Enei, Nishiyama

Google Maps: Shohatsu Jinja

Owner: Shohatsu Shrine

Sudajii forest tree

Known as either sudajii or itajii, this type of tree has spread across Japan from Fukushima Prefecture down to the southernmost tips of Ryukyu. The forest near Shohatsu Shrine is at the northernmost limit were sudajii seeds are spread naturally. These tough seeds are 1.5 cm long and oval-shaped. It is thought that they were an important source of food before Japan began farming and developing crops.

The largest sudajii at Shohatsu Shrine is 21 meters tall, and there are 7 trees with trunks 1 meter around the circumference at 1.5 meters from the ground. Around them grow a great number of evergreen trees, such as Japanese fir, Japanese red pine, East Asian eurya, and Japanese andromeda.

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