Cultural Properties of the Munakata Region
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Oshima in Antiquity |
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Human settlement of Oshima likely began in the Yayoi period (900 BCE–300 CE). The earliest known artifacts uncovered on the island include stone arrowheads and fragments of earthenware from around the beginning of the first millennium CE, some of which share characteristics with contemporaneous items from the Asian mainland. These indicate exchange with the Korean Peninsula and suggest that Oshima was part of early sea faring networks linking the Japanese archipelago to the continent.
Alongside everyday artifacts, ritual objects have been unearthed from settlement sites on Oshima, most notably comma-shaped magatama beads dating from the Kofun (Tumulus) period (ca. 250–early 600s). This era was characterized by the establishment of a centralized state in the Yamato area (present day Nara) and the construction of large earthen burial mounds, or kofun. These were reserved for the ruling elite, who were often interred with magatama. While no burial mounds have been found on Oshima, the presence of these ceremonial objects supports the idea of shared ritual traditions and possible ties to the Yamato court.
Later artifacts circa the Nara period (710–794) suggest changes to ritual practices. By then, worship rites appear to have focused on the summit of Mt. Mitake (224 m), as evidenced by votive objects discovered on the mountaintop. Many are similar to artifacts uncovered on Okinoshima. These are believed to relate to the early veneration of the Three Female Munakata Deities, recorded in Japan’s earliest chronicles, the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. |
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