Importance of Quercus gilva (イチイガシ) for theprehistoric periods in western JapanNOSHIRO Shuichi1, SASAKI Yuka1, & MURAKAMI Yumiko2
ABSTRACT

Importance of an evergreen oak, Quercus gilva, from the Jomon to Kofun periods in western Japanis discussed based on plant macrofossils and wooden artefacts. Recent re-identiﬁcation of plant
macrofossils and wooden remains showed intensive use of the acorns of Quercus gilva during the
Jomon to Yayoi periods and that of its wood during the Yayoi to Kofun periods in western Japan. In
Kyushu the acorns of Quercus gilva occur most commonly in storage pits of the Jomon period andrather commonly even during the Yayoi period after the introduction of intensive rice agriculture
into Japan. During the Yayoi to Kofun periods the wood of Quercus gilva was exclusively selected
for agricultural tools of hoes and spades in western Japan and was replaced by that of otherevergreen oaks of Quercus subgen. Cyclobalanopsis or deciduous oaks of Quercus sect. Aegilops ineastern Japan. These selection and use of Quercus gilva indicated its importance as food and wood
resources from the Jomon to Kofun periods in western Japan in spite of a change in the subsistencesystem from hunting-gathering to agriculture, and the extent and origin of these selection and use
are discussed.
KEYWORDS: acorns, hoes and spades, Jomon to Kofun periods, Quercus gilva, western Japan

1.

Introduction and study objective

Quercus gilva is an evergreen oak with a straight bole that grows to 30 m tall and 200 cm
in trunk diameter and is distributed from southern Kanto to Kyushu in Japan and in Jeju
Island in Korea, southern China, and Taiwan (Figure 1; Kurata 1964; Huang et al. 1999;
Ohba 2006; Fang et al. 2009; Iokawa 2016). The growth of Quercus gilva in western Japan
since ca. 8000 years cal BP of the late phase of the initial Jomon period is conﬁrmed by
the fruits of Quercus gilva found at several sites in western Japan (Ishida et al. 2016) and aburied forest of the middle to ﬁnal Jomon periods consisting of Cinnamomum camphora (クスノキ) and evergreen oaks including Quercus gilva found at the Tarumi-hyuga site, Hyogo(Noshiro et al. 2014). Thus, Quercus gilva was a common element of forest resources atleast since ca. 8000 cal BP of the initial Jomon period in western Japan.
Common occurrence of plant macrofossils of Quercus gilva from archaeological sites
1 Center for Obsidian and Lithic Studies, Meiji University, 1–6–3 Kanda-sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo

101–0064, Japan (noshiro@meiji.ac.jp)

2 The Kyoto University Museum, Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto 606–8501, Japan

Category: Original Article Received: 7 August 2019; Accepted: 21 December 2020
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 8 (2021): 133–156

NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI YumikoFigure 1. Present distribution of Quercus gilva and Quercus sect. Aegilops in East Asia (Kurata
1964; Fang et al. 2009). Among taxa used for hoes and spades during the Yayoi and Kofun periods,
only deciduous Quercus acuta and Q. variabilis of sect. Aegilops grow in the Korean, Liaodong, andShandong peninsulas thorough which rice agriculture and accompanying cultural elements came toJapanin western Japan ﬁrst attracted the attention of botanists in the 1970s when its acorns cameto be reported, because Quercus gilva does not grow commonly in native forests outside
Kyushu at present (Okamoto 1979). To confirm the botanical criteria for identifying
the acorns and seeds of Quercus gilva, Okamoto (1979) studied the acorns and seeds ofJapanese species of Quercus and showed that the acorns and seeds of Quercus gilva canbe distinguished by the form of styles, stellate hairs on styles, and the capitate surfaces ofstigmas, and by an impression of the placental axis and occasional anisocotyly, respectively(Figure 2). Based on these criteria, he identiﬁed acorns from the Kadota site, Fukuoka,
and charred seeds from the Yuno site, Fukuoka, as Quercus gilva. Similarly, by studying
acorns of Quercus, Lithocarpus, and Castanopsis mainly growing in Kyushu, Obata (2011)
reconﬁrmed the morphological criteria of Okamoto (1979) and added other morphologicalcriteria to identify acorns and seeds of Quercus gilva. By compiling the data mainly of© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPAN

Figure 2. Characteristic features of seeds (A, B) and acorns (C) of Quercus gilva (A, B from
Okamoto (1979), C from Obata (2011)). A: seeds has distinct heterocotyly as shown by the seam
between two cotyledons (s), and the position of the radicle (m) is displaced from the top; animpression of the axile (a) elongates to the middle of fruits with an impressions of the raphe (r);impressions of charaza (c) and vascular bundles (b) can be seen also. B: axile (ca) elongates to the
middle of fruits and has aborted ovules (ao) at the tips. C: acorns are ellipsoidal and have slenderstyles and sharply enlarged perianth bases similar to Japanese abacus beads in shapeacorns from archaeological sites in Kyushu, Obata (2011) showed that occurrence ofdeciduous oaks (Quercus subgen. Lepidobalanus) exceeds that of Quercus gilva during theincipient and initial Jomon periods, but use of Quercus gilva dominates during the early
Jomon to Yayoi periods, constituting 88% and 63% of plant remains at 27 Jomon and 22
Yayoi sites, respectively.
Compared with plant macrofossils, wood remains of Quercus gilva have a longer historyof research. In 1939 Onaka (1939) studied wooden artefacts of the Yayoi period from the
Karako-kagi site, Nara, and indicated that three spades were made of Quercus gilva. His
criteria for identifying oak wood based on his own collection of present wood specimens
in the Kinki district was somehow neglected in later studies, and a recent compilationof archaeological wooden remains only reported that, of 4017 hoes and spades of the
Yayoi to Kofun periods, 81% are made of species of evergreen oaks (Quercus subgen.
Cyclobalanopsis)(Itoh & Yamada 2012). While studying hoes and spades from the
Sorimachi site, Saitama, in the late 2000s, however, Noshiro & Sasaki (2011) reconﬁrmed
the criteria of Onaka (1939) for identifying the wood of Quercus gilva, based on a larger
number of specimens (Figure 3), and showed that hoes and spades of the Yayoi to Kofun
periods were exclusively made with Quercus gilva in western Japan (Noshiro et al. 2012a,
2018).
These advances in identifying plant macrofossils and wooden remains of Quercus gilva
from archaeological sites in western Japan indicated the importance of Quercus gilva forthe prehistoric people in western Japan (Obata 2011; Noshiro et al. 2012a, 2018). However,
the archaeological importance allotted to the fruits and wood of Quercus gilva have notbeen discussed so far. To evaluate the prehistoric importance of the fruits and wood ofQuercus gilva in western Japan, we reviewed studies carried on archaeological plant© Japanese Archaeological Association

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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI YumikoFigure 3. Distinction of Quercus gilva among Japanese species of Quercus from wood structure(Noshiro and Sasaki, 2011). In cross sections Quercus gilva has distinctly large vessels, andspecimens having vessels larger than 220 µm in diameter can be identiﬁed as Quercus gilva, andthose having vessels between 200–220 µm in diameter can be identiﬁed as probable Quercus gilva(shown as Quercus gilva? in this paper)macrofossils and wooden remains of the Jomon to Kofun periods in western Japan (sites
discussed in this paper are listed in Table 1). To evaluate the origin and spread of such
evaluation for the fruits and wood of Quercus gilva in western Japan, we would like to test
the following two hypotheses about the use of Quercus gilva in western Japan.
1. In western Japan the fruits of Quercus gilva were an indispensable element of foodresources during the Jomon period and continued to be an important element of foodresources even in the Yayoi to Kofun periods in spite of a change in the subsistencesystem from hunting-gathering during the Jomon period to agriculture during the Yayoi
period.
2. The selection of Quercus gilva for wooden hoes and spades in the Yayoi periodoriginated in western Japan, because, among oaks used for hoes and spades during
the Yayoi to Kofun periods in Japan, only Quercus sect. Aegilops (i.e., Quercus acuta(クヌギ) and Q. variabilis (アベマキ)) grow in the Korean, Liaodong, and Shandong
peninsulas, through which rice agriculture and accompanying cultural elements came to
Japan (e.g., Ishikawa 2010; Miyamoto 2017).
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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPAN

Table 1.

List of sites cited in this paper with plant remains of Quercus gilva

Site nameAnou site
Higashimyo site

遺跡名
穴太遺跡
東名遺跡

Hiramine site

平峰遺跡

Ichinokuchi site

一ノ口遺跡

Kadota site
Kamishinanonishikaneji site
Karako-kagi site
Kuromaru site
Nabatake site
Nagano-konishida
site

門田遺跡
上品野西金地遺跡
唐古・鍵遺跡黒丸遺跡
菜畑遺跡
長野小西田遺跡

Location

Age

Plant remains of
Quercus gilva

Ohtsu, Shigalate Jomon

fruits in storage pits

Saga, Saga

initial Jomon

fruits in storage pits

Miyakonojo, Miyazaki middle Kofun

charred seeds in pit
dwellings

Ogori, Fukuoka

middle Yayoi

fruits in storage pits

Kasuga, Fukuoka

late Yayoi

fruits in storage pits

Seto, Aichi

late Jomon

fruits in storage pits

Tawaramoto, Nara

early–late Yayoi

hoes, spades

Oomura, Nagasaki

ﬁnal Jomon

fruits in storage pits

Karatsu, Saga

initial–early Yayoi

hoe

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka

early–late Yayoi

fruits in storage pits

Nishikawazu site

西川津遺跡

Matsue, Shimane

hoes, spades

Rokutanda site

六反田遺跡

early Yayoi–early
Kofun

Hikone, Shigalate–ﬁnal Jomon

fruits in storage pits

Oita, Oita

early–middle Yayoi

hoes, spades

Kurume, Fukuoka

late Jomon

fruits in storage pits

Uto, Kumamoto

early Jomon

fruits in storage pits

Higashimatsuyama,
Saitamaearly–late Kofun

hoes, spades

Kobe, Hyogo

middle–ﬁnal Jomon buried forest withwood, fruits

Awaji, Hyogo

middle Jomon

Hirado, Nagasaki

early Yayoi

fruits in storage pits

Fukuoka, Fukuoka

ﬁnal Jomon–initial
Yayoi

fruits in storage pits

Shimogori-kuwanae 下郡桑苗遺跡
siteShofukuji site
Sobata site

正福寺遺跡
曽畑遺跡

Sorimachi site

反町遺跡

Tarumi-hyuga site

垂水・日向遺跡

Tsukuda site

佃遺跡

Tsuyoshi site
Yuno site

2.

津吉遺跡
湯納遺跡

fruits in storage pits

Botanical and archaeological backgroundIn the Japanese archipelago stretching over 3000 km in mid latitudes, regional fauna andﬂora diﬀer greatly from the north to the south. The central area of the Japanese archipelagoconsisting of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu islands, where a large number of sites throughthe Jomon to Kofun periods have been excavated, is mostly covered by two types of forest© Japanese Archaeological Association

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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI Yumikovegetation. The northeastern part of this area, referred to eastern Japan in this paper, ismostly covered by cool-temperate deciduous forests consisting of Fagus crenata (ブ ナ)and Quercus crispula (ミズナラ), and the southwestern part, referred to western Japan inthis paper, is covered by warm-temperate evergreen forests consisting of evergreen oaks (カシ類 , Quercus subgen. Cyclobalanopsis) and lauraceous trees (クスノキ科) (Fukushima2017). This diﬀerence in forest vegetation between eastern and western Japan have greatly
aﬀected the subsistence of people through the Jomon to Kofun periods.
In eastern Japan covered by cool-temperate deciduous forests, recent studies showed that
the Jomon people lived not as plain hunter-gathers, but managed and used plant resources
around their settlements since around the early Jomon period (Noshiro & Sasaki 2013,2014). This management system was centered on two kinds of arboreal resources, native
Castanea crenata (ク リ) and introduced Toxicodendron verniciﬂuum (ウ ル シ), and thepeople used not only the fruits of the former and the lacquer of the latter, but also theirwood ingeniously. This management system came to include locally developed herbaceous
cultigens such as Glycine max (ダイズ) and Vigna angularis (アズキ) in the middle Jomon
period (Obata et al. 2007; Nakayama 2010; Obata 2011). Besides the use of such managed
resources, people began to use seeds of Aesculus turbinata (トチノキ) that require complex
processing during the late Jomon period by constructing processing facilities in the lowland(Sasaki et al. 2007; Sasaki & Noshiro 2018). Contrary to eastern Japan, use of plantresources during the Jomon period has been known only fragmentarily in western Japan,
and their management has not been detected yet. Recent analyses of pottery types andsettlement types of the late Jomon period indicated that diﬀerence in sedentism induced
difference in the management and use of plant resources around settlements between
eastern and western Japan (Fukunaga 2020). Even during the Yayoi to Kofun periods, only
the employment of plant resources has been studied without considering the existenceof their management (Noshiro 2016, 2019), and little information is available for theinteraction with plant resources besides their use for agriculture and constructions during
these periods.
Traditionally, the subsistence system from the Jomon to the Yayoi and Kofun periods
has been regarded in a dichotomy of hunting-gathering Jomon people and Yayoi and
Kofun agriculturists. This notion is reﬂected in the question posed by Matsui & Kanehara(2006) on the importance of the management of plant resources for the subsistence of
the Jomon people, and they thought that the Jomon people were mainly foragers with alimited amount of cultivation and husbandry and that the subsistence changed drasticallywith the introduction of rice agriculture in the Yayoi period (Crawford 2008). Contrarily,
by reviewing later ﬁnds of plant remains and studies of plant resource management during
the Jomon period, Crawford (2011) places the Jomon subsistence system in the middle
ground between hunting-gathering and agriculture, following the discussion of low-level© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPANfood production by Smith (2001). Because the management of plant resources during
the Jomon period included resources other than food, he called the management systemof the Jomon period as resource production rather than low-level food production. With
the beginning of the Yayoi period, intensive agriculture was introduced in western Japan,
but this new subsistence system did not spread to eastern Japan smoothly. In the northern
Tohoku district, an interaction between the late to final Jomon and the Yayoi culturescontinued in the Yayoi period and resulted in a culture called Tohoku Yayoi by Crawford
and Takamiya (1990). Recently, by considering the continued existence of Jomon cultural
items in the Tohoku district and the recent evaluation of the extent of the Yayoi culture,
National Museum of Japanese History (2014) placed the northeastern border of the Yayoi
culture along the Tone River running through the middle Kanto district on the Paciﬁc sideof central Japan. Thus, the dichotomy in the subsistence system has been taken to be thebasic diﬀerence between the Jomon and Yayoi periods, and the subsistence systems forthese periods are recognized not throughout the Japanese archipelago, but either in easternor western Japan.

3. Analyses of plant macrofossils and wood remains of Quercus
gilva
Occurrences of plant macrofossils and wood remains of Quercus gilva from the Jomon to
Kofun periods will be reviewed ﬁrst, based on Obata (2011), Minaki (1993), Momohara(1997), and Ishida et al. (2016) for plant macrofossils with our additional observations andon Noshiro et al. (2012a, 2018) for wooden remains.

3-1.

Use of fruits of Quercus gilva

Acorns and leaves of Quercus gilva of the Jomon and Yayoi periods occur throughout thepresent distribution range of Quercus gilva, but also on the Japan Sea side of the Chugoku
district (Figure 4). Acorns of Quercus gilva tended to occur in storage pits made in thelowland during the Jomon period and to occur in storage pits made around settlements on
the upland during the Yayoi period (Obata 2011). Preservation of acorns of Quercus gilva
in storage pits in the lowland can be typically seen at the Higashimyo site, Saga, at ca.
8000–7000 cal BP of the late phase of the initial Jomon period. At this site 155 pits weremade in and around shell middens in the lowland, and 94 pits included basket remains that
often included acorns inside them (Saga City Board of Education 2016a, 2016b). Acorns of
Quercus gilva and Q. subgen. Lepidobalanus respectively accounted for 36% to 68% and
21% to 37% of the contents of pits and reﬂected the transition in the use of acorns detectedby Obata (2011). Smilar storage of acorns of Quercus gilva inside baskets deposited instorage pits is found at the Sobata site, Kumamoto, at ca. 7000–5400 cal BP of the early© Japanese Archaeological Association

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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI YumikoFigure 4. Occurrence of plant macrofossils of Quercus gilva during the Jomon and Yayoi periods
in Japan based on Obata (2011), Minaki (1993), Momohara (1997) and Ishida et al. (2016) with
our observations. During the Jomon period, fruits of Quercus gilva constituted the main contents ofstorage pits in Kyushu, but were a minor element even in storage pits outside Kyushu. Even in the
Yayoi period, acorns of Quercus gilva were stored in storage pits of northern Kyushu© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPAN

Jomon period (Kumamoto Prefectural Board of Education 1988) and the Shofukuji site,
Fukuoka, at ca. 4500–3200 cal BP of the late Jomon period (Kurume City Board of
Education 2017). In these later periods of the Jomon period, acorns of Quercus gilva cameto be the only contents of storage pits at most sites. Because acorns of Quercus gilva are
not astringent and edible without any processing, their storage in storage pits in the lowland
during the Jomon period is considered as a method to kill weevils infecting the acorns withspring water seeped from pit walls or brackish water from the channel in the lowland (SagaCity Board of Education 2016a). Outside Kyushu, however, fruits or seeds of Quercus gilva
do not occur dominantly even in storage pits, but with astringent fruits of other taxa thatneeded bleaching to be used as food resources. For example, at the Anou site, Shiga, fruitsof Quercus gilva occurred in storage pits of the late Jomon period that were dominated byfruits of Aesculus turbinata and Quercus aliens (ナラガシワ)(Shiga Prefectural Board of
Education 1997), and, at the Kamishinano-nishikaneji site, Aichi, fruits of Quercus gilva
occurred in a storage pit of the late Jomon period accompanied by such evergreen oaks as
Quercus sessilifolia (ツクバネガシ), Quercus acuta (アカガシ), and Quercus glauca (アラカシ)(Aichi Prefectural Center for Archaeological Operations 2013). Contrarily, at the
Rokutanda site, Shiga, 14 storage pits of the late phase of the late and the early phase of the
ﬁnal Jomon periods contained acorns of Quercus gilva and other evergreen oaks and fruitsof Aesculus turbinata and Trapa (ヒシ属) variously, and storage pits dominated by acornsof Quercus gilva included astringent acorns of other evergreen oaks or fruits of Aesculus
turbinata (Shiga Prefectural Board of Education 2013). The only exception outside Kyushu
is storage pits of the late Jomon period found at the Tsukuda site, Hyogo, where ten storagepits exclusively included fruits of evergreen oaks, especially of Quercus gilva, similar to
storage pits in Kyushu (Miyaji & Minaki, 1998). Thus, during the early to ﬁnal Jomon
periods, fruits of Quercus gilva constituted the main contents of storage pits in Kyushu, butwere usually a minor element even when occurring in storage pits outside it.
Even in the Yayoi period after the introduction of rice agriculture, acorns of Quercus
gilva occurred at over 30 sites, mostly in northern Kyushu, but also in southern Kyushu
and Kinki districts (Figure 4). At the Ichinokuchi site, Fukuoka, 260 storage pits of theearly to middle Yayoi periods were recovered on the top of a hill around pit dwellings, andthree of the storage pits contained 42–644 charred seeds of Quercus gilva, excluding theirfragments (Ogori City Board of Education 1994). At the Kadota site, Fukuoka, at ca. 1–250
AD of the ﬁnal phase of the Yayoi period, 11 storage pits found in a valley contained acornsof Quercus gilva as much as 92 litre per storage pit (Kokawa 1979; Fukuoka Prefectural
Board of Education 1979). At this site settlements were continually made through the
Yayoi period, but storage pits were constructed only in the ﬁnal phase of the Yayoi period.
Because these storage pits were buried by fluvial deposits, acorns of Quercus gilva instorage pits at this site are thought to be special food to cope with a famine after a ﬂooding© Japanese Archaeological Association

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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI Yumiko

event. Continued use of acorns from the ﬁnal phase of the early to the late phase of the late
Yaoyi period is detected at the Nagano-konishida site, Fukuoka, where, beside two storage
pits, 12 wooden frames used for storage of acorns and accumulations of acorns have been
recovered (Kitakyushu City Foundation for Promoting Arts and Culture 2001). At thissite, one storage pit and an acorn accumulation exclusively contained acorns of Quercus
gilva, another storage pit and one wooden frame mainly contained acorns of Quercus
acuta, accompanied by acorns of other evergreen oaks, and another acorn accumulationand deposits around a wooden frame mainly contained acorns of Castanopsis cuspidata(ツブラジイ). At this site, bleaching of astringent acorns and another kind of processing of
non-astringent acorns were carried out within the same valley from the ﬁnal phase of theearly to the late phase of the late Yaoyi period. Thus, in Kyushu, fruits of Quercus gilva
continued to be used even in the Yayoi period and were also used in the Kofun period.
Charred seeds of Quercus gilva occurred with Castanea crenata and Amygdalus persica (モモ) from pit dwellings of the middle Kofun period at the Hiramine site, Miyazaki, showing
their use as food even in the Kofun period (Sasaki & Bhandari 2012).
Outside Kyushu, fruits of Quercus gilva do not occur dominantly during the Yayoi to
Kofun periods and occur with its young fruits and leaves, only indicating its growth nearby(Ishida et al. 2016).

3-2.

Use of wood of Quercus gilva

Wooden artefacts made of Quercus gilva have so far been found only from archaeologicalsites of the Yayoi and Kofun periods in western Japan. The oldest artefact made of Quercus
gilva is a hoe found at the Nabatake site, Saga, at ca. 950–600 cal BP of the initial to early
Yayoi periods, and since then Quercus gilva came to be selected exclusively for hoes andspades in western Japan through the Yayoi period (Figure 5; Noshiro et al. 2012a, 2018).
From Kyushu to Chiba on the Paciﬁc side and to Shimane on the Japan Sea side, Quercus
gilva and a putative one (Quercus gilva? in figures) were selected for 40% to 70% ofhoes and spades of the Yayoi period, and other evergreen oaks mostly accounted for theremaining ones. In eastern Japan covered by cool-temperate deciduous forests, evergreen
oaks other than Quercus gilva were the first choice in the southern part where otherevergreen oaks grew, and Quercus sect. Aegilops (i.e., Quercus acuta and Q. variabilis)
was selected in the northern part where even other evergreen oaks did not grow. This
selection of Quercus gilva for hoes and spades in western Japan and that of Quercus sect.
Aegilops in eastern Japan continued to the Kofun period (Figure 6). Although regional andperiodical diﬀerences in hoe or spade types are being recognized (e.g., Higami 2010), thestrict selection of Quercus gilva for their materials was carried out irrespective of the types
of hoes or spades through the Yayoi and Kofun periods in western Japan.
This selection of Quercus gilva probably derives from the habit and wood quality of this© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPAN

Figure 5. Taxonomic composition of ﬁnished and unﬁnished hoes and spades and their materials
at 18 sites of the Yayoi period (modiﬁed from Noshiro et al. 2012a, 2018). During the Yayoi period
Quercus gilva was exclusively selected for hoes and spades in western Japan, and Quercus sect.
Aegilops was selected in eastern Japan. Small charts: up to 10 specimens, middle charts: 11–50
specimens, large charts: more than 50 specimens

tree. In Japan Quercus gilva is the largest evergreen oak, distinguished by having a straightbole up to 200 cm in trunk diameter (Kurata 1964; Ohba 2006; Iokawa 2016). Among
evergreen oaks in Japan, the wood of Quercus gilva is weak in absolute strength, but iscomparatively light, resilient, and sturdy (Mori & Sugiura 1922), and has been praised asmaterials for sculling oars of Japanese traditional boats, handles of hoes and spades, cart
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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI YumikoFigure 6. Taxonomic composition of ﬁnished and unﬁnished hoes and spades and their materials
at 10 sites of the Kofun period (modiﬁed from Noshiro et al. 2012a, 2018). Selection of Quercus gilva
for hoes and spades in western Japan and that of Quercus sect. Aegilops in eastern Japan continued
to the Kofun period. Small charts: 11–50 specimens, large charts: more than 50 specimens

frames, and teeth of geta even in the modern period (Forest Bureau Ministry of Agriculture
and Commerce 1912; Kumamoto Forest Bureau 1935). Compared with the wood ofQuercus gilva, that of Quercus sect. Aegilops is comparatively heavy and less resilient(Wood Technology and Wood Utilization Division 1982; Hirai 1996). This wood qualityof Quercus gilva must have been the reason for the exclusive selection of its wood forhoes and spades during the Yayoi to Kofun periods. Thus, choice of other evergreen oaks
and Quercus sect. Aegilops instead of Quercus gilva for hoes and spades in eastern Japan
seems to show an inevitable substitution for Quercus gilva outside the distribution range of© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPAN

Quercus gilva.
Although the selection of Quercus gilva nearly conforms with the present distribution
range of Quercus gilva, hoes and spades of Quercus gilva occurred at two areas outside
the present distribution range, the northern part of the Kanto district and the Sannin
district (Figures 5, 6). In the northern part of the Kanto district, occurrences of hoes andspades of Quercus gilva seem to show their transport from the southern part of this district(Noshiro et al. 2012a). In that area, Quercus gilva was found only as completed or nearlycomplete hoes and spades, whereas other evergreen oaks and Quercus sect. Aegilops were
found not just as completed or nearly complete hoes and spades, but also as radially split
boards considered as their materials (Noshiro et al. 2012a). In the southern part of the
Kanto district, however, Quercus gilva was found as completed and nearly complete hoes
and spades and radially split boards, which indicated that hoes and spades of Quercus
gilva were made there. In the Sannin district, on the other hand, selection of materials forhoes and spades diﬀers between Shimane and Tottori prefectures, and Quercus gilva was
exclusively selected in Shimane prefecture, but other oaks were mostly used in Tottori
prefecture (Figures 5, 6). Fruits of Quercus gilva, however, occur at three sites of the
Jomon period in Shimane and Kyoto prefectures and at one site of the Yayoi period in
Tottori prefecture (Figure 4). Thus, although native in the Sannin district since the Jomon
period, Quercus gilva seems to have grown commonly eastward to Shimane prefecture, butrarely in the more eastern part of the Sannin district (Noshiro et al. 2018).

4.

Discussion

Based on the occurrences of acorns, other plant macrofossils, and wooden remains, theimportance of Quercus gilva in western Japan will be discussed from two aspects of the useof plant resources, food and wood.

4-1.

Use of Quercus gilva as food resources in western JapanThe occurrence of plant macrofossils of Quercus gilva in western Japan indicated that
regional diﬀerences existed in the use of the fruits of Quercus gilva between Kyushu andthe area outside it. In Kyushu fruits of Quercus gilva were exclusively stored in storagepits during the Jomon to Yayoi periods and were consumed. In the area outside Kyushu,
fruits of Quercus gilva occurred in storage pits usually dominated by astringent fruits.
This lack of clear records of using fruits of Quercus gilva outside Kyushu seems to showthat diﬀerent storage or processing of acorns and nuts was carried out in this area. The
scarcity of the plant macrofossils of Quercus gilva outside Kyushu may imply an existenceof storage and processing of its fruits similar to the storage and processing of Castanea
crenata fruits carried out in eastern Japan. In eastern Japan, although an ample use of the© Japanese Archaeological Association

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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI Yumikowood of Castanea crenata in lowland structures indicated management of the resourcesof Castanea crenata around settlements since around the early Jomon period, its plant
macrofossils occur far less than those of Juglans mandshurica var. sachalinensis (オニグルミ) and Aesculus turbinata whose fruits need processing with ample water and whose
remains were left as middens in the lowland. Because fruits of Castanea crenata do notneed processing with ample water and were probably prepared for food in an uplandenvironment, few plant macrofossils of Castanea crenata tend to remain not only on the
upland where only charred plant macrofossils remain, but even in the lowland where fresh
plant macrofossils remain (Noshiro & Sasaki 2014). Even in Kyushu, fruits of Quercus
gilva tend to have remained more in storage pits made in the lowland than in uplandremains (Obata 2011). If the storage of the fruits of Quercus gilva in lowland storage pits
is for killing weevils infecting them as considered at the Higashimyo site (Saga City Boardof Education 2016a), the scarcity of fruits of Quercus gilva in storage pits outside Kyushu
seem to imply an existence of another method of killing weevils in an upland environment
and a different use of storage pits for bleaching astringent fruits, typically seen in thevarious use of storage pits at the Rokutanda site (Shiga Prefectural Board of Education2013). The only exception to the exclusive storage of fruits of Quercus gilva in storage pits
in Kyushu is a storage pit found at the Sobata site, Kumamoto, that was ﬁlled with fruitsof Quercus sect. Aegilops, but, even at this site, the other 56 storage pits contained fruits of
Quercus gilva exclusively (Kumamoto Prefectural Board of Education 1988). Thus, withinwestern Japan, regional diﬀerences seem to have existed in the use and processing of plantresources between Kyushu and the area outside it.
On the other hand, exclusive occurrence of the fruits of Quercus gilva in storage pitsof the early to ﬁnal Jomon periods in Kyushu may exaggerate their importance as foodresources in those periods. At the Higashimyo site, Saga, besides fruits of Quercus gilva
and Quercus subgen. Lepidobalanus that dominated in lowland storage pits, broken
nuts of Juglans mandshurica var. sachalinensis occurred as amply as acorns of Quercus
gilva in the sediments of shell middens (Saga City Board of Education 2016a, 2016b). A
large amount of broken acorns of Castanopsis discarded in a storage pit, and acorns andseeds of Castanopsis cuspidata found as pottery impressions also indicated ample use of
Castanopsis. Because seeds of Juglans mandshurica var. sachalinensis and Castanopsis
cuspidata are edible without bleaching similar to those of Quercus gilva, they must also
have been important elements of food resources at this site. Beside the Higashimyo site,a storage pit of Quercus sect. Aegilops among 56 storage pits of Quercus gilva at the
Sobata site (Kumamoto Prefectural Board of Education 1988) and a storage pit containing
Castanea crenata among storage pits containing Quercus gilva at the Kuromaru site,
Nagasaki, of the ﬁnal Jomon period (Nagasaki Prefectural Board of Education 1997) are
the only deﬁnite records of storage of plant resources other than Quercus gilva in Kyushu,© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPANbut they clearly show use of plant resources other than Quercus gilva in Kyushu during
the Jomon period. Thus, although records are fragmentary, Jomon people must have usedvarious plant resources other than Quercus gilva even in Kyushu.
During the Yayoi to Kofun periods, acorns of oaks, especially of Quercus gilva, continue
to occur around upland settlements or in storage pits made within them in Kyushu, as
found at the Ichinokuchi site, Fukuoka (Ogori City Board of Education 1994), and thesubsistence system does not seem to have changed completely from hunting-gathering of
the Jomon period to agriculture of the Yayoi period. Because of such continued occurrenceof remains of Quercus gilva in an upland environment at 27 sites besides their occurrences
in a lowland environment at 10 sites, Obata (2011) considers that the acorns of Quercus
gilva still constituted an important element of food resources in Kyushu, probably aided
by the good taste of these acorns, during the Yayoi to Kofun periods. Lowland storage pits
similar to those of the Jomon period, however, did not disappear even during the Yayoi
period and are found at the Nagano-konishida site, Fukuoka (Kitakyushu City Foundation
for Promoting Arts and Culture 2001), the Kadota site, Fukuoka (Fukuoka Prefectural
Board of Education 1979), and at the Tsuyoshi site, Nagasaki (Hirado City Board of
Education 1986). Especially, at the Nagano-konishida site, occurrence of storage pits,
wooden frames for acorn storage, and acorn accumulations together with hoes or spades
used in rice agriculture indicated continued use of acorns along with rice agriculture. By
citing the analysis of plant macrofossils by Maekawa (1978) at the Toro site, Shizuoka,
and a review of food plants excavated from archaeological sites of the Yayoi period by
Terasawa and Terasawa (1981), Ishikawa (2010) pointed out the importance of food plants
other than rice as compensation for crop failures even in the Yayoi period and indicatedthat the multiplicity in the subsistence system of the Yayoi period was based on the use ofvarious plant resources during the Jomon period that were available to the Jomon people.
On the contrary, by comparing food plants excavated from Yayoi sites to those frommumun pottery sites in Korea, Goto (2006) showed that the number of sites yielding rice
far exceeds that yielding other cultigens in Japan, but that rice usually occurs as much asother cultigens in southern Korea and becomes rare in northern Korea. However, contrary
to the study by Terasawa and Terasawa (1981), Goto’s comparison did not treat food plants
other than cultigens in the analysis and does not seem to reﬂect the use of plant resources
during the Yayoi period wholly. Thus, even after the introduction of rice agriculture, acornsof Quercus gilva must have been an important element of the subsistence system not only
in Kyushu, but probably also in the area outside Kyushu.
The above analysis conﬁrmed that fruits of Quercus gilva were an important elementof food resources during the Jomon to Kofun periods in Kyushu. However, the weightthat the fruits of Quercus gilva occupied in the prehistoric food resources could not be
examined due to the scarcity of plant remains excavated outside storage pits. Thus, the ﬁrst
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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI Yumiko

hypothesis postulating the importance of fruits of Quercus gilva as food resources fromthe Jomon to the Yayoi to Kofun periods in spite of a change in the subsistence system has
been supported in Kyushu, but was not supported outside it.

4-2.

Origin of the selection of Quercus gilva for hoes and spades

While use of the wood of Quercus gilva has not been conﬁrmed for the Jomon period, its
wood came to occupy an important position during the Yayoi to Kofun periods in westernJapan as the material for hoes and spades used in rice agriculture. This importance isreﬂected in the investment of labour for the manufacture of hoes and spades, and can be
estimated from the size of wood being used, compared here with the radii of these wooden
remains (Figure 7; Noshiro et al. 2012a, 2018). The radii of hoes and spades were larger
than those of other tools and were as large as building materials, but were smaller that thoseof splash guards used with hoes. According to an felling experiment carried out with axes
with steel blades reconstructed after Yayoi to Kofun remains, trees of Castanea crenata andQuercus serrata (コナラ) up to 20 cm in diameter could be felled within 10 minutes (Kudo
2004). Extrapolating from this result, it takes at least 40 minutes to fell down trees forhoes and spades with a diameter of ca. 40 cm, chopping without rest. Considering that thewood of oaks including Quercus gilva and Quercus sect. Aegilops is heavier and sturdier
than that of other dicots and conifers and that several hoes or spades or splash boards needs
trees up to 60 cm in diameter, it must have needed special eﬀort to obtain materials forhoes, spades, and splash guards. The strict selection of materials for hoes and spades andthe intensive labour invested for obtaining their materials seem to show the importance ofhoes and spades in the subsistence of the Yayoi and Kofun people.
At present this selection of Quercus gilva for wooden hoes and spades seem to haveoriginated in northern Kyushu at the beginning of the Yayoi period (Figure 5). The earliest
selection of materials at the Nabatake site, Saga, is not clear, using Quercus gilva, anotherevergreen oak, Quercus sect. Aegilops, Cinnamomum camphora, and another dicot for eachof the ﬁve hoes. In the early Yayoi period, the selection of Quercus gilva for wooden hoes
and spades became prevalent in western Japan, being detected at the Shimogori-kuwanae
site, Oita, the Nishikawazu site, Shimane, and the Karako-kagi site, Nara. Because detailed
ages for the hoes and spades of these sites are unavailable, spread of the selection of
Quercus gilva during the early Yayoi period cannot be traced at present. Thus, the valueof the wood of Quercus gilva seems to have been recognized in northern Kyushu at the
beginning of the Yayoi period. The present records of archaeological remains seem toindicate the following three possibilities.
1. Quercus gilva was selected for hoes and spades in western Japan, and Quercus sect.
Aegilops was selected in eastern Japan.
2. Use of wooden tools for rice agriculture made of evergreen oaks is not known in the© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPAN

Figure 7. Radii of ﬁnished and unﬁnished hoes and spades and their materials for diﬀerent taxa
(modiﬁed from Noshiro et al. 2012a, 2018). Radii of hoes and spades were larger than those of othertools and were as large as building materials, but were smaller that those of splash guards. Intensive
labour was invested for obtaining materials for hoes and spades in the Yayoi and Kofun periods© Japanese Archaeological Association

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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI Yumiko

Korean, Liaodong, and Shandong peninsulas at present.
3. The selection of Quercus gilva for hoes and spades was carried out along with the use of
its fruits in western Japan.
Thus, the second hypothesis postulating the origin of the selection of Quercus gilva forwooden hoes and spades in western Japan could not be supported due to the scarcity ofcomparative materials in East Asia.

5.

Conclusion

Based on diﬀerences in the use of plant resources during the Jomon period, Sasaki (2011,2014) proposed that two different cultural zones in the management and use of plantresources existed between eastern and western Japan during the Jomon period. In easternJapan where the use of Castanea crenata and Toxicodendron verniciﬂuum characterizes
the use of plant resources during the Jomon period, the management of plant resources
has been critically studied, based on many examples (e.g., Noshiro 2016, 2019; Noshiro &Sasaki 2013, 2014; Sasaki & Noshiro 2018). In western Japan where the use of Quercus
gilva characterizes the use of plant resources during the Jomon period, most examples
have been obtained from Kyushu and solely from fruit remains. During the Yayoi to
Kofun periods, on the contrary, the number of examples in western Japan exceeds thatin eastern Japan, both in fruit and wood remains, and the western cultural zone proposed
for the Jomon period by Sasaki (2011, 2014) came to be recognized throughout westernJapan. Thus, in western Japan, Quercus gilva continued to be an important element of thesubsistence from the Jomon to the Yayoi to Kofun periods. In eastern Japan, contrarily,
the use of plant resources seems to have changned drastically during the Yayoi to Kofun
periods and came to use Quercus sect. Aegilops intensively (Noshiro 2016, 2019). Thus,
the use of plant resources diﬀered between western and eastern Japan through the Jomon
to Kofun periods, and a cultural continuum in the use of plant resources was maintained inwestern Japan, but not in eastern Japan.
The prehistoric use of plant resources centering on Quercus gilva in western Japan isqueer from the present perspective. Within the present distribution range stretching inwestern Japan, Quercus gilva grows natively in evergreen forests only in Kyushu, on inland
mountainous slopes from 15 to 750 m a.s.l. with rich well-drained soil (Ito et al. 2007).
Due to a historical high demand for its timber, large trees of Quercus gilva are rarely foundin mountainous forests of Kyushu, but are preserved in shrine forests, as typically seen at
the Usa Shrine, Ooita, whose main shrine is at the top of a hill supporting a natural forestof Quercus gilva. Outside Kyushu, however, Quercus gilva now grows very sparsely,
almost exclusively in shrine forests (e.g., Abe 1990; Science Museum Net, http://sciencenet.kahaku.go.jp, referred in 2018), and contradicts with the prevalent use of Quercus gilva© Japanese Archaeological Association

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IMPORTANCE OF QUERCUS GILVA FOR THE PREHISTORIC PERIODS IN WESTERN JAPANfor hoes and spades during the Yayoi to Kofun periods. This discrepancy may be the resultsof intensive felling of Quercus gilva trees for hoes and spades and other tools during thehistorical periods, except in shrine forests, but this scenario cannot explain the present
native growth of trees of Quercus gilva in the mountains of Kyushu. Thus, to examine theorigin of such discrepancy in the present distribution of Quercus gilva, more studies about
use of plant resources in historic periods seem necessary.
We did not discuss the management of plant resources during the Jomon to Kofun
periods in western Japan due to the lack of such studies. However, even in western Japan,
the management of plant resources may have been carried out since the Jomon people
settled down, similar to modern satoyama managed around present villages. A recent
study of wooden remains showed that, during the late Yayoi period, such management ofCastanea crenata resources was carried out at Kagoshima in southern Kyushu near thesouthern border of its distribution (Noshiro 2016, 2019). Even in the initial Jomon period,
the strict selection of basket materials at the Higashimyo site, Saga, using straight supple
materials of uncommon arboreal species seemed to imply an existence of the management
system of material plants for baskets around the settlement (Noshiro et al. 2019). By
reviewing pottery types and settlement types of the late Jomon period, Fukunaga (2020),
however, indicated that the society structure and sedentism during this period differed
between western and eastern Japan and that intensive management of plant resources was
not possible in western Japan. Contrarily, in the Yayoi period, with the introduction ofrice agriculture and iron tools, Quercus gilva came to be used not only as food resources,
but also as wood resources, and remained to be an important food plant for crop failureseven in this period (Terasawa & Terasawa, 1981; Ishikawa (2010). This marked relianceon Quercus gilva both as food and wood resources in the Yayoi period seems to imply
an existence of resources management of Quercus gilva, but no archaeobotanical proofs
showing such management have been obtained so far. In western Japan outside Kyushu,
ample use of Quercus gilva for hoes and spades through the Yayoi to Kofun period andthe decline of its growth through historical periods resulting in its conﬁnement into shrine
forests at present also seem to imply management of Quercus gilva resources throughthe Yayoi to Kofun periods in this area. Although domestication of Quercus gilva has
not been studied so far, domestication for its easily edible fruits may have existed since
the initial Jomon period, similar to various tree species of the world (Fuller 2018), and adetailed study of the fruit and seed sizes of Quercus gilva may reveal such domesticationor management of its resources. At present, it is diﬃcult to discuss reasons why people
in western Japan began to use the wood of Quercus gilva with the introduction of rice
agriculture, due to the lack of any substantial records showing the prior use of timberresources during the Jomon period in this area (Itoh & Yamada 2012). However, use of
the wood of evergreen oaks for baskets at the Nakamura cho site, Fukuoka, during the© Japanese Archaeological Association

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NOSHIRO Shuichi, SASAKI Yuka, & MURAKAMI Yumiko

early to middle Jomon period (Noshiro et al. 2012b) clearly shows that the Jomon people
in this area already had enough technique and tools to freely process the hard, rigid woodof evergreen oaks into thin and slender basket splints. Thus, the apparent beginning in
the use of the wood of Quercus gilva from the Yayoi period with the introduction of a
new subsistence system seems to be an artifact caused by the lack of studies on the use oftimber resources during the Jomon period in this area.

Acknowledgements
This study was partly supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (Nos. JP21300332, JP24240109,
JP15H017779). We would like to thank Prof. Hideshi Ishikawa, Meiji University forvaluable comments to the ﬁrst draft of this manuscript and anonymous reviewers whosecritical comments greatly helped in improving the manuscript.

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