Bull. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Ser. D, 42, pp. 1–17, December 22, 2016

Human-induced traumas in the skulls excavated from
Gokurakuji site, Kamakura, Japan
Kazuhiro Sakaue
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Nature and Science,
4–1–1 Amakubo, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki Prefecture 300-0005, Japan
E-mail: k-sakaue@kahaku.go.jp

Abstract This study investigates the human-induced traumas in the skulls excavated from theGokurakuji site macroscopically. Human-induced traumas were classiﬁed into four types, likegashes, incisions, scratches, and blunt force trauma. The results revealed that the number of skulls
with gashes or incisions tended to be low (1 individual with a gash and 4 individuals with incisions
out of 331 individuals) among those of previously reported populations in medieval and recent
Japan. These results suggested that the skulls found on Gokurakuji site might be not have belonged
to victims of the battle of Nitta Yoshisada in 1333. Additionally, the relatively high number of
specimens with scratches (21 or 6.3%), also the second highest among the discussed sites, could
have resulted from differences in diagnostic standards or differences in the purpose or method
used for inducing scratches.
Key words: Human-induced, trauma, Kamakura, Medieval, Skull

Introduction
Human-induced traumas in human skeletalmaterials have been examined as objective evidence of interpersonal violence in the ﬁelds ofphysical and forensic anthropology (Suzuki,
1956; Boylston, 2000; Williamson et al., 2003;
Nagaoka and Abe, 2007; Dodo et al., 2008;
Sakaue, 2010).
Many studies of weapon-related traumas havefocused on the human skeletal remains excavatedfrom the medieval sites in Japan (Suzuki, 1956,
1975, 1989; Morimoto, 1987; Morimoto and
Hirata, 1992; Hirata et al., 2004; Nagaoka et al.,2009; Nagaoka et al., 2010). Most of these studies focused on the archeological sites in the
Yuigahama area in Kamakura city, Japan. In thisarea, more than 5000 human skeletons have beenfound from four sites (the Yuigahama-minami
site, the Seiyokan site, the Zaimokuza site, andthe Yuigahama Chusei Shudan Bochi site). The
Yuigahama area, a sandy beach, is thought tohave been utilized as a large cemetery from the12th to 13th centuries based on 14C aging of
human skeletal remains from the Yuigahama
Chusei Shudan Bochi and Yuigahama-minami
sites (Minami et al., 2006).
According to Suzuki (1956)ʼs theory, thesharp-edged traumas of the skulls excavatedfrom the Yuigahama area are classiﬁed into three
types: “gashes (penetrating both the external andinternal laminae of a skull),” “incisions (penetrating only the external and not the internal lamina
of a skull),” and “scratches (short and shallow
linear cut marks only on the external surface of askull)” (Suzuki, 1956; Hirata et al., 2004; Nagaoka et al., 2010). In the Yuigahama area, the frequencies of these trauma types differed in eachsite, with a signiﬁcantly higher number ofscratches (153 individuals out of 283) in theskulls in Zaimokuza site. Of the remaining sites
in this area, three skulls with scratches were
found only in the Chusei Shudan Bochi site
(Nagaoka et al., 2010).
The Gokurakuji site is located at a hill on thewest end of Yuigahama beach and is about 1 km

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K. Sakaue

Fig. 1.

Map of Gokurakuji site.

south-west of the Yuigahama-minami site (Figure1). This site was found and excavated by Hisashi
Suzuki and the members of the Department of
Anthropology, the University of Tokyo in 1959
(Suzuki, 1998). Five graves containing a large
amount of human cranial bones, and a relatively
small number of mandibles, postcranial bones,
and animal bones (horse, cow, dog, and deer)
were found, and the total number of individuals
was estimated to be approximately 1000.
Although the archaeological report of the Gokurakuji site has not been published, a case reportabout a male skull penetrated by an iron arrowhead excavated from Gokurakuji site wasreported in the paper (Suzuki, 1975), and a simpliﬁed outline of the Gokurakuji site was provided in his book “Hone ga kataru Nihonshi(Bones tell the history of Japan)”. In this book,he noted some characteristics of the skulls foundin the Gokurakuji site in an essay. Examples ofstatements include “There were some skulls withweapon-related traumas,” and “I had thought that
more scratches would be frequently recognizedin the skulls of the Gokurakuji site. But theresult, contrary to my expectation, indicated that
there was no scratch on the skulls found on thissite.” (Suzuki, 1998: pp. 140–151). Thus, nodetailed reports are available on the humaninduced traumas in the human skeletal remains
excavated from the Gokurakuji site.
Suzuki (1998) regarded the human skeletal
remains of Gokurakuji site as victims of the battle in which Nitta Yoshisada attacked the capital,
Kamakura city that ended with the fall of the
Kamakura shogunate in 1333 because of the following reasons: 1) This site is located near the
Gokurakuji Kiritoshi, a narrow slope used as oneof the military gates for the capital Kamakura
where a severe battle was fought between theregular army of the Kamakura shogunate and thetroops of Nitta Yoshisada in 1333. 2) Mass cranial graves were the results of secondary burial,
and these crania were gathered after the corpses
had been decomposed and skeletonized judging
from bite marks of dogs on human bones andpiles of cranial fragments like dishes in situ. Thisimplied that the corpses had been left on the
ground without a ﬁrst burial, supporting the the-Human-induced traumas in the skulls from Gokurakuji sites

ory that many casualties had been left behind following a severe battle. 3) Horse bones were themost popular among the animal bones mixed in
Gokurakuji site, which were used by the military
in medieval Japan. 4) There were many skulls
with human induced traumas, particularly
No. 404 that was thought to have been shot on
his head by an iron arrow (Suzuki, 1975).
This study aims to macroscopically investigate
the human-induced traumas in the skulls foundon the Gokurakuji site and examine the validityof the relationship between these traumas and thebattle.
Materials and methods
All the skeletal materials excavated from theGokurakuji site are stored in the Human Osteological Collection at the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Nature and Science,
Tokyo (i.e. NMNST). After the completion of the
excavation in 1959, these materials were ﬁrst
moved and stored in the Department of Anthropology, the University of Tokyo, following
which Dr. Suzuki borrowed these materials fromthe University of Tokyo and shifted them to
NMNST in 1972 after he became the ﬁrst head of
the Division of Anthropology in NMNST. In
2003, these materials were ofﬁcially transferredto the Department of Anthropology, NMNST.
Because all skulls from this site had been broken into fragments, the materials for investigation in this study were limited to specimens
which any three bones composing the calvarium
can be reconstructed almost completely. A totalof 331 specimens were available for investigation.
The skull penetrated by the iron arrowhead(No. 404) was not found in both NMNST and the
University Museum of the University of Tokyo
under this investigation. Unfortunately, this specimen could not be included in this study.
The sex of adult individuals was determinedby the cranial features (Sakaue and Adachi,2009). Metrical estimations of sex were also performed (Nagaoka et al., 2008), and all estimated3

sexes were no discrepancy between those results.
The estimations of the age at death were carriedout based on cranial suture closure (Sakaue,2015), dental formation, and eruption (Ubelaker,1989), and the samples were classiﬁed into four
age categories as child (approximately 0–9 years
old), young (approximately 10–19), adult (approximately 20–59), old (approximately over 60).
The cut marks on the posterior border of amandibular ramus can be regarded as evidence of
decapitation in Japan (Morimoto and Hirata,
1992). In order to conﬁrm decapitation in the
Gokurakuji samples, the right and left mandibular ramus were separately investigated because
almost all mandibles were disarticulated from thecrania and broken into the half (Suzuki, 1998).
The minimum number of individuals was 158 on
the basis of right mandible ramus.
In this study, a fracture in which the breakage
was the same color as the surface of surrounding
bone was considered to be perimortem (Sauer,
1998; Ortner, 2008). Primarily, human-induced
traumas were discriminated on the basis of morphological similarity to “sharp force trauma” and“blunt force trauma” that have been reported anddeﬁned in previous works in the ﬁeld of forensic
anthropology (Berryman and Symes, 1998;
Arbour, 2008; Boutros-Ghali, 2008; Berryman etal., 2012). A cut mark made by a sharp-edge
instrument was identiﬁed as a fracture with “linearity”, “a well-deﬁned clean edge (margin ofbone defect)”, and “a ﬂat, smooth, polished cut
surface” on macroscopic observation in this study(Boylston, 2000). In reference to Suzukiʼs deﬁnition, cut marks were sub-classiﬁed into “gashes,”“incisions,” and “scratches”. The “scratches” could
only be macroscopically seen as linear striation
without a smooth cut surface and several striations
were found together in one group and were often
in parallel direction within a group in this study.
It was difﬁcult to identify whether some fractures in the bone had been caused by blunt force
instruments, particularly in archeological samples. Thus, blunt force traumas were deﬁned ascomplex fractures with both radial fractures andconcentric fractures as typical fractures by a

4

K. Sakaue

blunt instrument in this study (Kimmerle andBaraybar, 2008).
All statistical analyses were conducted using
Microsoft Excel 2010 (Microsoft Co., ltd.), andTukeyʼs wholly signiﬁcant difference (WSD)
tests were performed for post hoc comparison
between proportions according to Ryanʼs procedure (1960). Statistically signiﬁcant levels in thisstudy were at 5%.

the age groups except for “adult” was up to 20.
Thus, the demographic composition of this site
was not as extraordinary as young adult males
might be predominant casualties during battle inmedieval Japan.
As can be seen in Table 2 and Figures 2–38,
27 out of 331 individuals had any type of humaninduced trauma, and only three individuals had
two types of traumas (I-162, IV-412, and IV481).

Results and discussion

Table 1. The composition of Sex and Age-at-deathof human skeletal remains of Gokurakuji site

Table 1 indicates the number of the estimatedsex and age groups of the Gokurakuji site.
Although males (146 individuals, 44.1%) weremore in number than the females (103 individuals, 31.1%), it could be said that no extreme sexratio bias was seen in this site. The numbers of

Child
Young
Adult
Old
UnknownSum

Male

FemaleUnknown

Sum

0
0
113
1
32
146

0
0
71
2
30
103

6
11
18
0
47
82

6
11
202
3
109
331

Table 2. List of human induced trauma in crania of Gokurakuji site
No.

Type of human induced trauma

I-162
I-169
I-172
IV-406
IV-412
IV-425
IV-446
IV-470IV-481
IV-486
IV-489
V-520
V-532
V-562
V-575
V-580
V-606
V-610
V-640
V-643
V-660
V-664
V-697
V-765
V-779

Sex

Age
group

Location

Figure No.

1

Male

Adult

2 frontal, 2 left parietal

1
1Female Adult
FemaleOccipital
Right parietal
Frontal2 frontal
Left parietal
Left temporal
Right parietal
2 frontal
2 frontal, 4 left parietal
FrontalFrontalRight parietal
FrontalLeft parietal
FrontalRight parietal
Right parietal, leftparietal
FrontalFrontalFrontalLeft parietal
Left parietal
FrontalFrontal, right parietal,
left parietal
Frontal, 3 rightparietal
2 left parietal

2 (scratch and incision),
3 (incisions)45
6
7 (scratch), 8 (blunt)
9
10
11
12
13–15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23 (right parietal),
24 (left parietal)
25
26
27
28
29
30
31 (frontal), 32 (rightparietal), 33 (left parietal)
34 (frontal), 35 (anterior),
36 (top), 37 (posterior)
38

Gashes Incisions Scratches Blunt
3

1
1
1
1

1

1
6
1

1

3

1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1

Male
Male

Adult
Adult
Child
Male Adult
Male Adult
Female Adult
Child
Male Adult
Male Adult
Male Adult
Adult
Male

Adult

Male Adult
Female Old
Male Adult
Female Adult
FemaleMale Adult

V-830

4

Male

Adult

V-917

2

Male

Adult

Human-induced traumas in the skulls from Gokurakuji sites

Fig. 2. Scratch and incision in Sample No. I-162.

Fig. 3.

Incisions in Sample No. I-162.

Fig. 4.

Scratch in Sample No. I-169.

Fig. 5.

Scratch in Sample No. I-172.

Fig. 6. Blunt force trauma in Sample No. IV-406.
Arrows on the photo indicate the concentric
fractures.

Fig. 7.

Scratch in Sample No. IV-412.

5

6K. Sakaue

Fig. 8. Blunt force trauma in Sample No. IV-412.
Arrows on the photo indicate concentric fractures.

Fig. 9.

Scratch in Sample No. IV-425.

Table 3 illustrates the frequencies of each type of
trauma found in the Gokurakuji, Zaimokuza,
Yuigahama Chusei Shudan Bochi, Yuigahamaminami, Seiyokan (Nagaoka et al., 2010), Kojyonishi (Baba et al., 1987), and the Edo sites(Sakaue, 2014). The frequencies of gashes andincisions in the Kojyo-nishi site were the highest
among these sites, where the human skeletal
remains were thought to have belonged to thevictims of the fall of the Edosaki castle in 1590
(Baba et al., 1987). The frequencies of the Edosites can be taken as the control group, which

Fig. 10.

Scratch in Sample No. IV-446.

Fig. 11. Blunt force trauma in Sample No. IV-470.
Arrows on the photo indicate concentric fractures.

illustrates the occurrence of trauma during peaceful times because the capital Edo was not devastated by war during the Edo period except for thebattle of Ueno that was limited to the Ueno
Mountain in 1868.
Frontal bones were the most frequently
harmed bones in the skulls found on Gokurakujisite (19 locations), followed by the left parietal
bones (14 locations), and the right parietal bone
(9 locations) (Table 2). Similar to the Yuigahama
Chusei Shudan Bochi and Yuigahama-minami
sites, no evidence of human-induced trauma wasHuman-induced traumas in the skulls from Gokurakuji sites

7

Fig. 12. Scratch and incision in Sample No. IV-481.

Fig. 14. Upper part of scratches in Sample No.
IV-486.

Fig. 13. Overview of scratches in Sample No.
IV-486.

Fig. 15. Lower part of scratches in Sample No.
IV-486.

found on the facial bones found on this site.
The gash trauma can be recognized on only
one skull (0.3% as in Table 2, Figure 18 and 39).
Although this cut mark has linearity and is madeon a smooth cut surface, it is without a cleanedge and presents a jagged and partly crushed
margin (three hollow arrows in Figure 18) incomparison with the clean edge of the gash (parietal bone of the Edo period, in Figure 39). It is
possible that the duller edge of a Japanese sword
or halberd might have caused this gash. Even if
the No. 404 skull with an iron arrowhead that
Suzuki (1975) reported is taken into account, thenumber and frequency of the gashes is the smallest among those reported in the other sites (Table3). Tukeyʼs WSD tests in gash trauma indicatedthat the frequency of this site was signiﬁcantly
lower than the Seiyokan and Kojyo-nishi sites(Table 4).
The number of specimens with incisions wasfour (1.2%) on the Gokurakuji site, and the number of incisions was eight, which were almost thesame as those found on the Yuigahama Chusei
Shudan Bochi, Yuigahama-minami, Seiyokan,
and Edo sites (Table 3). The characteristics of theincisions in this site were shallow and small, and8

K. Sakaue

Fig. 16. Blunt force trauma in Sample No. IV-489.
Arrows on the photo indicate concentric fractures.

Fig. 18.

Gash in Sample No. V-532.

Fig. 17.

Fig. 19.

Incision in Sample No. V-562.

Scratch and incision in Sample No. V-520.

were found on the front bones (4 incisions out of
8). The cut marks in I-162 (in this sample, one
scratch just before one incision, in Figure 2)
resembled those on the Zaimokuza skulls in thatseveral cut marks were located at the frontalbone near the bregma, that they were close, horizontal marks in parallel, and that many parallelcut marks were located around the top of head of
the same individual (Suzuki, 1956). Suzuki(1956) thought that these cut marks might havebeen caused because of taking oneʼs scalp after
battle given the difﬁculty of making parallel andhorizontal incisions at the top of the forehead
during conﬂict. Although it is interesting that thisstyle of incision could be recognized in the
Gokurakuji site as well, only one specimen is not
explainable. The frequency of this site was signiﬁcantly lower than the Zaimokuza and Kojyonishi sites (Table 4).
In contrast, the number of specimens withscratches found on the Gokurakuji site was 21(6.3%), making it the second highest, with significant differences from other sites (Table 4). The
scratches in this site appeared to have some vari-Human-induced traumas in the skulls from Gokurakuji sites

Fig. 20.

Scratch in Sample No. V-575.

Fig. 23. Scratch in right parietal bone of Sample
No. V-610.

Fig. 21.

Scratch in Sample No. V-580.

Fig. 24. Scratch in left parietal bone of Sample No.
V-610.

Fig. 22.

Scratch in Sample No. V-606.

9

ety in their shapes such as short and sharp
scratch(es), as illustrated in I-162 (Figure 2),
IV-425 (Figure 9), IV-446 (Figure 10), IV-481(Figure 12), V-610 (Figure 23), and V-643 (Figure 26), weak and slight scratches like I-169(Figure 4), I-172 (Figure 5), IV-412 (Figure 7),
V-520 (Figure 17), V-575 (Figure 20), V-580(Figure 21), V-606 (Figure 22), V-610 (Figure24), V-640 (Figure 25), V-660 (Figure 27), V-697(Figure 29), V-765 (Figure 30), V-830 (Figure34), V-830 (Figure 36), V-830 (Figure 37); ﬂat
surface with striations, as illustrated in IV-486(Figure 13–15), V-917 (Figure 38); and relatively

10

K. Sakaue

Fig. 25.

Scratch in Sample No. V-640.

Fig. 28.

Scratch in Sample No. V-664.

Fig. 26.

Scratch in Sample No. V-643.

Fig. 29.

Scratch in Sample No. V-697.

Fig. 27.

Scratch in Sample No. V-660.

Fig. 30.

Scratch in Sample No. V-765.

Human-induced traumas in the skulls from Gokurakuji sites

11Fig. 31. Incision in frontal bone of Sample No.
V-779.

Fig. 33. Incision in left parietal bone of Sample
No. V-779.

Fig. 32. Incision in right parietal bone of Sample
No. V-779.

Fig. 34. Scratch in frontal bone of Sample No.
V-830.

dull and clear scratch(es), as illustrated in V-664(Figure 28), V-830 (Figure 35), V-917 (Figure38). These scratches do not appear to have beencaused by the same instrument and reason. For
example, it was reasonable to assume that thescratches with the ﬂat surface of IV-486 (Figure
13–15) could have resulted from scalping as
Suzuki (1956) insisted. However, the abovementioned short keen scratches and weak slightscratches were shallow and equal in depth andfocused on small areas, which could not be easily
regarded as cut marks of scalping. It is possiblethat the high frequencies of scratches in
Zaimokuza and Gokurakuji sites might havebeen caused by preparation damages of cleaning,
restoration, and curation because these skeletal
remains were possibly handled in the same laboratory. However, this is not plausible because thescratches did not show fresh breaks even after
being rinsed with acetone during this investigation, implying that the breakage had occurred
before the burial. Nagaoka et al. (2010) had
observed that one of the reasons why thereported frequencies of scratches varied among

12

K. Sakaue

Fig. 35. Scratch in the anterior part of right parietal
bone of Sample No. V-830.

Fig. 36. Scratch in the top of right parietal bone of
Sample No. V-830.

sites in the Yuigahama area could be the differences in diagnostic standards. Although this ispossible, the results of this study suggest that thevarieties of scratches might have been caused by
speciﬁc reasons at each site and each case. For
example, it was possible that some weakscratches might be caused as preparation damageof washing and cleaning connective tissues
before burial in order to write some Buddhist
scriptures with India ink on a skull as seen inskull fragments of the Zaimokuza site (Figure40). These scratches must be examined using ascanning electron microscope (SEM), as Naga-

Fig. 37. Scratch in the posterior part of right parietal bone of Sample No. V-830.

Fig. 38.

Scratches in Sample No. V-917.

oka et al. (2009, 2010) did, in the future.
No cut marks were found in the 158 mandibles
excavated from the Gokurakuji site, which
implying that no evidence for decapitation was
found for this site. Certainly, the absence of cut
marks does not imply that decapitation neveroccurred on this site because a decapitated skull
does not always have cut marks at the posteriorborders of the mandibular ramus. However, considering that 3 individuals had cut marks at themandibular ramus out of the 110 individuals who
had been thought to be victims of the battle
between the families of Taketoki Kikuchi and theChinzei Tandai (local commissioner in Kyushu

Human-induced traumas in the skulls from Gokurakuji sites

13

Table 3. Fequencies of each type of human-induced traumas in 7 archaeological sites
Total number ofindividuals

Numbers ofindividuals
with gashes(%)

Numbers ofgashes(%)

Gokurakuji

3311(0.3%)

1(0.3%)

Zaimokuza
Yuigahama Chusei
Shudan Bochi
Yuigahama-minami
Seiyokan
Kojyo-nishi
Edo sites

283
592

5
6

(1.8%)(1.0%)

99(3.2%)(1.5%)

667
91
24
1203

3
6
11
12

(0.4%)(6.6%)(45.8%)(1.0%)

81612
35(1.2%)(17.6%)(50.0%)(2.9%)

Numbers ofindividuals
with incisions(%)

Numbers ofincisions(%)

Numbers ofindividuals
with scratches(%)

Numbers ofindividuals withblunt trauma(%)

Gokurakuji

4(1.2%)

8(2.4%)

21(6.3%)

4(1.2%)

Zaimokuza
Yuigahama Chusei
Shudan Bochi
Yuigahama-minami
Seiyokan
Kojyo-nishi
Edo sites28
2(9.9%)(0.3%)

942(33.2%)(0.3%)

1533(54.1%)(0.5%)

10*(3.5%)
(
)

2
1
10
9

(0.3%)(1.1%)(41.7%)(0.7%)

51
17
13(0.7%)(1.1%)(70.8%)(1.1%)

000
0(0.0%)(0.0%)(0.0%)(0.0%)

003()(0.0%)(0.0%)(0.2%)*: Suzuki (1956) had reported nine specimens with “stab marks” and one with “blunt force trauma” in the Zaimokuza
samples. Judging from the ﬁgures in Suzukiʼs report, these stab marks can be considered blunt force trauma. Thus, thetotal number of instances of blunt force trauma in the Zaimakuza site was 10 in this study.
Please clarify why this site is being discussed instead of Gokurakuji.

Fig. 39. Comparison between gash in Sample No. V-532 and gash in an Edo sample.
Left photo represents gash mark in the right and left parietal bones of Sample No. V-532, and the right one isgash mark in the right parietal bone of Sample No. 377/16/565 of Ikenohata shicikencho site of the Edo era.

14

K. Sakaue

Table 4. Results of Tukeyʼs wholly signiﬁcant difference test of the frequencies of number of individuals witheach trauma
GashesGokurakuji

Zaimokuza

Y.C.S.B.

Y.M.

Seiyokan

Kojyo-nishi

N.S.
N.S.
N.S.
*
*
N.S.

N.S.
N.S.
N.S.
*
N.S.

N.S.
*
*
N.S.

*
*
N.S.

*
*

*

Gokurakuji

Zaimokuza

Y.C.S.B.

Y.M.

Seiyokan

Kojyo-nishi

*
N.S.
N.S.
N.S.
*
N.S.

*
*
*
*
*

N.S.
N.S.
*
N.S.

N.S.
*
N.S.

*
N.S.

*

Gokurakuji

Zaimokuza

Y.C.S.B.

Y.M.

Seiyokan

Kojyo-nishi

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*

N.S.
N.S.
N.S.
N.S.

N.S.
N.S.
N.S.

N.S.
N.S.

N.S.

Gokurakuji

Zaimokuza

Y.C.S.B.

Y.M.

Seiyokan

Kojyo-nishi

N.S.
N.S.

N.S.

Gokurakuji
Zaimokuza
Y.C.S.B.
Y.M.
Seiyokan
Kojyo-nishi
Edo sites
Incisions
Gokurakuji
Zaimokuza
Y.C.S.B.
Y.M.
Seiyokan
Kojyo-nishi
Edo sites
Scratches
Gokurakuji
Zaimokuza
Y.C.S.B.
Y.M.
Seiyokan
Kojyo-nishi
Edo sites
Blunt force trauma
Gokurakuji
Zaimokuza
Y.C.S.B.
Y.M.
Seiyokan
Kojyo-nishi
Edo sites

N.S.
N.S.
N.S.
N.S.

N.S.
*
*

of the Kamakura shogunate) in 1333 (Nagai,
1986: Tomioka et al., submitted). The casualties
on the Gokurakuji site seem too few for a severe
battle in medieval Japan.
Blunt force traumas were recognized in four
specimens (1.2%) on the Gokurakuji site, and no
signiﬁcant differences were found between thoseon the Zaimokuza, Seiyokan, Kojyo-nishi, andEdo sites (Table 2 and 3). The frequencies of
blunt force trauma tended to be lower than sharp
force trauma in all sites, which might havecaused from the difﬁculty in identiﬁcation.
However, this study proves that sharp force
traumas (gashes and incisions) and blunt force
trauma were rarely recognized in the skulls of the
Gokurakuji site, and there was no signiﬁcant difference in the frequencies of the traumas compared with those on the Edo sites that could be
regarded as illustrative of injuries under peace
times. Decapitation could not be conﬁrmed inthis site as well. Knüsel (2014) summarized thatthe frequencies of cranio-facial injuries com-

Human-induced traumas in the skulls from Gokurakuji sites

Fig. 40. Frontal bone excavated from the Zaimokuzasite with some Buddhist scriptures with India
ink.
A circle in the ﬁgure indicates some weakscratches covered with India ink.

Fig. 41. Anterior view of the nasal aperture of
Sample No. IV-412.
Arrows on the photo indicate the absorption of
the margin of nasal aperture.

pared to the total numbers of identiﬁed perimortem injuries in the human skeletal remains excavated from ﬁve sites in Europe varied from 18%
to 89% during the 11th to 16th centuries. Although
this data cannot be directly compared with thedata from the Japanese sites because of the differences in cultural backgrounds and army equipment, the European case does suggest that cranio-facial injuries were not so rare during close
combat on the battle ﬁeld.
Additionally, the location of this site was also

15

Fig. 42. Lateral view of the mandible with bite marksof the carnivore.

Fig. 43. Lateral view of the left parietal bone withrodent bit marks.

near the Gokurakuji temple where Ninsho, a Japanese Shingon Risshu priest (1217–1303), built afacility for providing relief to leprosy patients.
Takao Suzuki (1998), who was one of the pioneers of paleopathology in Japan, pointed out thepossibility that the skulls of leprosy patientsmight be included in the Gokurakuji site becausesome of them exhibited inﬂammatory changes
and absorption of lateral margins of the nasal
aperture during his preliminary research on
Gokurakuji skulls. In this research, it was seenthat some individuals, regardless of the presenceof human-induced traumas, had experienced

16

K. Sakaue

inﬂammatory changes and absorptions around thenasal aperture. Interestingly, three out of four individuals with blunt force traumas had inﬂammatory changes and absorption around nasal aperture(Figure 41, IV-412). Further paleopathologicalresearch is required for the Gokurakuji sample.
Some bite marks of some kind of carnivore(Figure 42) and many rodent bite marks (Figure43) were found on the human skeletal remains
found on the Gokuraku site. Particularly, thenumber with rodent bit marks reached up to 114(34.4%). These facts supported that the crania of
this site were gathered after decomposition andskeletonized of the corpse occurred upon or
beneath the ground. Cases of leaving the bodywithout burial appear to have been caused bywar, natural disaster, and criminal case in modern
Japan. However, Kenji Matsuo (2011), a historian of Buddhism in Japan, thought that the deadbodies of the majority of common people were
not buried but abandoned at a speciﬁc place fromthe Kofun era until reclusive monks (tonseiso)
began to conduct the funeral in order to answer
the hope of common people in the Kamakura era.
If this is true, it would be a plausible explanation
for the many dead bodies that were left on the
ground and bit by rodents and carnivore.
This study questions Suzukiʼs theory that theskulls found on the Gokurakuji site belonged to
victims of the invasion of Nitta Yoshisada in1333. As Suzuki (1998) suggested, the humanskeletal remains excavated from Gokurakuji sitewere possibly persons concerned in the Gokurakuji temple.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Ms. M. Kajigayama and
Ms. A. Nakatuka, curatorial staff member of the
National Museum of Nature and Science, fortheir valuable advice. I also wish to express mysincere gratitude to Dr. G. Suwa, Professor of the
University Museum of the University of Tokyo;
and Ms. A. Saso, curatorial staff member of the
University Museum, the University of Tokyo forproviding me with both permission to use valu-

able samples and helpful suggestions. I wish to
thank Dr. T. Nagaoka, Associate Professor of the
Department of Anatomy, St. Marianna University
School of Medicine, for his many helpful suggestions toward this study. This research is supported by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Number
15K07242.
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