Monograph No. 37
ASUKA, AND FUJIWARA IMPERIAL PALACE SITES EXCAVATION REPORT III
Investigations of the government offices west of Fujiwara Palace, the outer quarters east of the Imperial Residence Compound, and the East Ikazuchi-no-oka Site carried out from 1970 to 1973
CONTENTS
page
Chapter I. Introduction 1
Chapter II. Excavations of the goverment offices west of the Fujiwara Palace 9
1. Investigation brief 9
2. Site description 14
3. Artifact descriptions 32
4. Conclusions 146
Chapter III. Excavation of the outer quarters east of the Imperial Residence Compound 174
1. Investigation brief 174
2. Site description 178
3. Artifact descriptions 185
4. Conclusions 208
Chapter IV. East Ikazuchi-no-oka Site Investigation 210
1. Investigation brief 210
2. Site description 212
3. Artifact descriptions 215
4. Conclusions 222
Appendices 228
Supplementary Tables 237
English Summary 245
SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES
1. Tabulation of artifacts excavated from each structural feature
2. Tabulation of stone tool types excavated from each structural feature
3. Comparative graph of stone tools from important sites
4. Classificatory table of eaves tiles;
5. Table of place names where tiles from the same mold have been excavated
PLANS AND SECTIONS
1. Map of Fujiwara palace Site
2. Topographical and excavation maps of Excavation Area 6AJL-E,F
3. Map of Excavation Area 6AJL-E
ASUKA, AND FUJIWARA IMPERIAL PALACE SITES EXCAVATION REPORT III
The Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute has been conducting continuous archaeological excavations in the Asuka-Fujiwara region since 1969. This region spreads over three modern administrative units: two cities - Kashiwara and Sakurai, and one village-Asukamura in the county of Takaichi, within Nara Prefecture. It is the purpose of this series to report the results of these excavations; and as the third volume, this report presents the results of Excavations #3 and 4 carried out in 1971 and Excavation #10 carried out in 1973 at the Fujiwara Palace site. In addition, the results of the small-scale excavation at the East Ikazuchi-no-oka site in Asukamura conducted in 1970 are reported.
The Fujiwara Capital was the first urban administrative center in Japan, acting as the national capital between 694 and 710. The city plan for this capital was modeled after the Chinese grid system which was imported into Japan together with the Chinese administrative system (Jap. ritsuryosei 律令制 ). The capital consisted of two parts: the palace – containing the imperial residences and the central government offices, and the city proper – containing residential sections for the nobility and general populace, temples and markets. From east to west the capital measured 2.1 kilometers, and from north to south, 3kilometers. The palace was built in the north central portion of the capital, and from recent excavations its size is known to have been 928 meters east to west and 908 meters north to south, forming an almost perfectly square area.
The center of the palace compound was occupied by the Daigokuden (大極殿) Imperial Audience Hall and the Chodoin (朝堂院) Government Offices Compound, where ceremonies of state were carried out. Behind the Audience Hall was the Dairi (内裏) or Imperial Residence Compound where the emperor carried out his daily routine. Around these central facilities are thought to have been built the eight offices of the central government ministries such as the Kunaisho (宮内省), Ministry of the Imperial Household, or the Okwasho(大蔵省), Ministry of Finance. The Imperial Residence Compound construction and the positional arrangements of each ministry office must yet be confirmed through future excavations.
The Fujiwara Palace and Capital flourished in the formative period of the ancient bureaucratic state, which itself was based on the implementation of the ritsuryo administrative system. Thus the excavation of the palace and capital provides essential clues to not only the structure of the ancient state but also the culture that flourished at the capital.
Excavations #3 and #10
Fujiwara Palace Excavation #3 was carried out between July and November, 1971, preceding the construction of a Kashiwara municipal housing development (Shibu Danchi 四分団地) in the southwest portion of the palace precincts. Since houses had already been built in the area, the actual space that could be excavated was limited to a small six ares. Within this excavation area, structural features of the Fujiwara Palace and features of the Kofun period were discovered; and in the underlying strata, features of the Yayoi period settlement were uncovered. Features connected with the Fujiwara Palace included three buildings and wells; the former were all small structures with their pillars embedded in squarely-dug holes and thatched with either hinoki (Japanese cypress) shingles or grass thatch. These embedded-pillar (hottateashira 掘立柱) structures are thought to have been bureau offices of the palace, but because of the limited scale of excavation, the details are unclear.
The Kofun period features discovered were two wells. From this, it is clear that there existed a settlement in this region from the late 5th century to the 6th century, but as for the scale and construction of the settlement, we must wait for the results of future excavations.
Occupation of the Yayoi settlement ranged from the early to the late Yayoi periods, and the site is called by its present-day place name of Shibu. The Shibu site is located on the east bank of the Asuka River in a lowlying area; it is thought to stretch 400 meters from north to south and 250 meters east to west. Excavations #3 and #10 were positioned in the center of the site. North of the settlement was a burial ground and several hokei shukobo (square, ditched and mounded burials 方形周溝墓) were discovered. These burial results were already published in the second volume of this series.
Actual excavation of the Yayoi settlement was carried out only in those portions of the excavation area where there were no Fujiwara Palace phase remains; this amounted to only three ares in Excavation #3 and 2.6 ares in Excavation #10. The Yayoi period cultural deposits lay between 0.8 and 1.4 meters below the present surface and could be divided into three strata - upper, middle and lower. Many features such as postholes, wells, pits, and ditches were discovered in each stratum. The upper stratum dates to the Late Yayoi period, the middle stratum to the Middle Yayoi period and the lower stratum to the Middle and Early Yayoi periods. Consequently, the features found range in date from the Early to Late Yayoi period, overlapping each other in this very small area.
The Middle Yayoi features SE680, SE758, SE610, SE809 and SE1481, and Late Yayoi SE760, SE813 and SE1480 are all pits measuring between one to four meters in diameter and over one meter deep, extending into the underlying gravel layer. These plainly-dug pits are thought to be wells. Ditches SD666 and SD1660 are from four to five meter wide and over one meter deep - fairly large scale; these are clearly man-made and probably functioned either as water canals or protective moats surrounding the village. The small clusters of pits discovered throughout the excavation area are thought to be building postholes or stake molds. The residence commonly in use during the Yayoi period was the pithouse, but at this site, no pithouses were recognized. Instead, the small clusters of pits may indicate that buildings of raised-floor construction were used in place of the pithouse in this lowlying settlement. In addition to the above, there was also a refuse pit. Only a portion of this village site was dug in this excavation; the features extend well beyond the areal limits of this excavation and the nature and composition of the village could nor be clarified at this time.
Artifacts were recovered from all types of features and the surrounding strata. These included pottery, lithics such as arrow and spear points, drills, axes and reaping knives, wooden objects such as containers, standing pestles, spades and hoes, bronze arrow points, clay spindle whorls and bronze bell imitations, and glass beads. Pottery of each phase of the Kinai I to V styles occurred in great quantities, and from these data, several problems in pottery chronology were clarified. As for general results, the transition between Kinai II and IV styles of pottery were made clear: The Kinai II style has been divided into two levels, Kinai III into three levels, and the Kinai V style into four levels. More over, within Middle Yayoi pottery from the sites in the Yamato Basin, regional distinctions between north and south were recognized.
From the standpoint of this settlement's size and period of occupation, the Shibu site is thought to have been a central unit in the Asuka River drainage region, but the full picture depends on the results of future excavations.
Excavation #4
Excavation #4 was an investigation of the eastern outer compound of the Daigokuden Imperial Audience Hall (Daigokuden Higashi Gaikaku 大極殿東外郭). Located north of Excavation #2, a total of 18 ares were excavated, and the position of the southern extension of the wall SA865 was confirmed. This wall of embedded-pillar construction formed the outer boundary of the Imperial Residence Compound in the north and the outer boundary of the Imperial Audience Hall Compound in the south; thus it is known that both of these compounds were bound into one unit by this wall. The scale of this unit is known from subsequent excavations: it comprised a rectangular area 305 meters east to west and 380 meters north to south. Substantial amounts of roof tiles have been unearthed from the vicinity of wall SA865, and it appears that the wall was roofed with these tiles.
Along the outside of wall SA865 ran a major north-south canal (SD105) within the Greater Palace Precincts, and over it was built the bridge SX861. 42 wooden tablets along with great amounts of pottery were recovered from the canal fill strata. On the west side of the wall SA865 were discovered several north-south ditches about one meter wide; among these, ditches SD878 and SD908 were possibly associated with former streets of the city's grid plan existing before the palace was built. At the time of their excavation, however, it was not known that the grid extended into the palace precincts.
In the western portion of this excavation area, just east of the eastern outer compound of the Imperial Audience Hall, a stone-lined pond (SG920) was discovered; it is thought to be the northern extension of the pond (SG529) whose south bank was excavated in Excavation #2. From these findings, a large garden pond that stretched 60 meters from north to south in this vicinity can be reconstructed. Of course, the pond is understood to have been for the use of the outer quarters of the Imperial Audience Hall Compound, and within the history of landscape gardening, it is a very important discovery.
Features predating the Fujiwara Palace include the Early Kofun period ditches SD912, SD914 and an embedded-pillar building SB970. The center of settlement from this time is thought to lay in a yet unexcavated area.
Such artifacts as wooden tablets, roof tiles, pottery and clay horse figurines were recovered during this excavation, most of them from the vicinities of ditch SD105 and wall SA865. A fairly large number of tiles were unearthed from the western portion of the excavation area: these consisted mainly of the combination of the rounded eaves-tile type 6273B and the flat eaves-tile type 6641E. Since this area adjoins the Imperial Audience Hall Compound to the east, the combination of roof tiles found there indicates those used within the compound. In contrast, the tiles found around ditch SD105 consist mainly of the rounded eaves-tiles type 6275A and the flat eaves-tile type 6643C - quite different from those recovered from the outer compound of the Imperial Residence and the Imperial Audience Hall Compound. From these data, it is possible to consider the intimate connections and particulars of the construction of the Fujiwara Palace parts, but clarification of those detail is a topic for the future.
East Ikazuchi-no-oka Site
The excavation of the East Ikazuchi-no-oka site in Asukamura was conducted in the paddy fields along the eastern edge of Ikazuchi hill prior to the area being developed for housing. This location adjoins the old Yamato thoroughfare, the Yamada Road, to the south, and within the general vicinity are suspected sites of the Asuka Kiyomihara Palace and the Asuka Okamoto Palace. Although the excavated area was extremely small – only 500 square meters – many features such as five embedded-pillar buildings, one embedded-post wall, many ditches and pits were unearthed. The features can be divided into three board periods of use: phase I in the latter half of the 7th century, phase II in the latter half of the 8th century, and phase III from the terminal 8th century into the 9th century. Only three features from phase I were excavated – SB151, SA161 and SD110, but it is noteworthy that they were related to the Asuka Kiyomihara Palace which occupied that general area. The pottery excavated in quantity from ditch SD110 shows slightly older characteristics than pottery from the Fujiwara Palace and thus forms the typical pottery of the latter 7th century. Within the assemblages of Haji and Sue ware shape-types, several fundamental characteristics are recognized in common with the pottery of the Fujiwara and Nara Palace sites. These characteristics bought t a head several trends running throughout the Asuka period; but it was only in this phase that they became complete, and thus this phase stands as a great epoch in the ceramic field.
The features of phase 11 consisted of many embedded-pillar buildings beginning with the large-scale structure SB101. These were all built according to a plan, with matched directions and pesthole alignments. The surrounding area yielded ridge tiles and eaves-tiles of the kind used a, the Nara Palace, so it is thought that at least a few of the roofs were tiled. This kind of building cluster was not a thing of the common populace, and there is a strong possibility that it formed part of a palatial spread or the mansion of a nobleman. It may have been connected with the Oharida Palace which is mentioned in late Nara period literary sources; the ridge tiles and Nara Palace style eaves-tiles discovered here lend support to this supposition.
SB102, SB150 and SD135 are phase III features. As the comparison between phase II building SB101 and phase II structure SB102 indicates, there are intimate relations between the direction of construction and building placement of the two phases. From this it is thought that the buildings were constructed one after another within a relatively short period of time.
The results of this investigation urges the re-examination of the composition of Asuka during the Nara period; this will have great influence on our understanding of Asuka during the 7th century.
昭和55年3月31日 発行
奈良国立文化財研究所学報 第37冊
飛鳥・藤原宮発掘調査報告Ⅲ
－藤原宮西辺地区・内裏東外郭の調査－
