Utsunomiya in the Yayoi period

It is about 100B.C. that Yayoi Culture was brought to Utsunomiya. However, the number of the Yayoi period remains in the city is only 30. The reason can be pointed out as follows; it took time until a type of rice suitable for the eastern Japan became available, thus rice growing could not develop well enough, and a length of the Yayoi period was short.

There are the Yamasaki-kita remains among the historical sites of the middle of the Yayoi period. The village of this time seemed to be a small scale settlement with around a few houses.

In the remains of Nozawa, earthenware vessels such as pots and jars having the characteristic of the earthenware in the Yayoi Period were discovered, but they have a pattern of straw-rope, looking just like Jomon earthenware. These earthenware vessels became a beacon of an earthenware vessel of this time in Tochigi, and are called a Nozawa-type earthenware vessel. Among them, there are some of the earthenware vessels having trace of fir tree grains left inside, which indicates that rice growing was conducted.

Many of the remains in the latter half of the Yayoi period are seen in a plain area. Having opened rice fields in the basins of Tagawa River, Sugata-gawa River, and their branches in the southern area of Utsunomiya City, people built many villages on a plateau nearby and came to live. The earthenware vessels found in the remains of Nikenya is regarded as an indicator to classify the earthenware distributed over the west region of Ibaraki Prefecture from Tochigi Prefecture.

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