Shinoridate Explained

Shinoridate
Native Name:志苔館跡
Map Type:Japan Hokkaido#Japan
Map Alt:Location in Japan
Altitude M:17 to 25
Coordinates:41.7658°N 140.8223°W
Location:Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan
Type:Fortified residence
Length:50mto65mm (160feetto213feetm)
Width:70mto80mm (230feetto260feetm)
Area:4100sqm (enclosure)
19960.14sqm (Historic Site)
Ownership:National Historic Site
Public Access:Yes

The site of in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan, is that once occupied by the Shinori Fort or Fortified Residence (as denoted by the tate or date ending). This was the easternmost of the so-called "Twelve Garrisons of Southern Hokkaido", built on the Oshima Peninsula by the Wajin from the fourteenth century.[1] [2] The site was designated a National Historic Site in 1934 and is one of the Japan Castle Foundation's Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles.[3] [4]

Shinori fort

Shinoridate is located some 9km (06miles) to the east of the center of Hakodate, along a stretch of coast with many good natural harbours. A short distance inland from Shinori Fishing Port, with the mouth of the Shinori River to the west, the gently sloping site overlooks the Tsugaru Strait and Shimokita Peninsula, with views also towards Mount Hakodate.[1] [5]

The earthworks rise to a height of 4mto4.5mm (13feetto14.8feetm) on the north side and 1mto1.5mm (03feetto04.9feetm) to the south and are interrupted by an opening on both the east and the west sides. The moat is 5mto10mm (16feetto30feetm) wide on the north and west sides and up to 3.5m (11.5feet) deep and is crossed by two earth bridges, that to the west particularly well-preserved.[1] [5]

First laid out around the end of the fourteenth century, Shinoridate features in the Matsumae Domainal history Shinra no Kiroku, which tells of it being sacked by the Ainu in Chōroku 1 (1457), during Koshamain's War, and again falling to the Ainu in Eishō 9 (1512), after which its occupants, the, became subject to the Matsumae clan.[1] [6]

The Hakodate City Board of Education conducted excavations and surveys of the enclosure and surrounding area between 1983 and 1985, uncovering the remains of a number of buildings, palisades, a well, artefacts made of bronze, iron, stone, and wood, celadons and white porcelain from southern China, as well as domestic Suzu, Echizen, and Seto ware.[1] [5] [7]

Three different intercolumnar measurements were used in the construction of the buildings, the style of the well is that found in Heian-kyō in the late Kamakura period, while many of the ceramics are typical of the early fifteenth century.[5]

Accordingly, three main phases have been identified: the end of the fourteenth or early-fifteenth century; mid-fifteenth century; and sixteenth century or later. With the archaeological evidence pushing back the origins of the fort at least half a century before Koshamain, its construction can no longer be understood as an immediate response to the contingencies of 1457, and other explanations are required.[5]

Shinori hoard

In July 1968, during widening work on the prefectural road (now National Route 278) that runs past the fort, a Nanbokuchō-period (C14) coin hoard was unearthed some 40m (130feet) inland from the mouth of the Shinori River, at a location 3m (10feet) above sea level. This is the largest hoard found to date in Japan in terms of the number of coins it contains.[5]

The three large vessels excavated weighed, together with their contents, 1.6tonne. Ninety-three different types of coin have been identified: a handful in total of early Japanese coinage of the Asuka, Nara and early Heian periods, late tenth-century Vietnamese coinage of the Đinh and Early Lê dynasties, and late eleventh-century Goryeo coinage from Korea; the bulk comprising Chinese coinage, primarily of the Song dynasty, issues ranging in date from 4 Zhu Ban Liang minted in the fifth year of Emperor Wen of Han (175 BC) to Hongwu Tongbao from the first year of the Hongwu Emperor, founder of the Ming dynasty (1368).[5] The 374,435 coins from this hoard now at the Hakodate City Museum have been designated an Important Cultural Property.[8]

A 1999 study of 275 Japanese hoards, totalling 3,530,000 coins, found that the Chinese copper coins used in Japan in the Middle Ages were brought over in the largest number in the thirteenth century, were used primarily in commerce or for paying soldiers, and were buried largely for reasons of security, although there were also instances of ritual or votive deposits.[9] [10] The dating of the Shinori hoard precludes its burial as a response to Koshamain's War; instead it may relate to trade, the local Shinori or Kaga kombu featuring alongside Ezo salmon in the Nanboku-chō period text . Produce from the area would have been traded along the Hokuriku coast to reach the markets of Kyōto and Ōsaka.[5]

! scope="col"
TypeDate/First mintedQuantityOrigin
1 (Buntei 5) 7
2 (Gentei 2) 39
3 14 (Tenpō 1) 6
4 621 30,816
5 758 (Kengen 1) 1,422
6 708 1
7 760 1
8 765 4
9 796 2
10 818 4
11 835 1
12 870 1
13 907 1
14 915 8
15 917 17
16 918 17
17 919 79
18 925 19
19 944 2
20 948 15
21 955 87
22 959 393
23 960 1,288
24 970 3
25 976 3,512
26 984 19
27 990 3,258
28 995 5,851
29 998 6,400
30 1004 8,139
31 1008 9,322
32 1008 5,384
33 1017 7,943
34 1023 17,924
35 1032 1,813
36 1034 5,384
37 1039 47,031
38 1045 1
39 1055 1
40 1054 4,452
41 1054 1,416
42 1056 4,478
43 1056 8,729
44 1064 7,002
45 1064 1,154
46 1065 2
47 1068 34,897
48 1071 12
49 1075 2
50 1078 43,009
51 1086 33,904
52 1094 14,917
53 1094 2
54 1097 7
55 1097 2
56 1097 18
57 1097 1
58 1097 1
59 1097 2
60 1098 5,721
61 1101 14,333
62 1102 3
63 1102 2
64 1107 4,230
65 1111 15,206
66 1119 1
67 1119 1,412
68 1127 88
69 1131 149
70 1131 16
71 1158 479
72 1158 3
73 1163 1
74 1165 2
75 1174 2,366
76 1178 22
77 1190 774
78 1195 938
79 1201 549
80 1205 356
81 1208 1,735
82 1225 84
83 1228 614
84 1234 49
85 1237 161
86 1241 530
87 1253 285
88 1259 20
89 1260 475
90 1265 583
91 1310 110
92 1341 3
93 1368 12
12,901
Total 374,435

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2018032900043/ . ja:史跡志苔館跡 . Shinoridate Site - Historic Site . Japanese . . 9 September 2019.
  2. Web site: http://wwwtb.mlit.go.jp/hokkaido/universaltourisum/spot/hakodate_yunokawa/37.html . ja:史跡志苔館跡 . Historic Site: Shinoridate . Japanese . MLIT Hokkaido District Transport Bureau . 9 September 2019.
  3. Web site: https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/401/16 . ja:志苔館跡 . Site of Shinoridate . Japanese . . 9 September 2019.
  4. Web site: http://jokaku.jp/japan-top-100-castles/best-100-castles-of-japan-2nd-selection/ . ja:続日本100名城 . Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles . Japanese . Japan Castle Foundation . 9 September 2019 . 29 November 2017 .
  5. . ja:再考志海苔古銭と志苔館 . Rethinking the Shinori Hoard and Shinori Fortified Residence . Japanese . Research Bulletin of the Hakodate City Museum . . http://hakohaku.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/研究紀要NO14200dpi-1.pdf. 14 . 31 March 2004 . 9–20.
  6. 「長禄元年五月十四日夷狄蜂起来而、攻撃志濃里之舘主小林太郎左衛門尉良景…殺狄之酋長胡奢魔允」("On the fourteenth day of the fifth month of the first year of the Chōroku era (1457), a barbarian uprising occurred, and in an attack on Shinori Fort, its lord Kobayashi Tarō Saemon-no-jō Yoshikage...was killed, the barbarian tribal leader being Koshamain") 「永正九年四月十六日宇須岸志濃利與倉前三舘所攻落夷賊…小林太郎左衛門尉良景之子彌太郎良定」("On the sixteenth day of the fourth month of the ninth year of the Eishō era (1512), the three forts of Usukeshi, Shinori, and Yokuramae fell in an attack by barbarian bandits and...Kobayashi Tarō Saemon-no-jō Yoshikage's son Yatarō Yoshisada was killed")
  7. Web site: https://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/en/36246 . ja:史跡志苔館跡 . Historic Site: Shinoridate . Japanese . . 9 September 2019.
  8. Web site: https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/201/10603 . ja:北海道志海苔中世遺構出土銭 . Coins excavated from the medieval remains of Shinori, Hokkaidō . Japanese . . 9 September 2019.
  9. Book: ja:出土銭貨の研究 . The dynamics of money circulation in 14th to 18th Century Japan . . 1999 . Tokyo Daigaku Shuppan Kai . 978-4130260688.
  10. . Japanese medieval trading towns: Sakai and Tosaminato . Japanese Journal of Archaeology . . 3 . 2016 . 89–116.