{"id":"EA-KAWAJIRI-001","label":"Kawajiri broken axes reground and pierced","people_or_site":"Okajima Kawajiri site (Esashi, Okhotsk)","country_current":"Japan","historic_region":"Okajima, Esashi Town (Okhotsk Subprefecture), Hokkaido; Kawajiri site, now Horobetsu Right-Bank Terrace site","macroregion":"East Asia / Japan","local_name":"有孔石斧","source_term":"yūkō sekifu (perforated stone axe)","source_language":"Japanese","object_description":"Four perforated and reworked polished-stone axe objects from one trench. The largest, no. 2, is a strip-shaped (短冊状) slat, (12.3) × (5.0) × (2.7) cm and 228.4 g, biconically drilled with clear rotary striations, a saw-cut (擦切) groove, warped axis and unformed base — possibly unfinished. Nos. 3–5 are basal fragments of 55.0, 68.4 and 110.2 g; nos. 3–4 carry grinding on their fracture faces — broken axes deliberately reworked after breakage. Red argillaceous chert per the 1964 report, though Tatsuta notes the pieces look serpentinite-like and may be rodingite or tremolite rock. Same trench: Higashi-Kushiro I–IV pottery, ten stone-blade arrowheads, 120 net sinkers. Date: Initial Jomon, middle phase; serpentinite-axe phases III–IV, roughly 8,100–6,000 years ago (an uncalibrated class/site horizon).","function_summary":"Published as perforated stone axes: broken polished axes deliberately reground and pierced for suspension, read as portable tools or stone stock carried on a cord — the site report imagined them slung from the waist. Whether the thinner pieces also sounded on that cord is the open question.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"esashi_2020_yukosekifu","source_type":"museum_bulletin","source_url":"https://www.esashi.jp/files/00000200/00000209/content_20200416_112444.pdf","page_or_plate":"図1 nos. 2–5 (p. 29); 写真2 (p. 32); Table 1 rows 2–5 (p. 27)","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Town-level: Esashi town centre, Okhotsk Subprefecture (the Okhotsk-coast Esashi, not Hiyama); the Okajima locality near the Horobetsu River is not precisely located in the paper.","jade_complex_role":"watch","blurb":"From one trench at the Okajima Kawajiri site on Hokkaido's Okhotsk coast came four perforated stone blades of the Initial Jomon. The largest is a 12.3-centimetre strip of dark stone with a red heart, biconically drilled near one end, the drill's rotary striations still legible in the hole — and at 228 grams, its base never even shaped, it would be a poor thing to whirl. But two of its companions were broken axes deliberately ground smooth again before being pierced, part of a northern class now numbering about forty, which archaeologists read as ornaments or worn-out tools re-hung at the waist. The open question belongs to the thinner survivors: when a broken polished axe became a light blade on a cord, did it ever become an instrument?","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"有孔石斧 (yūkō sekifu): 'perforated stone axe' — northern Japan's report-language for end-pierced re-worked axe blades.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":true,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"assemblage","date_display":"c. 6100–4000 BC","date_qualification":"Uncalibrated horizon from the pottery found with them; the objects are not directly dated.","date_basis":"site_horizon","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"esashi_2020_yukosekifu, 図1 nos. 2–5 (p. 29); 写真2 (p. 32); Table 1 rows 2–5 (p. 27)","sources":[{"citation":"Tatsuta Osamu (立田理), 「有孔石斧について（枝幸町岡島川尻遺跡（現・ホロベツ右岸段丘遺跡）出土の有孔石斧からの考察）」, Esashi Kenkyu 枝幸研究 (Bulletin of the Okhotsk Museum Esashi) 11 (2020): 25-32, Table 1, nos. 2-5, fig. 1 nos. 2-5 and photo 2; Okhotsk Museum Esashi, Niioka collection","url":"https://www.esashi.jp/files/00000200/00000209/content_20200416_112444.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260519072442/https://www.esashi.jp/files/00000200/00000209/content_20200416_112444.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Tatsuta Osamu (立田理), 「有孔石斧について（枝幸町岡島川尻遺跡（現・ホロベツ右岸段丘遺跡）出土の有孔石斧からの考察）」, Esashi Kenkyu 枝幸研究 (Bulletin of the Okhotsk Museum Esashi) 11 (2020): 25-32, Table 1, nos. 2-5, fig. 1 nos. 2-5 and photo 2; Okhotsk Museum Esashi, Niioka collection","source_display":"Tatsuta Osamu (立田理), 「有孔石斧について（枝幸町岡島川尻遺跡（現・ホロベツ右岸段丘遺跡）出土の有孔石斧からの考察）」, Esashi Kenkyu 枝幸研究 (Bulletin of the Okhotsk Museum Esashi) 11 (2020): 25-32, Table 1, nos. 2-5, fig. 1 nos. 2-5 and photo 2; Okhotsk Museum Esashi, Niioka collection","date_citation_display":"図1 nos. 2–5 (p. 29); 写真2 (p. 32); Table 1 rows 2–5 (p. 27)","object_display":"Four perforated and reworked polished-stone axe objects from one trench. The largest, no. 2, is a strip-shaped (短冊状) slat, (12.3) × (5.0) × (2.7) cm and 228.4 g, biconically drilled with clear rotary striations, a saw-cut (擦切) groove, warped axis and unformed base — possibly unfinished. Nos. 3–5 are basal fragments of 55.0, 68.4 and 110.2 g; nos. 3–4 carry grinding on their fracture faces — broken axes deliberately reworked after breakage. Red argillaceous chert per the 1964 report, though Tatsuta notes the pieces look serpentinite-like and may be rodingite or tremolite rock. Same trench: Higashi-Kushiro I–IV pottery, ten stone-blade arrowheads, 120 net sinkers. Date: Initial Jomon, middle phase; serpentinite-axe phases III–IV, roughly 8,100–6,000 years ago (an uncalibrated class/site horizon).","function_display":"Published as perforated stone axes: broken polished axes deliberately reground and pierced for suspension, read as portable tools or stone stock carried on a cord — the site report imagined them slung from the waist. Whether the thinner pieces also sounded on that cord is the open question.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"okajima kawajiri","display_name":"Kawajiri broken axes reground and pierced","image":{"full":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_photo2.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_photo2_thumb.jpg","credit":"Tatsuta 2020, 'On perforated stone axes', Esashi Kenkyu 11 — Okhotsk Museum Esashi","license":"© Esashi Town Board of Education; noncommercial reuse permitted by the journal's guide — rehosted for research","source_page":"https://www.esashi.jp/files/00000200/00000209/content_20200416_112444.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The four Kawajiri pieces: the largest and heaviest below, three broken fragments above it, two of them reground after breaking.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_fig1.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_fig1_thumb.jpg","alt":"Archaeological drawing of five pierced stone axes: no. 1 is an unknown-findspot comparison piece and nos. 2–5 are the Kawajiri finds, shown in multiple views and cross-sections.","credit":"Tatsuta 2020, 'On perforated stone axes', Esashi Kenkyu 11 — Okhotsk Museum Esashi","license":"© Esashi Town Board of Education; noncommercial reuse permitted by the journal's guide — rehosted for research","source_page":"https://www.esashi.jp/files/00000200/00000209/content_20200416_112444.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"No. 1, a comparison piece of unknown findspot from the old Utanobori town collection; nos. 2–5, the four Kawajiri objects."},{"full":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_fig2.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_fig2_thumb.jpg","credit":"Tatsuta 2020, 'On perforated stone axes', Esashi Kenkyu 11 — Okhotsk Museum Esashi","license":"© Esashi Town Board of Education; noncommercial reuse permitted by the journal's guide — rehosted for research","source_page":"https://www.esashi.jp/files/00000200/00000209/content_20200416_112444.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Comparison pieces nos. 6–16 from other sites, all in Hokkaido except no. 13, from Aomori."},{"full":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_fig3.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EA-KAWAJIRI-001_tatsuta2020_fig3_thumb.jpg","alt":"A plate of numbered pierced stone axes, nos. 17–35, shown in face and side views; a five-centimetre scale runs along the bottom.","credit":"Tatsuta 2020, 'On perforated stone axes', Esashi Kenkyu 11 — Okhotsk Museum Esashi","license":"© Esashi Town Board of Education; noncommercial reuse permitted by the journal's guide — rehosted for research","source_page":"https://www.esashi.jp/files/00000200/00000209/content_20200416_112444.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Comparison pieces nos. 17–35, smallest last — a class of about forty across the north."}]},"slug":"ea-kawajiri-001-okajima-kawajiri-site-esashi-okhotsk"}