The Hakata Ruins are spread across the northwestern part of what is now Hakata Station. The area used to be an ancient sandhill which protruded towards the Hakata Bay. Research excavations on the lives that people led on that sandy hill started in 1977, and more than 200 research activities have been made ever since.
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| View of the Hakata Ruins Area (2015) |
The most noteworthy items found in the Hakata Ruins are those that relate to the life of the medieval port town. After the Heian period, Hakata became a base of foreign trade. There were many Chinese trade merchants called “Koshu” inhabiting the area and they brought plenty of items from overseas. Not only foreign products but also, earthenware from all over Japan were also found in the ruins. This explains why Hakata was a very significant place in medieval Japan.
A lot of foreign porcelain, especially from China, Korea, and South East Asia were found in the ruins. The number of artifacts found in the Hakata Ruins is the largest in Japan. In 2017, 2138 artifacts from the Hakata Ruins were designated as important cultural assets of Japan. One thousand four hundred ninety-six of them were imported ceramics.
Why were such a large number of ceramics imported to Hakata? To find out, let’s take a look at actual artifacts.
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| White ceramic bowl and plate |
The ceramic bowl above was made in China at the end of the Heian period. This was about the time when Hakata started to become a base of foreign trade.
Ceramicware is durable and the green color is achieved by baking crushed feldspar and other materials at very high temperatures. The texture of the surface becomes glasslike when glazed. This white ceramic bowl was coated with a transparent glaze.
During the Heian period, the people of Japan hadn't yet developed their technique for ceramic ware, and so we can only imagine their admiration for beautiful glittering white ceramics from foreign lands.
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| Celadon bowl and dish |
The next item is a celadon bowl, which was created at the end of the Heian period. The inside the bowl or dish was inscribed with elegant patterns using a spatula.
This type of celadon ware was often buried in a tomb together with the dead. These wares must have been so attractive to people that they wanted to bring it with them to the afterlife. About the same period, Taira no Kiyomori started the Japan Song trade. He must have been an admirer of celadon ware himself.
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| Celadon ware with a jumping fish motif |
This is a dish with a fish motif. It looks like the fish is jumping out of the water, doesn't it? The motif looks so vibrant, and the fish seems to be smiling.
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| Celadon ware with a swimming fish motif |
On the other hand, this fish seems to be swimming lazily. He is staring at us with empty eyes. His languorous appearance is hard to describe in words. I personally feel more empathy for this fish than the one jumping.
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| Dark glazed Tenmoku Tea bowl |
Lastly, I’d like to present a dark brown, glazed bowl called tenmoku. When the tea culture of the powdered green tea was introduced in the Song Dynasty, tenmoku ware started to be highly esteemed because the dark color makes the frothy white foam of the tea more distinct. Tenmoku ware was also found in the ruins in Hakata, which meant that people who lived in this area enjoyed tea culture, too. It was at the beginning of the thirteenth century when Eisai, a Buddhist monk, first introduced tea culture to Japan in his “A Note on Drinking Green Tea for Good Health”.
In Hakata, however, tenmoku bowls were also found in the archaeological layer at the beginning of the first 12th century. Thus, making Hakata a frontier of culture in Japan.
Today, I presented ceramic ware found in the Hakata ruins. In ancient times, imported goods from China used to be called “Karamono” and were highly prized. These ceramics from medieval times have kept the beauty and glamor of the past and have never failed to fascinate us.
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