Approximately 1,300 years ago, there was a village here that was part of the ancient Okhotsk culture that developed along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in Hokkaido. The Moyoro Shell Mound Museum, built on the ruins of the Moyoro people, a national historic site where many still rest, exhibits and introduces the lives of the northern people, the Moyoro people, through excavated dwellings, graves, and shell mounds.
Inside the museum, the Okhotsk culture revealed through excavations of the ruins is displayed in detail. Exhibits such as restored dwelling remains, tombs preserved and displayed in their actual excavated state, and cross-sections of shell middens offer a glimpse into their unique culture, including their animal worship of bears as gods and the burial method of covering the heads of the dead with earthenware. In addition, artifacts such as harpoons and other bone and horn products give insight into the prosperous lifestyle that centered on hunting marine mammals.
At the ruins adjacent to the facility, you can walk along the walking paths to see the remains of actual pit dwellings and restored graves, and get a feel for what the village was like in the past.
Why not travel back in time to ancient Abashiri and experience the lives of the Moyoro people?