National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　The Moheji (ruins) where these specimens were collected is currently registered as the Mobetsu Ruins by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The Mobetsu Ruins cover a long period from the Early Jomon period to the Final Jomon period and the Zoku Jomon period. These specimens were collected continuously in the 1930s and other relics excavated at the same time are currently owned by the National Museum of Japanese History.
　The specimens include fragments of earthenware with representations of human faces and animals of the late phase of the Late Jomon period. These designs are often found on spout bottle-type earthenware, incense burners and bowl-shaped earthenware. These specimens are rare not only because they are examples of earthenware with a human face or animal represented at the tip of the handle, which is characteristic of the earthenware in Oshima Peninsula, Hokkaido, but also because more than one earthenware vessel were found at one site.