The two stone circles on the Ōyu Stone Circles site are almost identical, which leads us to believe that they were intentionally made that way. Most of the stones were made from pieces of the same green stone, which are said to have been brought up from the upper reaches of the river that flows near the site, but they’re too big to have been carried by one person. In that case, why did the Jomon people go out of their way to choose this green rock?

The Jomon people used these jade rocks for making accessories. One might assume that the Jomon people superimposed the blessings of the forest and the symbol of life onto these green stones. If so, what meaning does it portray by using these same stones for the stone circles? Is it a sign of the desire for rebirth? What do you think about the use of these green stones and what it means?

By the way, there is a “sundial-like collection of stones” within the Ōyu Stone Circles. See if you can spot it using the following photo. Once you spot the stone standing upright on the ground, you’ll then see four round stones surrounding it. These indicate the four directions: north, south, east, and west. We can’t be sure if it’s a sundial or not, but you can figure out the four seasons of the year just by using the stones and the shadow of the sun. So what does it mean?