“There’s something over there...”

This place has been known as the Isedōtai site for a long time. The name roughly translates to “local shrine (Isedō) and dense mountains (tai).” While the name Isedōtai is from the Edo period, even before that there was a spiritual sense to the area, a feeling of something unseen.

The Isedōtai site was discovered in 1995 during the construction of a highway to nearby Odate - Noshiro Airport. When the stone circle site was uncovered, people exclaimed, “I always thought something was out there, but I had no idea it was stone circles!”

These days, the locals call Isedōtai site “Oraho’s site”, meaning “our site”. Akita Prefecture detoured the road to the airport in response to locals calling for the preservation of the stone circles, evidenced by this “pier” that remains. It was none other than the locals who, even after the construction was nearing completion, decided to stop it to leave the historic sites in place.