KAGOSHIMA -- The remains of toilets believed to have been used some 700 years ago, between the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and the Muromachi period (1336-1573), have been found at the Suwanomae ruins in the southwestern Japan city of Akune, Kagoshima Prefecture.

Analysis of the material in the earthen pits confirmed the presence of vegetables and parasitic eggs. This is apparently the first time in the southern Kyushu region comprising Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Kumamoto prefectures that scientific analysis has identified the remains of ancient toilets.

Kagoshima Prefecture's cultural promotion foundation conducted an excavation survey at the 6,646-square-meter ruins, located on a pyroclastic plateau at an altitude of 34 meters, in fiscal 2023 in conjunction with the construction of the Minami-Kyushu Expressway, and found six circular earthen pits, approximately 1.5 to 1.6 meters in diameter and roughly 1.3 meters deep each, with plant seeds inside.

When the soil from four of the six pits was examined, two of them were found to contain eggs of roundworms and whipworms, pollen of cruciferous vegetables such as daikon radish and the genus Fagopyrum, which includes buckwheat, as well as rice, sesame, red bayberry seeds and seashells.

The roundworms and whipworms are believed to have infected people who ate raw vegetables with the parasites' eggs attached. Since the eggs and pollen from edible plants were detected in high concentrations, researchers determined that the pits were the remains of toilets where fecal matter was deposited. The size of the holes, each roughly 1.5 meters in diameter, suggests that people at the time used the toilets while straddling boards over them.

Archaeology professor Hiroki Obata of Kumamoto University said, "The findings are crucial in understanding the state of toilets, eating habits and the sanitary environment during the Kamakura to Muromachi periods."

Excavations at the site have also revealed the remains of four post-in-ground structures, one pit house and a group of furnace sites.

(Japanese original by Takashi Umeyama, Kagoshima Bureau)