Japanese "Reburial" Urns

In 2006 a very rare 2,000-year-old "reburial" urn thereafter known as "Izumi" (shown right) was dug up from a field near Tony's house in Hitachiomiya. It seems that in this place at that time people who died were buried, but some time later dug up and their bones put into an urn which was then reburied. Nobody knows the full details and especially the beliefs behind this custom.

The whole area was then dug and a number of artefacts recovered and placed in a small local museum. Below right is Mr Kikuchi, who still works the site where his father dug up the first urn found there in 1980.