The Uenohara archeological site is Japan’s oldest Jomon period site, and one of its largest. (The Jomon period was a time span in Japan’s prehistoric past dating from roughly 14,000 to 300 BCE.) The site is home to Uenohara Jomon no Mori Park, an archeological park where Takachiho’s Biocera plaster material has been used on about 1,500 m2 of interior wall surface in the park’s Pavilion and other buildings.
The Uenohara site has artifacts from multiple time periods. It contains the remains of communities of pit-style dwellings inhabited by Jomon-period people about 9,500 years ago, and has produced a wide variety of artifacts such as earthenware vessels and clay figurines. Uenohara Jomon no Mori Park is a facility complex that was created to preserve and make use of the site’s archeological and cultural legacy. It was designed to let visitors see what life was like in the ancient past by giving them the chance to experience, learn about and better understand the world of the Jomon period.

Situated on a 36 hectare expanse, the park has variety of facilities with archeological exhibits for visitors to observe and experience. Biocera has been used on a total wall area of about 1,500 m2 in facilities such as the park’s Pavilion and Archeological Center. It is particularly impressive in the Pavilion’s vaulted area. The plasterwork has been given a unique finish specially designed for the park.

Enlarged view of wall surface
The finish required several steps. First, tens of thousands of small clay balls were kiln-fired before starting the plasterwork. Biocera plaster material was then applied to the walls. The walls were combed, then the uncoated kiln-fired balls were quickly readied and thrown into the fresh plaster. This gradual manual process turned the walls into a representation of geological strata, as some balls became stuck in the plaster and others dropped off and left indentations.