Choja Yashiki Government Office Ruins

The ruins are thought to be the remains of the Shimogegunya (Shimogegun Government Office)'s Shoso (storehouses for storing rice and other taxes) from the mid-8th century to the early 10th century. Nakatsu City conducted surveys in 1995, 8, and 12, and designated the site as a historic site in 2004.

Afterwards, when the site was re-investigated in 2007 and 20, the remains of a large raised-floor building with foundation stones placed under the pillars were discovered among the remains of a total of 14 buildings. Foundation stone buildings with stones placed under the pillars are of a higher grade than buildings with pillars dug into the ground, and were mainly built in provincial capitals and temples. They were rarely built in county offices, especially in the Kansai region and west, and this is the only example of such a structure that has been fully investigated and discovered in Kyushu.

The Choja Yashiki Government Office Ruins were highly praised for being in good condition, for being able to trace the structure and transition of the storehouse of an ancient county office, and for being a valuable ruin that concretely shows the local governance system of an ancient state, and in 2010 the national Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to designate it as a new national historic site. This is the second nationally designated historic site in Nakatsu City, following the "Former Residence of Fukuzawa Yukichi," and it is the first government office ruins in the prefecture to be nationally designated.

Currently, the ruins have been backfilled, but in the future the plan is to develop the Choja Yashiki ruins into a nationally designated historic park and use it, together with the surrounding ruins, as a place for learning about ancient times.