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概要
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The National Park for Nature Study is located on the Shirokane upland, one of the Pleistocene uplands formed by marine erosion (200,000 to 500,000 years ago). In the prehistoric days the upland was supposedly covered with dense forest of evergreen broadleaf trees. The time when man began to inhabit this upland is not clear, but it was probably around 2,500 B. C. because Late Jomon earthenware have been found in the northwestern part of the Park area. Exact dating is impossible due to the scarcity of relics of the succeeding Yayoi and Kofun periods. In the Nara period, naturalized people from the Chinese Continent and korea Peninsula settled down there to clear and plow the land. The existing Mita district stretching in the northwest and north of the Park may be a remnant of Mita-go mentioned in the Wamyo-sho, a Heian period gazetteer. In the Kamakura period, the neighboring area of the upland must have been ruled by powerful clans such as Shibuya, Meguro and Edo, but the sites of their residence are not clear except that of the Edo family. Castanopsis cuspidata var. Sieboldii rising above the earthwork that remains in the Park is estimated to be 500 years old, which suggests that the earthwork was constructed not later than the Middle Muromachi period. The first mention of the name Shirokane is found in an old document which recorded the tenures of subordinates of the Hojo clan of Odawara; according to the document, Ota Shinrokuro, great-grandson of Ota Dokan, was enfeoffed with the land of Shirokane in 1559. The explanatory notes on the Tokugawa shogunate jurisdiction, compiled in the latter part of the Edo period, said; "Village headman Jinemon had an ancestor named Yagishita Kazusanosuke who had been a petty official of the Imperial Court of the Southern Dynasty and during the Oei period (1394-1428) he had domiciled himself at Shirokane, winning reputation as Shirokane Choja (millionaire)." With the lack of supporting evidence, however, this legendary episode is open to doubt. In the Edo period the Shirokane area was under the supervision of the Zojoji Temple until 1627 when Matsudaira family occupied it for their suburban residence through successive generations. After the Meiji Restoration, the area was brought under government ownership in 1871,and an explosive warehouse of the Department of Military Affairs was set up there. Since the establishment of the Department of Navy later, the warehouse served as a naval warehouse of explosives. In 1893,the control of the warehouse was transferred from the Department of Navy to the Department of Army. Then in 1917 the Shirokane area was turned over to the Department of the Imperial Household, and became an Imperial estate administered by the Imperial Forestry Bureau. In 1947 the Shirokane area passed into the state possession as part of Imperial property paid in kind, and was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance. With the transfer of its jurisdiction to the Ministry of Education in 1949,this one-time Imperial estate was designated by the state as a natural monument and historic site, to be opened to the public under the name of the National Park for Nature Study. In 1964,the Park became affiliated with the National Science Museum.