HISTORICAL STUDY ON GROUND COMPACTION TECHNIQUE AND FOLKLORE OF STONE RAMMER

Abstract

  In Shiga Prefecture, there are many traces of the ancient naturalized people from East Asia and the ancient rammed ground “Hanchiku”, which might be originally transferred from China. As the ground compaction technique is essential in “Hanchiku”, the ground compaction tools were investigated in the Chinese references.
  People on a district in Shiga Prefecture have preserved two stone rammers for ground compaction, which are called “Gurinsan”. There are some levees of irrigation pond compacted by “Gurinsan” in this district. The effect on ground compaction by “Gurinsan” and the production rate of labor intensive earth works were examined based on the field test data. In order to examine the old tradition of “Gurinsan”, told by an well-informed old man, the historical occurrences were checked through literatures.
  As the results, it was found that the effect on ground compaction by “Gurinsan” was not inferior to that by the modern equipment and there was a similar compaction tool as “Gurinsan” in China which was called “Ga”. It was also estimated that the Japanese custom “Inoko-tsuki” accompanied with the action of rammed earth was related to “Gurinsan”, together with its origin of word.