The barrier served as a border fortress against excursions of the Emishi to the south, and to regulate and control traffic from the central provinces of Japan to the north.

By the early to mid-Heian period, Yamato forces gradually conquered the Emishi, and the barrier fell into ruin as it had become redundant.

However, memory of the barrier was preserved as an utamakura in Japanese poetry, metaphorically evoking images of distance, transition and loneliness.

The site was lost until the mid-Edo period, when it was rediscovered by Matsudaira Sadanobu, daimyō of Shirakawa Domain based on a study of ancient texts in the year 1800.

The site was excavated by archaeologists from 1956 to 1963, and the remains of a dry moat, a double wooden palisade and earthen ramparts were uncovered,[1] along with the foundations of pit dwellings and blacksmith workshops.