Chikuzen Phenotype - Face Features & Origin

Average Face

What you see below is a statistical construction of the Chikuzen reference population. Faces recorded from the Chikuzen sample were overlaid and merged; the result keeps the features most members shared and discards personal variation. It reads like a Chikuzen portrait, but it works like a histogram.

Composite source: Human Phenotypes — Chikuzen

Geographic Distribution

Geographically, Chikuzen anchors to 33.5° N, 130.6° E (East Asia). That is the point where historical anthropologists judged Chikuzen most concentrated, not a hard edge; modern migration and intermarriage have long since softened whatever boundaries once existed.

Physical Characteristics

Yellowish light brown skin with coarse straight, sometimes wavy hair.

• Medium height, mildly macroskelic, ectomorph to endomorph, sometimes mesomorph
• Mesocephalic, hypsicranic
• Mesorrhine, sometimes depressed nose
• The face is significantly wider and shorter than in the Choshiu type, faces are less high and often shallow, the mouth is larger and features are more robust
• The epicanthic fold is common

Historical Background

Special Japanese type, influenced by ancient regional elements. Named after the old Chikuzen province that is today part of Fukuoka Prefecture. Probably represents a Mongolised variant of the Ainuid robust Tsukumo type of the Neolithic. Most common in the northern half of Kyushu Island. Was often found among Samurai. Occasionally found across all Japanese islands.

Research History & Naming

Typological names were coined, contested, and renamed repeatedly across the 20th century, and Chikuzen is no exception. The extract below records the researchers who defined Chikuzen, the alternative labels it accumulated, and where the modern consensus settled.

Defined and named by Matsumura (c.p. Matsumoto, 1921 , 1925 ). A more detailed analysis on the type was made by Hulse (1943) . Eickstedt (1944) describes it in Samurai, Levin (1963) analyses its position within the different classifications.

Comparison With Nearby Phenotypes

Geography, not alphabet, ordered this table: the five phenotype centers closest to Chikuzen's, with the traits most likely to be mistaken for it (Choshiu leads at 126 km). In gameplay, these five account for most of the wrong-but-nearby pins against Chikuzen.

Chikuzen in the Game

In gameplay terms, Chikuzen rewards region-level recall: the score is computed from the distance between your pin and 33.5° N, 130.6° E. Players often confuse Chikuzen with Choshiu (126 km out) in the comparison table above — those confusions are exactly what the distance penalty is designed to expose.

Chikuzen Phenotype FAQ

Where does the Chikuzen phenotype come from?

Historical sources center the Chikuzen phenotype on 33.5° N, 130.6° E (East Asia). Treat that as a rough anchor: the type appeared across a wider surrounding area — its nearest documented neighbors, Choshiu and Aoshima, sit 126 and 177 km from the reference point — and its present-day distribution no longer matches the historical map.

What does the Chikuzen phenotype look like?

The composite emphasizes recurring traits: yellowish light brown skin with coarse straight, sometimes wavy hair. The full trait list for Chikuzen appears in the physical characteristics section above.

Is the Chikuzen phenotype a race or a nationality?

No. A phenotype is a recurring bundle of visible traits documented by historical anthropologists across a population — for Chikuzen, patterns such as yellowish light brown skin with coarse straight, sometimes wavy hair. The Chikuzen entry is not a genetic ancestry, not a nationality, and not a statement about any individual person. Two people from the same country can match completely different phenotypes — one resembling Chikuzen, another closer to Choshiu — and one phenotype can span many modern borders.

How does Chikuzen appear in the game?

When the Chikuzen face comes up in Classic Daily or Challenge Mode, you pin the world map where you believe the type is historically most common, and the score decays with your distance to 33.5° N, 130.6° E. Fair warning: the nearest other entry in our dataset, Choshiu, sits just 126 km away, so this face rewards precise placement — the right country alone is not always enough.

References & Literature

Every claim on this page traces back to the sources below — the researchers who defined, measured, and argued over the Chikuzen type. The originals behind the Chikuzen entry are worth consulting directly.

• Matsumoto, H. 1921. Notes on the stone age people of Japan. American Anthropologist 23, 1.
• Matsumoto, H. 1925. Racially, Who Are the Japanese People? In: The World Tomorrow. June 1925.
• Hulse, F. S. 1943. Physical types among the Japanese. In: Coon, C. S. and J. M. Andrews. Studies in the Anthropology of OCeania and Asia. Papers of the Peabody Museum 20, 122-133.
• Eickstedt, E. von. 1944. Rassendynamik von Ostasien. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin.
• Levin, M. G. 1963. Ethnic origins of the people of Northeastern Asia. Arctic Inst. North America, Anthropology of the North. Translations from Russian sources 3. Toronto.

Related Phenotypes

Other human phenotypes whose documented centers lie in the same part of the map as Chikuzen.

• Choshiu

  East Asia · 126 km away

  Gracilised variant of the Manchu-Korean type, named after the old Japanese Choshu Domain. Once common in Chinese-Korean aristocracy. Today m...

• Aoshima

  East Asia · 177 km away

  Ainuid proper, the most ancient type of Japan. Resembles Paleolithic Japanese populations like the Jomon people. Probably a relict of an old...

• Satsuma

  East Asia · 215 km away

  South Mongolid type of Japan and Korea, somewhat influenced by Tungid. Named after the Satsuma region of Kagoshima. Today the most populous ...

• Ishikawa

  East Asia · 688 km away

  Special Japanese type, influenced by ancient regional elements. Named after the Ishikawa region of Honshu. Probably represents admixed varia...

• Yakonin

  East Asia · 860 km away

  East Asian type that has been associated with the ancient Japanese government and nobility circles. The name derives from yakunin (Jap.: bur...

Further Reading

Background articles from the blog that explain where the Chikuzen type fits, how these composites are built, and what a face can and cannot tell you.

• Average Face of Japan: What the Composite Contains

  A national composite is a mean, not a portrait. Reading the Japan entry against the six Japanese patterns in the catalogue shows how...

• Ethnicity Quiz: Five Question Types Behind the Label

  A face quiz, a census form, a reaction-time experiment, a surname model and an ancestry report all answer to the same phrase.