AbstractThe significance of timing and formation of mélange in accretionary prisms, particularly concerning basaltic and related rocks and pelagic sediments, is exemplified in the Sawadani area of the Jurassic Chichibu accretionary complex in Shikoku, southwest Japan. Major and trace element geochemistry of the basaltic and related rocks indicates that all are of a hot‐spot origin which produced a seamount. Most of the rocks have a trend of differentiation from an alkalic parental magma. The time relationship between the blocks and matrices of the mélange deduced from radiolarian fossil evidence and macro‐ to microscopic characteristics of contacts between different lithologies indicates two stages of mixing of materials in the seafloor. The first mixing occurred on the flank of the seamount in the pelagic environments in the Late Permian, and the second occurred on the trench floor or in the accretionary prism after the Early Jurassic. These two stages show respectively the geological phenomena of a seamount within the Izanagi‐Kula plate and its incorporation into the Asian continental