is a keyhole-shaped ''

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century CE.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞典』� ...

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

located in the Uchino district of Hamakita-ku,

Hamamatsu is a city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. the city had an estimated population of 791,707 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, and a population density of . The total area of the site was . Overview ...

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is protected by the prefectural government as a national historic site. Located on the eastern edge of the Mikatahara plains and near the

Tenryū River The is a river in central Honshū, Japan. With a length of , it is Japan's ninth longest river. Its source is Lake Suwa in the Kiso Mountains near Okaya, Nagano, Okaya in Nagano Prefecture. It then flows through Aichi Prefecture and western Shi ...

, the Akamonue Kofun is only one of several ''kofun'' in the same district. It takes its name from the red gate of a nearby Buddhist temple, which was built at a much later date. The name or rank of the person buried in the tomb, which dates from the latter half of the 4th century is unknown. The ''kofun'' was excavated in the summer of 1961 by a team of students from the Shizuoka Prefectural Hamana High School under the direction of the Hamamatsu City Cultural Affairs Department. The team soon found evidence that the ''kofun'' had been plundered at some unknown time in the past, and that a portion had been used as an

air raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The total length of the ''kofun'' is 56.3 meters. The round portion has a circumference of 36.2 meters and a height of 4.9 meters. The rectangular portion had a length of 14.7 meters and height of 1.15 meters. Within the burial chamber, a 5.58 meter long ''

hinoki ''Chamaecyparis obtusa'' (Japanese cypress, hinoki cypress or hinoki; ja, 檜 or , ) is a species of cypress native to central Japan in East Asia, and widely cultivated in the temperate northern hemisphere for its high-quality timber and orname ...

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

containing numerous funerary objects was discovered. Artifacts included bits of armor and weapons, and most notably, an ancient bronze mirror.

References

External links

Shizuoka City site
{{coord, 34, 47, 17, N, 137, 45, 10, E, region:JP_type:edu, display=title Buildings and structures in Hamamatsu Kofun Tourist attractions in Shizuoka Prefecture