The is a large group of circular ''

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 ...

s located in the town of

Oirase is a town located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 25,149, and a population density of 350 persons per km², in 10,423 households. The total area of the town is . Geography Oirase is located on the eastern c ...

, in Kamikita District of

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

in the far northern

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

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 has protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since July 29, 2007 .Akōbō Kofun Cluster

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

Overview

Located on a

river terrace Fluvial terraces are elongated terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplain, other fluvial te ...

on the left bank of the

Oirase River The is a river located in eastern Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. __NOTOC__ The Oirase River is the only river that drains Lake Towada, a large caldera lake that lies on the border of Aomori and Akita Prefectures. Th ...

, approximately seven kilometers from the present-day

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

at an altitude of 30 to 40 meters, this group of ancient tombs was variously known as the "Tenjinyama site" or the "Jusanmori site", and was believed by locals in pre-modern times to contain the graves of warriors, as evidenced by occasional fragments of swords and pottery which were uncovered by plowing nearby fields. After the discovery of ''

magatama are curved, comma-shaped beads that appeared in prehistoric Japan from the Final Jōmon period through the Kofun period, approximately 1000 BCE to the 6th century CE. The beads, also described as "jewels", were made of primitive stone and eart ...

'' beads in April 1986, the site was extensively excavated between 1989 and 1990 by the local Oirase Town Board of Education, and were discovered to consist of 108 domed ''kofun'' dating from the first half of the 7th century to the early 9th century AD. Many of the tombs had a shallow circumferential groove resembling a small moat. The tombs contained the remnants of swords, agricultural tools, beads and other jewelry articles,

Haji pottery is a type of plain, unglazed, reddish-brown Japanese pottery or earthenware that was produced during the Kofun, Nara, and Heian periods of Japanese history. It was used for both ritual and utilitarian purposes, and many examples have been fou ...

, and

horse harness Horse harness is a device that connects a horse to a vehicle or another type of load. There are two main categories of horse harness: (1) the "breaststrap" or "breastcollar" design, and (2) the collar and hames design. For light work, such as ho ...

es and the remains of wooden

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 ...

. Many of the items appear to have originated from the southern part of the Tohoku region, indicating frequent trade. The size of each tomb was approximately 10 meters in diameter, with a height of 1.1 meter. As the mounds are now flattened and do not appear above the present ground-level, a possibility exists that more undiscovered tombs exist in the area. Approximately 3 kilometers east of this

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

is the Nakanodaira archeological site, where more than 100 pit dwellings were discovered. The Negishi archeological site, which was the site of a large pit dwelling, was also nearby, suggesting that the people of lived in the locations had some relationship with the construction of the tombs. In 2016, the town of Oirase completed construction of a local museum at the site. It is located approximately 10 minutes by car from the

Aoimori Railway The is a regional rail line in Aomori Prefecture, Japan that is operated by the Aoimori Railway Company. It connects the terminal station of the Iwate Galaxy Railway Line, Metoki Station, in the town of Sannohe to Aomori Station, the terminus ...

Mukaiyama Station is a railway station on the Aoimori Railway Line in the town of Oirase in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, operated by the third sector railway operator Aoimori Railway Company. Lines Mukaiyama Station is served by the Aoimori Railway Line, and is 79 ...

References

External links

Oirase town home page

{{in lang, ja Kofun Oirase, Aomori Historic Sites of Japan Tourist attractions in Aomori Prefecture History of Aomori Prefecture

Overview

See also

References

External links