The is a

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

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 Ōtsuka neighborhood of the city of

Tainai, Niigata 270px, Tulip fields in Tainai is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 28,495 in 10,821 households, and a population density of 110 persons per km2 (288/sq mi). The total area of the city was . Ge ...

in the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...

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 ...

. The tumulus was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2019. It is the third largest known ''kofun'' in Niigata Prefecture.

Overview

The Jōnoyama Kofun was built in the first half of the 4th century AD. It is considered to be the northernmost point on the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

for early Kofun period culture. The tumulus was first surveyed and excavated in 1995. The tumulus is an elliptical domed ''kofun'', measuring 41 meters east-to-west by 35 meters north-to-south, with a height of five meters above the surrounding

paddy field A paddy field is a flooded field (agriculture), field of arable land used for growing Aquatic plant, semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in sout ...

s. As it once had a moat, it was long assumed to have originally been a keyhole-shaped ''kofun'', but excavation has now been shown that the moat was added at a later date, and there is no other evidence that the tumulus was ever keyhole-shaped. The first excavation recovered some 200 pieces of earthenware from the top of the tumulus, and found no evidence that the tumulus had been tampered with in antiquity. The

burial chamber A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interred than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could a ...

was opened in the fourth excavation in 2005, and was found to enclose a wooden boat-shaped

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 ...

with a total length of 8 meters and a width of about 1.5 meters, carved from a single block of wood. Due to the large amount of

vermillion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It is ...

red pigment used around the casket and many

grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...

, the person buried in this tumulus is regarded as having a strong connection to the culture of the imperial court. Also among the excavated items was a human arm bone. In 2012, a tooth fragment was also discovered. Both indicate that the person interred in this tumulus was a young person. Grave goods included a

bronze mirror Bronze mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. This type of mirror, sometimes termed a copper mirror, has been found by archaeology, archaeologists among elite assemblages from various cultures, from Etruscan art, Etruscan Italy to Japan. T ...

with an embossed dragon design. The mirror is about 10 cm in diameter, and depicts a single-horned dragon with an open mouth curled around the center, with a hole for a string to pass through, indicating that it was intended to be worn as a decoration. This design is found in Jin dynasty China (266–420 AD) from around the first to third centuries, but is rare in Japan. Other items included ''

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 ...

'' and cylindrical jade beads, iron swords, an iron ax, and also gold fittings that were once bow attachments, and leather box containing an ax, hook and arrows. The leather was lacquered, and had a rhombus pattern on the surface decorated by embroidery. Leather has been rarely excavated in Japan and has not been found north of

Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the nort ...

. Although most of the grave goods are similar to what would normally be found in ''kofun'' of the

Kinai is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kinai ...

region, some of the earthenware was found to be from Zoku-Jōmon period, and may have come from distant

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

. The tumulus is located approximately six minutes by car from

Nakajō Station is a railway station on the Uetsu Main Line in the city of Tainai, Niigata, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Nakajō Station is served by the Uetsu Main Line and is 29.1 kilometers from the terminus of the line ...

on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Uetsu Main Line The is a railway line in the Tohoku and Chubu regions of Japan. Part of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) system, it connects Niitsu Station in the city of Niigata and Akita Station in Akita. The name "Uetsu" refers to the ancient pro ...

References

External links

Tainai city home page

Niigata Tourist Information
{{in lang, ja Round Kofun History of Niigata Prefecture Tainai, Niigata Historic Sites of Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links