The is a ''

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 located in the Ayauta neighborhood of the city of

Marugame is a city located in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 108,541 in 46101 households and a population density of 970 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Marugame is located in north-ce ...

Kagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kagawa Prefecture has a population of 949,358 (as of 2020) and is the smallest prefecture by geographic area at . Kagawa Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the southwest and Tok ...

, on the island of Shikoku of

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 in 2004. It is the second largest burial mound in Kagawa Prefecture and the third largest in the Shikoku region, and is estimated to have been built around the middle of the 4th century (the latter half of the early

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 ...

Overview

The Kaitenyama Kofun is located at the tip of a ridge that emerges southward from the foot of Mt. Yokoyama in the central part of Kagawa Prefecture. On the top of the round part of the mound are the

Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

tombs of Kaiten, Kaizan, and Yuga, monks of the nearby Buddhist temple of Enpuku-ji, and the tumulus name of 'Kaitenzan' is derived from this. An exposed sarcophagus was discovered by a local junior high school student in 1950, which resulted in an

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

, and several subsequent excavations have been carried out since then. The tumulus is a , which is shaped like a keyhole, having one square end and one circular end, when viewed from above. It has a total length of 98.8 meters, and was constructed in three or more tiers in the round posterior portion and three tiers in the rectangular anterior portion. The tumulus was covered in ''

fukiishi ( or "roofing stone") were a means of covering burial chambers and burial mounds during the kofun period of Japan (). Stones collected from riverbeds were affixed to the slopes of raised kofun and other burial chambers. They are considered t ...

'' and cylindrical ''

haniwa The are terracotta clay figures that were made for ritual use and buried with the dead as funerary objects during the Kofun period (3rd to 6th centuries AD) of the history of Japan. ''Haniwa'' were created according to the ''wazumi'' technique, ...

'' lined the stops between tiers. No traces of a moat have been detected. The anterior part of the mound has been partially leveled due to the construction of roads and poultry farms accompanying the development of farmland. Two pit-style stone

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 ...

s and one clay coffin burial facility were found, all within the round posterior portion, and all contain hollowed split bamboo-shaped sarcophaguses. This style of sarcophagus is centered on the Sanuki region of the early Kofun period, and th examples at this tumulus are the oldest known. The first and second chambers are arranged symmetrically from east to west across the center of the posterior circular part, and are lined with

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

; whereas the third chamber is arranged to the north of the center point: however, all chambers are parallel to the main axis of the tumulus. Records indicate that an additional four more burials were found in the anterior rectangular portion of the tumulus. but these were destroyed and the whereabouts of any artifacts recovered is unknown. Numerous

burial 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 ...

were recovered from each surviving burial chamber, including bronze mirrors, iron swords, iron axes, iron tools and farm implements, cylindrical beads and ''

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 ...

''. These artifacts date the tumulus to the middle of the 4th century. Based on the remaining bones, the deceased in the second chamber was female, estimated to be 30–35 years old and that of the third chamber was male, estimated to be 27–28 years old. The tumulus is about ten minutes on foot from

Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railroad The (or Kotoden) is a transportation company in Kagawa Prefecture, which is on the island of Shikoku, Japan. With headquarters in Takamatsu, the company operates three passenger railway lines, as well as bus subsidiaries. It was established on t ...

Kotohira Line Kurikuma Station. ;Overall length: 98.8 meters ;Posterior circular portion: 63.5 to 68 meter diameter x 10.55 meter high x 3 tiers ;Anterior rectangular portion: 30 meters wide x 4.33 meters high x 3 tiers ;Constriction width: 32.5 meters

References

External links

Marugame City home page
{{in lang, ja Zenpokoenfun History of Kagawa Prefecture Marugame, Kagawa Historic Sites of Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links