The is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

containing two separate groups of early to middle

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 tumulii located in what is now part of the city of

Myōkō, Niigata is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 31,374 in 12,408 households, and a population density of 70 persons per km². The total area are of the city was . Myōkō is a member of the World Health ...

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 site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1978.

Overview

The Kannondaira-Tenjindō Kofun cluster consists of two separate groups of ''kofun'', approximately apart, located approximately 10 minutes by car from Arai Station 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 ...

Shinetsu Main Line. The Kannondaira Site contains three groups of approximately 53 tumuli, including one keyhole-shaped tomb () dating from the 3rd century. Most of the tombs are dome-shaped (), although one is scallop-shaped () and some are square-shaped (), indicating that the site is from a transitional period between the

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

and the Kofun period. ''

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, ...

'' and ''

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 ...

'' have been recovered from the area. The keyhole-shaped tomb is designated No.4 in the group, and has a total length of , with a dome-portion measuring , and a trapezoidal portion with length of and width of , narrowing to at the "neck" where it connects with the dome. No grave goods were found in this tomb. The Tenjindō Site also consists of three groups of tumuli, of which 188 have thus far been catalogued, making it one of the largest sites in Niigata Prefecture. Almost all of the tumuli are small and dome-shaped, with diameters between . The site has been repeatedly excavated by Tokyo University. Grave goods recovered include Sue ware,

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

, straight iron swords, parts of armor, horse fittings and items of jewellery. From these grave goods, it is estimated that these tumuli were constructed from the late 5th century to the late 6th century. The two sites flank a large moated late

to early Kofun-period settlement, the Hida Site, which has a separate National Historic Site designation. The Kannondaira cluster is to the north, and the Tenjindō cluster is to the south, and these areas may have been the necropolis for this settlement. As the area was mostly covered in forest, the state of preservation was relatively good, although even in 1976 it had been reported that a number of the known ''kofun'' has been destroyed due to urban encroachment, road construction, landslides and robbery. After the designation as a National Historic Site, the area has been cleared and opened to the public as an

archaeological park An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and ...

, with a small museum to display some of the artifacts found.

References

External links

Myōkō city official home page
{{in lang, ja Kofun History of Niigata Prefecture Myōkō, Niigata Historic Sites of Japan Archaeological sites in Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links