270px, exterior is a dome-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 within the grounds of the

Shizuoka Sengen Shrine is the name for a collective group of three Shinto shrines now forming a single religious corporation, located at Mount Shizuhata in Aoi-ku, Shizuoka, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. These shrines are the Kanbe Jinja (神部神社), Sengen Jinja (� ...

complex in

Aoi-ku, Shizuoka is one of three wards of the city of Shizuoka in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, located in the northern part of the city. Aoi-ku borders Suruga-ku in the south and Shimizu-ku to the southeast; the west faces Shimada, Fujieda and Kawanehon an ...

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 ...

. in the

Tōkai region The is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there is s ...

. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1953.

Overview

The Shizuhatayama Kofun is located on a 50-meter hilltop immediately behind the ''

Honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined ''kami'', usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a sta ...

'' of the Ohtoshimioya Shrine within the Shizuoka Sengen Jinja complex. Its existence has been known since ancient times and

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 ...

documents indicate that 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 exposed after a tree fell in a storm during the

Tenmei is a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the An'ei Era and before the Kansei Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1781 : The new era name of Tenme ...

Bunsei was a after ''Bunka'' and before ''Tenpō''. This period spanned the years from April 1818 through December 1830. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * April 22, 1818 (): The new era name was created to mark the enthronement of the emper ...

era. The first modern

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 ...

s were conducted in 1949 and 1955, at which time the structure of tumulus was found to consist of a stone dome, approximately 32 meters in diameter and seven meters in height. There was no evidence of ''

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 ...

'' or ''

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, ...

''. Within is a horizontal chamber of cut stones with a length of 6.5 meters, height of 2.3 meters and width of 1.8 meters. A rock-lined tunnel 18.2 meters long connects the burial chamber to an opening in the hillside, orientated to the south. Some 600 head-sized boulders from the nearby

Abe River The is a river in Shizuoka Prefecture of central Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . The river rises from Akaishi Mountains which stretch over the border between Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures, and flows into Suruga Bay in the Pa ...

were used in its construction. The burial chamber contains a house-shaped 2.9 meter stone

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 ...

made of

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

from

Izu peninsula The is a large mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The peninsul ...

. The lid had eight protrusions for hanging ropes, three on each side and one each on the head and foot. Although pillaged in pre-modern times, the burial chamber was found to contain numerous shards of

Haji ware 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 found ...

and

Sue ware was a blue-gray form of stoneware pottery fired at high temperature, which was produced in Japan and southern Korea during the Kofun, Nara, and Heian periods of Japanese history. It was initially used for funerary and ritual objects, and origin ...

, and remnants of armor, swords and bronze horse fittings were found within the sarcophagus, indicating that the burial dates from around the 6th century AD. The name or rank of the person buried in the tomb is unknown and no human remains were discovered. The site came under government protection in 1953, and many of the artifacts uncovered are displayed at the within the grounds of the Shizuoka Sengen Shrine.

References

*Goto, Ken’Ichi. ''The Breakup and Unification of Regional Distribution, as Seen in Sue Ware Recovered from Kofun: An Example using Sue from Sixth and Seventh Century Tombs of Western Suruga''. NIHON KÔKOGAKU. No. 9, May 2000, 149p; ISSN 1340-8488,

External links

{{commons category
Shizuoka City site
Buildings and structures in Shizuoka (city) Kofun Tourist attractions in Shizuoka Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Suruga Province

Overview

See also

References

External links