270px, Panoramic View is a cluster of

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 mounds located in the Shinjōshita neighborhood of

Kita-ku, Okayama is one of four wards of Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The ward has an area of 451.03 km² and a population of 295,312. The population density is 655 per square kilometer. The name means "North Ward." The wards of Okayama were establi ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefectur ...

, in the San'yō region 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 cluster was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1921. The main Tsukuriyama Kofun is the largest burial mound in Okayama Prefecture and the fourth largest in Japan.

Overview

The Tsukuriyama Kofun is a , which is shaped like a keyhole, having one square end and one circular end, when viewed from above. The tumulus was built by cutting a hill on the right bank of the Ashimori River in the western part of Okayama city. The tumulus consists of three tiers, and each tier was lined with 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, ...

'' and covered with ''

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 ...

''. It has a length of approximately 350 meters, and is estimated to have been built in the first half of the 5th century. A characteristic of this burial mound is that the ratio of the posterior circular portion to the length of the mound is large. The anterior portion is thought to have been modified in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

, when a

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

was constructed, and a hamlet exists on the southeastern end of the mound. The '' chozubachi'' placed next the shrine is the body part of a hollowed-out

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 ...

, and fragments of the lid of the sarcophagus are scattered on the right side of the shrine. This sarcophagus is presumed to have been robbed from one of the tumuli in this area at some unknown date. From the size of the tumulus, it is believed to be the tomb of the 5th century kings of the Kingdom of Kibi. The posterior portion was also flattened and was used as a fortification and lookout point during

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

's invasion of western Japan. Although it is the largest tumulus not under the control of the

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and also the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD, up until the Second World War, it ...

, full-scale academic research has not been conducted to date, and the interior has not yet been excavated, so details of 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 ...

and grave goods are unknown. From 2009 to 2012, a research team from

Okayama University is a national university in Japan. The main campus is located in Tsushima-Naka, Okayama, Okayama Prefecture. The school was founded in 1870 and it was established as a university in 1949. History Okayama University was originally founded as t ...

conducted an excavation outside of the designated historic site for the purpose of identifying the scale at the time of construction, the existence of a surrounding moat, and for confirmation of relics that can be used to estimate the construction period. As a result, the existence of a surrounding 20-meter wide moat was confirmed on the east side of the posterior circular portion, and a large number of ''haniwa'' fragments from various shapes of ''haniwa'' was recovered. In 2016, a portion of the tumulus slope collapsed due to heavy rain. There are six smaller ''kofun'' in the surrounding area, which are regarded to being ''baizuka'', or ancillary tombs, for the main Tsukuriyama Kofun. The Senzoku Kofun (Tsukuriyama No. 5 Kofun) is a rare decorated ''kofun'', with paintings of magical symbols on the stone walls of the horizontal stone burial chamber. This keyhole-shaped tumulus has a total length of 75 meters. It was robbed in antiquity, and a stone sarcophagus remains in its anterior portion. In October 2009, the paintings were found to be detecting from the walls due to water damage, and the growth of mold was found to be problem in May 2010, leading to academic researchers detaching the murals for preservation. The was opened in April 2020.

Details

;Overall length: 350–360 meters ;Posterior circular portion: 190 meter diameter x 29 meter high, 3-tier ;Anterior rectangular portion: 215 meters wide x 25 meters high, 3-tier Tsukuriyamakofun02.jpg, Looking forward from the rear circular part Tsukuriyama Kofun (Okayama), sekkan-1.jpg, Stone sarcophagus Tsukuriyama Kofun (Okayama), sekkan-2.jpg, Fragments of stone sarcophagus

''Baizuka''

Tsukuriyama 1st Sakakiyama Kofun.JPG, Sakakiyama Kofun (Tsukuriyama No.1) Tsukuriyama 2nd Monund.JPG, Tsukuriyama No.2 Tsukuriyama 3rd Monund.JPG, Tsukuriyama No.3 Tsukuriyama 4th Monund.JPG, Tsukuriyama No.4 Tsukuriyama 5th Senzoku Kofun.JPG, Senzoku Kofun (Tsukuriyama No.5)

References

External links

Okayama City home page
{in lang, ja History of Okayama Prefecture Okayama Historic Sites of Japan Kofun clusters Zenpokoenfun Scallop Kofun

Overview

Details

''Baizuka''

See also

References

External links