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 Tangochomiya neighborhood of the city of Kyōtango, Kyoto in the

Kansai region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...

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 1973.

Overview

The Ubusunayama Kofun is an -style circular burial mound. It is located on the saddle of a hill at the mouth of the Takeno River, in the center of the west coast of the

Tango Peninsula was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba to the south, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name was . It was also referred to as or . In terms of the Gokishichi ...

overlooking 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 ...

. It dates from the middle of the Kofun period, or the middle of the 5th century. It was first excavated in 1939, during which time a

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 ...

sarcophagus was discovered directly buried in the upper part of the central part of the mound with the main axis in the east-west direction.

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 ...

included

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 ...

s, ''

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 ...

'', tubular beads and round glass beads, iron swords with ring or deer horn hilts, and wooden bows. The northern half of the mound collapsed due to flood damage in 1953. For this reason and due to legal issues with property ownership, when the National Historic Site designation was granted in 1957, only the portion of the tumulus located within the grounds of the neighboring

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 ...

were designated, and the portion on private land on the western side of the tumulus was not. After a more extensive archaeological survey was conducted from 1995 to 1996, the true size of the tumulus was determined to be 54 meters in diameter. In December 1998, the borders of the National Historic Site designation were modified to include some finds from this survey, and to exclude a portion of the area outside the mound. Cylindrical and figurative ''

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, ...

'' were also excavated. The site is about a 20-minute drive from

Mineyama Station is a passenger railway station in located in the city of Kyōtango, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway company Willer Trains (Kyoto Tango Railway). Lines Mineyama Station is a station of the Miyazu Line, and is located 4 ...

on the

Kyoto Tango Railway The , or , is a railway system in Kyoto Prefecture and Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan operated by Willer Trains Inc. headquartered in Miyazu, Kyoto. Company The operating company Willer Trains Inc. is a subsidiary of Willer Alliance Inc. Willer Train ...

Miyazu Line The is a railway line of the Kyoto Tango Railway in Kyoto Prefecture and Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Trains on the line are operated by Willer Trains Inc. as part of its Kyoto Tango Railway system. The and the are the aliases assigned by Wille ...

Gallery

Ubusunayamakofun (1).jpg, Descriptive placard Ubusunayamakofun (2).jpg, National Historic Site monument

References

External links

Kyōtango City home page
{{in lang, ja History of Kyoto Prefecture Kyōtango Historic Sites of Japan Round Kofun

Overview

Gallery

See also

References

External links