is a group of eight

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 Kawai neighborhood of the city of

Kawai, Nara file:Kawai Town Office 201611f.jpg, 280px, Kawai Town Office gardens is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Kitakatsuragi District, Nara, Kitakatsuragi District, Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 16,636 in 796 ...

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 metropol ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The tumulus cluster was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1956. It is part of the northern group of the Umami Kofun cluster.

Overview

The Ōtsukayama Kofun cluster is located in the northeast of Kawai Town, at the confluence of various rivers in the

Nara Basin The Nara Basin (奈良盆地 ''Nara-bonchi''), also known as the Yamato Basin (大和盆地 ''Yamato-bonchi''), is a valley in the north-western part of Nara Prefecture, Japan. It has an area of roughly . It is surrounded on four sides by mountai ...

. It consists of three , which are shaped like a keyhole, having one square end and one circular end, when viewed from above (Ōtsukayama, Shiroyama, and Takayamazuka No. 1), four -style circular tombs (Maruyama, Takayamazuka No. 2, Takayamazuka No. 3, and Takayamazuka No. 4), and one -style square tomb (Kusozuka Kofun), and is believed to have been built between the late 5th century and the early 6th century. The Ōtsukayama Kofun, the largest of the group, is 197 meters long, making it one of the largest ''kofun'' of the same period in the Nara Basin. It is surrounded by a moat, and in some places, a bank and an outer moat (outside the designated historic site) remain. The Shiroyama Kofun, located northeast of Ōtsukayama Kofun, is believed to have been the last built in the group, dates from the early 6th century. This tumulus is also one of the largest in the Nara Basin for its time, measuring approximately 108 meters in total length..

Ōtsukayama Kofun

The Ōtsukayama Kofun has a posterior circular portion with a diameter of 108 meters and height of 15.8 meters, and a rectangular anterior portion with a width of 123 meters and height of 16.9 meters. It is orientated to the south and was constructed in three tiers. The mound is well preserved, and although the moat is now a rice field, traces of the shield-shaped moat remain clearly visible. The mound has ''

fukiishi ( or "roofing stone") were a means of covering burial chambers and Tumulus, 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 consi ...

'' roofing stones and cylindrical, morning-glory shaped 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 ...

''., 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 orig ...

imitations 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 ...

pottery. Since it contains Sue pottery, it is estimated to have been built in the mid-to-late 5th century.There is also a monument to

Emperor Meiji , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the List of emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ...

at the top of the front part, which was built by local residents, after he used the tumulus as an observation post for military maneuvers in the area. Until 1963, there was an elementary school to the east of Ōtsukayama Kofun, and the kofun was used as part of the playground. Kawai Otsukayama Kofun, funkyu.jpg, Ōtsukayama Kofun Kawai Otsukayama Kofun, zenpoubu-2.jpg, Monument to Emperor Meiji Kawai Otsukayama Kofun, hori.jpg, Fragment of moats 川合大塚山古墳出土家形埴輪片 (盾付き円柱).JPG, House-shaped haniwa The Ōtsukayama Kofun is about 1.6 kilometers each of Samitagawa Station on the

Kintetsu Railway , referred to as and officially Kinki-Nippon Railway, is a Japanese passenger railway company, managing infrastructure and operating passenger train service. Its railway system is the largest in Japan, excluding Japan Railways Group. The railw ...

Tawaramoto Line The is a railway line owned and operated by the Kintetsu Railway, a Japanese private railway company, connecting Ōji Station (Nara) ( Ōji, Nara Prefecture) and Nishi-Tawaramoto Station ( Tawaramoto, Nara Prefecture) in Japan. The line doe ...

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Kawai Otsukayama Kofun
Nara Prefectural Database of History and Culture home page Kawai City home page with map showing locations
History of Nara Prefecture Kawai, Nara Historic Sites of Japan Zenpokoenfun Kofun clusters

Overview

Ōtsukayama Kofun

See also

References

External links