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 Nakai neighborhood of

Kita-ku, Okayama is one of four Wards of Japan, 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 Okay ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

, in the

San'yō region The San'yō Region (山陽地方 ''San'yō-chihō'') is an area in the south of Honshū, the main island of Japan. It consists of the southern part of the Chūgoku region, facing the Seto Inland Sea. The name ''San'yō'' means "southern, sunny ( ...

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 was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1959.

Overview

The Jingūjiyama Kofun is a , which is shaped like a keyhole when viewed from above. It is located on the

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A ''floodplain'' is part of the process, bei ...

on the west bank of the

Asahi River The Asahi River is a river in Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Squa ...

, in the south of Okayama Prefecture, slightly north of central Okayama city. The tumulus is currently occupied by the , an ancient

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

listed in the early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

Engishiki The is a Japanese book of laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ''Engishi ...

'' records; however, its appears that this shrine was relocated to this site from its original location in the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

by order of

Kobayakawa Hideaki (1577 – December 1, 1602) was the fifth son of Kinoshita Iesada and a nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was gained the rank of ''Saemon no Kami'' (左衛門督) or in China ''Shikkingo'' (執金吾) at genpuku and held the court title of ...

. The tumulus was also located in the grounds of a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

, the Myōhōzan Jingū-ji, from which it takes its name, but this temple was closed in the

Kanbun ''Kanbun'' ( 'Han Chinese, Han writing') is a system for writing Literary Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period until the 20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for offici ...

era (1661-1672) of the

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. However, during the period that it was within the grounds of the temple, the anterior portion of the tumulus was turned into a cemetery, and the posterior circular portion was flattened. The tumulus is orientated to the west, has a total length of about 155 meters, and a round posterior portion with a diameter of about 70 meters and a height of about 13 meters and was built in three stages. The anterior part has a length of 75 meters, height of seven meters and was built in two stages. ''

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 ...

'' and shards of 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 ...

'' have been found, but is it uncertain of the tumulus originally had a moat. The main

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 ...

is a vertical pit-style stone chamber located at the top of the posterior circular portion, and there also a pit-type auxiliary chamber for the burial of

grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are items buried along with a body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into an afterlife, or offerings to gods. Grave goods may be classed by researche ...

nearby. The cover stone for the burial chamber is exposed under the floor of the ''Haiden'' of the Amahakari Shrine on the top the mound, but as it has yet to be excavated, the details of the interior are unknown. The auxiliary chamber, which measures1.50 meters in length, 0.50-0.60 meters in width, and about 0.90 meters in height was excavated in 1961, and more than 100 iron weapons (swords, spears) and iron agricultural tools (scythes, axes, chisels, drills, and saws) were found. It is speculated that there may be a secondary burial chamber in the anterior portion of the tumulus which has yet to be discovered as fragments of swords, armor, and spears have been unearthed in that area the past. This tumulus is estimated to have been constructed in the latter half of the early to early middle Kofun period, around the latter half of the 4th century to the beginning of the 5th century, based on the unearthed ''haniwa''. Most of the tumuli in the Kibi region are built on hilly terrain, so this tumulus attracted attention because it was built on alluvial land, which is normally considered unsuitable for large burial mounds. Amahakari-jinja, haiden.jpg, Amahakari-jinja, Haiden Jingu-ji-yama Kofun, kouenbu-1-2.jpg, View of the rear circle from the front Jingu-ji-yama Kofun, zenpoubu.jpg, Looking forward from the rear circular part

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Jingu-ji-yama Kofun
Okayama City home page Okayama Prefecture home page
History of Okayama Prefecture Okayama Historic Sites of Japan Zenpokoenfun

Overview

See also

References

External links