Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Danbara Kofun
DatedEst. 250–650 CE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Danbara Kofun is an ancient stone tomb in the grounds of Nagoya Castle in central Japan. It is a kofun, consisting of an empty stone chamber where someone was originally laid to rest, and is dated by typological estimate to between 250 and 650 CE.
Experts determined in 1988 that the tomb likely originated from what is today Shimane Prefecture, or ancient Izumo Province.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Danbara Kofun
The chamber consists of roughly hewn, large slabs of stone, pieced together and capped with a heavy stone roof.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Danbara KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Danbara KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The chamber consists of roughly hewn, large slabs of stone, pieced together and capped with a heavy stone roof. The entrance to the chamber was chiseled into the rock. The kofun is located on the grounds of the Ofukemaru of Nagoya Castle.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Danbara KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Danbara KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
In 1988, experts were able to determine that the tomb likely originated from what is today Shimane Prefecture, or ancient Izumo Province. The exact original location cannot be confirmed, since most of the areas in question are today used for agriculture. Shimane Prefecture is about 500 kilometres to the west of Nagoya.
How and when the tomb was transported to Nagoya Castle, and for what purpose, remains unknown. It is speculated that the tomb may have been reused as a storage chamber, but this remains unconfirmed.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Danbara KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Danbara KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Kofun are the great burial mounds of ancient Japan, built mainly between the middle of the third century and the early seventh century CE. The period takes its name from them.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Japanese kofun tumuli
Kofun are the great burial mounds of ancient Japan, built mainly between the middle of the third century and the early seventh century CE. The period takes its name from them. The most distinctive form is the keyhole-shaped mound (zempō-kōen-fun), with one square end and one round end seen from above, but there are also plain round mounds, double-rectangle mounds and square mounds. Orientation is not fixed: in the Mozu group at Sakai, some round parts face north and others east.
The largest is Daisenryō kofun at Sakai in Osaka, the biggest kofun in Japan, thought to have been built over some twenty years in the middle of the fifth century. By common acceptance it is the tomb of Emperor Nintoku, and the Imperial Household Agency treats it as such, but this cannot be confirmed because the mound has not been excavated. It stands in the Mozu group, which once had more than a hundred tombs of which fewer than half remain; the group and the neighbouring Furuichi cluster were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019. The mounds were built on a plateau overlooking Osaka Bay, near the ancient coastline.
Dating rests on mound shape, pottery and grave goods. Haniwa, which means "clay circle", are terracotta cylinders and figures of houses, animals and people that were arranged in rings and rows around and on top of the mounds. Smaller kofun are very numerous and sit in groups in every region of Japan.
When visiting, look for the moat that surrounds the larger mounds, for the stepped outline of terraces, and for reconstructed haniwa in museums and parks beside the tombs.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Kofun, Wikipedia: Daisen Kofun, Wikipedia: Haniwa, Wikipedia: Mozu Tombs · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 250–650 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megalithic mounds in Japan; this site has not been dated itself. Japanese kofun burial mounds were mainly constructed between the middle of the 3rd century and the early 7th century AD.Source for this date
Where it stands
Japan
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 35°25′49″ N, 133°05′31″ EFor a GPS or map app: 35.43034, 133.09186
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
3 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q5214944wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
- 03Wikipedia: Danbara Kofunen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Danbara Kofun" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): Danbara KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q5214944CC0