Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Igenoyama Kofun
Datedc. 1 BCE–500 CE
Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Igenoyama Kofun (恵解山古墳) is a keyhole-shaped burial mound of the Kofun period in the Shōryuji-Kugai neighborhood of Nagaokakyō, Kyoto, in the Kansai region of Japan. At an estimated length of about 128 meters it is the largest tumulus in the Otokuni region, and it is estimated to have been built in the first half of the 5th century.
It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1981 and was incorporated into the Otokuni Kofun Cluster in 2016.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Age sources
How old this site is, and who says so.
Range across all claimsc. 1 BCE–500 CE
EstimatedWhat this badge means
A reading of this site: what its style says, or a statement published about it.
- 1 BCEPublished sourceWikidata gives an inception of 0 CE.Source: wikidata.org
- 401–500 CEWikipedia: Igenoyama Kofun (infobox)Source: en.wikipedia.org
- 401 CEWikidata inceptionSource: wikidata.org
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
Igenoyama Kofun
The mound was built on the edge of a plateau just 16 meters above sea level on the right bank of the Katsura River.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The mound was built on the edge of a plateau just 16 meters above sea level on the right bank of the Katsura River. It is a zenpō-kōen-fun (前方後円墳), with one square end and one circular end when viewed from above, and is orientated to the south-southeast. The posterior circular mound is 78.6 meters in diameter and 10.4 meters high, and the anterior rectangular portion is 78.6 meters wide and 7.6 meters high. A moat about 30 meters wide surrounds the tumulus, and the total length including the moat is about 180 meters. The surface is covered with sandstone and chert fukiishi roofing stones, and haniwa clay figurines are lined up on it.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus has been excavated several times. It has been considerably defaced by a cemetery, in existence for several centuries, built on top of the circular mound, but a pit-type stone burial chamber is believed to have once been located in the posterior circular mound.
In the 1980 excavation, a chamber to store grave goods was discovered and found to contain over 700 iron weapons, including 146 straight swords, 11 iron swords, 52 daggers, 1 knife, 5 chisel-shaped iron products, 10 fern-shaped blades and 472 iron arrowheads. The unearthing of so many iron weapons is rare not only in the Yamashiro region but nationwide. For these reasons the tumulus is thought to be the tomb of a chief who ruled over the Otokuni region west of the Katsura River in the first half of the 5th century. The excavated items were designated Kyoto Prefecture Tangible Cultural Property in 1999.
FolkloreSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
According to local folklore, the tumulus was widely believed to have been the field headquarters of Akechi Mitsuhide during the Battle of Yamazaki against Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1582.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus is maintained and open to the public as the Igenoyama Kofun Park.
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
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1980
In the 1980 excavation, a chamber to store grave goods was discovered and found to contain over 700 iron weapons (including 146 straight swords, 11 iron swords, 52 daggers, 1 knife, 5 chisel-shaped iron products, 10 fern-shaped blades, and 472 iron arrowheads).
Source - 1981
The tumulus was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1981, and was incorporated into the Otokuni Kofun Cluster in 2016.
Source - 1999
These excavated items were designated as Kyoto Prefecture Tangible Cultural Property in 1999. Per local folklore this tumulus was widely believed to have been the field headquarters of Akechi Mitsuhide during the Battle of Yamazaki against Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1582. The tumulus is currently maintained and open to...
Source
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.
Photographs
8 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
How this date was established: Stated by the sourceWikidata gives an inception of 0 CE.Source for this date
Measured facts
- Mound form
- keyhole-shapedSource: Mound form
- Period
- Kofun periodSource: Period
- Historic designation
- National Historic Site of JapanSource: Historic designation
- Cluster
- Otokuni Kofun ClusterSource: Cluster
- Inception
- 1st millennium CESource: Inception
Where it stands
Japan
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 34°54′52″ N, 135°41′51″ EFor a GPS or map app: 34.91453, 135.69758
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.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q11492427wikidata.org
- 02Wikipedia (en)en.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Igenoyama Kofun, zenkei-1.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Igenoyama Kofun, 3danme Fukiishi 360-degree.jpgAsPJTCC0
- Igenoyama Kofun, Funkyu South 360-degree.jpgAsPJTCC0
- Igenoyama Kofun, Funkyu West 360-degree.jpgAsPJTCC0
- Igenoyama Kofun, Kubire-bu Top 360-degree.jpgAsPJTCC0
- Igenoyama Kofun, West 360-degree.jpgAsPJTCC0
- Igenoyama Kofun, West Tsukuridashi 360-degree.jpgAsPJTCC0
- Igenoyama Kofun, higashi-tsukuridashi.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Lore, kept apart
Legends and claims
These are stories and claims reported by the sources. They are not evidence, and they never stand in for the dating above.
- Tradition
The Igenoyama Kofun was built on the edge of a plateau just 16 meters above sea level on the right bank of the Katsura River.
The Igenoyama Kofun was built on the edge of a plateau just 16 meters above sea level on the right bank of the Katsura River. It is estimated to be about 128 meters long, making it the largest tumulus in the Otokuni region. It is a zenpō-kōen-fun (前方後円墳), which is shaped like a keyhole, having one square end and one circular end, when viewed from above and is orientated to the south-southeast. The posterior circular mound is 78.6 meters in diameter and 10.4 meters high, and the anterior rectangular portion is 78.6 meters wide and 7.6 meters high. There is a moat about 30 meters wide around the tumulus, and the total length including the moat is about 180 meters. The surface of the tumulus is covered with sandstone and chert fukiishi roofing stones, and haniwa clay figurines are lined up. It is estimated to have been built in the first half of the 5th century. The tumulus has been considerably defaced by a cemetery, which has been in existence for several centuries, built on top of the circular mound, but it is believed that there was a pit-type stone burial chamber was once located in the posterior circular mound. The tumulus has been excavated several times. In the 1980 excavation, a chamber to store grave goods was discovered and found to contain over 700 iron weapons (including 146 straight swords, 11 iron swords, 52 daggers, 1 knife, 5 chisel-shaped iron products, 10 fern-shaped blades, and 472 iron arrowheads). The unearthing of such a large number of iron weapons is rare not only in the Yamashiro region, but nationwide. For these reasons, this tumulus is thought to be the tomb of a chief who ruled over the Otokuni region west of the Katsura River in the first half of the 5th century. These excavated items were designated as Kyoto Prefecture Tangible Cultural Property in 1999. Per local folklore this tumulus was widely believed to have been the field headquarters of Akechi Mitsuhide during the Battle of Yamazaki against Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1582.
Source
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Igenoyama 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): Igenoyama KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q11492427CC0