
Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Kanasaki Kofun Cluster
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
What the sources say
金崎古墳群(かなさきこふんぐん)は、埼玉県秩父郡皆野町大字金崎にある古墳群。1976年(昭和51年)3月30日付で埼玉県指定史跡に指定されている。
Article in JapaneseRead 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.
The full article
Kanasaki Kofun Cluster: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Kanasaki Kofun Cluster is a group of burial mounds in Kanazaki, Minano, Chichibu District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. The cluster stands on a river terrace along the left bank of the Arakawa, extending southwest from the foot of Hōtodorisan.
The cluster once contained more than 8 round burial mounds. Today, the surviving mounds and burial chambers are Ohsakaizuka Kofun No. 1 through No. 3 and Tenjinzuka (Himeamizuka) Kofun, making 4 round mounds in total.
Five swords are said to have been excavated from Tenjinzuka by a local youth group during the Taishō period. One of the five is decorated with silver inlay. The swords were designated a tangible cultural property of Minano on 1993 (Heisei 5) May 28 and are kept by the Minano Town Board of Education.
The cluster was designated a Saitama Prefecture historic site on 1976 (Shōwa 51) March 30. Its burial mounds are dated by typological estimate to 250 CE to 650 CE. Kofun are the great burial mounds of ancient Japan, built mainly between the middle of the third century and the early seventh century CE; besides keyhole-shaped mounds, they include plain round, double-rectangle and square forms.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Japanese article "金崎古墳群", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Kanasaki Kofun Cluster is a megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones) in Minano, Japan. Wikidata describes it as: kofun period burial mound cluster in Minano, Saitama, Japan. A typological estimate: 250 CE to 650 CE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Japanese article "金崎古墳群", shown in the original language.
概要Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
宝登山の山裾から南西方向に伸び、荒川左岸に面した河岸段丘上に所存する古墳群である。かつては8基以上の円墳があったといわれている。現在、墳丘と主体部が残存しているのは大堺1号墳~3号墳と天神塚(氷雨塚)古墳の4基の円墳である。大正時代に地域の青年団による天神塚の発掘で出土したといわれる大刀5振(内1振に銀象嵌が施されている)が、1993年(平成5年)5月28日付で皆野町指定有形文化財に指定され、皆野町教育委員会に保管されている。
参考文献Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
塩野博 『埼玉の古墳 比企・秩父』pp460-476、さきたま出版会、2004年
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “金崎古墳群”, translated from Japanese. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
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
- 36°05′06″ N, 139°06′41″ EFor a GPS or map app: 36.08500, 139.11140
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.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)柳瀬古墳群250–650 CE
Enfun Ōtsuka Kofun250–650 CE
Akiyama Kofun Group250–650 CE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)長沖古墳群250–650 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)白岩銚子塚古墳250–650 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)穴八幡古墳250–650 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)青柳古墳群250–650 CE
長坂聖天塚古墳250–650 CE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q17225218wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "金崎古墳群" (Japanese), 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 (Japanese): 金崎古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q17225218CC0