Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Kusahaka Kofun
Also known asKarato Kofun · Kusabaka Kofun
Datedc. 1 BCE–700 CE
Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Kusabaka Kofun (艸墓古墳), also called the Kusahaka Kofun, is a Kofun period burial mound in the Tani neighborhood of the city of Sakurai, Nara, in the Kansai region of Japan. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1974.
It is a hōfun (方墳), a rectangular tumulus, with a horizontal-entry megalithic burial chamber, and is estimated to have been built in the mid-7th century.
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–700 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
- 601–700 CEWikipedia: Kusabaka Kofun (infobox)Source: en.wikipedia.org
- 700 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
Kusahaka Kofun
The tumulus stands on the eastern edge of the Abe Hills, on the left bank of the Terakawa River in the southern part of the Nara Basin.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus stands on the eastern edge of the Abe Hills, on the left bank of the Terakawa River in the southern part of the Nara Basin. Its shape is rectangular, with the northwest and southeast sides slightly longer, measuring approximately 27 meters on the long side and 21 meters on the short side. The top of the mound is flat and shaped like a truncated cone. Fukiishi have been found on the outside of the mound, but no haniwa clay figures. The mound is surrounded by a flat area, and there is no trace of a moat.
The burial chamber is a horizontal-entry large stone chamber made of megaliths, with an opening to the southeast. The gaps between the stone walls were plastered, and traces of the plaster remain. The burial chamber has a total length of 13.16 meters, with the main chamber measuring 4.44 by 2.71 meters and 2.0 meters in height.
ArchaeologySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
No archaeological excavation has been conducted to date. Inside the chamber is a hollowed-out house-shaped stone sarcophagus of stratified hyaloclastite, which had been brought to the site from the Kakogawa River basin in Hyogo Prefecture. The cover stone has a pair of rope-hanging protrusions on the front and back and two pairs on the left and right, and the inside is shallowly carved. As the sarcophagus is larger than the entry passageway, it must have been placed in the burial chamber during the construction of the tumulus.
The burial chamber has been open since antiquity, and the existence of any grave goods is unknown.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Based on its style of construction, the tumulus is estimated to have been built in the mid-7th century, towards the end of the Kofun period.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus is part of a cluster of megalithic tombs in the Abe Hills. Remains of large buildings have also been found in the surrounding ruins, and connections to the ancient Abe clan have been speculated.
VisitingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus is about 30 minutes on foot from Sakurai Station on the Kintetsu Railway Osaka Line.
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
- 1974
The tumulus was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1974. It is also called the "Kusahaka Kofun".
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
6 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 type
- Kofun period burial moundSource: Mound type
- Location
- Tani, Sakurai, NaraSource: Location
- Region
- KansaiSource: Region
- Heritage designation
- National Historic Site of JapanSource: Heritage designation
- Designation year
- 1974Source: Designation year
- Alternative name
- Kusahaka KofunSource: Alternative name
- Inception
- 1st millennium CESource: Inception
Where it stands
Japan
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 34°30′12″ N, 135°50′44″ EFor a GPS or map app: 34.50321, 135.84568
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 Q17990549wikidata.org
- 02Wikipedia (en)en.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Kusahaka Kofun, entrance-1.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Kusahaka Kofun, 3D-B.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Kusahaka Kofun, sekkan 3D-N.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Kusahaka Kofun, 3D-P.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Kusahaka Kofun, 3D-N.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Kusahaka Kofun, sekkan 3D-B.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Kusabaka 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): Kusabaka KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q17990549CC0