Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Ōeyama Kofun Cluster
DatedEst. 250–650 CE
Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Ōeyama Kofun Cluster (大枝山古墳群, Ōeyama kofun-gun) is a group of late Kofun-period burial mounds at Goryō Ōeyama-chō, Nishikyō Ward, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It lies on the western edge of the Kyoto Basin, north of Ōharano, in a narrow dissected valley.
23 mounds have been confirmed, all with horizontal-entrance stone chambers, and 9 were excavated between 1980 and 1987. The group is dated to the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th century. 13 mounds, with one relocated mound attached, are designated historic sites of Kyoto City.
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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
Ōeyama Kofun Cluster
The cluster was built in the narrow valley of the Shimogarikawa, a tributary of the Obatagawa.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
The cluster was built in the narrow valley of the Shimogarikawa, a tributary of the Obatagawa. Of the 23 mounds, 20 (within the numbering 4 to 25) stand densely packed in the valley. Mounds 1 and 2 lie apart on a hillside slope about 400 metres to the south, and mound 26 stands alone in the hills on the east side of the Shimogarikawa.
All are round mounds with a diameter of about 10-20 metres, and most retain their mounds in good condition. Every burial chamber is a horizontal-entrance stone chamber, chiefly of the two-sleeved type, with a few one-sleeved and sleeveless examples. The two-sleeved chambers fall into two main groups: those with a main chamber about 3.6 metres long and 2.2 metres wide, and those about 3.2 metres long and 1.7 metres wide. The former are regarded as the older.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
The chambers yielded iron arrowheads, small knives (tōsu) and Sue ware. The assemblage is notable for lacking iron nails and beads, and for including an inlaid iron sword, a ceramic cup of Korean-peninsula type (陶質土器杯) and decorated Sue ware. Finds from the cluster are kept and displayed at the Kyoto City Archaeological Museum.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
In 1914 Umehara Sueji introduced 8 mounds to the scholarly world as the cluster of Tsukahara village. A survey map was drawn by the Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education and reported in 1968. A housing development plan for the hills emerged around 1967, and excavations followed in advance of the park development at Katsurazaka housing estate, carried out by the Kyoto City Archaeological Research Institute from 1980 to 1987 and reported in 1989.
The first campaign, in 1980, comprised a topographic survey, measured drawings of the chambers of 4 open mounds (15, 18, 20 and 21), and excavation of 7 mounds not intended for preservation (4, 5, 14, 23, 24, 25 and 26) and 2 presumed mounds (3 and 13). Mounds 4 and 14 were chosen for relocation and reconstruction, and mounds 3 and 13 proved not to be burial mounds. The second campaign, in 1983-1984, excavated mounds 4 and 14 and mound 22, which was also selected for relocation. The third, in 1987, excavated mound 21 in connection with the opening of its chamber.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
The mounds are estimated to have been built in the late Kofun to final Kofun period, around the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th century. The group is regarded as a typical marker cluster of burial mounds for the northern Yamashiro region, and because so many mounds were excavated it is important for understanding the structure of mounds, stone chambers and mound clusters.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
On 1 April 2000, 13 mounds (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 and 21) were designated historic sites of Kyoto City, with the relocated mound 14 attached. The area is now maintained as the historic park Katsurazaka Kofun no Mori. Entry to the park is restricted, and it is open only twice a year, in spring and autumn.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 大枝山古墳群CC 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, and the period takes its name from them. Besides keyhole-shaped mounds, monuments of this kind include plain round mounds, double-rectangle mounds and square mounds.
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.
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
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
- 34°59′04″ N, 135°40′04″ EFor a GPS or map app: 34.98431, 135.66772
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 Q85878842wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Oeyama Kofun Group-15, 3D-B.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Oeyama Kofun Group-14, 3D-B.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Oeyama Kofun Group-14, 3D-N.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Oeyama Kofun Group-15, 3D-N.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Oeyama Kofun Group-14, entrance.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Oeyama Kofun Group-14, funkyu.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "大枝山古墳群" (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): 大枝山古墳群CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q85878842CC0