Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Shikinzan Kofun
Datedc. 400 CE
Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Shikinzan Kofun (紫金山古墳, Shikinzan kofun) is a keyhole-shaped burial mound in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It was built on a ridge, faces east, and has a total length of about 102 metres, which later survey confirmed as about 110 metres. A typological estimate places kofun of this kind between 250 and 650 CE, and the contents of the mound include some of the earliest forms of several grave-good types.
Part of a stone chamber was exposed in 1947 when a hospital building was being constructed on the hilltop, and Kyoto University and Osaka Prefecture carried out an excavation in May of that year.
Read on Wikipedia3 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
Shikinzan Kofun
The round rear part has a diameter of about 76 metres and the front end is about 40 metres wide.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
The mound makes use of a mountain ridge. The round rear part has a diameter of about 76 metres and the front end is about 40 metres wide. The slopes were covered with stones taken from hornfels, sandstone and granite, which are thought to have come from the beds of the Katsuoji and Ibaraki rivers. Many cylindrical haniwa were recovered, and the cylindrical haniwa with fins include winged forms similar to those from the Matsuokayama mound in Osaka Prefecture.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
At the centre of the rear part lies a pit-type stone chamber aligned north to south. A pit about 9 metres long and 4 metres wide was dug, a U-shaped floor of clay was laid in the bottom, and the chamber was built around it from flat split stones of andesite and schist. Seven granite ceiling stones lay on top.
A second investigation by the Osaka Prefecture board of education took place in 1992, with a survey of the mound and radar prospecting. Later investigations included a fourth survey in 2003 and a fifth in 2004, in which trenches were dug in six places, and these confirmed that the mound length is about 110 metres.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
The chamber produced a wide range of objects: beads, swords, iron arrowheads, an iron sickle, axe heads, spear planes and chisels, together with wheel-shaped stones, kuwagata-ishi stones, tubular bronze objects and two kuwagata-ishi made of shell. Three kinds of mirror were found: a Han-type mirror with a square design and four deities from inside the coffin, and, from outside the coffin, triangular-rimmed mirrors with deities and beasts together with imitations and a locally made mirror. The tubular bronze objects are of the oldest form, and the three shell bracelets have no known parallel. The beads include tubular, jujube-shaped and comma-shaped types, and the jade used for the last two is highly likely to come from Itoigawa in Niigata Prefecture.
Weapons were plentiful, with 73 swords from inside and outside the stone enclosure and 165 iron arrowheads from inside it. No bronze arrowheads were found. A short armour of riveted plates bound with leather, and gauntlets, have attracted particular attention. The grave goods are preserved and displayed at the Chikatsu Asuka Museum and the Kyoto University Museum.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
The mound is designated as a historic site by Osaka Prefecture. It can be reached from Ibaraki station by bus and a walk of 18 minutes.
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
4 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°50′39″ N, 135°32′46″ EFor a GPS or map app: 34.84422, 135.54606
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.
Seishōzuka Kofun250–650 CE
Kaihōzuka Kofun250–650 CE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)将軍山古墳群250–650 CE
Minohara Kofun250–650 CE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)安威古墳群250–650 CE
Ōda Chausuyama Kofun250–650 CE
Abuyama Kofun4000–1200 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Banzan Kofun250–650 CE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q11605767wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Shikinzan Kofun, funcho.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Sikinzankohun02.jpgbittercupCC BY-SA 3.0
- Sikinzankohun03.jpgbittercupCC BY-SA 3.0
- 紫金山古墳出土 勾玉文帯神獣鏡.JPGSaigen JiroPublic domain
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "紫金山古墳" (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): 紫金山古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q11605767CC0