Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Shofutago Kofun
DatedEst. 250–650 CE
Photo photo: Qurren ( talk ) Taken with Canon IXY 10S (Digital IXUS 210) · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Shofutago Kofun (小二子古墳, Shōfutago kofun) is a keyhole-shaped burial mound in Nishiōmuro-chō, Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the mounds of the Ōmuro Kofun Group and, together with Nochifutago Kofun, is a national historic site (listed as Nochifutago Kofun and small mounds).
The mound is 38 metres long and was built around the same time as Nochifutago Kofun. Its stone chamber dates the associated offerings to the second half of the sixth century.
Read 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.
Article
Shofutago Kofun
A shield-shaped moat surrounds the mound, giving a length of 44 metres including the moat.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
The mound has 2 tiers and its axis points 131° north-east. Part of it was shaped by cutting into the natural ground, and it had no stone facing. A shield-shaped moat surrounds the mound, giving a length of 44 metres including the moat. A row of 80 to 90 cylindrical haniwa stood on the terrace, a row of figure haniwa centred on human figures on the front part, and haniwa of implements on the rear circular part. It has nearly the same east-west axis as Nochifutago Kofun and was built at about the same time, and is thought to be the tomb of a person closely linked to the occupant of that mound.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
During the conservation of the Ōmuro Kofun Group the mound was found to be poorly preserved, so it was fully excavated in order to obtain material for restoring and displaying its original appearance. On the basis of the results it has been restored with haniwa set up on the mound as they were when it was built.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
The burial facility is a semi-underground, sleeveless corridor-type stone chamber (yokoana-shiki sekishitsu). The chamber was robbed in the Meiji period and its ceiling destroyed, but it has been reconstructed as 6 metres long, 1.8 metres wide at the rear wall and 1.8 metres high. Finds from it were 14 small glass beads, 3 gilt-bronze earrings, 3 straight swords, 1 knife, 10 iron arrowheads, 9 bow fittings and 1 Sue ware vessel. In front of the chamber were 8 Haji ware cups and 1 Sue ware flask (teihei) showing characteristics of the latter half of the sixth century. Burnt earth found on both sides of the chamber suggests that rites were held in front of the tomb.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Nochifutago Kofun and the small mounds were designated a national historic site on 8 April 1927.
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
5 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
- 36°23′23″ N, 139°11′38″ EFor a GPS or map app: 36.38959, 139.19376
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.
Ushirofutago KofunPhoto: photo: Qurren ( talk ) Taken with Canon IXY 10S (Digital IXUS 210) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Nakafutago Kofun500–509 CEPhoto: photo: Qurren ( talk ) Taken with Canon IXY 10S (Digital IXUS 210) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Maefutago Kofun4000–1200 BCEPhoto: photo: Qurren ( talk ) Taken with Canon IXY 10S (Digital IXUS 210) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Akabori Chausuyama Kofun250–650 CE
Horikoshi Kofun4000–1200 BCE
Nakatsuka Kofun4000–1200 BCE
Ofujiyama-kofun250–650 CE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)山王金冠塚古墳250–650 CE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q17215924wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Shofutago-kofun 2.jpgphoto: Qurren ( talk ) Taken with Canon IXY 10S (Digital IXUS 210)CC BY-SA 3.0
- Shofutago Kofun, funkyu-2.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Shofutago Kofun, funkyu-3.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
- Shofutago-kofun 1.jpgphoto: Qurren ( talk ) Taken with Canon IXY 10S (Digital IXUS 210)CC BY-SA 3.0
- Sho-Futago Kofun.JPGAbasaaPublic domain
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "小二子古墳" (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): 小二子古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q17215924CC0