Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Tangean Kofun
Datedc. 401–500 CE
Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Tangean Kofun (丹花庵古墳) is a Kofun period burial mound in the Kososhicho neighborhood of the city of Matsue, Shimane, in the San'in region of Japan. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1933.
It is a rectangular hōfun (方墳) tumulus dating from the middle of the Kofun period, measuring approximately 47 meters on each side and 3.5 meters in height, and built in two stages.
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
Tangean Kofun
The mound has been considerably degraded, to the extent that the lid of the stone sarcophagus is exposed.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The mound has been considerably degraded, to the extent that the lid of the stone sarcophagus is exposed. Haniwa and fukiishi (cobble covering) are both present. The lid stone of the sarcophagus is 2.08 meters long, slightly curved, and has geometric patterns carved into it.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Since the sarcophagus has been exposed for perhaps centuries, no grave goods remain, but fragments of a short armor and an iron sword have been unearthed.
VisitingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus is on private property with limited public access, and an explanatory placard once at the site was removed in 2018. It is approximately one kilometer to the east of Asahigaoka Station (Shimane) on the Ichibata Electric Railway.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tangean KofunCC 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. The period takes its name from them.
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
- 1933
The tumulus was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1933.
Source - 2018
The tumulus is on private property with limited public access, and an explanatory placard once at the site was removed in 2018. The tumulus is approximately one kilometer to the east of from Asahigaoka Station (Shimane) on the Ichibata Electric Railway.
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
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
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
- 35°28′58″ N, 132°59′42″ EFor a GPS or map app: 35.48269, 132.99489
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
3 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q55524706wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
- 03Wikipedia: Tangean Kofunen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Tangean Kofun, sekkan.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 "Tangean 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): Tangean KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q55524706CC0