Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Tokurenba Kofun
Datedc. 401–500 CE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Tokurenba Kofun (徳連場古墳) is a burial mound of the Kofun period, located in the Tamayu-cho 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 small circular mound, thought to have been constructed around the 5th century, with a stone sarcophagus exposed in the centre of the burial chamber.
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
Tokurenba Kofun
The Tokurenba Kofun stands on the eastern hills of the Tamatsukuri hot spring town, just north of the Izumo Tamatsukuri Museum.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tokurenba KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tokurenba KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The Tokurenba Kofun stands on the eastern hills of the Tamatsukuri hot spring town, just north of the Izumo Tamatsukuri Museum. It is a small circular enpun (円墳) tumulus with a diameter of 8.5 meters and a height of 1.5 meters. Much of the mound has been eroded away, and a split bamboo-shaped sarcophagus (or boat-shaped sarcophagus) made of white quartz andesitic tuff is exposed in the centre of the burial chamber.
The sarcophagus has a total length of 2.3 meters and a width of 0.8 meters. The combination of lid and body is of the inroguchi style, with four hooks on the lid and two hooks on the body, which is rare in Shimane Prefecture.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tokurenba KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tokurenba KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
It is said that an iron sword and agate beads were excavated from inside the sarcophagus, but these, and any other grave goods, have been lost.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tokurenba KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tokurenba KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
The area around this tumulus was a centre for making magatama, round and cylindrical beads, from the end of the Yayoi period to the Heian period.
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
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.
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–1200 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a megalithic mound in Japan is normally dated between 4000 BCE and 1200 BCE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Period
- Kofun periodSource: Period
- Site type
- burial moundSource: Site type
- Location
- Tamayu-cho neighborhood, Matsue, Shimane, JapanSource: Location
- Heritage designation
- National Historic Site of JapanSource: Heritage designation
- Designation year
- 1933Source: Designation year
Where it stands
Japan
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 35°25′01″ N, 133°00′50″ EFor a GPS or map app: 35.41686, 133.01389
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 Q122610027wikidata.org
- 02Wikipedia (en)en.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tokurenba 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): Tokurenba KofunCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q122610027CC0