Kofun Barrows in Japan

Technical Term "Kofun"

A word "Kofun" literally means "old mounds" in Japanese. Many Japanese people use the expression in that sense in their daily lives.

When the word is mentioned in the field of history or archeology, however, it is a technical terms. The term is defined as "burial mounds constructed in the Kofun Period," and other types of burial mounds built in different periods have their own names in Japanese.

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Kofun Shapes

Kofun assume several different shapes. Keyhole-shape represents the appearance and followed by square-front-and-square-back ones, round ones, and square ones.

Keyhole-shaped kofun are called "zen-po-ko-en fun" in Japanese. The name literally means "front-round-and-back-square mound". The square-front-and-square-back kofun are called "zen-po-ko-ho fun". So, they may be sometimes confusing even for Japanese people.

Shapes and Sizes

I have learned a widely-accepted theory about shapes and sizes of kofun as follows:

• Shapes and sizes of kofun must have been based on the tomb owners' social rank and political power.
• It is thought that keyhole-shaped kofun were in the highest rank; front-square-and-back-square ones were in the second-highest; round ones were in the third-highest; square ones were in the fourth-highest.
• Among the same shapes, it must have been that the larger a kofun was, the stronger their political power was.

The Largest Kofun in Japan

The largest keyhole-shaped kofun in Japan is "the 486-meter-long mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku" in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Nintoku, the 16th emperor of Japan, is thought to have been on the throne around the end of the 4th century or the first half of 5th century if he actually existed. About 40 among 160,0000 kofun are longer than 200 meters long in Japan.

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The 3rd century

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The 4th century

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The 5th century

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The 6th century

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My Summary

I am interested in the relationship between Wa and the Korean Peninsula countries because the connection must have directly influenced Iwase-senzuka leaders.

I need to properly understand itself before I look into the Japanese association with the peninsula and I feel that this distribution of large-sized kofun contains clues about that.

What I have found in this list are as follows.

• Considering the size and the number of kofun in the 5th century, population growth must have occurred in the period. I think there were at least two reasons.
  • Spread of iron farm implements which led to agricultural land expansion and increase in the yield.
  • Introduction of new cooking ware such as steamers and stoves which led to nutritional improvement.
• The distribution of large-sized kofun makes me imagine that the early imperial family branched out into several lineages. Bitter factional struggles might have taken place, but the burial mounds themselves indicate nothing about that.
• Locations of the large-sized kofun, however, might present the succession race results. Taking imperial mausolea positions into account, the transition seems to be as follows.
• An area around Yanagimoto kofun cluster in the south-eastern part of the Nara Basin from the mid-3rd C to the 2nd half of the 4th C. (The first central power of )
• An area around Saki Tatanami kofun cluster in the northern part of the Nara Basin between the 2nd half of the 4th C and the beginning of the 5th C. (Leaders from Umami kofun cluster area in the south-western part of the Nara Basin must also have played important roles in the administration.)
• An area around Mozu and Furuichi kofun clusters in the southern part of present Osaka Prefecture from the 1st half of the 5th C until the mid-6th C.
• Asuka in the most southern part of the Nara Basin after the mid-6th C.

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A List of Keyhole-shaped Kofun in Wakayama City Based on Information I Have Gained (in chronological order)

Basic information here is from "Place Name List of Buried Cultural Properties" by Wakayama Prefecture Board of Education. The owner of this website, referring to sources mentioned in the list, have edited the following table.

(Key) NB: Kinokawa River North Bank Area, Iwase: Iwase-senzuka Kohun Cluster, MT: Misaki Town in Osaka Prefecture, ml: mound length, bc: back circular part.

A List of Keyhole-shaped Kofun in Wakayama City (without information on time)

Listed in "Place Name List of Buried Cultural Properties in Wakayama Prefecture," some have no information on time when they are estimated to have been built. The next is the table about them.

(Key) ditto, SB: Kinokawa River South Bank Area except Iwase-sunzuka Kofun Cluster