The story
From about 250 CE, rulers in the Kinai region (around modern Nara and Osaka) began burying their dead under enormous earthen mounds called kofun, many of them shaped like a keyhole, with a round rear section and a trapezoid front. They were ringed by moats and topped with rows of clay figures called haniwa, and filled with bronze mirrors, iron weapons and jewelry. Over the next three centuries more than 150,000 mounds of all sizes were raised across Japan, giving the Kofun period (c. 250 to 538) its name.
The mounds followed the Yayoi period, when rice farming and iron and bronze tools spread from Korea and created surplus wealth and rival chiefdoms. Chinese records describe Queen Himiko of Yamatai sending envoys to the Wei court in 239, and some scholars link early giant tombs such as Hashihaka in Nara to this era, though that is debated. The largest tomb, Daisen at Sakai near Osaka, built in the 5th century and traditionally assigned to Emperor Nintoku, is about 486 meters long. Such projects needed thousands of laborers and showed that the Yamato rulers could command the whole region. Their shared tomb style marked a political alliance that grew into Japan's first state, and the imperial line traces its descent from Yamato kings.
Why it mattered
- The tombs mark the emergence of the Yamato court, whose rulers became Japan's imperial house, the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy.
- Shared burial customs linked regional elites into one political network, leading to the centralized state of the 7th century.
- Contact with Korea and China during the period brought iron, horse riding, writing and Buddhism.
- The grave goods and haniwa are a principal source of knowledge about Japan before written history.
Sources
- Kofun period EBSCO Research Starters
- Japan Burial Site Under Excavation One of World's Largest Nippon.com
Community notes
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