Fujinoki Kofun: A Late Sixth-Century Japanese Burial Mound
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Yamato
- Site type
- Burial
- Remains
- Burial Mound
On this page15 sections
History
Fujinoki Kofun is a circular burial mound in Ikaruga, Nara, Japan, built during the late sixth century in the Kofun period. It lies about 350 metres west of the Western Precinct of Hōryū-ji. The mound dates specifically to the fourth quarter of the sixth century, when the construction of keyhole-shaped tombs in the Kinai, the historical core region around the ancient capitals of present-day Nara and Kyoto, was approaching its end.
Late Sixth-Century Burial
The date rests on Haji pottery, an unglazed earthenware, and Sue pottery, a high-fired ceramic associated with Korean technological influence, recovered from the burial chamber. Fujinoki Kofun is an enpun, the circular form of Japanese burial mound. Its rich burial furnishings indicate that the occupants belonged to a powerful elite, although the mound’s circular shape shows that it was not an imperial-rank tomb.
The central chamber held two adults in a house-shaped stone sarcophagus. Osteoarchaeological analysis by Kazumichi Katayama identified both occupants as probably male, but the southern skeleton was poorly preserved and lacked its pelvis. Yoshiko Mabe questioned the interpretation of a simultaneous burial of two men, while Kazue Tamaki argued that the southern individual should be treated as an adult of biologically indeterminate sex, leaving open the possibility of a male-female burial.
Proposed Royal Identities
Archaeologist Michio Maezono and archaeologist and ancient Japanese historian Taichiro Shiraishi proposed that the occupants may have been Prince Anahobe and Prince Yakabe. Their interpretation connects the tomb with an assassination recorded in the Nihon Shoki, an early eighth-century chronicle of traditions concerning Japan’s early imperial state, in June 587. The identification remains an interpretation rather than an established fact.
The imported character of the horse equipment has encouraged wider interpretations of the burial’s connections. The fittings are regarded as products from China transmitted through the Korean Peninsula, and their ornament and style have been associated with Northern Yan and Northern Wei, states established in northern China during the fifth and sixth centuries. These connections place the grave goods within the broader exchange networks of late sixth-century East Asia.
Temple Protection and Later History
Records from Hōryū-ji indicate that a temple building stood immediately south of the mound from at least the late Heian period. It later became Hōshaku-ji, a convent belonging to a branch temple of Hōryū-ji, and was destroyed by fire in 1854. Residents of the Nishisato settlement protected both the mound and the convent. Until the Edo period, a building called the Ryōdō and a guardian of the grave were maintained at the site.
Lamps and other evidence indicate that rites for the deceased continued within the stone chamber until the end of the Edo period. This long protection is considered a major reason that the grave goods remained largely intact, although a chipped corner of the sarcophagus has also been interpreted as evidence of an earlier attempted intrusion.
Excavation and Preservation
Six stages of archaeological investigation took place between 1985 and 2006 under the direction of the Ikaruga Town Board of Education and the Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute. The first investigation exposed the stone chamber, sarcophagus, grave goods, and miniature iron agricultural implements. Later work established the mound’s form and dimensions, inspected the sarcophagus with a fiberscope, a narrow optical instrument for examining an enclosed space, and opened and recorded the chamber interior.
On 28 November 1995, three junior-high-school students entered the chamber and damaged the front centre of the sarcophagus lid with a hammer and large nail. Fragments and a later bone urn were removed. The lid was subsequently repaired, the surrounding metal fence was removed, and the mound was developed as a public archaeological park with national financial assistance.
Fujinoki Kofun became a National Historic Site of Japan in 1991. Its excavated objects received collective Important Cultural Property designations in stages beginning in 1988, with the chamber finds added in 1991, and became National Treasures in 2004. The objects are owned by Japan through the Agency for Cultural Affairs and are preserved and displayed at the museum of the Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute. Since around 2014, residents’ groups and local schools, including Hōryū-ji International High School, have helped maintain the site through volunteer weeding and cleaning.
Remains
Mound and Burial Layout
Fujinoki Kofun is a circular earth mound whose original diameter was approximately 50 metres and whose height was about 9 metres. Erosion associated with surrounding rice fields and buildings reduced its present maximum diameter to about 40 metres and its height to approximately 7.6 metres. Cylindrical haniwa, clay funerary objects placed around or on burial mounds, stood along the mound’s foot. Their presence showed that the production and placement of haniwa in Yamato continued later than previously believed.
At the centre lies a horizontal-entry stone chamber, a burial chamber reached through a passage cut into the mound. Its total length is just under 14 metres. The burial chamber measures about 6.0 metres along the west wall and 5.7 metres along the east wall, with a width of approximately 2.4 to 2.7 metres and a height of 4.2 to 4.4 metres. It is a double-sleeved chamber, with projecting side sections on both sides of the passage. The passage is about 8.3 metres long and 1.8 to 2.1 metres wide.
Gravel covered the chamber floor, beneath which a drainage ditch ran from the centre of the chamber through the passage to the mound’s foot. The passage entrance lay near the present mound foot after a small amount of covering soil had been removed. The mound surroundings have been landscaped as a park, while the Ikaruga Cultural Properties Center, about 200 metres south, displays replicas of principal excavated objects.
Sarcophagus and Burial
Toward the rear of the chamber stood a hollowed, house-shaped sarcophagus, whose roof-like form resembled a dwelling. It was carved from white tuff, a rock formed from compacted volcanic ash, quarried at Mount Nijō. Red mercury-vermilion pigment covered both its interior and exterior. The sarcophagus measures approximately 235 by 130 by 97 centimetres. Its lid is about 230 by 130 centimetres and 52 to 55 centimetres thick, and has projections for hanging ropes. The eastern side is slightly wider and taller than the western side, giving the coffin a trapezoidal plan. The lid was repaired after the 1995 damage.
The two adults lay over silk fabric at the base of the coffin and were wrapped in four additional layers of cloth over their clothing. More than 10,000 glass beads accompanied the bodies, together with numerous metal ornaments. Organic remains included fragments of cloth and pollen. Safflower pollen was abundant, and safflower was detected in red textile fibres. Its presence has been interpreted as possibly relating both to dyeing and to preservation.
Weapons, Regalia, and Ceramics
Weapons and Mirrors
The chamber produced five long swords and one straight sword, all with luxurious gilt-bronze fittings. Other objects included four bronze mirrors, a gilt-bronze crown, gilt-bronze footwear, gilt-bronze and silver ornaments, lamellar armour scales, iron arrowheads, and other metal objects. The four mirrors consist of one beast-band mirror, two pictorial-band divine-beast mirrors, and one divine-beast mirror.
Pottery and Small Objects
Numerous Haji and Sue vessels were placed in the chamber. The National Treasure inventory includes 46 vessels found outside the sarcophagus, comprising 37 Sue vessels, including three lids, and nine Haji vessels. Other objects from outside the sarcophagus include horse equipment, small armour plates, sword blades, iron arrowheads, and miniature iron objects.
Horse Equipment
Gilt-Bronze Saddle Fittings
The horse equipment comprised one set of gilt-bronze saddle fittings and two sets of iron-base fittings clad with gilt bronze. Gilt bronze is bronze covered with a layer of gold. The principal gilt-bronze set is of Xianbei type, a style associated with a confederation prominent in northern China during the fifth and sixth centuries. Its front and rear bows rise vertically, and its decoration includes palmettes, phoenixes, dragons, demon masks, monstrous fish, elephants, lions, and rabbits.
Comparable motifs are known from saddle fittings excavated near Chaoyang in Liaoning. No other comparable saddle has been found in Japan, Silla, Baekje, or Gaya. Several sets of horse equipment appear to have been represented, although about half of the component pieces lack matching counterparts. The reported bit arrangement differs from the usual Japanese type, with two linked sections rather than a single rod. The possibility that rawhide rope replaced metal has also been proposed because metal was scarce and costly in parts of Asia.
Stirrup and Wooden Saddle
A large ceremonial stirrup follows a sixth-century form. Three slightly curved bars join into a bronze frame above a wooden footplate, and a linked chain connects its attachment to a strap crossing the rear of the saddle. The stirrup is damaged, with several large sections of its reinforcing frame missing, and may have been intended mainly for burial display rather than practical riding.
Parts of a wooden saddle were found with gilt-bronze, arc-shaped ornaments attached to its cantles, the raised ends of a saddle. The saddle consisted mainly of front and rear bows, with straps passing beneath the horse for stability. The front bow retains complete and elaborate decoration. The rear bow is plainer and lacks its central piece, suggesting that it was added later.
Textiles and Archaeological Interpretation
The chamber contained a substantial group of glass products, textile fragments, pollen, and other organic remains alongside the weapons, ornaments, and ceramics. No traces of food eaten by the deceased were found in their remains, prompting the possibility that their digestive tracts had been removed before burial.
The Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute has produced three-dimensional printed reconstructions of some horse fittings, several of which can be handled by visitors. Together with the replicas displayed at the Ikaruga Cultural Properties Center, these reconstructions represent the principal excavated objects while the original National Treasure collection remains preserved at the institute’s museum.
