Makimuku Kofun Cluster


Makimuku Kofun cluster is group of kofun burial mounds located in the Ota, Higashida, and Hashinaka neighborhoods of the city of Sakurai, Nara in the Kansai region of Japan. It is part of the Ooyamato Kofun Cluster, at the western foot of Mount Miwa. It is considered to be the birthplace of the zenpō-kōen-fun-style of tumuli. The cluster was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2006.

Overview

Located in the southeastern part of the Nara Basin, this group of ancient tombs dates back to the early days of the Yamato government, and is located very close to the Hashihaka Kofun managed by the Imperial Household Agency. The cluster consists of five tumuli, all with a distinctive hotategai-gata kofun-style unique to this site, so much so that they are also called Makimuku-style Kofun. Considered the predecessors of the true zenpō-kōen-fun, these tumuli are characterized by:
  • The front part is significantly smaller and lower than the rear circular mound.
  • The ratio of the total length of the mound, the diameter of the rear circular mound, and the length of the front part is exactly 3:2:1 as a rule.
  • The rear circular mound is oblate, inverted egg, or irregularly circular, not a perfect circle.
  • The tombs with a moat have a narrow front part.
In terms of Haji ware pottery style, the construction period of these five tumuli is thought to be between the end of the Yayoi period to the beginning of the early Kofun period, or the latter half of the 3rd century to the 4th century. Agricultural and civil engineering tools, ritual implements, and building materials have been excavated from the moats surrounding the tumuli, and Hokenoyama Tomb has a burial facility with an unusual structure of stacked stones around a wooden coffin, in which grave goods such as a painted belt with a divine beast bronze mirror and iron weapons were buried. There are similar burial mounds from Kyushu to Kanto, but this group of tumuli is large in scale, suggesting that a political alliance had already been formed around the chief of the Yamato region. On the other hand, the wooden products excavated from the moats, the burial facility of Hokenoyama Kofun, and the grave goods such as bronze arrowheads, iron arrowheads, swords, and painted belt with a divine beast mirror are not seen in later standardized keyhole-shaped tumuli, and are characteristic of a burial mound from the end of the Yayoi period.