The is the largest of a group of ''

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumulus, tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞 ...

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

s located in what is now the city of

Minamisōma is a city located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 53,462 in 26,355 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Minamisōma is located in northea ...

, in

Fukushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,771,100 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi Prefecture and Yamagata Prefecture ...

in the southern

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of northern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since 1956. with the extent of the designation expanded in 1988.

Overview

The tumulus is a "two conjoined rectangles" type ''kofun'' () located on a low plateau approximately 10 meters in elevation above the southern bank of the Nitagawa River. It is part of a cluster of 37 tumuli, both large and small, spread over a 900 meter section of the same

river terrace Fluvial terraces are elongated terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplain, other fluvial t ...

, of which twelve survive. The ''kofun'' drew much attention when first excavated by a team from

Meiji University is a Private university, private research university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Originally founded as Meiji Law School () by three lawyers in 1881, it became a university in April 1920. As of May 2023, Meiji has 32,261 undergradu ...

in 1955 as it was the largest ''kofun'' then known in the Tōkohu region. Subsequently, larger ''kofun'' have been found, but the Sakurai Kofun remains the third largest of its type in the region, with a length of 74.5 meters and height of 6.8 meters. . The head of the tumulus is in the form of an earthen

step pyramid A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids – typically large and made of several la ...

45 meters on each side, with a height of 6.35 meters. From the design and artifacts recovered, it is estimated to have been built in the middle of the 4th century. During excavations by the Haramachi Board of Education in 1983, traces of a surrounding moat with width of 7 to 20 meters wide and depth of 60 to 70 cm. The area including the moat was added to the designated Historic Site designation in June 1988. It was also found that the southern end of the rear portion of the mound had been truncated in antiquity, so that its original length was once longer than 74.5 meters. No ''

haniwa The are terracotta clay figures that were made for ritual use and buried with the dead as funerary objects during the Kofun period (3rd to 6th centuries AD) of the history of Japan. ''Haniwa'' were created according to the ''wazumi'' technique ...

'' or ''

fukiishi ( or "roofing stone") were a means of covering burial chambers and Tumulus, burial mounds during the kofun period of Japan (). Stones collected from riverbeds were affixed to the slopes of raised kofun and other burial chambers. They are consi ...

'' were discovered; however, fragments of two bamboo-shaped wooden sarcophagus were found at the top of the rear portion of the tumulus. At present, the ''kofun'' is maintained as part of Sakurai Kofun Park, and is located approximately 10 minutes by car from

Haranomachi Station is a railway station in the city of Minamisōma, Fukushima, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Haranomachi Station is served by the Joban Line, and is located 286.9 km from the official starting point of the li ...

on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

Joban Line.

References

External links

Minamisoma home page
{{in lang, ja Minamisōma Historic Sites of Japan Tourist attractions in Fukushima Prefecture History of Fukushima Prefecture Zenpō-kōhō-fun

Overview

See also

References

External links