Lably
Skip to content

Kofun period

Period of Japanese history from 258/300 to 538/710 AD

  • 12 min read
  • 8 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Recorded history, China and Korea

Lab · Class 8–12Archaeology of Delhi

It was a period of cultural import. Continuing from the Yayoi period, the Kofun period is characterized by influence from China and Korea; archaeologists consider it a shared culture across the southern Korean peninsula, Kyushu and Honshu. On the other hand, wealthy zempō-kōen fun (keyhole kofun) during this period were approximately 5000 from the middle of the 3rd century in the Yayoi period to the 7th century in the Asuka period in the Japanese archipelago, and many of them were massive.

In comparison, in the southern Korean peninsula, there were only 13 from the 5th century to the 6th century, and the tombs were small. Wall decorations and Japanese-style armour characteristic of kofun were excavated from 5th-century burial mounds in the southern Korean peninsula. This indicates that Japan and the southern Korean peninsula influenced one another.

According to the Nihon Shoki (720), Buddhism and the Chinese characters were introduced near the end of the period from Baekje. The Kofun period recorded Japan's earliest political centralization, when the Yamato Kingship rose to power in southwestern Japan and helped control trade routes across the region.

Kofun tombs

Kofun (古墳, ancient tumuli) are tumuli built for the ruling class from the 3rd to the 7th centuries in Japan, and the Kofun period takes its name from these distinctive earthen mounds. Kofun contained large stone burial chambers, and some are surrounded by moats.

Kofun have four basic shapes: round and square are the most common, followed by hotategaikei kofun 'scallop-shell kofun' and zempō-kōen fun 'keyhole kofun.' The keyhole tomb is a distinct style found only in Japan, with a square front and a round back. Kofun range in size from several meters to over 400 meters long, and haniwa (unglazed pottery figures) were often buried under a kofun's circumference.

Development

The oldest Japanese kofun is reportedly Hokenoyama Kofun in Sakurai, Nara, which dates to the late 3rd century. In the Makimuku district of Sakurai, later keyhole kofuns like Hashihaka Kofun, Shibuya Mukaiyama Kofun) were built during the early 4th century. The keyhole kofun spread from Yamato Province to Kawachi Province, with giant kofun, such as Daisenryō Kofun, and then throughout the country during the 5th century. Keyhole kofun disappeared later in the 6th century, probably due to the drastic reformation of the Yamato court; the Nihon Shoki records the introduction of Buddhism at this time. The last two great kofun are the 190-metre-long (620 ft) Imashirozuka Kofun in Õsaka, currently believed by scholars to be the tomb of Keitai, and the 135-metre-long (443 ft) Iwayayama Kofun in Fukuoka, recorded in the Fudoki of Chikugo as the tomb of Tsukushi no kuni no Miyatsuko Iwai, the political archrival of Keitai.

Kofun burial mounds on the island of Tanegashima and two ancient Shinto shrines on Yakushima suggest that these islands were the southern boundary of the Yamato Kingship; it extended north to Tainai in the present-day Niigata Prefecture, where excavated mounds have been associated with a person closely linked to the Yamato kingdom.

Sign in to keep reading

7 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in History

Church of EnglandAnglican church in EnglandWhite HouseResidence and workplace of the US presidentFrench Third RepublicGovernment of France from 1870 to 1940Western cultureWestern culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culEarly ChristianityHistorical era of the Christian religionOld NorseNorth Germanic language