Akamonue Kofun

Akamonue Kofun is an early Kofun period (late 4th century) keyhole-shaped burial mound, located in the Uchinō neighborhood of Hamana-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka in the Tōkai region of Japan. The tumulus was designated a Shizuoka Prefecture Historic Site in 1979.

The Akamonue Kofun is a zenpō-kōen-fun , which is shaped like a keyhole, having one square end and one circular end, when viewed from above. It is located at an elevation of 35 meters on the eastern edge of the Mikatagahara Plateau, Iwatabara Plateau located east of the Tenryū River. It is now surrounded by a suburban residential development. The name of the burial mound originates from the temple of Ryūsen-in (commonly known as "Akamon-ji"), located south of the mound. Several hundred meters northeast of Akamonyama Kofun are the Inariyama Kofun and Yamanoue Kofun (both unexcavated), and several other burial mounds remain in the surrounding area. The tumulus is 56.3 meters long, with a posterior circular section of 36.2 meters in diameter and 4.9 meters high, and an anterior rectangular section 14.7 meters wide and 1.15 meters high, orientated to the north. The front rectangular section is low and narrow, a characteristic of older keyhole-shaped tumuli. It was excavated in 1961, although portions of the mound had been damaged due to the construction of air raid shelters during wartime. Although there was evidence of pre-modern grave robbing, the direct earth burial in the posterior circular mound was intact, and a split-bamboo-shaped camphor wood coffin measuring 5.58 meters in length was discovered. It was constructed from a large tree over one meter in diameter that had been cut lengthwise. Clay was scattered in a U-shape at the northern end of the coffin, possibly to support it, and the inside of the coffin was painted vermilion. The grave goods included numerous metal artifacts, including a triangular-rimmed shinju-kyo bronze mirror with a floral crest, sun, moon, heavenly king, and four beasts motif; one iron sword; one straight sword; six tubular jasper beads; 30 bronze arrowheads; 11 iron arrowheads; three iron axe heads; two spearheads; one knife; and two unidentified iron artifacts. Identical trian

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).