The Kofun Period and Haniwa

 


The Nintoku mausoleum in Sakai, Osaka prefecture, Japan, part of the Mozu-Furuichi group of ancient burial sites known as kofun


        The Kofun Period is from the third century to 538 c.e., and it was named after the burial mounds of the ruling class of the time. The practice of building tomb burial mounds for their dead came to Asia around the third century. The original tombs were very basic in their design, unadorned and with no ornate designs. Over the course of the next three centuries, these burial mounds increasingly got more and more ornate designs. By the sixth century, the tomb mounds even included painted decorations on the inside of the burial chambers, along with new traditions that sprung forth from this time such as the designing of the ornate mounds themselves. There was a level of protection on and around each burial mound. The burial mounds themselves were each encircled by stones of all sizes, and earthenware clay pots and other sorts of symbolic clay items that were hollow called Haniwa in Japanese. These Kofun burial mounds tended to be keyhole-shaped, as well as having several different tiers to them. One other pretty noticeable thing about them is the moat that surrounded them. There were many of these ancient burial mounds around Japan, and all of them were just as impressive as the next. The largest of them was, and is to this day, the Nintoku mausoleum, which measures up to 486 meters long! Needless to say, these structures showed off an impressive amount of power by the ruling families.



Cylindrical Haniwa, 6th century, clay

        Haniwa as far as we can tell to this day were made and placed so that they could be seen. It's just a theory up to this point, as Japan had no writing system at the time. When Kofun were finished being built, the land around the area was usually bare of vegetation. In it's place builders put gravel down along with the Haniwa! As a side note, the forestry that is there today is just a result of time. Each Haniwa was a hand-crafted piece of beautiful clay pottery, most being life sized. They were intricately scattered across the landscape around the Kofun. The beauty of these tombs is a testament to how well crafted buildings and tombs can withstand the tests of time! In some cases, time makes them more beautiful!





Yoko Hsueh Shirai, Dr. 2020. "Haniwa Warrior – Smarthistory". Smarthistory.Org. https://smarthistory.org/haniwa-warrior/.

SONIA COMAN, DR. 2020. "A Brief History Of The Arts Of Japan: The Jomon To Heian Periods – Smarthistory". Smarthistory.Org. https://smarthistory.org/japan-jomon-heian/.























Comments

  1. Ashley MOctober 24, 2020 at 1:56 PM

    It's so cool that you can see the keyhole covered in lush greenery. It looks like it was purposely done like this. It kind of reminds me of the Stanley Hotel maze in the Shining. I wonder if the moat was put there to keep grave robbers out, and what kind of valuables must have been placed inside to inspire such a grievous undertaking. I wondered what the purpose of the Haniwa was and after a quick google search I found that may have just been grave markers, but that is only speculation. Cool post.

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  2. Justin DwinellOctober 25, 2020 at 4:30 PM

    Hello Jake,
    Your post about the Nintoku mausoleum was very informative. I really enjoyed reading your post because I almost did my blog post on this. I never knew why the kofun period was named that until you informed us about the burial mounds that caused the naming of this period. It is crazy how this big piece shaped as a keyhole is a burial mound. Based off the picture I never would have guessed. Thank you for the post Jake.

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