Concept behind “Kofun Culture in Southern Kyushu, Japan: The Burial Mounds of Saitobaru Kofun Group and the Surrounding Area”

1. 1

   Southern Kyushu is significant in that two distinctive burial systems coexisted here. One system consists of keyhole-shaped burial mounds, which were constructed across the Japanese island arc as part of an alliance with royal authorities in the Kinai region. And the other system is characterized by underground tunnel tombs and stone slab tombs, a type of burial system unique to southern Kyushu.

2. 2

   The introduction of corridor-style stone chambers from the Korean Peninsula led to the establishment of underground tunnel tombs, an innovative form of regional burial system. This then led to the development of tunnel tombs in northern Kyushu. In the course of political and military relations between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese island arc, underground tunnel tombs (tunnel tombs) then started to be created in the southwestern area of the Korean Peninsula, in what could be termed a “re-exportation” of this burial culture.

3. 3

   It is possible that powerful clans from southern Kyushu were also involved in the establishment of keyhole-shaped burial mounds in the southwestern area of the Korean Peninsula. Burial mounds of this kind possess a morphology distinctive to the Japanese island arc.

4. 4

   Southern Kyushu’s kofun culture is unusual in that it represents the universality and characteristic properties of burial systems on the Japanese island arc and in East Asia in their most typical forms.

5. 5

   Of the twelve largest kofun in Kyushu, eight are located in southern Kyushu (of the remaining four, two are in Fukuoka Prefecture and two are in Oita Prefecture; here, southern Kyushu includes Osumi), including the colossal Osahozuka and Mesahozuka burial mounds, a pair of important Imperial mausoleums forming part of Saitobaru Kofun Group.

6. 6

   Ikime Kofun Group (4th century), Saitobaru Kofun Group (5th century), Nyutabaru Kofun Group (6th century), and Mochida Kofun Group all retain outstanding historical and cultural landscapes.

7. 7

   The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the two oldest extant chronicles in Japan, describe close and ongoing marital relationships between the Imperial Family and women from powerful clans in Hyuga, from Emperor Keiko in the 4th century to Emperor Yuryaku in the 5th century. The existence of these marital relationships is thought to account for the construction of colossal burial mounds.

8. 8

   Behind the establishment of these marital relationships were factors such as the military might of southern Kyushu’s powerful clans (Morokatanokimi) and interests in the area’s sea transportation.

9. 9

   Southern Kyushu’s kofun groups were built in the context of Japan’s mythology and founding myths. Given this, in terms of importance, these kofun groups can be ranked alongside Osaka’s Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group, a property which provides insights into the formation of royal authority in the Kinai region.

10. 10

    The area’s rich natural environment born from laurel forests (connected with Jiangnan in mainland China) gave rise to one of the earliest mature Jomon cultures in the Japanese island arc, and the area served as a major conduit for the introduction of rice agriculture to Japan (from Jiangnan on the mainland via the Korean Peninsula). Southern Kyushu’s position, therefore, provided the ideal conditions for the flowering of a unique Kofun culture.

11. 11

    Active volcanoes have had a major impact on the area throughout history. The area’s excellent topography consisting of volcanic ash tablelands (originating from the Kirishima Mountain Range, Aira Caldera, Sakurajima, etc.), formed the foundations for the birth of underground tunnel tombs as a burial system unique to this region.

Saitobaru Underground Tunnel Tomb No.4

Ikime Mound No.5