(Japanese: 古墳, “ancient tomb”). The Kofun period in Japanese history spanned the years from ca. 250 to 538 CE. It takes its name from the burial mounds (tumuli) that were built for rulers during this time. The practice of building mounds and depositing treasures with the dead was transmitted to Japan from the Asian continent in the third century CE. By the late fourth and fifth centuries, large mounds were being built in substantial numbers. Daisen Kofun in Osaka, believed to be the final resting place of the Emperor Nintoku, is the largest mound in Japan, measuring 486 m. in length and 36 m. in height. Like many of the monumental tombs in this period, it was constructed in the shape of a keyhole.

The most characteristic artifacts of the period are haniwa. These are hollow, unglazed, earthenware objects that were placed on top of the tomb mounds. The earliest haniwa, dating to the later third century CE, were simple clay cylinders. The haniwa evolved over the course of the Kofun period, with new shapes: jars, birds, houses, military equipment, boats, animals and human figures. While the arrangement of haniwa varied from one tomb to another, they were often lined up along the perimeter of the tomb surface, as if to mark its boundaries. The Daisen Kofun may originally have had as many as 15,000 haniwa placed on it. Web resource here.

Aerial view of Daisen Kofun, Osaka, Japan. Kofun period. Late 4th to early 5th c. CE.