 Designated National Historic Site
 Late Kofun Period
| This tomb mound lies west of the main hall of Shoraku-ji Temple, located in Hirano, south of Nishi-Meihan Expressway's Kashiba Interchange. You can reach it by passing through the temple's compound. Until the end of the Edo Period (1600-1868), it had been believed to be the tomb of Emperor Kenzo (Kenzo Mausoleum).
The excavation work in 1972 revealed that it was a 4-meter high square tomb mound of which each side measured about 21 m. Found from the stone chamber with a southern entrance were fragments of a copper coffin made of layers of lacquered cloth, a gilt copper earring and other articles.
The stone chamber is an elaborately assembled piece of work made of tuff quarried from the nearby Donzuru-bo hill. It is coated with plaster. The inside dimensions are: 3.05 m in length, 1.5 m in width and 1.76 m in height.
The excavated articles show that it was the tomb of a person of considerably high birth. Since it employs the same measuring unit as that in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), China, it is thought to have been built sometime between the late 7th century and the end of the century.
The mound was designated as a national historic site in 1974 because of its archaeological importance as a rare mound built in the final phase of the Kofun Period (ca. 300-710) or just before the Nara Period (710-794).
Another final-phase tomb mound is the well-known Takamatsuzuka tomb mound (Asuka) which is presently sealed for preservation. You can imagine its structure by visiting this Hirano-tsukaanayama tomb mound.
Source: The Kashiba municipal government
|
Historic Cultural Resources Map
Return to Kashiba City