Kofun are enormous (often) keyhole-shaped burial mounds. They are quite remarkable, and now, with online mapping tools, anyone can get a bird's-eye view of them. Who were the originally intended viewers of these giant keyholes? Certainly not imaging satellites flying hundreds of kilometres above the Earth.
I've scoured Japan and here are a bunch of Kofuns: (zoom in and drag the maps around to see more)
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These are near Heijou Palace in Nara.
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These are in Sakai, Osaka.
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These are a bit east of Osaka.
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In Chiba.
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In Osaka.
7 comments:
But what exactly ARE burial mounds ? I zoomed in and I've dragged around. I am wondering what they are made of? If they are burial mounds, are people buried there?
You can read more about them at Wikipedia. Click here.
I believe there are stones under there, and yes people are buried there.
Now that I have read a bit about them, I realize that you could actually visit them, like we visited archaelogical sites in Greece. Am i right? If yes, you should consider doing so ne ?
You may be right. I'm not sure how close tourists could get though. I'll have to look into it if I find a kofun close by.
@kath: Any near you Kath?
There is one in Tokyo somewhere; you have to reread the articles BUT it seems as though these are not set up for onlookers or for tourists as archaelogical sites are, in places like Greece.Interestingly, it seems that there has been some dispute/"scandals" regarding some japanese archaelogical sites....I must read more, I guess, and you too ne !
I'm adding another map of a kofun cluster. This is a couple kilometers east of the other Osaka cluster.
doesn't it look like a key hole? amazing!
yuu
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