Mystery No.1 What is kofun?

Kofun is a mounded tomb mainly constructed during the mid-third through the seventh centuries. Its mound looks like a hill. Although it is covered with trees today, it was a few-tiered earthen mound with fukiishi or white paving stones on the slope and haniwa clay figures on the flat surface, when constructed. It is said that there are more than 160,000 kofun nationwide, and the largest Nintoku-tenno-ryo Kofun, which mound measures 486 m long, is in Sakai, Osaka. From 10 m long round or square kofun to over 400 m long keyhole-shaped ones, shapes and sizes of kofun vary, most likely depending on the position or the social class of the dead.