One of the largest and best-preserved mounds of the Tamateyama group, built in the early to mid 4th century to the same design as Andonyama Kofun. A memorial to the dead of the 1615 Siege of Osaka stands on the rear circle and the grave of Tokugawa Mitsutomo, lord of Owari, on the front part.
Finds & research
A steatite lidded container (lid and body), a small steatite round-bottomed jar, Haji ware jars with double rims and a straight-mouthed Haji jar, cylindrical haniwa, and fragments thought to be from house-shaped haniwa.
Official status & archaeological view
Official status
The rear circle lies inside Kashiwara City's Tamateyama Park and the front part in the grounds of Anpukuji Temple.
Archaeological view
A keyhole mound about 110m long on the crest of the Tamateyama ridge, its front facing west. Once said to be 150m, it was confirmed at about 110m by Osaka City University's excavations of 2001–2002. Both the rear circle and the front part are built in 3 tiers, the terraces of each tier joining in slopes at the waist, and most of the mound is shaped from natural ground. In plan and elevation it closely resembles Andonyama Kofun (the mausoleum of Emperor Sujin) in Nara and is thought to share its design. The central burial pit of the rear circle contained no stone, suggesting a directly buried stone coffin, and a nearly intact clay-encased coffin lies to its south-west. One of the latest mounds of the group.
Field notes
The rear circle is just inside the east (Kokubu-side) entrance of Tamateyama Park; the front part is in the Anpukuji grounds, with the 3 hokyointo stupas of Tokugawa Mitsutomo, his wife and child. The stupa on the summit was raised by the priest Kaoku of Anpukuji for those who fell in the 1615 Siege of Osaka. Mound 6 (69m long), which stood just north of the rear circle, was destroyed after investigation in 1959.