Tomb of Emperor Ankan (Ankan Tennō-ryō Kofun) 安閑天皇陵古墳

Official explanation

According to the Imperial Household Agency, this is the tomb of Emperor Ankan. Ankan ruled Japan during the sixth century. In the middle of the Edo period (1603–1867) a Sassanid glass bowl was found in the tomb. The Sassanid Empire ruled Persia from 224 to 651 CE, and the glass bowl, along with the 2012 discovery of beads made in the Roman empire in a burial mound in the city of Nagaokakyō (Kyoto prefecture), provides evidence that goods traveled from the Middle East and Europe to Japan as early as the sixth century.

During the fifteenth century, Takaya Castle was built on the mound to take advantage of its height and moat. The slopes of the mound were made steeper to more easily repel attacks. Although the castle’s construction drastically changed the shape of the kofun, based on unearthed haniwa figures and Sue pottery, the mound is believed to have built in the early sixth century.

Read the full explanation

The tomb of Emperor Ankan is 13 meters high and covers an area just under 1.1 hectares. A small moat surrounds the mound, but modern construction has drastically distorted its shape, making it impossible to know what its original scale might have been.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.