The old tomb

Yesterday, I have uploaded a photo of Bentenzuka-kofun in Facebook, one of the mounds in this area, which is located on the way to my old office. A friend of mine has asked me about the tomb and the burial accessories in this mound. I have investigated about it a bit.

The result is tha there is only small amount of informations available on this tomb. It belongs to Azakata mounds in the area. A big river named Kinugawa is running west of this cluster of mounds. There is believed to used to be a big community at this place in Jomon Yayoi era, that is, approcimately from 14th century BC to 4th century BC, a prehistoric era in Japan. It is an era without any written history but an era as an object of archeology. Later in 6th to 7th century AD, the moulds are thought to have been built as tombs for the powerful persons in this area. About 60 years ago, a university group has studied these moulds. They have found burial mound figurines or ironwares etc for burial accessories and horizontal hole type stone chambers in some tombs. At least some burial accessories were preserved within the tombs. The structure of the tombs found by the investigation group suggests that these tombs have been built in  that age mentioned above. The investigation report by the group is not accissible through the internet, unfortunately. We may be able to read it at certain library. If I have a chance, I would investigate about it.

It is amazing that there are so many, possibly, hundreds of the same kind of old tombs all around in this country. As I told in a previous post, I believe they have been preserved as objects of worship by the people nearby. Or they would have been destroyed during the past centuries. I believe the people in this area have worshipped ancestors or some god in Bhuddism tradition at this old tomb. That worship must has been inherited from a generation to the next. I believe they have seen some transcendental beings or supreme beings in the old tombs. It is a primitive religion. It is still moving me our ancestors have had religious mind. They have been born in this area, grown up seeing the tomb from time to time, have enjoyed some kind of feast for the religion held around the tombs and have died to return to the eternal phase that the tomb has indicated. 

We are not the exception of those people. I feel a bit relieved to imagine our ancestors have lived in that way.