Muro Miyayama (Muro no Ōbaka) tomb (Muro, Gose city)

This tomb is located in Muro in the city of Gose, in Nara prefecture. A keyhole-shaped mound of 238 m inoverall length, it is the largest in scale for tombs in the southwestern portion of the Nara basin (theKazuraki region).
The tomb is located on level ground directly to the northern side of the Koseyama tomb group, which
numbers more than 500 clustered tombs standing atop the Koseyama hills. The front (rectangular) portionof the keyhole mound points west, and on this portion’s northern side is a square projection. The traces ofthe moat are not distinct, but standing atop the outer rampart on the northern side is Nekozuka, a squaremound 70 m on a side, regarded as a subsidiary tomb. Nekozuka is currently being used as farmland. The
area to the southeast of the mound is currently a pond, and it is thought that originally a shield-shaped moat
encircled the tomb. The mound is constructed in three tiers, and as exterior facilities the presence of surface
cobbles and haniwa rows have been confirmed.
At the top of the round portion of the mound there are two burial facilities lined up north and south.
The southern burial facility is a vertical stone chamber containing a chest-shaped sarcophagus of
Tatsuyama stone, and while it has been badly robbed, mirror fragments, steatite and jasper beads andsteatite stone replicas, stone scepter heads, and so forth have been recovered.
Above the ceiling stone of the vertical chamber stood haniwa in the shapes of a pedestaled dish, and alarge-scale (121 cm tall) house having a chokkomon (intersecting straight and curved line) pattern applied
to its vermilion-painted square pillars as well as a hip-and-gable roof with the ridge topped with shortperpendicular logs. There was also a square of haniwa rows enclosing this vertical stone chamber, in which
items combining a shield and a helmet (141 cm tall), and those in the shapes of shields, quivers, and armor
protecting the lower torso were stood facing outward. Further, to the front of these on the southern side
were a total of four house-shaped haniwa with gable and hip roofs. All of these representational haniwa
were finely made large items faithfully reproducing the actual objects, and are representative materials for
the Kofun period of Japan. The centrally positioned large-scale house-shaped haniwa has a structure
identical with that of a massive embedded-pillar building discovered at the Gokurakuji Hibiki site. The
latter site is part of the large-scale site group of Nangō which lies to the southwest of this tomb, and thebuilding discovered there was the grand hall (a structure built tall in a palatial manner) where the chief heldcourt. The haniwa is thus a precious example giving expression to a place where governance was actuallyconducted.
The northern burial facility has not been excavated, but the ceiling stones of its vertical chamber areexposed. Also, fragments have been gathered of stoneware produced in the Gaya region of the southern
Korean peninsula, as pedestaled dish and boat-shaped vessels. They are thought to have originally beenplaced in the stone chamber as grave goods.
There are also two burial facilities in the rectangular portion of the mound, and there are records of 11
mirrors and more than 170 beads and other items having been recovered. The current whereabouts of thesematerials are unknown. Additionally, material of a wooden coffin has been recovered, which is on display

in this museum. Further, a burial facility consisting of a clay compartment has been detected at the top of
the square projection on the rectangular portion, from which lacquered goods, iron swords, cuirass
fragments, iron arrowheads, and so forth have been recovered.
The date of construction of the tomb is the start of the Middle Kofun period (the beginning of the fifthcentury). It rivals the tombs of great kings in both scale and content. It is extremely important historicallyas a tomb of the ruling class in the Kazuraki region.