Shijō No. 1 tomb (Shijō-chō, Kashihara city)
This is located in Shijō-chō in the city of Kashihara. It is situated on level ground on the northeastern
portion of Mt. Unebi, one of the “three mountains of Yamato.” In the current townscape, hospitals, a police
station, and the like stand side by side as national highways crisscross the environs.
The Shijō tomb group formed in the Middle and Late Kofun periods (fifth to sixth centuries), comprisedof medium and small keyhole-shaped mounds, plus square and round tombs, but nearly all were leveled inconjunction with the construction of the Fujiwara capital, and in excavation they are detected only by theirmoats. Of the group the Shijō Tsukayama tomb (currently designated as the mausoleum of Emperor Suizei)
is considered to be one for which the mound has survived. Also, it is thought possible that another tombonce stood at the site currently designated as the mausoleum of Emperor Jinmu, and that it too was one of
the tombs comprising the Shijō group.
In 1987, the Shijō No. 1 tomb was the first among the group to be confirmed. It is a square mound witha projection on the western side, the scale of the mound is 32 m long north–south, and the east–west length
including the projection is approximately 40 m. It has inner and outer double moats, and on each side of theinner moat a land bridge was created by not digging out one part. Including the outer moat, the scale isinferred to reach about 60 m north–south by 75 m east–west.
Very few artifacts were recovered from the outer moat, but from the inner moat large amounts ofwooden implements and haniwa were found. Among the wooden implements are items in shapes including
birds, shields, parasols, scepters, and ceremonial fans, that are thought to have been erected on the moundin the same manner as the ceramic haniwa. This type of object has accordingly been given labels such as“wooden haniwa” and “wooden funerary sculpture,” and the representative examples are the items from theShijō tomb. Also, in addition to the fan-shaped items, other wooden objects in the shapes of swords andsocketed spears have been recovered, and there is a theory that these were all used in the funerary rites andsubsequently discarded in the moat.
Also, centering on the area in the moat around the projection, representational haniwa in forms
including humans, horses, deer, wild boars, dogs, and chickens were recovered. Most likely these wereoriginally placed as a group on the projection. The human figures have great variety, including a man withtattoos, a man holding a bow, a wrestler, a man wearing elegant clothing, etc., and the animal figures were
all reconstructed to their complete forms. The horse-shaped haniwa is a large-scale item standing 106 cm
high and 120 cm long, and is a precious specimen from which we can learn in detail the forms of horse gearfrom the halter on the head to the crupper on the rear. Further, among items expressing aspects of hunting,namely dog/deer/wild boar forms, the deer is shown looking backward with a fearful expression. These
representational haniwa from the Shijō No. 1 tomb are also superlative products representative of Japan’sKofun culture.
The tomb’s date of construction is considered to be the final portion of the Middle Kofun period (thelatter decades of the fifth century). In addition to being an example of the small number of tombs with adouble moat, it is a rare instance in which nearly all aspects of the haniwa and wooden funerary items canbe discerned. It may be called an indispensable case for reconstructions of the external appearance of tombs
decorated with haniwa and wooden items, and for learning about the customs and rituals of the time.