page_title: Fukiishi
section_title: Purpose and function
hierarchical_section_title: Fukiishi / Purpose and function
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 復元されたナガレ山古墳くびれ部
context_page_description: Fukiishi were a means of covering burial chambers and burial mounds during the kofun period of Japan. Stones collected from riverbeds were affixed to the slopes of raised kofun and other burial chambers. They are considered to have descended from forms used in Yayoi-period tumuli. They are common in the early and mid-Kofun periods, but most late Kofun-period tumuli do not have them.
context_section_description: The purpose of fukiishi is seen, as in Kenji Takahashi's account of 1922, to protect the burial mound while projecting its majesty.  As they were used primarily on slopes and rarely on flat surfaces it is also thought they may have served to prevent runoff, and may have contributed to waterproofing and drainage.  They may also have been used to imply the mound was sacred, holy ground and clearly differentiate it from adjacent areas.  Archaeologist Kazuo Hirose notes the use of fukiishi may be related to a desire to make royalty visible and exhibit the people's connection with royalty, a feature he sees as characteristic of Japanese burial mounds in comparison with those of other Asian countries, and in particular in the case of keyhole-shaped kofun.
caption: The early 5th-century Nagare-san kofun, of the Umami kofungun [ja] group in Kawai in Nara Prefecture
  Half of the restored mound is covered with fukiishi.
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