What are Kofun? Ancient Japanese History

Little did I realise Japan is COVERED in these huge tombs known as Kofun, some as big as 80 acres.
Perhaps these are more famous and I'm an idiot but I had genuinely never heard of these until about a month ago. They were all built between 250 and 538 CE and they stopped as suddenly as they appeared.
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Sources:
Ishino, Hironobu, and 石野博信. "Rites and Rituals of the Kofun Period." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 19, no. 2/3 (1992): 191-216. www.jstor.org/s....
Kitagawa, Joseph M. "Prehistoric Background of Japanese Religion." History of Religions 2, no. 2 (1963): 292-328. www.jstor.org/s....
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
Image Attributions:
663highland, Matsumoto Castle05s5s4592, CC BY-SA 3.0
Lincun, Map of Japan with highlight on 28 Hyogo prefecture, CC BY-SA 3.0
SY, Three Kingdoms, CC BY-SA 4.0
PHGCOM, DotakuBronzeBellLateYayoi3rdCenturyCE, CC BY-SA 3.0
Wikiwikiyarou, Bronze Mirror in Ancient Japan, CC BY-SA 4.0
Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, Caballo Haniwa Guimet 01, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Historysmilo
historysmilo

[@StefanMilo]

Thanks for watching the inconsistent lighting history show. Next week, 4 medieval republics you might not know.

[@larrywave]

Buddhist mostly cremate the dead

[@vegapunk6985]

Hey, if you love history why do you use ce and bce?

[@Dunkle0steus]

In modern Japan, Shinto and Buddhism are both practiced. Interestingly, weddings tend to be done as Shinto ceremonies and funerals as Buddhist ones. That might explain why Buddhism supplanted the monument building. If it was tied to the Shinto practices and the funerary rites changed, they might stop building them. There are some assumptions of course, such as that modern practices mirror ancient ones, but it's something to think about.

[@jasontwynn7356]

Need the spoon 🥄,come on man. Get with the script

[@jasontwynn7356]

Love the channel,keep up the cool videos. Remember it's YOUR channel,do what you want. I'm with ya I'll watch you videos 😂

[@japankofun]

Kofun are famous to Japanese in the sense that every Japanese person knows what they are, but seemingly 99% of the population aren't interested in them, and unfortunately kofun aren't given any sort of promotion to international tourists either - I can't think of anything else in the country that is so abundant yet so unknown to non-Japanese. They go back before samurai, buddhism, Kyoto, Nara, and arguably even Shinto, yet they are generally overlooked as anything of "note" in Japanese history. I discovered them due to being interested in similar tombs in China, and the wife (Japanese) was like "they're boring to me, but we have ancient tombs too" - from then my fascination began and never stopped. I could point out a couple things in your video which are a bit off the mark, but I'm not going to be that guy coz I'm simply happy as a fellow history lover that you've taken the time to make a video on them. Thanks.

[@StefanMilo]

Thanks I appreciate that! I'm sure a couple of things are off, it was actually difficult to find English language sources on them. I had to make the video though, i couldn't believe it when i discovered they exist. As you said they are not well known and that's a big shame.

[@japankofun]

Out of curiousity - how did you first hear about kofun ?

[@StefanMilo]

It was a picture on the subreddit r/archaeology

[@japankofun]

Ah cool, thanks. Not that I know much about them, but in case you might be interested, Korea has very similar tombs too (just google "Korean Tombs") - some of them are even across the border in China in what used to be a Korean kingdom ;-) The links across cultures in that part of the world is very interesting (and a source of debate too). Anyway just putting it out there ...

[@abraxasjinx5207]

Which wife were you speaking to?

[@rdreher7380]

In the context of Japanese culture, "temple" is the conventional translation of the words 寺 (tera) or 寺院 (jiin), meaning Buddhist temples. The other kind of religious space, associated with indigenous Shintō practices, are called 神社 (jinja), which is typically translated as "shrine." To anyone family with Japanese culture, calling the religious structures associated with the kofun "temples" is potentially confusing. As you point out they predate the entrance of Buddhism into Japan. They probably are better called "shrines." As you said yourself, religion in the Kofun period was based around belief in "kami." 神 (kami) worship is the definition of 神道 (shintō), so any religious sites in Kofun Japan may be called a 神社 (jinja). (Note the use of the character 神 in all these terms.) I'd love to know how much a kofun shrine would be different from a modern Shintō shrine. Would it even recognizable as a "jinja." Something to learn more about sometime.

[@pseudo.account]

Of course the introduction of Buddhism will change burial practices: Buddhists are cremated instead of buried. There's no coincidence there, lol. Its a pretty straightforward factor.

[@FrauWNiemand]

I studied Japanology and I heard of it, but only really aside of what my sensei meant to be more important history stuff. so sad. Like your channel. Note: I also studied paleontology /geology, so that's why I'm here.

[@fitzwaren]

Well, it was an amazing video ! You have my upvote ! “It was kofun to do” ... ok I take it back !

[@StefanMilo]

I don't blame you

[@miketacos9034]

Found you via Operation Odysseus. Love how much detail you go into your videos! Keep it up!

[@StefanMilo]

Thanks!

[@Sev826]

hi stefan i love ur vids thx

[@Thetravelsurvivalist]

Thanks. Was in Miyazaki and all over Kyushu last year. Releasing my second video in miyazaki tomorrow.

[@Giaayokaats]

You should do a video on Cohokia!

[@christopherellis2663]

Why don't you?

[@fulignosa]

4:48 haniwa (はにわ・埴輪) pronounciation honey wa 〇 hanai wa　 X　　 6:03 Maki - kuku X　 Maki - muku 〇 No shame on stefan, for our language turns out to be one of the hardest for indo european language speakers. From Japan.

[@jdschneider5858]

Your videos are always so interesting: I always learn something new! Now I'm wondering why Japanese writing developed so much later than in China! I'll ask the next Japanese person I meet about the Kofun and see what happens 🙂

[@shruggzdastr8-facedclown]

I came for a glimpse into an aspect of Japanese ancient history and stayed for Stefan's terrible dad-joke pun riffing off of the subject discussed!

[@judeangione3732]

Hi Stefan, Love your eclectic videos. When pronouncing Japanese break the words into syllables. It's actually easier than you would think. A syllable in Japanese consists either of a vowel sound on its own or a consonant followed by a vowel. So V or VV or CV makes a syllable. You can break down even the longest word like this: Oyayo gosaimasu. O - Hay - O - Go - Zai - Masu. Hashimoto. Ha - shi - mo - to. There's more to it than this, of course, but if you learn this little trick you can pronounce Japanese terms with a bit more confidence no matter how long the word.

[@celioski3698]

I sqaw them, I used to live in Sakai city. Thay are huge but they're not easily accessed, sadly. It's hard to grasp the grandness of them from afar

[@Rottingboards]

What the hell! I love history and 57 years old...never heard of them.

[@wolfy8006]

Bronze mirrors have a special purpose in ancient China, and probably ancient Japan (due to cultural influences). It’s a object that show refection, which is rare at that time. The ancient Chinese will put bronze mirrors in graves, possible to “get rid of evil” (Nothing can hide in mirror), perhaps the Japanese have similar reasons?

[@GregPreece]

I got the key, I got the secret

[@StefanMilo]

Greg Preece - Start Starting Up DJ KHALED

[@zakkart]

Learned about Kofuns from reading manga.

[@StefanMilo]

Marc Loui Rivero That's awesome. I wonder if I ever saw one watching pokemon growing up. Thanks for watching!

[@M.M.83-U]

Samurai trooper anime.

[@Nmethyltransferase]

@@M.M.83-U No tentacle sex. Disappointed. 0/10. Would not watch again!

[@AnkanBob]

Learned about vaginas from watching porn

[@ultrak0w]

Nice setup despite the vile Union Jack.

[@ultrak0w]

@Dick Dastardly No, I am English.

[@ultrak0w]

@Dick Dastardly Shhh

[@johnbryant8603]

Very nice work. Thank you sir 🙏🏽♥️🙏🏽♥️🇲🇽

[@noahriding5780]

In some of the Kofun burial tombs that were opened up they found these circular bronze mirrors. The mirrors have kanji writing on them, and are called beast god mirrors. I wanted to ask if they tested if those mirrors were made there in Japan or imported from China? Also, in that tomb with a lot of the mirrors, the tomb had the chief or nobles dressed in like special white clothes. I wanted to ask if in other tombs if the others were also buried in special white robes or clothes also in similar manner? (This and the mirrors were found this way in the Fujinoki tomb. Are others matching in burial manner?)

[@Jobe-13]

I wish we knew more about Queen Himiko

[@dstinnettmusic]

I kind of miss your “ancient but not literal Bronze Age ancient” content.

[@seumasnatuaighe]

Jomon is ancient. Kofun is just so last season, baby. (Just pulling your leg, Stefan. Interesting subject.)

[@Parsley-pr9sv]

Wow I had no idea damn this is interesting

[@ChigginsComposting]

The burial kofuns are the same shape as coffins, only rounder up top. In Urdo it's called kafan. They all sound like the same words to me, and omg we're all so related, the proof is in root languages.

[@bradenculver7457]

I hate to be disprove you but unfortunately this is probably just an example of coincidences between languages. Coffin comes from Greek, while kafan comes from a loanword from Arabic. Those two may be related though, given the Greek is possibly believed to have semitic roots as well. But kofun is wholly unrelated as far as we know, being derived from a compounding word in Japanese that just happens to sound similar. The ko just means old, and the kun which is sound shifted to fun means tomb. So the word literally means old tomb, so it's far more likely these words were not cognates and simply sound similar. As Stefan mentions in this video, those words are derived from Chinese so there is a small possibility it was a loan word, but unlikely given how different the original Chinese words were. A similar coincidence is found in a language called Dyirbal in Australia, where they call a dog dog. But we can derive how they arrived there, and it was from a sound change and sound loss from a previous word that we can see cognate in other Australian languages related to Dyirbal. I bring that one up because the words were identical and referred to the same thing, but ultimately came from two entirely different sources and just coincidentally sound the same. We humans often see patterns where in reality it's just a coincidence, which is the case with kofun and coffin. I won't entirely discount a possibility that the same semetic loan word couldn't have made its way to Japan through China or Korea or even India but it seems rather unlikely, and more just coincidence. en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/古墳#Japanese en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/coffin en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/कफ़न

[@anvilbrunner.2013]

This is going to annoy the bejaisus out of some people. There are huge Kofun mounds elsewhere around the globe as portrayed in the series Ruins of old earth. Which is a satelite image exploration of the globe. Also here's the trigger. Strange but true; There's one on Mars. What's it all about eh.

[@christopherellis2663]

Mars? Fool!

[@anvilbrunner.2013]

@@christopherellis2663 1

[@MemoriesofApollo]

what kind of microphone is that?

[@christopherellis2663]

Kofun, what people get buried in.♡ just do the vowels standard, except that u is the same as Turkish ı, Romanian î, Welsh y, as in Yspyddin. (Unrounded back high)

[@_robustus_]

I found them yesterday while reading about the 1st unification and thanks to the feckin brilliant algorithm this video is shoved at me. Algorithm be praised!

[@Dunkle0steus]

I wasn't thinking "don't beat yourself up" I was thinking "YOU'RE 29?!?!?!?" In all seriousness though, great vid, keep it up.

[@Mrnewkrakbo]

They are super famous, I'm sorry, but I love you

[@rayvanwayenburg998]

They aren’t super famous because scientists refuse to excavate or explore them or allow anyone to enter them as they are regarded as sacred. So unlike the pyramids and other excavated site, virtually nothing is known about them.

[@PDXDrumr]

Not unlike the pyramids, Egyptian culture was gone and exploited, hence the western looting, it, not Japan.

[@deepquake9]

You didn’t have a spoon 2 years ago? Oh my!!

[@andrejmucic5003]

Dude! Thanks. I have no idea either!

[@SharpUchi]

Kofun and Haniwa are the names of siblings in the show SEE!

[@YimYimYimYimYim]

Love it!

[@jdwest34]

Thanks

[@pseudo.account]

You say that there existence of these large building projects likely indicate a serfs were pressed into labor to create the kofun. Why make that assumption? Historians assumed the pyramids of Egypt were built by slaves, but a more thorough look at the archeological evidence revealed that the pyramid builders were in fact well-compensated skilled laborers. Why can't the same be true for the kofun?

[@StefanMilo]

True, but serfdom isn't quite slavery. Perhaps I should have said social organization / stratification though.

[@pseudo.account]

@@StefanMilo social organization through stratification AND possibly specialization 😊

[@daron6616]

Odds are they were conscripted laborers.

[@raphlvlogs271]

How did you became interested in history and archaeology?

[@jackavalon9219]

Japanese has 5 vowels and then makes soothing with them. Not complicated. Learn them in 30 seconds and level up your pronunciation for life.

[@jackavalon9219]

Makes dipthongs*.... I'll leave

[@tectosagos9327]

Summoning the mustard? Isn't that a spell from the original D&D rules?

[@StefanMilo]

Lol! It's actually an ancient Japanese wasabi ritual.

[@tectosagos9327]

Ouch! Lol.

[@marcatteberry1361]

2 dislikes? Sacrifice them!

[@climberly]

HOLY FUCKIN SHIT! 161000 and cash!!!!!!! that many!!!!!!!!! MIND BLOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@jamesfforthemasses]

do you think that the clay figurines were equivalents of egyptian shabti? Little magical servants for the afterlife?

[@pseudo.account]

Bloody clouds? What does that mean? I'm confused

[@pseudo.account]

Haaa nevermind, I understand now that you're mad at the clouds casting shade

[@Odonanmarg]

I never knew about them either.! Kofun. Hah.

[@deandeann1541]

200 bc to 600 ad - that's 800 years of peasants blowing out their backs and getting premature arthritis manually hurling dirt to build giant tombs every time a royal so and so died. {t's no wonder they were ready for a new religion. I would have been ready for Buddhism too by then. I do see where the aristocrats were coming from with this though - if you tripled the peasant's workload every time a bigshot died, the peasants would be less likely to kill them for being so bossy. So giant, hand-made tombs maybe helped the royalty feel safer.

[@gustavderkits8433]

You should research the connection to Korea

[@gustavderkits8433]

If you take this view because of religious or nationalistic beliefs, please read no further. I respectfully disagree with both the use of the word “colony” and the implication that all parts of Korea were subjugated to Japan. Firstly, “colony” implies that migration occurred from Japan to Korea. That is emphatically not the case. Best evidence is that the earliest inhabitants of the Japanese islands were the Ainu, and that migration occurred from the Asian land mass , most likely from the area now known as Korea, to the islands. Secondly, much of the evidence about who was subject to whom is made more noisy by politics, especially the more recent occupation by Japan. The is little doubt that the Japanese government destroyed many native Korean archeological sites during the occupation. The lack of political support in Japan to perform archeological research on the imperial tombs means that many questions about the relations between Japan and Korea before the 6th c. BCE cannot be answered with adequate evidence. There are good indications that suzerainty was first held by Korean Paekche, only later by Japan.

[@mitonaarea5856]

@@gustavderkits8433 Apparently many of them are in the ancient kingdom of Gaya, which had close conections with early Japan. But I wouldn´t call them Korean since Korea didn´t exist at the time, nor did it have a unified culture.

[@hirata58th]

Interestingly, a few small keyhole shape kofuns appear in southwestern part of modern day Korea as well for short period of time around 6th century. These relics might suggest political connection with Yamato kingship of those people buried.

[@alexanderjafar6213]

Well seems like I'm an idiot, too.

[@olivierdastein2604]

I strongly doubt that the figurines of soldiers, dancers, farmers, etc...are there to represent society. I suspect that they're there to serve the deceased in the afterlife.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

~160.000 built in 288 years!? Really? That is ~555 each year, how many Kings and Queens did they have, and how many died each year? If we say a king rule for ~10 years and then die there must be ~5.000 Kings at any time in Japan at that time? And if we say ~1.000 people need 1 year to build one single key hole a total of ~500.000 are occupied in building them year around? Really?

[@hirata58th]

Hey, that is a reasonable question. Actually, 160000 is an inflated number which consist of massive keyhole shape kofuns over 400m to humble round kofuns as small as 10m. They are associated not only with emperors, but also to their families, political figures, regional kings/lords, tribal leaders etc. There are about 4700 keyhole shape kofuns, which shape is often considered to be the representation of allegiance to Yamato dynasty. In terms of size, there are about 300 kofuns greater than 100m. These numbers might give us more precise image of the scale of the dynastic network and the number of notable figures at that period.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

@@hirata58th - ah, yes, I thought so, thanks, but even 300 is pretty impressive in ~300 years, anyhow, do you know if any Japanese visit the islands in the centre? Out of curiosity for example? Or perhaps even live on the island?

[@hirata58th]

@@doncarlodivargas5497 Entry policy differs by each kofun. Some do not allow entry of tourists for various reasons: preventing them from being damaged, keeping the dignity of those buried, land can be privately owned, etc. Kofuns associated with dynastic lineage (the ones with huge moats are most likely included in this category) are strongly protected from outer interference, so it is impossible to enter just for curiosity. On the other hand, there are many regional kofuns open to visitors, but they tend to lack moats of this scale to make them look like islands. By the way, before modernization period, prohibition of access to emperor class kofuns were much loose, so people might have stepped on those islands from time to time. There are many cases of housing being built adjacent to kofuns or even built after removing entire kofun, but as far as I know, there are only a few houses built on kofun inside its boundary (*). Even though kofuns were not quite appreciated before the rise of nationalism in early modern era (interestingly, as soon as kofun era ended, people started to find kofuns as obstacles and sometimes removed for urban development, or during feudal eras, many kofuns were converted to forts), it seems to me that, common people have had the mindset to avoid living on top of ancient man of influence. * Here is an example of a house inside a small moat. 34.57014290099386, 135.8489465332236

[@bethbartlett5692]

🍀🇺🇸🍀 Curious - wonder why British speaking folks tend to place a "r" in theit pronunciation of words: saw (correctly pronounced "sa- awe") and sauce, and - there's more not coming to mind just now. Any Speech, Voice & Diction experts out there? Please chime in an enlighten me on this point. A subject I find most interesting - "accents and diction". Thanks -

[@jwstex]

It's like the Britain of Asia.

[@evanmangone523]

Dude you’re 29?! Thought you were 40...

[@hellofromhokkaido690]

Do Jomon!

[@JMGraton]

Where’s the damn spoon?

[@Myrtlecrack]

no spoon

[@freequest]

These days you need to wear a Mask when your Kofun.

[@TeethToothman]

🧬🪰🧬

[@beastrelmhd5312]

*rituals*

[@tecumsehcristero]

No small wigs allowed. Why were the small wigs so powerless?? LOL that's a Joke. A lame joke but still a joke nonetheless. I myself am a No wig

[@kuglepen64]

Yup, there he goes again shilling for ancient burial grounds.

[@t.v.6503]

Kukudodelydodelydo 😀😃😄😁

[@mushroomsamba82]

Is your current god just not doing it for you? Get a new one!