Thursday, May 7, 2009

Mitsujo Tumulus (V)


Different point of views of this ancient burial mound.

Horse-shaped haniwa. The second time I came to this site, they were already replaced with new horse-shaped haniwas like we see on the right image. 

Image on the left is the sunshade-shaped haniwa. It was modeled after a sunshade of the Kofun period. The underpart of this represents the shade and top of it is a model of an osprey. Image on the right shows a house-shaped haniwa. The ruler lived in the house similar to this one during his lifetime. 

The Japanese word Haniwa means "cicle of clays" and it refers to the unglazed red clay cylinders which were placed around imperial burial mound to stabilized the ground and support the roof of the tomb. First produced by the guild craftsmen of the Kofun period, Japan's Iron Age (3rd-6th centuries), haniwa evolved from simple cylinders into representations of people, animals and houses.
*Thanks Gary, for the link.

The last tumulus is Mitsujo No.3. This facility has a rectangular stone coffin about 1,5 meters tall and 0,2 to 0,5 meters wide. Nothing was discovered inside this coffin. It is now covered with tiles replicating the remains underneath.
The original tumuli were restored after they had laid for in the earth about 0,7 meters on deep.

These photos end my Mitsujo theme today. I hope you enjoyed them.
I am coming with a new theme tomorrow.

Hiro San: Kairimashoo (Let's go home)
Yuri San: Haik (Okey)

7 comments:

Tall Gary said...

I have to repeat my comment from yesterday. These are great photos. It’s like the top one is looking into the past and the one below brings the same site into the present.

It was kind of you to show some different styles of haniwa.

It’s so cool the way you showed us in the bottom photo how the tiles are a kind of photographic rendition of what we would see beneath the tiles.

Anonymous said...

duh...kalo tau ke mitsujo tumulus
kok ga mampir....apato sy deket.cm nyebrang jalan...somse ya..heheheh

VP said...

Great photos and great post of something I completely ignored. Really fascinating and interesting.

Babzy.B said...

Very intersting serie about Mitsujo Tumulus ! To answer your question i spent One week in Belle Ile en Mer :)

Kaori said...

Wow, the view is spectacular! I didn't know that haniwa's came in different shapes, like the horse. Cool.

Unknown said...

It's been a very theme with phantastic photos too. I love when I learn something new:-)

Ayie said...

kawaii!