Yanagimoto Otsuka-kofun Tumulus (a tumulus in Tenri City, Nara Prefecture) (柳本大塚古墳)
The Yanagimoto Otsuka-kofun Tumulus is an ancient tomb located in Tenri City, Nara Prefecture. It belongs to the Yanagimoto-kofun Tumuli Cluster.
Summary
Location: Otsuka, Yanagimoto-cho,Tenri City
Buried person: Unknown
Time of construction: The First half of the early Kofun period (Tumulus period).
Tomb shape: A large keyhole-shaped mound. The back circular part is not precise circle shaped. The front of the front square part is an arch which gets narrower instead of extending like a plectrum. A surrounding moat is unverified in the west tomb hill.
Size: Approximately 94 meters in total length. The back circular part is 54 meters in diameter.
The burial facilities: The main chamber, a pit stone chamber (approximately 3.6 meters in length and approximately 3.6 meters in width) along the north-south axis in the center of the back circular part mound, and a hollowed-out wooden ship-shaped coffin (approximately 2 meters in length and approximately 1.2 meters in width), from which copper arrowheads and iron vessels were found. A small irregular circle shaped stone chamber 1 meter in diameter was set up where Ogata bosei naiko kamon-kyo (a large bronze mirror manufactured in Japan with patterns like a flower-petal) with 39.7 centimeters in diameter was placed. This small stone chamber is a gassho-style (an architect method of beams combined to form a steep roof that resembles two hands together) stone chamber with flagstones jutting into the ceiling, which may have been a subsidiary chamber to put in grave goods.
Unearthed relics
Ogata naiko kamon-kyo (a large mirror with patterns like a flower-petal): Steel mirror, 39.7centimeters in diameter, owned by the Imperial Household Agency; only Uzumaki-mon pattern (a decorative spiral pattern) is used as the unit of pattern arranged in the spaces between Shiyoza (decorative pieces arranged like four leaves) pieces, Renko-mon (a decorative pattern with consecutive arcs arranged like a flower) pattern, and Raiun-mon (a decorative pattern with thunder cloud) zone.
(Shiyoza Piece and Renko-mon Pattern are surrounded by Shumon [a raised bead] beads laid closely together as a pattern of the base.)
Six copper arrowhead
Iron fragments