Amenomiya Kofun Cluster, Kofun cluster in Nakanoto, Ishikawa, Japan
The Amenomiya Kofun Cluster is a group of 36 tumuli on Mount Bijo-san in Nakanoto, Ishikawa. Tomb 1, on the ridge's highest point at 187.95 m, is a 64 m keyhole-shaped tomb with two rectangular ends (zenpō-kōhō-fun), its mound built in two tiers and covered with stones of three sizes. Tomb 2, 65.5 m long, is a keyhole-shaped tomb with a round rear mound (zenpō-kōen-fun) facing Tomb 1.
The tombs were built from the mid-4th to early 5th century on the Bijo-san hill in Nakanoto, Ishikawa. Tomb 1, a 64-meter keyhole-shaped mound, was raised by cutting the natural ridge and tamping two soils in alternating layers; its fukiishi stones include gneiss and diorite brought from the coast of Shiga. The cluster was designated a National Historic Site in 1982, and Tomb 1's grave goods an Important Cultural Property in 2008.
Tomb 1's front section once held a shrine to the goddess Amaterasu-Ōmikami (Himukahime), popularly called "Ame no Miya", and a sumo ring stood on the rear mound top where votive matches were held. The shrine appears in the Engishiki register, though its identity with the present shrine is uncertain.
The site is in the Rokusei neighbourhood of Nakanoto, about 30 minutes by car from Notobe Station on the JR West Nanao Line. The park has a car park, a lawn area and barbecue facilities, and the Ame-no-miya Noto Royal Tomb Museum displays finds from Tomb 1 and a full-scale model of its clay coffin. Tomb 1's reconstructed mound covers a triangulation point marked by a cylindrical cover.
Tomb 1 is a zenpō-kōhō-fun, a keyhole shape with a square rear mound, not a round one; at 64 m it is the largest of its type in Ishikawa Prefecture. Its summit, called Raigamine, holds a Geographical Survey Institute third-order triangulation point at 187.95 m, and a sumo ring once stood on the rear mound for dedicatory matches.
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