Qualla: Ryūgakuji Kofun Cluster https://qualla.com/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:40 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/g/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ryūgakuji Kofun Cluster https://qualla.com/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster Ryūgakuji Kofun Cluster: Introduction https://qualla.com/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster/ Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. One hundred fourteen burial mounds line a narrow plateau above what was once the northeastern shore of Lake Inbanuma, stretched in strips from northwest to southeast for a kilometer and a half. The Ryugakuji Kofun Cluster, straddling the boundary between the town of Sakae and the city of Narita in Chiba Prefecture, is the largest gathering of kofun -- ancient Japanese burial tumuli -- in the entire Kanto region. Designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1941, with its protected area expanded in 2009, the cluster preserves a burial tradition that persisted here for over a century, from the late sixth century through the end of the seventh, long after Buddhism had arrived and supposedly rendered the old mound-building customs obsolete. The dead, it seems, were not so easily converted.

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]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/g/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-wp/xn7g-ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ryūgakuji Kofun Cluster: A Plateau of the Dead https://qualla.com/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster/ Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Shimosa Plateau sits about 30 meters above sea level, and the kofun crowd its narrow spine in dense strips. Of the 114 confirmed tumuli, the forms tell a story of evolving burial customs: keyhole-shaped mounds 20 to 30 meters long, dome-shaped mounds with diameters of 10 to 2...

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/g/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-wp/xn7g-ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-a-plateau-of-the-dead.mp3 0:06 2 full Ryūgakuji Kofun Cluster: The First and the Last https://qualla.com/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster/ Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. The oldest mound in the cluster is believed to be the scallop-shaped Kofun No. 101, dated to the second quarter of the sixth century based on the style of haniwa recovered there. The later mounds concentrate in the northeast corner of the site, and among them is the Sengenyama Ko...

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/g/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-wp/xn7g-ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-the-first-and-the-last.mp3 0:06 3 full Ryūgakuji Kofun Cluster: The Step Pyramid of Iwaya https://qualla.com/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster/ Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Kofun No. 105, known as the Iwaya Kofun, dominates the cluster. It is a square-sided tumulus roughly 78 meters on each side, constructed in three ascending tiers that give it the appearance of a step pyramid -- a form startlingly reminiscent of structures from entirely different ...

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]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/g/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-wp/xn7g-ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-the-step-pyramid-of-iwaya.mp3 0:06 4 full Ryūgakuji Kofun Cluster: What the Mounds Still Hold https://qualla.com/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster/ Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Some of the larger mounds in the cluster contained more than one burial chamber, suggesting reuse across generations -- families returning to the same earthen monument to inter successive members. Others were repurposed for a new burial well after their original construction. The...

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]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/g/ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-wp/xn7g-ry-gakuji-kofun-cluster-what-the-mounds-still-hold.mp3 0:06 5 full