Assemblage Changes of Weapons used as Kofun Grave Goods

Tanaka Shinsaku

doi:10.11215/nihonkokogaku1994.10.11

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the possibility that, in the Middle Kofun phase, the presence of weapons amongst the tools buried in kofun tombs can be linked with individuals assigned to the movement and stationing of troops and other military duties. Using the Sakurazuka kofun cluster in Oaska Prefecture as a model, this possibility is investigated from the burial context and assemblage composition of weapons and agricultural tools in kofun with highquality weapons in the Kinai and surrounding regions.<BR>In the middle of the Middle Kofun period, at about the time when riveted armour began to be introduced, burial assemblages with only a few agricultural tools such as sickles, axes, point planes, and knives, and even assemblages with no agricultural tools at all began to appear in some kofun. Furthermore, there are examples of agricultural tools excavated in association with weapons and of halberds and iron arrowheads placed inside cuirasses. In most of these tombs, the Early Kofun pattern of the burial of a wide variety of agricultural tools disappeared and was replaced by the appearance of individuals buried with weapons. This phenomenon reveals the fact that agricultural tools formed part of the weapon assemblages. The switch to personages buried with weapons clearly has a close connection with the existence of a standing army indicated above.<BR>If one takes the view that the organization of the military was a problem solved through the exercise of military power, then I would like to suggest that weapon assemblages with agricultural tools developed from the need for a military system capable of moving and fielding a large number of soldiers in distant places for a long period of time. I would be happy if this article provides a clue to the context of the burials at the politically dominant Middle Kofun tomb clusters at Mozu and Furuichi.

Assemblage Changes of Weapons used as Kofun Grave Goods

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