THE ANCIENT BURIAL MOUNDS OF JAPAN. 



Bv RoMYN Hitchcock. 



It would appear that when the famous Jimmu Tenno, the divinely 

 descended first Emperor of Japau, the chiklof the sun and the ancestor 

 of the present reigning dynasty, began his journey through the land, 

 he met with two kinds of inhabitants. There was a race of Tsuchi 

 Gumo, described as people with tails, who lived in underground burrows 

 or caves. I have elsewhere endeavored to show that there probably was, 

 in fact, a race of pit dtvellers who disappeared toward the North, leav- 

 ing traces of their existence in the pits of Yezo.* In addition to these, 

 there was a race of " liairy savages " which we liave no difficulty in 

 identifying as the Ainos,t who are known to have formerly lived in 

 southern Japan. 



I have only alluded to these two peoples in order to remove any pos- 

 sible question which might arise as to the Japanese origin of the tombs 

 of which I am to speak. Although many of them are very ancient, they 

 are certainly Japanese. This we know i)artly from tradition, but more 

 certainly from the articles interred with the dead. Had they a pre- 

 Japanese origin, we would expect to And within them vessels of pottery 

 of a more ancient pattern, such as the predecessors of the Japanese left 

 behind them in the shell mounds. 



One of the earliest modes of burial in Jai)an was in artificial caves, 

 hewn out of the solid rock on hillsides. It has been said that the early 

 Japanese lived in caves. This is very doubtful, for although there are 

 natural caves in certain parts of the country, they are not found where 

 the history of the people begins, in Idzumo and Yamato. 



Nevertheless, the idea of cave life was familiar to the flapanese, for 

 the legend of the Sun goddess who entered a cave and closed the en- 

 trance with a stone, leaving heaven and earth in darkness, is a very 

 early and important myth.f It is also said, that in the reign of Jimmu 



*The Pit Dwellers of Yezo, by Romyn Hitchcock. Report U. S. Nat. Mns., 1890. 

 p. 417. 



tThe Ainos of Yezo, by Romyn Hitchiock. Report U. S. Nat. Mas., 1890, p. 429. 



I Shinto, or the Mythology of the Japanese, by Romyn Hitchcock, Report U. S. 



Nat. Mus„ 1891, p. 489, 



511 



