THE ANCIENT BURlAL MOUNDS OF JAPAN. .021 



cL'iy <otliii siH-uis tu date alK)iit tlit' year 1200 [540 a. i>.], Imf its ]irt'<luininaiit use 

 can not l>c trafed before the year 1000 [940 A. ]>.]. 



To tliis tliere is an addeiiduiii in tlie form of an "IST. B.," wliicli is 

 woi'tby of note as indicative of tlie s^iirit in wliicli suggestions or criti- 

 cisms are received by tlie learned officials of the liii])erial Household. 

 In niy letter I had expressed a desire to know where the coffin repre- 

 sented in the sketch was to be found, and I ventured to say that the 

 Collins were "often too large to be introduced into the mounds through 

 the galleries, as you suggest, and sometimes there are t^^■o cottins." 

 The answer was that the coffin came from Kuinainoto, and the writer tlieii 

 adds: ''The fact that these stone coffins were introduced through the 

 galleries into the center of the burial mounds can never ]»e disputed, 

 being the result of actual digging when the galleries were discovered. 

 The galleries that were discovered were large enongh to introduce a 

 large stone coftin." It would be a matter of very great labor to move 

 one of those heavy stone coffins through a long gallery into its cham- 

 l>er, and since some of the galleries are HO and 00 feet in length, and 

 since in some cases the coffins are wider than the galleries, it is a natu- 

 ral inference that the chambers were fre(iuently, if not usually, l)nilt 

 around the coffins. 



One of the best preserved stone coffins I have seen is shown in PI. 

 i.V, photographed in its original ])osition in its subterranean chajuber. 

 It is in a mound on the to}) of Domioji Yama. 



Coffins made of clay were once very extensively used. Good speci- 

 mens are rare, but fragments can be found in great abundance. Usu- 

 ally they are found in sepulchral caves or in mounds without rock 

 chambers. They are occasionally found also in chambered mounds. 

 In the lower part of PI. LVI, from a Japanese drawing, is shown a clay 

 coffin dug out of the earth in Bizen. It stands on numerous short 

 legs. Its principal dimensi(ms are in Japanese measure: * 



Length 5 shakii. 8 snn. 



Width 1 " G ■' 



Height to top of lower part 1 " 2. 5 " 



Diameter of crests i '• 



Circuinference of bottom of leg 1 shaku. 4 " 



Height of leg 5 " 



In at least one instance we found remains of stone and clay coffins 

 together in a cave, showing them to have been contemporaneous. 



PL LVii shows a clay coffin taken from a chambered mound in 

 Settsu. When I first saw it and made the photograph it was perfect 

 but soon after it was broken in two. The inside is shown in PI. LViil. 



The mounds have yielded a great variety of articles buried with the 

 dead, such as iron arrowheads, iron rings covered with bronze, rings 

 of l)ronze or gilded bronze (PI. xi,iii), harness trappings of gold and 

 silver, swords and other weapons, chains, glass beads, mirrors, and 

 other relics. 



* A shaku is 1 foot; a snn is one-tenth of a shakn. 



