The Kofun and Persimmon Museum is a municipal museum located in Motosu City, Gifu Prefecture. Established in 1996 by the former town of Itonuki, the museum showcases materials relating to the area’s history and its local specialty, persimmons.
The museum has two main exhibition areas, each exploring a different aspect of the region’s heritage.
The first-floor exhibition, titled “Dialogue with the Earth,” presents historical materials and archaeological discoveries from the former town of Itonuki, covering the period from ancient times through the early modern era.
Particular emphasis is placed on the Kofun period (approximately the 3rd to 7th centuries). Exhibits include Sue ware pottery, curved magatama beads, distinctive gangi-shaped beads, and a reconstructed stone burial chamber from Tomb No. 154 in the Funakiyama Kofun Group.
Visitors can also explore displays on traditional daily life and the challenges of agriculture, including the importance of water management.
The second floor is dedicated to persimmons, known as kaki in Japanese. The exhibition introduces different persimmon varieties, their uses, and processed products.
Visitors can also enjoy animated stories and quizzes while learning about the history of persimmon cultivation and the efforts that helped make Fuyu persimmons a major specialty of Motosu City.
The Funakiyama Kofun Group extends across Motosu City and Gifu City. It is the largest group of ancient burial mounds in Gifu Prefecture and one of the largest in the Tokai region. More than 1,000 burial mounds are estimated to have existed in the area, with approximately 300 excavated or identified to date.
The group is situated on an isolated hill at the northern edge of the Nōbi Plain. The hill extends approximately 2 kilometers from east to west and 600 meters from north to south. Around 290 burial mounds and related tombs have been identified across the site.
Burial construction began around the middle of the 3rd century and continued for more than 400 years, until the latter half of the 7th century. The site was designated a National Historic Site on February 26, 2019.
Earlier burial mounds include keyhole-shaped and square-fronted, square-rear tombs, while numerous circular burial mounds were constructed during the later Kofun period.
Artifacts recovered from the Funakiyama Kofun Group include Haji and Sue ware pottery, magatama and tubular beads, iron tools and weapons, bronze mirrors, and haniwa clay figures. These discoveries provide valuable evidence of connections between the region, the Kinai area around present-day Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara, and the Asian continent.
The excavated artifacts are designated Gifu Prefecture Important Cultural Properties in the category of archaeological materials. Many can be viewed at the Kofun and Persimmon Museum.
The burial sites include three graves classified as square-moated tombs or pit graves, 20 early-period kofun, three middle-period kofun, and 202 late-period kofun.
Until the late 4th century, tombs were mainly built along the main ridge. Later, construction spread to subsidiary ridges and slopes. Many of the later tombs contain horizontal stone burial chambers, and their original mound shapes are not always clearly distinguishable.
The burial mounds vary in form, including circular, square, keyhole-shaped, and square-fronted, square-rear types. This diversity provides important information about burial customs and social changes during the Kofun period.
Pottery includes Haji ware and Sue ware. Personal ornaments include magatama, tubular beads, cut-glass-style beads, abacus-shaped beads, glass beads, gangi-shaped beads, stone bracelets, and metal hoop earrings.
Weapons and military equipment include iron swords, iron daggers, iron spears, cuirasses, horse equipment, and iron and bronze arrowheads. Everyday tools include sickles, hatchets, chisels, and saws.
Other finds include bronze mirrors, cylindrical haniwa, and haniwa shaped like morning-glory flowers. Some objects indicate connections with the Kinai region and continental Asia, while Sue ware associated with the Owari region is comparatively scarce.
Tomb No. 5 is a keyhole-shaped burial mound measuring approximately 60 meters in total length, making it the largest identified mound in the Funakiyama Kofun Group.
Tomb No. 24 is a circular burial mound. Its burial goods came to light after a landslide caused by heavy rain in July 1967. Finds included five mirrors, among them a beast-shaped mirror bearing an inscription indicating its maker, as well as iron swords.
Tomb No. 26 is a keyhole-shaped mound with a total length of approximately 43 meters and a rear circular section measuring 27 meters in diameter. It was constructed in three tiers during the middle to late 4th century.
Tomb No. 27 is a circular burial mound from which a taryūkyō mirror, a Japanese-made imitation of an earlier mirror style, was excavated.
Tomb No. 62 is a keyhole-shaped burial mound more than 40 meters long. Believed to date from the early Kofun period, its surface was covered with roofing stones known as fukiishi. It is located near Fuyu Persimmon Village.
Tomb No. 98 is a 40-meter-long keyhole-shaped mound belonging to the early Kofun period and the Q subgroup. It yielded a square-plate cuirass fastened with leather lacing, a type of armor that was the 17th example of its kind identified in Japan at the time.
Tomb No. 145 is a circular mound in the M subgroup. Features on the floor of its stone chamber may represent postholes for a coffin support. The tomb also yielded a Sue ware lidded bowl considered the oldest of its type among the late-period burial mounds in the group.
Tomb No. 154 is a circular mound in the H subgroup, constructed around the middle of the 6th century. Its stone coffin was made of chert. Pottery found inside the burial chamber had been gathered together, suggesting that the chamber was reused for subsequent burials.
Tomb No. 243 is a circular burial mound from which five bronze mirrors were recovered, including a triangular-rimmed mirror decorated with six deities.
Tombs No. 272, No. 19, and No. 274 are known as red-painted burial mounds because their stone chambers were colored red with bengara, a traditional red iron-oxide pigment.
Tomb No. 272 has undergone reconstruction and is opened to the public twice a year at the Red-Painted Burial Mound Museum, allowing visitors to appreciate this distinctive burial-chamber decoration.
In 2018, the area containing 111 burial mounds on the Motosu City side was designated a National Historic Site. The wider region also contains other important archaeological sites, including the Ganjōji Nishizuka-no-Koshi Kofun Group in Ikeda Town and the Zōbisan Kofun Group in Yōrō Town.
Together, these sites make the surrounding area an important destination for anyone interested in ancient Japanese history and archaeology.
The Kofun and Persimmon Museum offers two complementary ways to explore the heritage of Motosu City: the archaeological discoveries of the Funakiyama Kofun Group and the history of local persimmon cultivation.
From ancient burial goods that reveal connections with other parts of Japan and the Asian continent to displays celebrating Fuyu persimmons, the museum provides an engaging introduction to the area’s cultural history and regional identity.