Clay coffin

It is one of the burial facilities of kofun, and refers to an internal facility in which a wooden coffin is covered with clay and sealed. Some have gravel ground support and drainage ditches under the clay coffin floor and around the outside of the coffin. Most are around 1 meter wide and 7 meters long, but there are also some that are as long as 10 meters. The wooden coffins are thought to have been long and narrow, made of split bamboo or short chest-shaped, but many have decayed and the covering clay has fallen in. Along with pit-type stone chambers, they were seen in the first half of the Kofun period, and were particularly common in early kofun tombs in eastern Japan.

[Kihachiro Goto]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

古墳の埋葬施設の一つで、木棺を粘土によって被覆し密封した内部施設をいう。なかには、粘土による棺床下や槨の外周に、礫(れき)による地固めや排水溝をもつものがある。幅1メートル、長さ7メートル前後のものが多くみられるが、10メートルを測る長大な例もある。木棺は、狭長な割竹(わりだけ)形や短い櫃(ひつ)形のものであったと推定されるが、腐朽して被覆粘土が陥落しているものが多い。竪穴(たてあな)式石室とともに古墳時代前半にみられ、とくに東日本の前期古墳には多く採用されている。

［後藤喜八郎］

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