Mori Shogunzuka KofunChikuma City, Nagano Prefecture The haniwa seen here are obviously reproductions, but their early-period (4th century) style and placement on top of the kufun is pretty accurate, as far as we can determine. The standard story about haniwa is that they were pedestal-and-bowl funeral offerings, as seen here, that later developed into the better-known pottery houses and horses and people and so forth. But there's a big problem with this theory, because nobody so far (2016) has been able to recover any traces of offerings in the bowls. |