Onodera Yosuke: Ceramic Models of Food Goods and What They Tell Us About Mortuary Rituals of the Early and Middle Kofun Period

Mr. Onodera Yosuke, Ph.D Candidate, Archeology, Meiji University, “Ceramic Models of Food Goods and What They Tell Us About Mortuary Rituals of the Early and Middle Kofun Period” 「土製模造品からみた古墳時代前〜中期の葬送儀礼」

When considering mortuary rituals during the Kofun Period (300-600CE), Japanese archaeologists have previously studied goods deposited with the dead in coffins and burial chambers, as well as the pottery and haniwa ceramic cylinders and objects placed on the surface of tomb mounds. Little attention has been paid, however, to ceramic models of vessels and food offerings that were also placed on the surface of the mounds. Therefore, archaeologists do not yet have a good understanding of the mortuary rituals for which such ceramic models were used, or how they changed over time.

The ceramic models in question were modeled after vessels and various kinds of food, and a set of them probably represented a ceremony for offering food. It is noteworthy, however, that the two kinds of models originated in different regions of Japan in the early fourth century and only came to be used together in the late fourth century. Then in the fifth century sue stoneware was incorporated; and in the late fifth century, ceramic models of mirrors appeared. The latter were probably unrelated to the food-offering rituals. In the sixth century, rituals utilizing the ceramic models were no longer conducted except in a few regions of Japan.

It is important to note as well that mounded tombs where these ceramic models have been discovered are keyholes of large size, and that their spatial distribution is skewed toward central Honshu, the region of the central polity. These facts strongly suggest that the central polity played a role in unifying the food-offering rituals. Then in the late fifth century, corridor-style burial chambers appeared, and rituals were conducted on the dike enclosing the moat of a mounded tomb. This shift probably contributed to the decline of the food-offering rituals for which the ceramic models had been used.

古墳における葬送儀礼を考えるうえでは、埋葬施設内に副葬された品々が主に用いられてきた。一方で、墳丘上に配置されたものでも、埴輪や土器類に関する研究も進められている。しかし、同じく墳丘上で出土する土製模造品については、いまだ研究が進められておらず、その儀礼形態の変遷も明らかではない。土製模造品には、容器形と食物形があり、これらが組み合わさって疑似的な食物供献を示していると考えられる。ただし、これらの発祥は同一地域内ではなく、別々の地域で発生したものが統合されるという過程を経る。４世紀前半は、一部の地域で独自の土製模造品儀礼を行っているものの、４世紀後半に統合される。５世紀に入ると須恵器が取り込まれ、５世紀後半には鏡形が入るなど徐々に食物供献とは異なる性格の器種が用いられる。６世紀に入ると土製模造品儀礼は、一部の地域を除いて行われなくなる。土製模造品が出土した古墳をみると、大型の前方後円墳が中心であり、その分布からも土製模造品儀礼の統合には王権の関与が想定される。５世紀後半を境に、外堤や横穴式石室が葬送の主たる場となる。このため、墳丘上における儀礼の重要度が下がるのに伴い、土製模造品儀礼も衰退していくものと考えられる。

Handout 1

Handout 2