Japanese Decorated Tombs

Contents

Preface

Japanese Decorated Tombs: Symbols, Society, and Identity in the Late Kofun Period

Author Biographies in Alphabetical Order

Introduction: Towards the World of Japanese Decorated Tombs – Silva Vesco, Mark Hudson and Claudia Zancan

Part I: Fieldwork, Documentation, and Regional Development

Chapter 1: The Origins and Development of Decorated Tombs in Japan – Keitarō Sakaguchi

Chapter 2: The Development of Decorated Tombs in Northern Kyushu and Their Social Background – Tōmei Yoshida

Chapter 3: On the Decorated Tombs in Ibaraki Prefecture – Ken’ichi Inada

 Chapter 4: The Faces of Prehistoric Tokyo: 3D Analysis of Engraved Human Figures from the Fudōbashi Tunnel Tomb – James Frances Loftus

Part II: Iconography, Belief, and Interpretation

Chapter 5: Encircling the Afterlife: Interpreting Circular Imagery in Tombs as Apotropaic and Cosmic Symbols – Doreen Thierfelder II

Chapter 6: Reading the Horse: Equestrian Iconography, Funerary Space, and Regional Meaning in Decorated Tombs – Claudia Zancan

Chapter 7: Riding Beyond Death: Equestrian Culture and its Representation in Kofun Period Iconography – Britta Stein  

Chapter 8: Colour and Drawing in the Pictorial Systems of Kofun Tombs – Romina Bartocci

PART III: Global Perspectives and Continental Connections

Chapter 9: Japanese Decorated Tombs in a Global Framework: A Comparative Archaeological Approach – Kazutaka Kawano

Chapter 10: Picturing the Invisible: Afterlife Imaginaries in Koguryŏ Tomb Murals and the Construction of Sacred Space in East Asia – Andrea de Benedittis

Chapter 11: Colours of the Afterlife: Exploring the Murals of the Takamatsuzuka and Kitora Tombs – Marianna Lázár

About the Author

Silvia Vesco is Professor of Japanese Art and Archaeology at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy. She holds a Master's degree from SOAS, University of London, and a joint Italian-Japanese PhD, and has curated major exhibitions of Japanese art in Italy and Japan.

Mark Hudson is a Researcher in the Language and the Anthropocene Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany. He holds a PhD in archaeology from the Australian National University and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Claudia Zancan holds a PhD in Japanese Archaeology from Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and is a Research Associate in the Language and the Anthropocene Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany. From 2026–27 she is Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich, UK.