Nakazuka Kofun: A Chieftain's Tomb in Wakasa's Valley of the Kings
At the western foot of Mount Zenbu, in the Wakibukuro district of Wakasa Town, three large earthen mounds rise from among the houses and rice paddies. Nakazuka Kofun is the middle one. It is a keyhole-shaped tumulus, the form Japanese archaeologists call zenpō-kōen-fun, with a square front section joined to a round rear mound. Built in the late 5th century, it belongs to the Wakibukuro group, part of the wider Kaminaka cluster of burial mounds that local historians describe as the "Valley of the Kings" of ancient Wakasa.
The mound today measures about 70 meters from end to end, with a rear circle roughly 46 meters across and a front section close to 60 meters wide. Its highest point reaches around 6 meters. The front of the tomb points south, the same orientation as the neighboring Nishizuka Kofun and the reverse of the larger Kaminotsuka Kofun a short distance away.
Why it is a National Historic Site
Nakazuka was designated a National Historic Site on 24 December 1935, together with Kaminotsuka and Nishizuka. These three tombs are read as the successive resting places of the people who governed the Wakasa region during the Kofun period, and they were protected early because the chain of large keyhole tombs lined up in a single small valley is unusual outside the central Yamato heartland.
The name of the hill behind the tombs offers the strongest clue to who lies beneath them. Mount Zenbu carries the character for the Kashiwade clan, the Kashiwade no Omi, who served as kuni no miyatsuko, the regional governors of Wakasa. The Kashiwade held a duty at court that gives this corner of Fukui its lasting identity: they oversaw the food presented to the emperor. Wakasa was one of the miketsukuni, the provinces charged with supplying the imperial table with seafood and salt. The tombs at Wakibukuro are usually read as the graves of this food-steward lineage, which makes the valley a physical record of how a coastal province fed the early Japanese state.
Among the three, the western tomb has yielded the firmest identification. Objects recovered there, set against an entry in the Nihon Shoki, have led scholars to propose a specific occupant, Kashiwade no Omi Ikaruga. Nakazuka is placed a little later in the sequence, following Nishizuka and preceding the nearby Jūzennomori Kofun of the early 6th century.
What to look for at the mound
Centuries of farming and house-building have reshaped Nakazuka, and a visitor should arrive expecting a worked landscape rather than a pristine monument. The front section has been cut down low, and the eastern slope of the rear mound now forms the garden of a private home. The shape is still legible once you know to look for it: a rounded knoll trailing into a flatter, lower apron of earth.
An excavation in 1992 recovered the details that the eye alone cannot read. The mound was faced with fukiishi, the rounded river cobbles that once gave these tombs a bright stone surface, and a shield-shaped moat circled the base. From that moat came fragments of cylindrical haniwa, the unglazed clay tubes that stood in rows along the mound's tiers. The burial chamber itself has not been confirmed, though researchers think it likely held a horizontal stone chamber of the type that spread through the region in this period.
One detail rewards a closer reading of the sources. The original 1935 record described the mound as built in three tiers and gave a length closer to 58 meters, while the survey work of the 1990s and after reads it as a two-tier mound about 70 meters long. The gap reflects how much the tomb has been disturbed and how much careful measurement has since clarified. The artifacts lifted from the site are not left in the field but are kept and displayed at the Wakasa Town History and Culture Museum, a short distance away in the Ichiba district.
Around the site
The reward of visiting Wakibukuro is seeing the three royal tombs in one short walk. Kaminotsuka, the largest at about 100 meters, holds its original form remarkably well and still shows traces of its surrounding moat. Nishizuka stands close by, its front section largely lost to soil-quarrying in 1916 but its identity the best understood of the group. From a vantage point on the valley's western side, all three mounds and the smaller Nukazuka tomb can be picked out at once among the trees.
To make sense of what you have seen, the Wakasa Town History and Culture Museum is the natural next stop, displaying the haniwa, ornaments, and imported objects recovered from the Kaminaka tombs, including items that point to contact with the Korean peninsula. Beyond the archaeology, the surrounding Wakasa countryside is the heart of the historic miketsukuni, the start of the old "Saba Kaidō" mackerel roads that carried fish toward the ancient capital at Nara and later Kyoto.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the tomb or climb the mound?
- No. Nakazuka is a protected National Historic Site, the burial chamber has never been opened to visitors, and part of the mound sits on private residential land. It is viewed from the outside, from the surrounding lanes and paths.
- Who was buried here?
- No name has been confirmed for Nakazuka itself. The tomb is read as one in a line of chieftain graves belonging to the Kashiwade clan, the regional rulers of Wakasa who served as the imperial court's food stewards.
- How is it different from the other two tombs in the valley?
- Nakazuka is the middle of the three in both position and size. It faces south like Nishizuka, whereas the larger Kaminotsuka faces north, and it is dated slightly later than both as the sequence of rulers continued.
- Where can I see what came out of the tomb?
- Finds from the Kaminaka tombs, including cylindrical haniwa and imported objects, are displayed at the Wakasa Town History and Culture Museum in the Ichiba district of Wakasa Town.
- How do I get there?
- The closest station is Kaminaka on the JR Obama Line, about a 30-minute walk from the Wakibukuro tombs. A car gives easier access to the museum and the wider Wakasa area.
Basic Information
| Name | Nakazuka Kofun |
|---|---|
| Location | Wakibukuro, Wakasa Town, Mikata-kaminaka District, Fukui Prefecture |
| Type | Keyhole-shaped tumulus (zenpō-kōen-fun) |
| Designation | National Historic Site, designated 24 December 1935 (as part of the Kaminaka tomb group) |
| Period | Late 5th century (Kofun period); some sources extend this to the early 6th century |
| Scale | Mound length about 70 m; rear circle about 46 m across; front section about 60 m wide; height about 6 m |
| Features | Two-tier mound (recorded as three tiers in 1935), fukiishi stone facing, shield-shaped moat, cylindrical haniwa; presumed horizontal stone chamber |
| Excavated finds | Held at the Wakasa Town History and Culture Museum |
| Access | About 30 min on foot from Kaminaka Station, JR Obama Line |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs (Nakazuka Kofun)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/401/1057
- Wakasa Town, History and Culture Division: Kaminaka Tomb Group (National Designation)
- https://www.town.fukui-wakasa.lg.jp/soshiki/rekishibunkaka/gyomuannai/3/1/2/918.html
- Japan Heritage Portal: Wakibukuro Tomb Group
- https://japan-heritage.bunka.go.jp/ja/culturalproperties/result/522/
- Nakazuka Kofun (Wakasa Town), Japanese Wikipedia
- https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/中塚古墳_(若狭町)
Last verified: 2026.05.29