Updated:February 16, 2023

Mayor’s comment about designation of Nagasaki-Prefecture designated cultural property of “Onizuka Tumulus” and “Onizuka Tumulus excavated relics”.

February 16, 2023

 

Today, the Nagasaki Prefectural Board of Education has designated the Onizuka Tumulus and the Collective Relics Excavated from the Onizuka Burial Mound in Miyazu-cho, Sasebo-City as new Nagasaki Prefectural Historic Sites and Nagasaki Prefectural Tangible Cultural Properties (arts and crafts).

In Sasebo-City, eight burial mounds have been confirmed by surveys so far, and among them, only “Onizuka Burial Mound” was an old burial mound that retained the mound at the time of its construction. However, part of the burial mound began to wash away over time, so in 2013 an excavation was carried out with aim of investigating the cause and restoring it. The research results were published as a report.

At the time of its construction, the Onizuka Tumulus was constructed as a round burial mound with a diameter approximately 17m and a maximum height difference of approximately 3m (estimated). In the stone chamber, many iron products that are thought to be burial goods were unearthed. Burial goods include bronze mirrors, iron armor (armor, binding armor, neck armor, pauldron, rectangular leather armor), iron swords, long iron swords, iron arrowheads, and iron sickles (iron axes are collected). As a result, it turned out that it was built in the second quarter of the 5th century (425-450 AD), more than 1,500 years ago.

The Takatsuka Tumulus, which is scattered from Sasebo Bay to Omura Bay, was built intensively from around 5th century to half a century. It has the unique character of being buried as a burial mound, and in this cultural property designation, it is considered to be an extremely important historic site in verifying the burial mound culture of the area.

Miya district has cultural properties that represent the city, such as the Umegae Sake Brewery, which is national registered cultural property, and Mukyudo Cave. It is a great pleasure for us that the Onizuka Tumulus, one of the treasures of Miya district, is added to Nagasaki Prefecture cultural properties.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Nagasaki Prefecture and the members of the Prefectural Council for the Protection of Cultural Properties, as well as all the local people and the related parties who have evaluated the value of the Onizuka Tumulus.

The city will make every effort to approximately preserve and manage the Onizuka Tumulus as a valuable cultural asset that shows the history of Nagasaki Prefecture, as well as an important historical site and tangible cultural asset that conveys the history of the region, so that it can be passed on to future generations. I would like to continue.

 

Norio Tomonaga
Mayor of Sasebo