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As most of you know, Kofun sounds familiar to coffin, and closer home (India), it sounds very familiar to Kafan, all of which means the burial mound. Kofun Era therefore must have had something to do with the burial; many people might have been buried, or there was only burial and burial and nothing but burial. As a matter of fact, in the Kofun era a lot of such burial mounds were discovered, and to such an extent, that the period from 300AD to 710 AD, the period has been called Kofun Era. As this word sounds like living dead, I prefer to call this with the other name this era is famous, the Yamato era. It was the Yamato Kingdom that united and held on all this 400 years, and thus the name.

The Kofun of Itsubutai
Kofun and Yamato periods
Nintoku Kofun The Kofun Era   Not much information is available on the kafans of the Kofun era except what is said by the Kafans themselves. China played almost no role in the Kofun era, as there was no records in Chinese history about Japan during this time, but Korea did. Korean kingdoms fought with Wa(Japan) and also among themselves. The Kofuns themselves are of different shapes, some of keyhole shape thought to be the tombs of the Imperial period.
There are also eleven rare 8-sided mound tombs. Five of these rare tombs are found in the Yamanashi prefecture of Tokyo. You can go have a look at these, and these are said to be dated back to the 7th century. A typical one is the Inarizuka Kofun in Tama City in Tokyo. One side of this is about 38m high, resting on a platform type lower layer. It has a chamber with a side entrance made of stone linings. The mound covers this chamber on the second tier. Rocks cover the lower sides of this upper tier. For more, visit here Keally's Kofun Culture.
Japanese Flag
Yamato Kingdom

A dead Samurai!!

 In around 700 AD the the region around Kinai plane became a center of power and strength. The period 300AD to 700AD is called the Yamato era (with the first 100 years being categorized as Kofun era). The country was united under the Yamato rulers and it centered around the Yamato province (now called Nara), and included Kyushu, to Kinai plain, but excluded Kanto, Tohoku and Hokkaido.
The supreme top of the Japan at that time was the Emperor who moved his kingdom's capital from here to there everyday (the poor students had to mug up a lot of names). But soon the Soga clan took over all this, and all the Emperor did is exactly what he is not supposed to do. He acted as a puppet and just practiced  Shintoism.
   Changes were not only through the unification of Japan, but also through many other things. The rulers at the Yamato era were pretty good chums with the Korean neighbors and it was this time (538 or 558 AD)  that Buddhism was introduced in Japan. Of course that came from India but that's another story. There was this very dynamic prince called Shotoku who introduced lot of Chinese stuff in this country. He introduced Confucianism and wrote seventeen articles on moral values and politics. Good.  This was also the time when Chinese writing (Kanji .. the ones we somersault on) was introduced.
   In 645 AD there was this Mr. Kamatari (Nakatomi no Kamatari as they say),  got the Fujiwara clan in action which lasted till the rise of the Samurais came and changed the system again. No, there was no Samurais in Yamato era, there were no Shoguns either, these came in the 11th century, and I just put the pictures of Samurais for two reasons. I wanted to impress you, and second, I just love them. Samurais.
Not from Yamato era I end this Yamato era talk with a not on fashion. Kimonos, of which everybody has heard has heard of (even Raj Kapoor's film Love in Tokyo shows our own lady wearing one), was introduced in this era. Yamato era fashion went gaga with Kimonos. At this time the Yamato fashion was all made of two pieces. An upper one and a lower one. The upper one had tight sleeves. I don't know about the lower one. Silk was introduced in this era, from China and they started cultivating silk worms. Kimono of a different era
     
   I will stop the history part here. When I finish the rest of Indo.to's English content, I might give you the rest of the history of Japan. If you want to know more about them right now, do mail me and I would personally inform you when its all ready. Samurais, Shoguns, and Ninjas. These three and many other interesting things will be up and ready for you, but that will be another time.
  I will now concentrate on giving you Japan exactly as most Indians  need it today, and not what happened 10,000 years ago. The rest of Indo.to English, will concentrate on the present Japan, and how you deal with it. This too will take some time, so dear fellow countryman, OMACHIKUDASAI (for those of you for whom that was Greek, its PLEASE WAIT).