Ancient Japan

The first Japanese written sources belong to the end of seventh century AD, when the long formative process that led to the unification of the country under imperial power came to an end. The last phase of this process, called Kofun (250–600 AD circa) bears its name from the scores of funerary monuments which are still today visible in the whole country. The chapter discusses the solar orientation of the kofun access corridor, clearly related to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, and attempts at an explanation of the peculiar shape of the hugest of them, the Keyholes, as a symbolic image of the Sun rising behind Mount Fuji.