The appearance of burial mounds, or tumulus, in the Yayoi Period occurred because these ancient peoples believed that the spirit of a village head kept the village safe. A village head was usually a prominent priest. However, the appearance of tumuli was a result of politics in Kohun Period. Tumuli were usually found in three different shapes including either 1) square, 2) circular or 3) "keyhole-shaped". They are often seen in other countries at earlier times, but the meaning of those ancient burials are not always the same as earlier Japanese mounds. The third type is a "keyhole-shaped" tumuli, which have been discovered only in Korea and Japan. It is strong evidences that there was interaction between Korean and Japanese at that time. Many clay images of humans, animals, or buildings are usually placed on the burial mounds. Placing clay images around or on a tumulus was also practiced in ancient times in China, lending additional confirmation to the increased contact between these two cultures.

The image to the left is a model of the "Daisenryou tumulus" which is the largest burial mound in Japan. Daisenryou tumulus has a total length of 480 meters and an area of about 464 thousand square meters. This burial mound is also considered one of the larger burial mounds in the world. However, it is not as old as the pyramids since it was built about the 5th century. Also, there are more than 20 thousand clay images on the Daisenryou-tumulus. More than 100 years ago, a portion of the burial mound collapsed and a burial chamber made of stone was discovered. A stone coffin, armor, a piece of sword, and glass bracelets were found in the chamber. After examination, those items were re-buried in their original location in the mound. Now people just can see the burial from the outside of the mound.

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