Kofun period, Japan · c. 250-600 AD

Kofun Japan: keyhole tombs and the Yamato kings

Giant keyhole-shaped tombs, ringed by moats and clay figures, rose across Japan as the great kings of Yamato extended their power. Then Buddhism arrived from Korea. Students explore what the tombs reveal and how Japan learned from its neighbors.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 500 to AD 552
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Giant keyhole-shaped tombs, ringed by moats and clay figures, rose across Japan as the great kings of Yamato extended their power. Then Buddhism arrived from Korea. Students explore what the tombs reveal and how Japan learned from its neighbors.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the Yamato heartland and the great keyhole tombs on the map.
  • Explain what keyhole tombs and haniwa figures reveal about power in early Japan.
  • Describe how ideas, technology and Buddhism reached Japan from Korea and China.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 500

The Yamato heartland

Open the map in AD 500 and find Yamato. Zoom in on the plains around Nara and Osaka Bay. Why was this region a good base for kings?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 500

A narrow sea

Zoom out to see Kyushu and the Korean kingdoms across the sea. Which kingdoms lie closest to Japan? What could cross this strait: people, goods or ideas?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 552

Buddhism arrives

Set the year to 552, turn on Spreads and choose Buddhism. Find Asuka and read its text. Where did the statue come from?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The largest keyhole tomb is longer than four football fields. What does such a tomb say about the king's power?
  2. Who do you think built these tombs, and how might they have felt about it?
  3. Haniwa clay figures stood on the tombs: soldiers, horses, houses. Why put them outside, where everyone could see them?
  4. Yamato kings sent envoys to China and learned from Korean craftsmen. Why would a growing kingdom look abroad?
  5. From the late 500s, rulers began to build Buddhist temples instead of giant tombs. What might this change tell us?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Tokugawa Ieyasu in Rule History, the warlord who unified Japan about a thousand years after the Yamato kings. After the round, discuss: how did both the Yamato kings and Ieyasu win over powerful clans in order to rule all of Japan?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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