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The Kofun period (古墳時代) is an era of Japanese history, dated from around 250 CE to 538 CE. A kofun is a type of burial mounds characteristic of this era. Following the Yayoi period, the Kofun period (jointly or without the subsequent Asuka period) is sometimes referred to as the Yamato period due to the rise of the Yamato state in southern Kyūshū.

The Kofun period is dominated by an animistic culture which existed prior to the introduction of Buddhism. Politically, the establishment of the Yamato court, and its expansion to control clans across Kyūshū and Honshū. The oldest era of recorded history in Japan, studies of this age require deliberate criticism and the aid of archaeology due to issues with chronology and dating in historical sources.

Archaeological records, and ancient Chinese sources, indicate that the various tribes and chiefdoms of Japan did not begin to coalesce into states until around 300 CE, when large tombs began to appear while there were no contacts between western Japan and China. Some describe this "mysterious century" as a time of internecine warfare as various chiefdoms competed for hegemony on Kyūshū and Honshū. According to an inscription on the Seven-Branched Sword, official diplomatic relations with the Korean peninsula and China are likely to have begun in this period, and appear to have been concentrated in Yamato by the late 4th century CE, as Chinese and Korean history records no other independent rival provinces on the islands.

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