In 2009, two reels of 8mm movie film were found in the material storage at the Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University. After cleaning, they were found to be color movies taken by an excavation team from the School of Letters at the Nonaka Kofun [ kofun = ancient tomb] in Fujiidera City, Osaka, in 1964. The Nonaka Kofun is designated as a national historic site and is on a tentative list of World Heritage Sites. These films have now been digitized and are now available for viewing at the Osaka University Archaeological Lab website . These are the oldest color movies of archaeological excavation in Osaka Prefecture and some of the oldest in Japan.
The excavation of the Nonaka Kofun was conducted from March through July in 1964 under the leadership of KITANO Kohei , the then assistant at the Japanese History Lab of the School of Letters, Osaka University. Many burial items including 11 sets of armor (2nd in the number of unearthed articles in Japan), iron weapons, iron blanks, and earthen ware excavated show Japan's exchange with Gaya confederacy in the southern Korean Peninsula.
The Nonaka Kofun is a middle-sized square kofun, 37 m on each side, built in the mid-5th century and is part of a Mozu and Furuichi Kofun-gun [a group of kofun] that also contains some large-scale keyhole-shaped kofun.
Large-scale keyhole kofun were reserved for emperors and their family members and for that reason academic research into them is limited. Unearthed articles from the Nonaka Kofun are valuable in that they demonstrate the power base of the Kawachi Administration in the 5th century which was based and developed in the Osaka Plain and that its power came from its exchange with the Korean Peninsula and its control of iron production.

Related link

• Osaka University Archaeological Lab website