Just south of Osaka City, in an area known as Mozu, is a cluster of 49 ancient burial mounds or tombs, the most well-known and best-preserved of the 160, 000 such tombs found in Japan. The large mounds of earth are located on a plateau that rises above the Osaka Plain. Known as ‘kofun’, Japanese for ‘old burial mound’, the size of a mound and the decorations atop it indicate the social status of the person buried there.
The kofun are in the form of keyholes, scallops, squares or circles. The tombs for the elite ruling class contain a number of funerary objects such as weapons, armour and ornaments. The mounds are adorned with clay figures that represent houses, tools, weapons and humans.
The tombs were built between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The largest kofun measuring 800m by 600m, is that of Emperor Nintoku. It is in the shape of a keyhole and is surrounded by moats.
Though the tombs are not open to the public, they can be viewed from the observation deck on the 21st floor of the Sakai City Hall, which is located about a kilometre away.
UNESCO designated the Mozu Kofun a World Heritage Site in 2019.
Picture Credit : Google
