After lunch with my friend, I wondered what I might do with the rest of my day. Osaka is not the classically rich city that Kyoto is, and so there are not many typical sight-seeing locations to visit. One series of spots that has peeked my curiosity since first reading about it in old history books are ancient Kofun tombs.
During the Kofun era, around 1500 years ago and more, old emperors and nobles made tombs for themselves called Kofun (thus the name archeologists and historians have given to the era). Ultimately, they are not much more than burial mounds that might be found in many ancient societies around the world. However, although they lack the technological sophistication that was required to build other ancient stone tombs (such as (in my estimation) the pyramids in Egypt, or even Stonenge), they do illustrate a significant desire in the the Kofun nobility to create architectually interesting monuments. The unique feature that makes these tombs stand out is that they are keyhole shaped. I can't understand why or how this unique shape was arrived at, but I find it interesting becase it is much more than a simple mound that might otherwise be overlooked as some kind of natural occurrence.
To be sure, I might be using the term "architectural" in a very loose way. Afterall, other than the surrounding moat that gives the tombs the keyhole shape, there are no other structures above ground that would distinguish these sights. I can't help but be curious about whant may lie below ground, however. Because these are known to be tombs, and there are so many scattered around the Kansai region of Japan, there must be so many archeologically, historically, and artistically significant artifacts below the ground. However, they are considered sacred spots, and so the government has not allowed very much excavation of these sites. One cannot even step foot on any of these tombs, as each is surrounded by a fence. (Every so often there is a terrible storm that might ravage one of these mounds, and interesting artifacts from these tombs have been found this way.) This is, of course a controversial issue, especially with academics who would love to find out what treasures lie beneath the ground, and what we could learn about this ancient period of Japanese history, of which there are no contemporary written accounts. (Perhaps one reason that the more conservative folk don't want these tombs excavated is because they might lend evidence against what the old myths say about ancient Japan.)
The largest of these tombs is the tomb of Emperor Nintoku, who probably reigned around the year 300. There are many accounts of his good deeds in the ancient history texts, but one of his achievements that I get to discuss in my course is that the oldest written poem in Japanese literature (under some arguments), from the ancient Man'youshu anthology, is classically attributed to him (this attribution may or may not be true). This tomb is also claimed by the Japanese to be the largest ancient tomb anywhere in the world. To make this claim, they consider the length of the longest side. The pyramids in Egypt are 230 meters long, and Nintoku's tomb is 793 meters long, for a total of 464, 000 square meters (115 acres).
However, one drawback of visiting this site is that one cannot really fathom the magnitude of this tomb. Unlike the pyramids in Egypt which rise so high into the air, and thus present their magnitude, even from far away, this tomb lies fairly close to the ground, probably only going up a few stories high at its highest point. All that one can really see is what looks like a park so thick with trees. You will see the moat surrounding the tomb, but to really get the best idea of it, and really grasp the magnificence of it, you would really have to be above it in a helicopter or something. (Viewing the location on Google maps does offer a great view from outer space.) Even the highest nearby buildings do not have a vantage point from which this looks like anything but a preserved park. I didn't go in a helicopter, so I didn't much amazement at this site.
Coupled with the lonliness that I felt after leaving my friend, now I seemed to have wasted the rest of my day visiting an underwhelming sight. However, looking at the map that I received from the information booth the previous day, I could see that there were many such tombs all around this location, at least 20 others that were very close by, and several hundred if I wanted to make a scavenger hunt out of it over many days (I didn't want to do that). Well, I'm here, I figured, so I might as well make the most out of it.
Walking through the park that was across the street, I happened upon one of these smaller tombs, almost without noticing it. Like I metioned above, they barely look like more than small mounds with trees on them. The only thing that made this one stand out was that, indeed, there was a moat around it, and surrounding the keyhole shaped mound there was a fence. But upon further examination, I could really appreciate what I was looking at. Unlike the much larger tomb of Emperor Nintoku, walking around this tomb on the ground I was able to make out the keyhole shape of the structure, and the elevated mound at the head of the keyhole shape. I was amazed, and my spirits were lifted! Again, unlike seeing Nintoku's tomb, here I had the feeling of "Wow, I am actually seeing a Kofun tomb!" It was a curious effect that the smaller, less significant tomb would illicit this response, but not the larger more significant tomb.
Another curious thought that crept across my thinking was why, over the last 1500 years or so, had these tombs not been robbed or vandalized. Certainly that has been the case of many of the great tombs around the world (the pyramids in Egypt, for example.) Furthermore, these tombs do not seem like they were designed to be sufficiently protected against robbers with such motivations. If I had more time here in Japan, I might be willing to run across these shallow moats, through these weak fences, and start digging myself! In fact, seeing these smaller tombs, I could clearly see a spot where the fence was broken, and litter that was scattered across the mound (maybe it was homeless folk, or kids just having fun). It seems like a real life Indiana Jones can really take advantage of the lax security here. (I suppose it would not be Indiana Jones, since he is a good guy who follows the laws and respects artifacts; then I would choose to be one of his antagonists.)
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