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One of the Largest Mausoleums in the World
Believed to Be the Tomb of a Fifth-Century Emperor
 In the Japan of the late third to late seventh centuries, the custom was to bury people of high social status in tombs that were covered with large mounds of earth. Such constructions are called kofun in Japanese archaeology, and the period is known as the Kofun Period (ca 300-710). These burial mounds come in various shapes and sizes and the characteristic form in Japan is the keyhole-shaped tumulus. The Daisen Kofun, with an overall mound length that exceeds about 500 meters (1,640 feet), ranks in scale alongside the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of the Ch'in dynasty in China and the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt. This huge tomb is located in the middle of a cluster known as the Mozu Tumuli, which consists of 92 large and small kofun lying within an area of roughly 16 square kilometers (6.2 square miles) in the city of Sakai in Osaka Prefecture. In the Kinki region (located in west central of Japan) during the Kofun Period, the leaders during the flourishing days of Yamato hegemony favored the use of key-hole-shaped burial mound, and nearly all of the historical tombs of emperors and empresses that are currently administered by the Imperial Household Agency are of this form. It is said that the Daisen Burial Mound was built in the 5th century as the tomb of Nintoku, the 16th Emperor. It appears that the slopes of the mound and the moat around it were used for some kind of religious rites, since unglazed pots and hollow circular clay figures modeled on people and animal forms, known as haniwa, have been unearthed. Excavations in 1872 discovered a stone sarcophagus in a pit-dwelling-style stone lined chamber that was buried beneath the mound at the square end. Gold-plated armor, a helmet, and an iron sword were also found. Photo: Daisen Burial Mound (The Japan Foundation) Unauthorized reproduction of the
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