Photo/Illutration An 8K projection of aerial images on a curved screen installed inside the Mozu Mounded Tombs Visitor Center gives viewers a glimpse of the stunning scenery of Emperor Nintoku’s mausoleum in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. The total length of the mound including the surrounding triple moat is 840 meters. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)

How I’d love to have Doraemon’s "dokodemo" anywhere door to travel back in time, and a hayaokuri cassette to view how the hunters and gatherers of the Jomon Pottery Culture Period (c. 14500 B.C.-1000 B.C.) lived.

That would be followed by Queen Himiko’s Yayoi Pottery Culture Period (1000 B.C.-A.D. 250), when agriculture, iron tools and social classes were introduced.

I’d slow down and stop for a visit at a time when the country was united as the Yamato State in the Kofun Period, which lasted from the third through seventh century.

UNESCO added two Japanese tumulus clusters to the World Heritage Sites in 2019, the Mozu Furuichi ancient "kofun" (burial mounds), made up of numerous tombs scattered over a 4-kilometer by 2.5-km tract of land that straddles three cities in Osaka Prefecture, namely Sakai, Fujiidera and Habikino.

The site is believed to be among the world’s three largest mounded tombs, joining the ranks of China’s first Qin Emperor’s mausoleum and Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza.

Throughout history, spanning across continents and social hierarchies, the inevitability of death is a shared experience, and the earliest and most majestic human constructions were memorials for the most powerful individuals among us.

There are approximately 160,000 known kofun in Japan, and they come in a range of shapes and sizes, such as "houfun" squares, "empun" circles, "hotategaishiki" scallop shells, and the iconic "zempokouenfun," or "bachigata" (from a shamisen pick), keyhole-like design.

I couldn’t help but notice that kofun sounds like "coffin," and that a keyhole is such an apt shape for a locked-up secret gateway.

According to the "Engishiki," a manual for national rites, the largest burial mound in the country was originally named "Mozu-no-mimihara-no-naka-no-misasagi," quite a mouthful! And the meaning was somewhat strange--"shrike ear field."

According to the "Nihon Shoki," during the tomb’s construction, a deer came to the site from a field and died. Upon inspection of the carcass, a shrike flew out of the deer’s ear. What does this mean? Your guess is as good as mine.

The Daisen Kofun (Nintoku-ryo) here is officially an imperial mausoleum for Emperor Nintoku and under the care of the Imperial Household Agency. Many scholars have voiced skepticism as to whether the tomb truly serves as the emperor’s final resting place.

Still, the legendary narrative is what it is, and nobody--neither archaeologists nor royalty--is permitted to go beyond the moat, leaving the upper section of the keyhole undisturbed for over a millennium.

It was disheartening to discover that the entire kofun was inaccessible. Instead of a physical stroll around the site, I had to be content with the Mozu Mounded Tombs Visitor Center as my dokodemo door.

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the Sept. 3 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series "Lisa’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan," which depicts various sites of outstanding universal value across the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University.

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