A New Way to See Osaka's Ancient Tombs
Hidden beneath the neon-splashed modernity of the fast-paced Japanese city lies millennia of history in the form of ancient burial mounds known as kofun. A new tethered balloon tour lets visitors experience them like never before.
Osaka is known as Tokyo’s rambunctious, sometimes gritty, always authentic cousin, visited by millions of travelers each year who come to experience its legendary comfort food and nightlife. But the city and surrounding Osaka Prefecture are also home to 49 kofun, ancient imperial burial mounds hidden among the area’s buildings and busy streets.
These mounds are arranged in two clusters, together forming the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group. Of the 160,000 kofun in Japan, the examples in this collection are the only ones recognized on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. They vary in size and shape, from small round patches of green resembling pocket parks to massive keyhole-shaped islands that are among the largest mausoleums in the world.
As the eternal resting place of members of Japan’s ruling class, they’re largely closed off to visitors, outside of a few perimeter walking routes. But a new balloon ride lets visitors take in the whole picture.
What are kofun?
The first kofun were small-scale ditches or mounds created during the Yayoi Period, which lasted from roughly 300 B.C. to A.D. 250. But the form reached its height from A.D. 250 to A.D. 538, when kofun were often built in the shape of scallop shells, circles, squares, and keyholes.
The style and scale were determined by the social status of the deceased. The wealthiest and most powerful occupants often had objects such as armor, jewelry, and Sueki pottery, originating in China and the Korean peninsula, buried nearby. Many kofun also had clay figurines known as haniwa placed on top to represent the sacred space between the living and the dead. Some scholars believe haniwa were intended to keep the soul from leaving the tomb or to ensure abundant future harvests.
Osaka’s Mozu-Furuichi kofun
Osaka is part of the region that once held the seat of the shogunate, Japan’s feudal form of military government, which is why the majority of Japan’s kofun can be found in Osaka Prefecture and neighboring Hyogo and Nara Prefectures.
The Mozu-Furuichi group, which includes mounds not only in Osaka but also the nearby cities of Sakai, Fujidera, and Habikino, is Japan’s best-preserved cluster. It includes Daisen-ryo Kofun, built in the mid-5th century A.D. At 1,594 feet long, 1,007 feet wide at the front, and about 114 feet above ground, it’s the largest kofun in Japan and one of the three largest tombs in the world, along with the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in Xi’an.
Just south of Daisen-ryo lies Japan’s third-largest kofun, the Kamiishizu Misanzai. Built in the early 5th century A.D., it measures 1,198 feet long. Some believe that Emperor Nintoku, who ruled in the 4th Century A.D., is buried at Daisen-ryo and that Emperor Richū, who followed Nintoku in the 5th, lies within the Kamiishizu Misanzai, though that is a matter of some debate. Kazumi Kobayashi, the section leader of the World Heritage Division of the city of Sakai, notes that when the system of imperial governance was restored during the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the new Japanese government randomly assigned kofun with the names of emperors and other powerful figures mentioned in texts from the eighth century A.D.
Since that time, no one has been able to verify the true identity of these tombs’ occupants. Because Japanese emperors were regarded as living deities until January 1946, when Emperor Hirohito renounced his divinity under pressure from the Allied powers, their mausoleums were inaccessible even to historians and archeologists. Even since then, only staff members of the Imperial Household Agency have been allowed to enter the approximately 900 kofun believed to contain the remains of the imperial family.
How to see Osaka’s imperial-era kofun
The Osaka Sakai Balloon, a new tethered helium balloon service, lets visitors take in the burial mounds in all their splendor from the centrally located Daisen Park. The 15-minute jaunt takes visitors 328 feet up in the air—just enough to reveal these historical treasures hidden in plain sight. Travelers can learn more about the kofun and their history at the nearby Chikatsu Asuka Museum.
