WHS#80

After a failed attempt to visit Antequera in early 2017, I finally succeeded in visiting a WHS inscribed less than a year before on my December 2019 trip to Kansai and Hiroshima. The kofungun at Mozu in Sakai are now the closest WHS to Osaka, and it's from there that I visited Nintoku-tenno-ryo. I used the Nankai Line to Mikunigaoka Station, which is basically at the tip of the great tomb, and walked the whole length of it to the front. Mozu Station is actually closer to the front, and you can access it on the JR Hanwa Line. On the way, I passed a few small circular mounds, including one that seemed to be accessible from the adjacent garage. Otherwise, the scenery was quite uniform throughout the walk, just a small canal-like moat on one side and modern houses on the other. The trees on the mounds look lovely in autumn colors, though. Upon reaching the front of the famous kofun, I was greeted with the view that everyone who comes to this little-known site gets. Crossing the bridge reveals another moat layer behind the first, and in the distance, a Torii gate seems to serve as the spiritual entrance to the tomb. While the mound is huge, probably even greater in volume than than the Pyramids of Giza, it sure doesn't have the same effect.

The mound looks like a forest, and that's mostly what it is. It's not significantly taller than its surroundings, and it just doesn't really demonstrate any unprecedented level of engineering for its age. Just a few hundred years later, beautiful temples were being built in Horyuji! All that being said, I personally appreciated the serenity of the area, the unique preservation of the tombs as holy sites, their beauty in the autumn scenery, and the surprising number of them. They do indeed represent the unique culture of the kofungun and are indeed the richest site to represent them, but how they compare to the rest of the world, I can't say yet. I feel like they're a worthy WHS, comparable to the tumuli sites in nearby Korea, but they don't offer much to the casual visitor. I'd still recommend a visit to anyone who visits Osaka, as this seems to be the most authentic and interesting look into the ancient past of this great metropolis.