A clustered cemetery of keyhole, round, square, and other mounds. Following excavations prompted by a 1960s plan to clear the hills for farmland, it was preserved as a National Historic Site and can be visited from park paths.
Finds & research
Tomb No. 126 yielded grave goods including objects brought from Persia, China, and the Korean Peninsula, and the cemetery as a whole has produced diverse gold ornaments, glassware, armor, horse gear, and other items.
Official status & archaeological view
Official status
The cemetery was designated a National Historic Site on 31 March 1976.
Archaeological view
A vast cemetery across Kawanishicho and Kitaochicho, Kashihara, numbering about 600 mounds according to Kashihara City and about 350 according to the Agency for Cultural Affairs description written at designation (1975). It spans the end of the 4th to the end of the 6th century, especially the late 5th to early 6th, with about 130 mounds excavated.
Field notes
The site has been conserved and laid out so that visitors can walk among the mounds (Kashihara City).