The Chikatsu Asuka area in the hills of southern Osaka prefecture is one of Japan’s most important sites of ancient burial mounds or kofun, with over 200 such tombs having been built here between the fourth and seventh centuries.
The Chikatsu Asuka Museum, designed by starchitect Tadao Ando in the shape of a ‘modern-day kofun’ and charged with the preservation and study of these tombs, conveys their significance to the public through an in-depth permanent exhibition featuring earthenware, haniwa clay dolls, reproductions of sarcophagi and much more. Several of the kofun at Chikatsu Asuka are thought to be imperial tombs, and their value for Japanese history also gets plenty of attention at the museum.
As is par for the course at a Japanese museum, the in-house shop and café sell a variety of cute items and treats modelled on the exhibits. After digging into a kofun parfait or some kakigori shaved ice, burn those calories by walking around the adjacent Fudoki-No-Oka Historical Park, which contains some 40 ancient burial mounds.