Saitobaru Burial Mounds

Three hundred and nineteen burial mounds stand on a plateau outside Saito, built between the late third and the seventh centuries and spread over an area four kilometres north to south and two and a half east to west. It is a Special Historic Site, the highest designation Japan gives, and it is one of the largest concentrations of kofun in the country.

What is unusual is that it was never built over. The mounds sit in open grassland with paths between them and you can walk among them freely, which is not possible at most major kofun groups. The prefectural archaeological museum on the site is free and explains what was found. In spring the plateau is planted with rape flowers under cherry blossom and in November with about three million cosmos.