Yoshimi Hyakuana

Yoshimi Hyakuanatomb cavesKofun periodluminous mosswartime tunnels

Saitama · Yoshimi

36.0394°N, 139.4221°E

A hillside outside Yoshimi is drilled with 219 openings, cut into the soft tuff between the late sixth and late seventh centuries as tombs. Each chamber held a family group and the arrangement across the slope is dense enough that the hill looks industrial rather than funerary. When they were first excavated in 1887 the excavator concluded they were the dwellings of a race of dwarfs, a theory that held for decades before the burial goods settled it.

A few of the chambers hold luminous moss, a nationally designated natural monument that glows faintly green in the low light at the mouth of the openings. There is a second and much later layer: in 1944 and 1945 a large underground armaments factory was tunnelled through the same hill, and its three-metre openings sit among the burial caves at the base of the slope.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

8:45 AM – 4:50 PM (last entry 4:30 PM)

Closed: Open year-round

Entrance Fee

¥300 junior high school students and over | ¥200 elementary school | Free below elementary school

Best Season

Year-round | Spring and autumn for comfortable climbing on the slope

Visit Duration

1–1.5 hours

Getting There

Access Information

Kitayoshimi 324, Yoshimi Town, Hiki District. About 40 minutes by car from Kawagoe; buses run from Higashi-Matsuyama Station. Open 8:45 AM to 4:50 PM with last entry at 4:30 PM, open year-round. Admission ¥300 for junior high school students and over, ¥200 elementary school, free below that. The slope is climbed on steep steps and several chambers can be entered by crouching.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Some chambers can be entered.** Crouching, on hands and knees for a couple of them. The interiors have carved beds along the walls, which is the detail that makes them read as tombs rather than holes. **The luminous moss is in specific chambers and is signposted.** It needs the low indirect light at the mouth of a cave to show, and photographing it without ruining it means no flash. **The 1944 factory tunnels are at the base.** Three-metre bores driven through the same hill by conscripted labour to move aircraft-engine production underground. Partly accessible and much less visited than the tombs above. **They were thought to be dwarf houses until the 1920s.** The 1887 excavator proposed a race of small people lived in them, and the idea persisted. The tomb interpretation came from the grave goods. **Steep steps up the slope.** Not step-free anywhere and the stone is worn. Sensible shoes. **Iwadono Kannon is 10 minutes away.** A cliff temple in a ravine, free, and almost nobody there.

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