Japanese ancient tomb Emperor Nintoku’s Mausoleum: The area is four times that of Emperor Qin’s Mausoleum. Why has no one dared to steal it for thousands of years?

Whether it is in ancient times or modern times, people attach great importance to their destination after death. Modern people will spend tens or hundreds of thousands to buy a cemetery for themselves; in ancient times, rich families, needless to say, would bury family members in their family cemetery after death.

What will happen to the emperor, the most noble person in ancient times, after his death? Generally speaking, after the death of the emperor and his relatives, they were buried in the imperial mausoleum.

Speaking of imperial mausoleums, the first thing that most of us Chinese think of is the Qin Emperor’s Mausoleum. Wang Wei wrote in "Passing the Tomb of the First Emperor of Qin": "The ancient tombs are like canang ridges, and the secluded palaces are like purple terraces. Stars and mornings are separated by seven rays, and nine springs are blooming in the rivers and Han Dynasties." Using jewels as stars and moons, and mercury as rivers, it is clear that the royal family The mausoleum is grand and luxurious.

The Qin Emperor’s Mausoleum covers an area of ??approximately 120,000 square meters, equivalent to more than 180 acres of land. Many people think that the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum is the largest mausoleum in the world, but it is not.

There is an ancient tomb in Japan, the Mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku, which covers an area of ??more than 480,000 square meters. It is nearly four times the size of the Qin Emperor’s Mausoleum and is the largest ancient tomb in Japan.

The owner of the tomb is suspected

The owner of the tomb of Emperor Nintoku is not certain. However, because the tomb complex was built around the 5th century AD, it is now generally believed that the most likely owner of this tomb is Emperor Nintoku, the 16th emperor of Yamato who ruled Japan in the 4th century AD.

Who is Emperor Nintoku? To talk about this issue, we have to first talk about Japanese mythological concepts and the inheritance of emperors from generation to generation.

In Japanese mythology, there is Izanagi, the father of the gods. On his way back from the land of death, the land of underworld, he wanted to wash away the dirt on his body and was born in the process of washing his face. Three gods: Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi and Susanoo. Amaterasu Omikami, who was born when she washed her left eye, was the sun goddess who ruled Takamagahara, the kingdom of gods, and was the ancestor of the Japanese emperor.

The ancient Japanese mythology book "Kojiki" records the titles of 33 emperors. The history from the earliest Emperor Jimmu to the 14th Emperor Nakaai is difficult to confirm. Starting from the 15th generation Emperor Oishin, there are relevant records in history. The 16th emperor of Empress Ojinten was Emperor Nintoku.

After investigation and research, many experts agree that the first 14 emperors were fictions made to deify the emperor as a descendant of Amaterasu, and that the subsequent emperors are more likely to actually exist in reality. It can almost be said that Emperor Nintoku was one of the earliest emperors of Japan.

During his reign, Emperor Nitoku worked hard to develop agriculture, water conservancy and diplomacy, which made Yamato, Japan at that time, prosperous rapidly. Today's Japanese people proudly call themselves the "Yamato Nation" because the Yamato Kingdom under the rule of Emperor Nitoku was both the beginning period and the period of prosperity for Japan.

Emperor Nitoku, who has strong national power and sufficient wealth, has the qualifications and strength to build such a high-standard mausoleum for himself. There is another interesting trivia about Emperor Nintoku: According to legend, Emperor Nintoku was born in 257 AD and died in 399 AD, living for more than 140 years.

If this is true, it can be said to be quite a long life. Also because of this unusual age, some Japanese experts have questioned the authenticity of Emperor Nintoku. But this is all gossip, everyone has different opinions.

Nintoku Emperor’s Mausoleum

Nintoku Emperor’s Mausoleum is the common name for this mausoleum. Its full name is "Mozu's Erhara Zhongling". Maybe we think this name is very complicated when we look at it now, but complexity can be regarded as a characteristic of ancient Japanese names of people and places. Since the current mainstream belief is that the owner of this tomb is Emperor Nintoku, it is more convenient to call it the Mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku.

The Mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku is located in what is now Daisen Town, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Because it is located in Daisen, the Mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku can also be called the "Daisen Tumulus".

The Nintoku Emperor’s Mausoleum is a typical Japanese Takatsuka-style tumulus—a mausoleum with a round front and a back. It has a maximum length of 486 meters, a circular diameter of 249 meters, a square width of 305 meters, and a total area of ??more than 480,000 square meters. Although the area of ??Emperor Qin's Mausoleum is slightly larger when considering the surrounding environment such as burial pits and cemeteries, the area of ??Emperor Nintoku's Mausoleum is larger in terms of the mound alone.

You must know that the mounds of royal mausoleums and the small mounds of ordinary civilian tombs are completely different in scale. Their "graves" can almost be regarded as a small hill. Especially when the mound is covered with trees and plants, it looks like a mountain.

This is also the reason why some mausoleums have become tourist attractions. In addition to feeling the tomb culture of the ancients, you can also get a moment of returning to nature in a quiet environment. However, out of respect for the emperor in Japan, Emperor Nintoku's Mausoleum is almost never open to the public.

The most impressive thing is that this "hill" is really piled up bit by bit by manpower. It can be called Japan's "Foolish Old Man's Mountain". Emperor Nintoku's Mausoleum, like other imperial tombs, not only looks huge from the outside, but also has "household items" that are not inferior to the residence during his lifetime and an amazing quantity and quality of funerary objects inside. Generally, there will be a stone chamber in the ancient tomb to house the coffin, instead of directly burying the coffin in the earth.

Various types of Haniwa will be placed in the tombs according to special standards (mainly plain pottery clay figures buried with them, in humanoid, animal-shaped, utensil-shaped and other forms), as if these models can be used Instead of real objects, the tomb owner can show his supreme status in the underworld.

In the tomb, the tomb owner’s personal belongings will be put into the tomb as much as possible, so that the tomb owner can have a comfortable life in line with the old habits after death. Other rare treasures should also be put in more, so that the owner of the tomb cannot look shabby in the underworld, or cannot hold his head up due to lack of financial resources as others.

However, the current archaeological exploration of Emperor Nintoku’s Mausoleum has not been completely clear, but many high-standard tombs and funerary objects can be found in the surrounding area.

Non-existent tomb robbers

I wonder if anyone has discovered the blind spot: Are there no tomb robbers to rob tombs? Emperor Nintoku's Mausoleum is so big, no one really wants to build it, right?

In China, there are indeed many novels and other literary works related to tomb robbing. But this does not mean that tomb robbing is an easy task. Not to mention that it is difficult for many archaeological experts to formulate a comprehensive plan for the development and archeology of the tomb, how should non-professional tomb robbers act.

Take our Qin Emperor’s Mausoleum and the Egyptian Pyramids as examples. Just thinking about what protective measures a monarch can take for his residence after death is enough to make the timid tomb robbers retreat without a fight. The big one came back defeated.

And Japan has its own unique national conditions. To the Japanese, the emperor is a descendant of a god, and disrespecting the emperor is equivalent to disrespecting the gods. This cause and effect is unbearable for ordinary people. How could anyone dare to steal the emperor's burial?

However, although tomb robbing will not occur in the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku due to the awe in the Japanese people's hearts, scientific and reasonable exploration is still possible. In order to determine the true owner of Emperor Nintoku's Mausoleum, in 2018, the Imperial Household Agency, which manages Japanese imperial affairs, announced that it would jointly excavate and study Emperor Nintoku's Mausoleum with the Sakai City Government in Osaka Prefecture. The subsequent archaeological work was also in full swing.

In general, the ancients did attach great importance to the world after death, and the most noble person in a country was no exception. Whether it is from the outside or the Yoshimitsu blades discovered in the archeology of Emperor Nintoku's Mausoleum, they all reveal the astonishing aura of money in this tomb. I don’t know what other major discoveries Japan will make in the study of Emperor Nintoku’s tomb, so let us wait and see.