The Yamato basin, in the middle of Nara prefecture, is where Japan's early rulers raised their great earthen tombs, and Kashihara sits at the heart of it. Around the third and fourth centuries and for several hundred years afterward, the leaders of the Yamato court were buried under mounds, many in a distinctive keyhole shape, a round tomb joined to a trapezoidal front. These are the kofun, which simply means old mound. They were ringed with clay cylinders called haniwa, some formed into the shapes of houses, horses, warriors and dancers, and many were surrounded by moats.
Higashiumazuka is one of the lesser-known mounds in this country, a small tomb tucked into the countryside among villages and fields. Kashihara is dominated by the shapes of three famous hills, Unebi, Miminashi and Kagu, a trio celebrated in the oldest Japanese poetry, and Kashihara Shrine at the foot of Mount Unebi was founded in 1890 to honour Emperor Jimmu, the legendary first emperor. The archaeological museum nearby holds finds from the surrounding mounds, and it explains what was found.
The roads around Kashihara are flat and urban, with the typical Japanese mix of narrow lanes, level crossings and small shrines on corners. Rural lanes between rice fields are only wide enough for one car, and irrigation channels run beside them without barriers, so go carefully. Traffic is heavy on the main roads at rush hour, and parking at small tomb sites is limited, so check the details. Many of the tombs are also managed as imperial sites, with limited access, and you will often view them from outside the fence.
Kashihara, a city of about seventy-nine thousand people, has plenty of fuel and food, including noodle shops and set-meal restaurants. If you want a ride with some curves, the hills to the south lead toward Asuka, another early capital, and beyond it the mountain roads toward Yoshino. Spring, with its blossom, and autumn, with its red maple leaves, are the best times. Summer is hot, humid and loud with cicadas, and the rainy season in June is best avoided.