The tomb attributed to Emperor Ingyo stands in Fujiidera, in the eastern suburbs of Osaka, and it belongs to the Furuichi group of kofun, the other half of the World Heritage site shared with Sakai's Mozu tombs. It is a large keyhole-shaped mound, wooded and surrounded by a moat, and like all imperial tombs it is managed by the Imperial Household Agency and closed to visitors. Scholars debate whether the attributions to specific emperors are accurate, since they were made long after the tombs were built, but the scale of the monuments speaks for itself. Nearby, the tomb attributed to Emperor Ojin, Kondagobyoyama, is the second largest in Japan by volume.
The Furuichi area grew up along the Yamato River, which flows from the Nara basin through a gap in the hills into the Osaka plain, and this was the corridor along which the early Japanese state developed. The city of Kashiwara, right next to the tomb, sits at that gap, and the town of Fujiidera takes its name from a temple that houses an ancient thousand-armed statue of the goddess of mercy, Kannon, one of the oldest of its kind in Japan.
East of here, the Takenouchi Kaido climbs over the Nijo hills into Nara Prefecture. It is said to be the oldest official road in Japan, recorded in the early seventh century, linking the port of Naniwa with the capital of Asuka, and parts of it still have old houses and stone markers. For riders, it is the start of a beautiful route: over the hills to Asuka, then south through the mountains to Yoshino, famous for its cherry blossoms and for the mountain religion of Omine, with its yamabushi ascetics. Once you leave the suburbs behind, the roads become narrow and winding, with forested slopes, small villages and tea fields.
In Fujiidera itself, the riding is purely urban, with narrow streets, traffic lights and a lot of bicycles. Fuel and convenience stores are everywhere, and Kashiwara and Yao are large towns. Kashiwara is known for its grapes and small wineries on the slopes of the hills, an unexpected find in Osaka. Spring and autumn are ideal for riding into the Nara mountains; in summer, the humidity is relentless.