The mound itself is easy to miss: a small, round hump of grass in a quiet corner of the Asuka countryside, surrounded by rice fields and persimmon trees. What made it famous is what was inside. In 1972, archaeologists opened a stone chamber here and found painted walls, with women in bright, flowing robes, a procession of men, and the guardian animals of the four directions, among them the Blue Dragon and the White Tiger. The paintings date from around the end of the seventh century or the start of the eighth, and show the strong influence of Korea and China on the early Japanese court. It was the first wall painting of its kind found in Japan and caused a sensation.
The story since then is a cautionary one. The murals began to deteriorate from mould and the tomb was eventually dismantled in the 2000s, with the painted plaster removed in sections to a controlled conservation facility. The mound stands as a landscape feature now, with a small museum and a replica of the paintings nearby, which is the best that can be done. It is oddly humbling to stand here knowing the original is hidden away, and it says something about how fragile all this art is.
Asuka is where the Yamato state took shape, and the whole village is dotted with earlier and stranger relics: the huge stone chamber of Ishibutai, the mysterious carved granite figures, tumuli on nearly every hillside. The roads between them are narrow and quiet, most of them barely wide enough for two cars, with rice fields on both sides and low hills in the distance. A bicycle is the traditional way to see it, but a small motorcycle works as well provided you go slowly and give way to the farm trucks. Spring brings cherry blossom and rapeseed, autumn the red spider lilies along the paddy banks.
Kashihara and Sakurai are the nearest real towns and both have fuel, shops and plenty of places to eat. The Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes begin farther south, and this part of Nara is the northern gateway, so you may see walkers heading toward Yoshino with their staves and their scallop-shell badges. The weather is hot and muggy from June to September, and winter can be cold but is rarely snowy on the plain.