Sir Ernest Satow, was 36 feet in height, 372 feet long, and 284 feet broad. But this is a comparatively small one. That of the Emperor Ōjin near Nara measures 2,312 yards round the outer moat, and is some 60 feet in height. The Emperor Nintoku's tomb near Sakai is still larger, and there is a tumulus in Kawachi, known as the Ō-tsuka, or "Big Mound," on the flank of which a good-sized village has been built.
The misasagi are at present generally clothed with trees, and form a favourite nesting resort for the paddy-bird or white egret, and other birds. Of late years these interesting relics have been well-cared for by the Government, at least those which are recognised as Imperial tombs. They have been fenced round, and provided with honorary gateways. Embassies are despatched once or twice a year to worship at them. In former times, however, they were much neglected, and there is reason to fear that few have escaped desecration. A road has been run through the misasagi of the Emperor Yūryaku, and on other double mounds promising cabbage plantations have been seen growing.
In some, perhaps in most, cases the misasagi contains a large vault built of great unhewn stones without mortar. The walls of the vault converge gradually towards the top, which is then roofed in by enormous slabs of stone weighing many tons each. The entrance was by means of a long, low gallery, roofed with similar stones, and so constructed that its right wall is in a line with the right wall of the vault. During the later period of mound-building, the entrance to this gallery always faced south, a practice which had its origin in the Chinese notion that the north is the most honourable quarter, and that the deceased should therefore occupy that position in relation to the worshippers. Sarcophagi of stone and pottery have been found in some of the misasagi.
Nobles and high officials were buried in simple conical mounds ten or fifteen feet high, containing a vault similar to those above described, but of smaller dimensions. An average specimen of a group of thirty or forty situated near the western shore of Lake
