NINTOKU BURIAL MOUND is the largest Japanese keyhole-shaped tomb in Japan that exists in Sakai City of Osaka. This keyhole-shaped grave is 486m long, 35m high in its highest highest place and covers an area of 465,000sq.m. It is surrounded by a three-ringed moat. It is said that the grave region area is the world's largest. The history of Sakai's burial mound is a lot of more interesting than its present reality. Today it merely looks like a mound. In its time, however, it is thought that some 800,000 workers laboured to fashion the final resting place of the 4th century Emperor Nintoku.
Emperor Nintoku was the 16th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 313-399. The Imperial tomb of Nintoku's consort, Iwa-no hime no Mikoto, is said to be located in Nara City. Both kofun-type Imperial tombs are characterized by a keyhole-shaped island located within a wide, water-filled moat. Imperial tombs and mausolea are cultural properties; but they are guarded and administered by the Imperial Household Agency (IHA), which is the government department responsible for all matters relating to the emperor and his family. According to the IHA, the tombs are more than a mere repository for historical artifacts; they are sacred religious sites. IHA construes each of the Imperial grave sites as sanctuaries for the spirits of the ancestors of the Imperial House.
The adjoining area is the spacious Daisen Park which contains many smaller graves or tea ceremony house.
