No.27
Across from the guesthouse, a burial mound watches over the strait.
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Goshikizuka Kofun stands right across from the guesthouse. This month brings several ways to get to know it from different angles: special night openings, a public viewing of an excavation site, and a craft workshop.
LOCAL NEWS
Candlelight at Goshikizuka by night. Applications open today.
Applications for "Goshikizuka Kofun Candle Night," when the burial mound is lit with candles and more, opened today, November 9.
Three special days when you can visit the mound at night, though it usually closes in the evening. Goshikizuka Kofun Museum will also open specially, with candle-making and other activities planned.
It runs from Friday, November 27 to Sunday, November 29, 17:00-19:30, with last entry at 19:15. Free, about 650 people per day, first come, first served. Applications are accepted through "Odekake KOBE" until 17:00 on Friday, November 20.
The mound's own car park cannot be used during the event. Any cancellation due to rain or other reasons will be announced on the official page at 10:00 on the day.
A look beneath the familiar mound.
An excavation is being carried out at Goshikizuka Kofun as part of work on the site of its former office. On set days during this period, you can watch the excavation from behind the fence.
Viewing days are Thursday, November 12, Friday, November 13, Tuesday, November 17 and Wednesday, November 18, 9:00-16:30. There is no guided explanation on site, but it is a chance to see an excavation you would not usually get to see.
The viewing is cancelled in rain. No work is done on weekends, and Monday, November 16 is a closed day.
Take home a handmade memory of the mound.
On Saturday, November 21, a craft workshop will be held at Goshikizuka Kofun Museum. You can assemble a photo frame themed on the burial mound, or decorate an hourglass with small pieces of wood. An event that adds the fun of making things to your visit.
It runs 10:00-14:00 in "Manabi no Hiroba" on the museum's 2nd floor. The photo frame kit is 2,000 yen, for about the first 25 people. The hourglass is 3,000 yen as a finished piece, and you can decorate it at the venue.
No advance registration needed; it ends when supplies run out. Children of elementary school age and younger make their pieces together with a guardian. Held rain or shine, but cancelled if a weather warning is issued.
Column by the Third Generation
Beyond the window, the history of the strait.
Right across the railway tracks from the guesthouse is Goshikizuka Kofun. You can see it from the windows of some guest rooms and corridors. Such a large, majestic burial mound sits right beside our daily life. When I think about it, I run a guesthouse in a curious place.
Goshikizuka Kofun is a keyhole-shaped burial mound built in the late 4th century. At 194 meters long, it is the largest in Hyogo Prefecture. No one knows who was buried there, but from its location overlooking the Akashi Strait, it is thought to be the tomb of a powerful figure closely involved in sea traffic. Some of the stones covering its surface were brought from Awaji Island, which also hints at the lives of people who traveled back and forth across the sea.
Its connection with Tarumi Kaijin Shrine, which I mentioned before, also intrigues me. The shrine's official website suggests it may have begun when people engaged in seafaring in this area enshrined the gods to pray for safety at sea. No direct link with the mound has been confirmed, but both give me a sense of the deep bond between this land and the sea.
Perhaps Tarumi has long been a place that watched over and protected the people crossing the strait. Living between the burial mound and the shrine, I find myself imagining that.
Climb to the top of the mound and a view of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and Awaji Island opens up. So close to the guesthouse, yet still a spectacular spot few of our guests know about.
Rather than just looking from the window, I hope you will walk a little further and see the sea from the top. I feel it lets you touch, along the way, the depth of time in this town.
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