The image attached to this newsletter is of an ancient Buddhist sanctuary that I visit annually on my Essence of Autumn photo tour and my Essence of Cherry Blossom photo tour. It’s actually a Kofun village mound burial site from approximately the 3rd century. The Kofun period (古墳時代 - Kofun jidai) is from around 300 to 540 AD. Across Japan there are over 160,000 Kofun sites and burial mounds. Next to the mounds are ancient villages. These villages’ former inhabitants were the builders of the Kofun burial mounds. Today, some of these ancient villages still thrive while others are gone, but relics are still being discovered. Japan academia TODAY will tell you that Japanese are responsible for building the Kofun mounds, but currently there is much debate on who should actually be credited. From Okinawa to Northern Honshu, Kofun mounds and villages are everywhere. Inside the burial mounds, treasure has been found such as gold, jewels, pottery, armor, coins, artifacts made of clay that closely resemble a Sumerian heritage rather a native Japanese origin. Sumerio-Akkadian cuneiform tablets have also been discovered throughout Japan which further complicates an exclusive Japanese authorship theory for creation of the Kofun mounds. The Kofun mound sites include villages, homesteads, burial mounds, and holy sites, and many of these sites are now known to be power spots. Japan’s Imperial family holds the keys/is the caretaker of these mounds. Some of the Imperial treasures have even been ‘borrowed’ from these sacred mounds by the Imperial family themselves since they claim that these mounds hold their ancestors. Interestingly, during the enthronement of the emperor, some of the looted treasure from the mounds is so sacred that only a few of the most senior Shinto priests may lay eyes upon them, not even the emperor himself. Wow! However, to this day, no DNA testing linking the Kofun mound mummies to the Imperial family has been carried out or has been made public to my knowledge. One of the sources for all the drama and secrecy from the Imperial household and history being altered has been due to Japan's main faith, Shinto, which was created for the Imperial house and settlers of Japan who came from other Asian nations such as China, Korea, and Taiwan. Shintoism in Japan overtook Buddhism and Confucianism, but Buddhism has survived. Shintoism, by contrast, incorporates most of the beliefs and gods or Kamuy from the First Nations Peoples of Japan, the Ainu. I have close friends who are Shinto holy men and Ainu elders and artisans, individuals who live in harmony with nature. The beliefs are almost identical between the two, so I know that Shintoism used the Ainu spiritual system and guide as their source. The Ainu used to occupy the main island of Japan, from Honshu to Hokkaido. However, non-residents from other countries pushed the First Nations People into hiding, further and further north, until they ultimately settled in Hokkaido during and after the Kofun period; this is something akin to the Trail of Tears, or even more simply put an untold and undocumented persecution of a race of humans.