Chausuyama Hill

This wooded hill is barely 26 meters above sea level, yet the fate of Japan was decided from here. This is Chausuyama, "tea-grinder hill".

1An ancient tomb?

For a long time it has been considered a kofun, a 5th-century keyhole-shaped burial mound about 200 meters long. But a 1986 excavation found none of the clay figures or stone paving typical of these tombs, and some researchers doubt it is one at all. The debate remains open.

2Two sieges, two generals

In the winter of 1614, during the first siege of Osaka, Tokugawa Ieyasu set up his headquarters here. The following year, in the summer campaign, the hill changed hands: it was occupied by Sanada Nobushige, better known as Sanada Yukimura, the most celebrated general on the Toyotomi side.

On the 7th day of the fifth lunar month of 1615, the battle of Tennoji was fought around it. Sanada's charges came close to threatening Ieyasu's camp, but his army was defeated and he died that day. His courage made him a legend: a daimyo of the time, Shimazu Tadatsune, called him in a letter "the finest warrior in Japan".

At the foot of the hill, Kawazoko Pond is said by tradition to be the remains of a canal that Wake no Kiyomaro tried to dig in 788.

3What to look for

• The panels at the top, with a map of the battle.
• Kawazoko Pond and its red bridge.
• The elongated shape of the hill, which hints at a burial mound.