★ World HeritageHabikino / Fujiidera, OsakaKeyhole-shaped moundIHA imperial tomb
Karusato Otsuka Kofun
Hakucho Mausoleum (Yamato Takeru)
Location
Habikino / Fujiidera, Osaka
Shape
Keyhole-shaped mound
Mound length
200 m
Period
Late 5th c.
Designation
Imperial Tomb (IHA)
World Heritage
Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group (UNESCO)
IHA designation
IHA-managed (no public entry)
Overview
A 200m-long keyhole mound (190m in some sources), the seventh largest in the Furuichi area. It was built at the end of a plateau extending east from the Habikino hills, with its front section facing west and rising 23.3m. The mound has three tiers and a projection only on the north side of the waist. Its broad front section is higher than the rear circle and is thought to reproduce the form of Nisanzai Kofun at roughly two-thirds scale. A moat, an embankment about 20m wide and an outer boundary ditch surround it; the outer ditch is preserved underground. The Imperial Household Agency administers it as the Shiratori mausoleum of Yamato Takeru. It became a constituent monument of the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2019.
Finds & research
Details of the burial facility and grave goods are unknown. Excavation found a closely spaced row of cylindrical haniwa on the first-tier terrace. Sue ware appears to have been placed on the projection, providing evidence of rituals performed there.
Two views on the occupant
Archaeological view
The occupant has not been archaeologically identified. The IHA attribution to Yamato Takeru does not establish the occupant. Haniwa date the mound broadly to the late 5th century. It is 200m long in the figures published by Habikino City and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, though some sources give 190m. The three-tiered mound faces west, with a front section 23.3m high. The Agency for Cultural Affairs suggests that its plan resembles a roughly two-thirds scale version of Nisanzai Kofun in the Mozu area.
Imperial Household Agency view
Officially designated "Shiratori-no-Misasagi" (White Bird Mausoleum) by the IHA, attributed to the legendary hero Yamato Takeru no Mikoto. The name "Shiratori" (White Bird) refers to the legend that after Yamato Takeru's death, his spirit transformed into a white bird and flew away. As the mausoleum of a heroic figure who appears in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, it holds a special place among IHA mausoleum designations.