Asuka Village, Ishibutai Kofun

The burial mound is located in the Ishibutai area of the National Asuka Historical Park, which has a total area of about 60 hectares and consists of five areas: the “Takamatsuzuka Area”, where the Takamatsuzuka burial mound is located; the “Amakashi Hill Area”, where there is an observatory from which visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of Asuka; the “Iwaido Area”, which has a walking path leading to the Ishibutai burial mound; the “Kitora Tumulus Area” where the Kitora Tumulus (mound graves) are located, and the “Ishibutai Area”.

The burial mound is made of more than 30 huge stones stacked on top of each other, and its stone chamber is one of the largest in Japan. The total weight of the stones is said to be about 2,300 tons, and the mound is about 50 meters on each side, surrounded by an 8.4-meter wide moat. The ceiling stone, the largest rock in the mound, weighs about 77 tons on the south side and 67 tons on the north side, showing the high level of civil engineering and transportation technology of the time.

The area around the burial mound, which is surrounded by the beautiful natural scenery of Asuka, is a lawn park where you can enjoy peaches and cherry blossoms in the spring and cluster‐amaryllis flowers in the fall, and it is also thought to be the tomb of Soga no Umako, who was very powerful during the Asuka period, as there was a garden near the burial mound that belonged to him.