Imperial Household Agency: Takabatake Mausoleum (Fujiwara no Otomuro)
Location
Muko, Kyoto
Shape
Round mound
Mound diameter
65 m
Period
End of 4th c.
Designation
IHA-managed tomb
IHA designation
Managed by the IHA (mound closed to the public)
Overview
In Terado-cho, Muko, a great Otokuni round mound designated for Emperor Kanmu's empress — beneath which a chieftain four centuries older actually rests. A fascinating palimpsest of the landscape before the Nagaoka and Heian capitals.
Finds & research
The Muko City Archaeological Center considers that the mound had stone paving and says it is unknown whether haniwa stood on it. The burial facility and grave goods are unknown.
Official status & archaeological view
Official status
Managed by the IHA as the Takabatake Mausoleum of Empress Fujiwara no Otomuro, consort of Emperor Kanmu and mother of Emperors Heizei and Saga.
Attribution (jitei): the Imperial Household Agency's determination of whose tomb it manages — separate from heritage designation.
Archaeological view
A large two-tiered round mound, ~65m surviving (restored ~70m) and 7m high, thought to have had stone paving. The Muko City Archaeological Center dates it to the end of the 4th century from the mound's size, shape and structure, and considers that the political power that built large tombs on the Muko hilltop, though it stopped building keyhole mounds around this time, still retained the strength to build a large mound within the region. That date does not match the period of the 8th-century empress to whom the IHA attributes the tomb.
Field notes
Worship from the oratory; walkable from Hankyu Higashi-Muko Station and easily added to an Otokuni group circuit↗.