Interior and exterior views
of the Ishibutai stone crypt
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This tomb has an imposing laterally entered crypt built up from massive boulders. In comparison to other examples of ancient tombs which give similar impressions of great size due to the length of their crypts or the height of their ceilings, the Ishibutai crypt is, in overall size, the largest in Japan. The largest of its boulders, the one forming the southern part of the ceiling, is estimated to weigh 75 tons. The lower level of the two-tiered raised earth platform (fudo) on which it rests is of rectangular shape, but since the upper level, together with the tumulus impossible to judge whether the original mound itself, was at some unknown point of time removed, it is l tumulus was round or had square corners. Stones are emplaced around the outer edge of the fudo,which is also surrounded by an empty moat. One theory has it that this was the tomb of Soga-no-Umako.
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