December
10
/ 2022
Archaeologists excavating a burial mound at the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Osaka Prefecture in southern Japan, have found the remains of a rare wooden haniwa statue. Haniwa statues are usually made of unglazed clay. Wooden examples are extremely uncommon. The recent find, at a height of 3.5 meters (11.5 feet), also has the distinction of being the tallest haniwa ever found, easily outstripping the 2.6-meter (8.5 feet)-tall Iwami-style specimen found at the Ohakayama Kofun in the city of Tenri in neighboring Nara Prefecture. The statue is almost 30 inches (76 centimeters) wide at its widest point and around 3 inches (8 centimeters) thick, making it the largest overall haniwa to be found in Japan so
