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Takatsuki is a city in northeastern Osaka Prefecture, Japan, halfway between Osaka and Kyoto on the north bank of the Yodo River. The flat Mishima Plain in the south holds the city center and its stations, while the north rises into the forested Hokusetsu hills, topped by Mount Ponpon at 679 meters.
The plain was settled early. The Ama site was a large Yayoi village, and in the 6th century the great keyhole tomb of Imashirozuka was raised here, now widely believed to be the true tomb of Emperor Keitai. In the 16th century the warlord Miyoshi Nagayoshi ruled much of central Japan from a mountain castle above the Akutagawa River, and Takatsuki Castle was later held by the Christian lord Takayama Ukon.
Through the Edo period Takatsuki was a castle town and a post station on the Saigoku Kaidō road to the west. Today it is a commuter city of about 350,000 people, and visitors come for its walkable ancient tombs, the gorge of Settsukyō and the old mountain temples of its northern hills.
Imashirozuka Kofun is a keyhole-shaped tomb mound 190 meters long in the Gunge area of Takatsuki, built in the early 6th century and widely held to be the true tomb of Emperor Keitai. Unlike most imperial tombs it is open to walk on, and about 190 replica haniwa figures recreate its ritual stage.
Imashirozuka Ancient History Museum opened in 2011 beside the Imashirozuka tomb in Takatsuki, to show the finds of years of digging at the site. It displays a rebuilt stone coffin, armor of the age of Emperor Keitai and many haniwa figures, and entry to its main exhibits is free.
Shinike Haniwa Factory Site is the remains of a workshop for clay haniwa figures in the north of Takatsuki, in use in the 5th and 6th centuries and linked with the nearby Imashirozuka tomb. Part of a national historic site, it is laid out as a park with kilns and work huts rebuilt for visitors.
Ama Site Park lies in eastern Takatsuki on the site of a large moated village of the Yayoi period, found in 1928 and a national historic site since 1993. Finds here first showed that Yayoi farming culture spread from northern Kyushu to the Kinai, and the site is now a wide park of lawns and fields.
Takatsuki Castle Ruins Park lies south of the station area of Takatsuki, on part of the castle held from 1573 by the Christian lord Takayama Ukon. The castle was pulled down in 1874 and its stones were used to build the railway, but the park keeps a rebuilt stone wall, a pond and a statue of Ukon.
Shiroato History Museum is the city museum of Takatsuki, built on the third bailey of the old castle and telling the story of the town in the Edo period. Models, films and objects of the Nagai lords show castle life, the post town of Akutagawa and boats on the Yodo River, and entry is free.
Jōgū Tenmangū is a shrine to the scholar Sugawara no Michizane on the hill of Tenjinyama in central Takatsuki, said by tradition to be the second oldest Tenmangū after Dazaifu. Its story begins in 993, when an envoy returning from Dazaifu stopped here, and a long stair leads up to its halls.
Akutagawa Ichirizuka is an Edo-period milestone mound on the old Saigoku Kaidō road in the Akutagawa area of Takatsuki, where the post town of Akutagawa once stood. Of the pair of mounds that marked the road, only the eastern one survives, topped by a small shrine, now a prefectural site.
Settsukyō Gorge follows the upper Akutagawa River for about 4 km in the hills of northern Takatsuki, a prefectural place of scenic beauty since 1938. Its trail passes odd rocks, cliffs and small waterfalls, and the cherry park at its mouth, planted with some 3,000 trees, holds a festival each April.
Kabusan-ji is a Tendai mountain temple about 6 km north of central Takatsuki, said to be the first place in Japan where the guardian god Bishamonten was enshrined. Its grounds of about 100 hectares are mostly old forest, and in late autumn its gate and halls are wrapped in red and gold maples.
Honzan-ji is a Tendai temple deep in the hills of northern Takatsuki near the Kyoto border, founded by tradition in 696 by the mountain ascetic En no Gyōja. Its Bishamonten is counted with those of Kurama-dera and Chōgosonshi-ji as one of the three great Bishamonten of Japan.
Akutagawa Castle Ruins crown Mount Miyoshi, a 183-meter peak above the Akutagawa River in northern Takatsuki, one of the largest mountain castles of the Warring States period in Osaka. Miyoshi Nagayoshi ruled the region from here in the 1550s, and its walls and terraces are a national historic site.
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