Departures of note

Taichiro Shiraishi was a Japanese archaeologist regarded as a leading authority on the Kofun period (the era of ancient burial mounds). Born in Osaka in 1938, he studied archaeology in the graduate program at Doshisha University before working at the Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute. He later became a professor and deputy director at the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, Chiba, and after retirement returned to the Kansai region to teach at Nara University, where he trained younger scholars. He also served as director of the Osaka Prefectural Chikatsu Asuka Museum until spring 2018. Shiraishi comprehensively studied the evolution of burial mounds from the appearance of keyhole-shaped tumuli to the end of the Kofun period, including the Hashihaka kofun in Sakurai, Nara, sometimes proposed as the tomb of Queen Himiko. Combining archaeological evidence with findings from ancient historical texts, he worked to clarify the formation process of the ancient Japanese state. He was also a popular lecturer known for his soft, clear speaking style, and authored major works including Studies of Burial Mounds and Burial Mound Groups, The Culture of Burial Mounds and the Kofun Period, Between Archaeology and Ancient History, and Burial Mounds and the Yamato State.