REKIHAKU

No.155 A Witness to History

Paths of Steles -- Exhibition of Ancient Steles on the Patio of the National Museum of Japanese History

There is a patio with a fountain within the white building of European style in the National Museum of Japanese History that exhibits Japanese history and culture. The patio has been used as a resting place for visitors and events. In the corridor of this patio, excellent pieces of ancient Japanese steles have been exhibited as "Paths of Steles" since April. The exhibits are ten stone steles （replicas） of the seventh to ninth centuries. A total of only twenty-four ancient steles listed in Table 3 are known, and as many as seven of them have already been lost. Ancient steles are scattered around the country and are the most difficult to look around the originals. To hand down the actual status of ancient steles exactly to posterity, the National Museum of Japanese History planned to create high precision replicas as documents for the advancement of studies and completed most of them. Then, together with the existing replicas and related documents, the museum displayed the entire range of ancient steles in the special exhibition "Ancient Steles" in 1997. This exhibition had a favorable reception. With the large-scale renewal of its permanent exhibition, the museum has displayed this collection that had been in a warehouse as a gallery exhibition on the patio where visitors can experience the flux of time from the ancient period of more than a thousand years ago and spirits of people who lived in their periods in the Japanese archipelago. In addition to the ten steles, the largest Tagajo stele （Old monument of Tagajo） displayed as a permanent exhibit in Gallery 1 is a must-see.

Photo 1: Path of steles in the right corridor down the stairs

Photo 2: Path of steles in the left corridor

Inscribing characters on stones for display and tradition to posterity is an old custom in East Asia and originates from the Chinese Yin dynasty （16th to 12th centuries B.C.）; however, the culture of steles showing their history and culture was developed also in countries of the Korean Peninsula. In Japan, various forms of steles appeared relatively late in the ancient period （7th to 9th centuries）. One of their characteristics is that the number of steles is small. However, the steles are located widely to the east and west of the country zone at the time and have a variety of shapes. In addition to rounded and rectangular shapes, relatively many of them have capstones placed on top of them, and some have natural stone shapes. There are also stone pagoda shapes and polished cliffs. The large number of steles with capstones is a common aspect of the Korean Peninsula. Although there were some interruption periods after the 9th century, the culture of erecting steles became popular all over the country as seen in the explosive popularity of medieval stone Monuments in the13th century and beyond. This has led to the erection of steles inscribed with poems and other various monuments in the modern period.

Table 3: List of ancient Japanese steles 1 – 17: Existing/18 – 24: Not existing/Outline numbers on a colored background: Exhibit

Thus, ancient steles are distributed all over the country from Miyagi through Kumamoto Prefectures with a slightly larger amount in the area near Kyoto. On Tagajo stele of the northern end, there is an inscription about people called Emishi or Ashihase who lived in the northern area outside ancient Japan, and their areas. It is also said that a wooden Hai （a cylindrical kind of stele） was erected for ships of imperial embassies to China in the Japanese southern islands called Nanto. Note that not only stones but also wood were used. A stele of baked Sen is also known as Awakokuzo stele. In addition to the possible existence of wooden alternatives, the reason for the small number of ancient steles may be the folklore or oral tradition of histories about tombs and monuments from the preceding Kofun period.The information on history and geography handed down in respective locations was edited and absorbed as the national authentic history in the central government, and it was lost locally. However, we can see that the cultural situations in respective areas are reflected on steles. As an epigraph telling the history of Wa of the Japanese archipelago before steles, it is known that mirrors, seals, coins, and swords with inscriptions excavated from the remains of the Yayoi or Kofun period existed reflecting the characteristics of each period. It has also been discovered from excavation that wooden strips and earthenware painted with sumi ink were used abundantly all over the country in the Ritsuryo period. In Buddhism, there are a wide variety of character documents such as inscriptions on Buddhist images or on tiles. The erection of steles also began in this period as one of the characteristic cultural practices.

Photo 4: Full view of ancient steles replicated by the museum （1） （Without Tagajo stele） （1） Yamanoue stele （2） Nasukokuzo stele （3） Tago stele （4） Kanaizawa stele （5） Ujibashi stele （6） Awakokuzo stele （Restoration） （7） Awakokuzo stele （8） Uchigawa polished cliff stele （9） Ujibashi stele （Restoration）

Photo 5: Full view of ancient steles replicated by the museum （2） "Steles of Josui-ji" （1） Nyohokyo stele （2） Nandaimon stele （3） Lantern pole stone （4） Stone acroterium of pagoda （5） Temple estate stele （6） Current status of acroterium with lantern pole stone placed on it

Let's take a closer look at steles. The erection of ancient steles is from Iyo Dogo Onsen stele （not existing） erected in 596 as the first example to Josui-ji temple estate stele erected in 826. As for the size, Tagajo stele with its rounded shape is as large as six shaku of the body, and Awakokuzo stele is restored to a small stele of approximately one shaku overall. Many are approximately four-shaku high. According to the contents of inscriptions, there are tombstones, monuments of Buddhist memorial services for ancestors, and monuments of the construction of reservoirs, bridges, Buddhist temples or statues, and pagodas. There is also a polished cliff inscription that would have been used to expel ghosts by accumulating virtues such as copying Buddhist sutras. It is accompanied by an image of a woman with secular form and coronet changing into a Buddhist saint from her lower body. The hymn with Manyogana on the Buddha footprint also attracts cultural attention. As a whole, there are no inscriptions that display the state power or the national authentic history. There are also public steles with a format; however, many are generally private steles reflecting their local situations.

Photo 6: Arrow traces made during the work shown on Tagajo stele	Photo 7: Outer frame lines, detailed layout line of the upper part, and dimensions on Ujibashi stele
Photo 8: Images divided above and below to the left of "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" on Uchigawa polished cliff stele	Photo 9: Characters, “Ingin” out of line on a side of Josui-ji temple estate stele

Take a good look and observe carefully. Red coloring remains slightly on some steles. The original steles were colored with red or black and erected so as to be distinguishable from a distance. There are also some steles where the work processes of stonemasons who broke, trimmed, and ground stones and inscribed characters with layout lines are kept in some locations, and others where the difference in writing style among periods can be recognized or the inscription contents are different from the authentic history. On Tagajo stele, the largest of all, traces of arrows used to break the stone remain on its rear side, and the conditions during trimming or character finishing can also be observed. Tagajo stele was apparently unfinished. For Ujibashi stele, the standing posture with a capstone was restored from the original, a well-known broken stele. It was restored to a capstone form because there is another layout line in the upper part of the outer frame lines of characters on the front of the stele. Such layout lines are also seen in other steles, and in addition to carving methods, the use of shaku at the time is reflected and it sometimes confirms the age of the stele. A cluster of steles in Josui-ji in Kumamoto Prefecture where ancient steles remained in a group attract attention because of the valuable steles related to Jogaku-ji of the early Heian period such as steles telling the history of the temple, steles of dedicators, real official documents about temple estates, etc. The use of shaku of 59.5 cm is seen on Nandaimon stele, and characters out of the frame line to the lower side and a character not inscribing added afterward on the line are observed on the temple estate stele. Thus, evidence of labors of inscriptions on steles visibly remains.

Gihei Abe （Japanese Archeology, Professor Emeritus）