SOME ANCIENT RELICS IN JAPAN. 



By Komyn Hitchcock. 



Four stone figures iu a small inclosurc near Hirata Mura, in south, 

 ern Yamato, are probably the oldest stone images in Japan. 1 visited 

 tlie place, in company with Mr. W. Gowland and Mr. K. Nagai, on the 

 afternoon of April 1 , 1888. The figures are at the foot of a small circu- 

 lar mound on a slight elevation, near the niisasagi of Kimmei Tenno, 

 surrounded by a hedge, with a securely locked gate in front. The 

 small mound itself is said to be tbe burial place of Kibi himed, the 

 mother of Kokioku Tenno and Kotoku Tenno. 



While at Nara we presented letters to the governor of Nara ken, and 

 stated our desire to have the gate opened that we might examine and 

 make photographs of the figures. An official letter was accordingly 

 sent to the man in charge, and on our arrival we were met by a police 

 ofHcer, a number of local officials, and most of the villagers, who es- 

 corted us to the place. But when we asked to have the gate opened 

 we were told that it could not be done without permission from the 

 Imperial Household Department at Kyoto. This is a characteristic 

 example of Japanese official courtesy such as we more than once ex- 

 perienced. The workman is free to enter the mound inclosure and to 

 care for it, but gentlemen engaged in archa-ological studies are not 

 permitted to have the gate opened, even when they do not care to 

 tread inside, but only to get a clear field for a photograph. However, 

 with some difficulty we contrived to make several pictures. There 

 being no official regulation about cameras, I ventured to plant mine 

 inside the hedge and work it from withinit, which was done without 

 remonstrance. The result is shown in Pis. lxiv and lxv, which are 

 different views of the same figures. The resemblance between these 

 rude carvings and the images of Easter Island are quite noticeable. 



The story told in a Japanese book, the Koko Nichi Koku, a work on 

 Japanese antiquities, dated the ninth year of Kwansei, was translated 

 by Mr. Nagai as folhws: "Long ago, four stone men were dug out of 

 a field near Kimmei Tenno's misasagi. The first one has three faces, 

 the second four, the third three, and the fourth two. Afterwards the 

 natives put them on the misasagi and called them Schichi fuku jin 

 (seven happy gods), which of course means nothing. The significance 



