Gilt-Bronze Epitaph of Ishikawa no Toshitari

An Epitaph of 762, National Treasure since 1952

The Gilt-Bronze Epitaph of Ishikawa no Toshitari (金銅石川年足墓誌, Kondo Ishikawa Toshitari Boshi) is a Nara-period gilt bronze epitaph kept at the Osaka Museum of History, Otemae, Chuo Ward, Osaka City, designated a National Treasure in 1952, on 29 March. It had become an Important Cultural Property on 17 April 1911. The quantity is one plate, the category archaeological materials, and the designation number 00003.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the inscription and the find spot: bearing an inscription that the burial took place on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of the sixth year of Tenpyo-hoji at the Sakatariyama grave in Shirakami district, Shimakami county, Settsu province; found at Magami, Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture. That year corresponds to 762, and both the year fields read 762.

The commentary is a single line: material of the Nara period. The low designation number, 00003, marks a very early entry among archaeological materials.

Lineage and Office in the Inscription

The inscription traces the lineage of the man buried back to its origin.

He is given as the tenth-generation descendant of Soga no Ishikawa no Sukune, son of Takenouchi no Sukune; the eldest son of Ishikawa no Iwatari of the third rank, controller of the left; and himself Toshitari, senior third rank, censor and concurrently head of the Bureau of Divinities. Founder, father and man are set out in three stages.

The year of death and the age reached are recorded. He died at his residence in the capital in the ninth month of that year, at seventy-five. The month of death and the month of burial are given separately: he died in the ninth month and was buried in the twelfth.

The place of burial is Sakatariyama in Shirakami district, Shimakami county, Settsu province. Magami in Takatsuki City, where the plate was found, is that place. The plate turned up at the very spot the inscription names.

The text closes with lines of mourning: a form to stand for a hundred generations, a canopy for a thousand years; the night chamber lies desolate, the pines and cypresses hold the mist; alas. Words of poetic lament follow the record of office.

Size and Material

According to the record of the replica held by the Tokyo National Museum, the original is gilt bronze, 29.6 centimetres high, 10.4 wide and 0.3 thick.

The proportion is roughly three to one, a narrow plate. At three millimetres thick it is closer to a sheet of metal than a board. The inscription is cut into this surface.

Gilt bronze is copper finished with gold plating. Characters are cut into copper and the surface gilded, so a material that resists decay carries a finish that also serves as ornament.

An epitaph is a plate recording a person's career and placed in the grave. The Copper Epitaph of Funashi Ogo of 668 is plain copper; this one is gilded. The same kind of object is finished differently.

A Replica Survives Separately

A replica of this epitaph exists and is held by the Tokyo National Museum.

The record of the replica carries the original's details alongside it: original found at Magami, Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture; original of the Nara period, the sixth year of Tenpyo-hoji, 762. The National Treasure is the original; the replica is not designated.

Searching Cultural Heritage Online for this epitaph can bring up the replica's record first. The original is at the Osaka Museum of History and the replica at the Tokyo National Museum, so tell them apart by location.

The replica's record transcribes the inscription in full and is more detailed than the record of the original. Which to consult depends on what is wanted.

Seeing It

The Osaka Museum of History keeps the epitaph. It is not necessarily on permanent display, and whether and when it is shown depends on the museum's programme.

Opening hours and admission may change, so check the museum's information before travelling. If the object itself is the purpose of the visit, confirm that it is on show.

Magami in Takatsuki City, where it was found, is in the same prefecture as the museum. Where the Copperplate Lotus Sutra and the Funashi Ogo epitaph are kept in prefectures away from their find spots, this one stays within Osaka.

The museum is about two minutes on foot from Tanimachi 4-chome Station on the Osaka Metro Tanimachi and Chuo lines.