At an ancient memorial site of Ohjin Tenno, in Shodojima Island,
Kagawa Prefecture,
dated 291 A.D.,
letters engraved on a stele were found by Hiroaki
Hayashi on March 19th 2000.
The stele at the memorial site of Ohjin Tenno (Photo:
N. Yoshida)
The Kanjis at the top of the stele have been engraved around 1000 A.D. It reads
from right up to left :
"Ohjin Tenno (emperor) On (valuable) Koshi-kake (rested
upon) Ishi (rock)."
It was rainy, and the wet surface of the stele helped him notice the letters.
The pre-kanji inscriptions discovered on the lower part of the stele
In one of the oldest Japanese history books,
Nihon-shoki, it is writen that
Ohjin Tenno came to the island of Shodojima. He is said to have
rested on the stone
for a while with his bow leaning against a rock nearby. It was in
September 291 A.D.,
and is memorialised by local historians, carved in the stone as now seen.
Although it is difficult for us to know which letter-code one should use
in order to decode the inscriptions, one can be sure that
even before the introduction of ‘Kanji’ (Chinese
characters) into Japan,
there were local alphabets or syllabaries to record and carry messages.
Most Japanese archaeologists, linguists and language professors used to deny this
fact,
insisting that there had been no specific letters nor alphabets in earliest Japan.
To our surprise, they refuse to admit the real existence of inscriptions,
petroglyphs, or engravings
even given the global occurence in human culture of letters and
rock art. This might result of their fear that if they admit such an ancien human literary
and spiritual heritage, they will lose their authority or pride which had been gained
through an antiquated presumption or belief that there were no
signs, no letters, no alphabets but only oral tradition in those days before 'Kanji' were
officially introduced into Japan by the Kinki dynasty, in the 650’s A D.
Why such presumption ?
How could they be so stubborn in these days when so much rock
art and petroglyphs have been found worldwide ?
01/24/04 11:51