National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This epitaph is thought to have been unearthed from the ridge of a hill somewhere along the Yoshino River, but the details of its discovery are unknown. It was cast in bronze and then gilt across its entire surface. The front of the rectangular plate has an outer border embellished with engraved dots. Two ruled lines are engraved around an inscription filling three vertical columns. The inscription says the epitaph was made for Yamashiro no Imiki Masaka from the village of Yamashiro in Ishikawa District, Kawachi Province (now southeastern Minami-Kawachi District, Osaka Prefecture), who passed away on the 25th day of the 11th month of Jinki 5 (December 30, 728 [Julian calendar]) (zodiacal year of the Earth Dragon) and his wife Kaya no Imiki Akiba, who passed away on the 14th day of the 6th month of Yōrō 6 (July 31, 722) (zodiacal year of the Water Dog). Masaka served through the reigns of four emperors, beginning with Emperor Monmu (683–707; r. 697–707). The name Yamashiro Masaka is also listed in a household register dated Yōrō 5 (721) in the Shōsō-in Documents. His wife Akiba died six years before him, suggesting she was reinterred to be with Masaka when he died.