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

The tomb of Oharida no Yasumaro is located on a south hillside in the Tsuge Basin, where an epitaph and a wooden coffer were accidentally found during field cultivation in 1912. There were cremated bones in the wooden coffer and the epitaph was leaned against the side of the coffer. An archaeological dig was conducted in 1951, when Wadokaichin coins (silver coins), hajiki (unglazed earthenware) jars, fragments of sansai-tsubo (a three-colored pot) and scraps of ironware were found. According to the findings of the dig, it seems that at first, a square pit 3.6 meters on a side was dug, where the dead body was cremated and the cremated bones were stored in the wooden coffer. After placing the wooden coffer and epitaph in the pit, the pit was refilled with soil, forming a small mound.
　The epitaph is cast in bronze and comprises one main plate and two sub plates. The main plate is coated with gold. The location "Ukyo Sanjo Nibo" mentioned in the epitaph corresponds to the area from the south of Saidaiji Station to around Amagatsuji-cho in today's Nara. It seems that Yasumaro was living in this area. "郡里崗," where the tomb was built, is currently called Tsugekoka-cho. The characters "左琴 (ch'in on the left)" and "右書 (books on the right)" are inscribed on the sub plates, suggesting the people involved in the creation of the epitaph had some knowledge of Chinese culture.
　While the Oharuda family belonged to the Soga family, the details about Yasumaro are unknown, except for a mention of the conferment of a court rank on him in the "Shoku Nihongi."
　Since this is the only existing cremation tomb with three epitaph plates and the writing style of the epitaph is of high quality, this is a valuable material related to cremation tombs in the Nara period.