Hiraohara Kyozuka excavated items and memorial tower

Hiraohara Kyozuka is a memorial service for Buddhist scriptures that was built during the Edo period to commemorate the people who visited sacred sites in more than 60 provinces across the country and deposited copies of sutras. This is Kyoutenkuyo's mound. The Kyotenku-yoto tower that was erected on top of the mound shows that it was built in 1708, in the middle of the Edo period. Currently, a memorial tower stands at 1-49-7 Hirao, but it was originally located about 20 meters to the west next to the Hirao Branch of the Agricultural Cooperative Association (see photo above). It was moved to its current location in 1992 for building construction.
Sutra mounds themselves began to be built among aristocrats from the Heian period onward due to the influence of the end-of-laws ideology (mapposhisou), but the 66-bu Kaikokukyo-zuka, which travels to sacred sites across the country and deposits copies of sutras, Rokujurokubukaikokukyozuka became popular in the 16th century and continued until the Edo period. Hiraohara Kyozuka belongs to the final stage of this flow of sutra mounds. There are 25 sutra memorial towers in the city, 13 of which are Rokurobu Kaikoku Sutra Mounds, and Hiraohara Sutra Mound is the oldest of these, and its stone pagoda is in good shape.

Investigated Hiraobara Kyozuka

A stonework investigation by the Board of Education revealed that it was the oldest Buddhist scripture memorial tower in the city, and the stone monument inscribed with the words, ``The owner of the donor, etc., did not leave any records,'' was enshrined here. An excavation survey of the sutra mound was carried out in 1976 based on the inscription "Meibun". The mound itself is oval in size, approximately 6 meters by 4.5 meters, and approximately 70 centimeters high, and a scripture memorial tower was built approximately 20 centimeters south of the top of the mound. Excavation began by peeling away the embankment at the top of the mound. Underneath the topsoil, natural gravel, thought to be river stones, is laid down, and if you dig down about 1 meter from this paving stone, you will come across a jiyama (loam layer). After digging, a circular earthen pot approximately 1 meter in diameter was discovered.
Inside the pot is a large Bizen pot (height: 32.7 cm, rim diameter: 32.5 cm), inside which is a bronze sutra cylinder ( 30.5 cm in height and 17.7 cm in diameter). There were traces of what appeared to be wood chips on the lid of the sutra cylinder, so the jar may have had a wooden lid.
Inside the sutra cylinder, three sutra boxes, a Japanese mirror, and what appeared to be a corrupted sutra were discovered. All three sutra boxes were wooden boxes, and the sutras were kept inside, but the moisture caused them to rot so badly that the sutras could not be taken out and spread out. I could not do it. An ink calligraphy with the words ``Bushu Toyoshima Gunji□'' and ``Denshin'' was discovered on one of the lids of the sutra box. The Japanese mirror is made of bronze with a diameter of 6.5 centimeters, and although it is small, it is complete. In addition, two sutra shaft tips and one Kan'ei Tsuho were discovered as relics inside the sutra cylinder.
At present, there are few reports of excavations of the Rokujyurokubu Kaikoku Kyoduka, but the fact that the excavations revealed the relationship between the artifacts and the stone inscriptions is an extremely valuable achievement.