Mysteries of the Japanese megalith Ishi-no-Hoden

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

A hundred kilometers west of Asuka Park, near the town of Takasago, there is an object that is a megalith attached to a rock measuring 5, 7x6, 4x7, 2 meters and weighing about 500-600 tons. Ishi no Hoden (Ishi no Hoden) - this is the name of this monolith, a kind of "semi-finished product", that is, a block that remained at the place of its manufacture and has clear signs that it was not completed to the end.

There is a truncated prism-shaped protrusion on one of the vertical surfaces, and this creates a stable feeling that the object is lying on its side. Such a position "on the side" only, at first glance, seems strange. The fact is that Ishi-no-Hoden was made quite simply - on the edge of the rock mass around a large piece of the mountain, a rock was selected, and this piece of the mountain itself was given the non-trivial geometric shape described above.

The position of Ishi-no-Hoden is just such, in which it was possible, on the one hand, to guarantee the desired shape of the object, and on the other hand, to minimize labor costs for excavating excess rock around it.

According to the rough estimates given in the available sources, the volume of the removed rock is about 400 cubic meters and weighing about 1000 tons. Although on site it seems that the volume of excavated rock is significantly larger. It is even difficult to photograph the megalith in its entirety, and the two-story Shinto temple standing next to it seems to be just an airy structure next to this stone mass.

The temple was built here because the megalithic block is considered sacred and has been worshiped since ancient times. In accordance with Shinto traditions, Ishi-no-Hoden is tied with a rope with "pom-pom tassels" hanging on it.

A small "altar" is built nearby, which is also a place where you can ask the kami - the spirit of the stone. And for those who, for some reason, do not know exactly how to do this, there is a small poster with brief instructions in pictures showing how many times and in what order you need to clap your hands and bow so that the spirit of the stone hears the questioner and draws on him Attention.

The grooves on the side surfaces are somewhat similar to technical details along which something had to move. Or, on the contrary, the stone itself had to move along some mating parts in an even larger structure. In this case (if the assumption about its position "on its side" is correct) it was planned to move this megalith horizontally.

It can also be suggested that this monolith was supposed to serve only as one of the pillars of some huge structure. The official version is a stone tomb. There is no scientific data on who and for what purpose the megalith was made.

Under the megalith there is a large stone reservoir in the form of a tray, filled with water. As follows from the temple records, this reservoir does not dry up even during prolonged droughts. It is believed that the water level in it is somehow related to the water level in the sea, although the sea level in reality is clearly lower. Because of the water under the megalith, the supporting part in the center of the stone - the bridge, which still connects the megalith with the rocky base, is not visible, and it seems to be floating in the air. Therefore, Ishi-no-Hoden is also called the "Flying Stone".

According to local monks, the upper part of Ishi-no-Hoden has recesses in the form of “baths”. The top of Ishi-no-Hoden is covered with rubble and debris that once fell from the top of the mountain, possibly during some kind of earthquake, and there are even trees growing there. Since the megalith is sacred, its top cannot be cleared.

In 2005-2006, the Takasago City Council of Education, together with the history laboratory of Otemae University, organized a study of the megalith - three-dimensional measurements were carried out using a laser and the nature of the surrounding rock was carefully examined.

In January 2008, the Japan Cultural Research Society conducted additional laser and ultrasound examinations of the megalith, but a report published in July of the same year indicated that it was impossible to determine the presence or absence of any cavities in the megalith from the data obtained.

The surface of the megalith is covered with caverns, as if from the chipping of material, and at first glance gives the impression of being handcrafted. However, there are no regular or extended pick marks. Such traces, as if specially for comparison, are found only under the megalith on the lintel connecting it with the mother rock.

The nature of the surface on Ishi-no-Hoden makes one think about some kind of instrument, such as a mechanical "bur", which did not chip, but simply crumbled or grinded the material. Ishi-no-Hoden is made from the so-called hyaloclastite, formed during the eruption of liparite lava into water about 70 million years ago.

If the side faces were made using an unknown tool, then the "bottom" or the bottom edge of Ishi-no-Hoden is generally perplexing, since there are absolutely no traces of processing here. This edge of the megalith (farthest from the mother rock) looks as if some giant in one fell swoop simply tore off the part of the mountain that was located outside of it.

But even more puzzling is the fact that there are no traces of machine tools or hand tools on the rock around Ishi-no-Hoden. The chisel and pick were noted only in one place - at the very bottom on the rock opposite the wedge-shaped protrusion of the megalith. However, to all appearances, here only the passage was widened for people bypassing it. And this was clearly much later than the creation of Ishi-no-Hoden, when he had already become an object of worship.

The rest of the rock is literally "pristine clean" from any traces. When there is a simple sampling of material in a quarry or quarry, no one will ever level the remaining rock mass, nor will they overwrite the tool marks that remain automatically when sampling as a by-product. Traces inevitably remain, and they are easy to see in any quarry, be it modern or ancient. Therefore, the absence of traces of a pick and chisel on the rock around Ishi-no-Hoden can only mean one thing - these simple tools were not used when sampling the material.

But there are simply no other tools for manual work in quarries. This inevitably leads to the conclusion that the material around Ishi-no-Hoden was chosen using not simple manual techniques at all, but somehow differently. Otherwise, it means only one thing - some developed, most likely, machine technology. However, there are no well-known traces of machine sampling on the rock. No traces, no other signs of them. It turns out that the technology used is unknown to us.

The official version says that the megalith was planned as a kind of tomb. Apparently, that is why the researchers tried so carefully to find cavities in it. After all, you can't put anyone in a solid stone. However, none of the known Japanese burials is a monolithic tomb. This completely falls out of local traditions, where only sarcophagi were performed as monolithic ones, where the sarcophagus lid has always been a separate element. But even under the sarcophagus Ishi-no-Hoden does not fit - the dimensions are too large.

Historians have no other versions of the appointment. Meanwhile, we have, though not direct, but indirect indications that a technically advanced civilization was involved in the creation of Ishi-no-Hoden. This is not only the absence of traces of manual sampling of the material, but also the weight of the megalith. Those who created it obviously did not have any special problems somewhere later to move half a thousand tons. Therefore, it is not necessary to limit ourselves to the traditional versions of historians.

Local legends associate Ishi-no-Hoden with the activities of some "gods" who, in our view, are none other than representatives of that very ancient highly technically advanced civilization. According to legend, two gods participated in the creation of Ishi-no-Hoden - Oo-kuninushi-no kami (God-Patron of the Great Country) and Sukuna-bikona-no kami (God-Kid).

When these gods came from the country of Izumo no kuni (the territory of the present province of Shimane) to the country of Harima no kuni (the territory of the present Hyogo prefecture), then for some reason they had to build a palace in just one night. However, as soon as they had time to do only Ishi-no-Hoden, the local deities of Harima immediately rebelled. And while Oo-kuninushi no kami and Sukuna-bikona no kami, abandoning construction, suppressed the rebellion, the night ended, and the palace was unfinished.

But both gods still swore to protect this country. Ancient legends and traditions very often are not at all an invention or fantasy of ancestors, but represent, albeit a peculiar, but valid description of completely real events. Another thing is that they cannot be taken literally. So in this case, one should not think that the expression "in one night" means precisely the period from dusk to dawn.

This may well be, in professional language, only an idiomatic phrase, which actually means "very quickly." As, for example, in the Russian language "now" is not at all equal to one hour, and "in one second" is also far from always associated with a single second of time.

And in the ancient Japanese legend, it is only said that the timing of the creation of Ishi-no-Hoden was so fast that it was beyond the power of an ordinary person. Naturally, this amazed the ancient inhabitants of the area so much that they used the phrase "overnight" to emphasize the highest rate of megalith production. And this indirectly indicates that the "gods" (kami) possessed such capabilities and technologies that the ancient Japanese did not have.