일본 고대묘지와 한국, 그리고 무령왕릉 지석

Abstract

The intrinsically Japanese character of ancient Japanese epitaphs is often emphasized on account of features such as their distinctive shape, and there has been virtually no discussion of the influence of the Korean peninsula on Japan’s epitaph culture. In this article, I focus on distinctive features of the materials and shapes of ancient Japanese epitaphs, many of which were made of metal and were inscribed on rectangular panels or cinerary urns. In recent years many ornamental reliquaries from Paekche have been discovered, and it has been reported that in some cases inscriptions were engraved on metal panels and reliquaries. Since there are also commonalities in the circumstances in which they have been found, I point out that epitaphs in ancient Japan may have developed under the influence of this culture of reliquary deposits on the Korean peninsula. In addition, I present a new interpretation of the contents of the queen’s epitaph that was unearthed from the tomb of the Korean king Muryŏng 武寧. In the past, the term “居喪”appearing in this epitaph has been considered to signify temporary sequestration of the corpse, while the statement “改葬還大墓”has been understood to mean that after the temporary installation of the coffin in the mourning hall, the coffin was formally buried in the king’s tomb. But an examination of Chinese epitaphs shows that the term “居喪”signified mourning by surviving members of the deceased person’s family, while “改葬”referred to the reburial of a coffin that had already been interred once. Therefore, the epitaph should be interpreted to mean that after the bereaved family had completed the period of mourning, the queen’s coffin, which had been temporarily buried near the king’s tomb, was removed and reburied in the king’s tomb together with the king.