Kanaizawa no hi (Kanaizawa Stone Monument in Gunma Prefecture) (金井沢碑)
Kanaizawa no hi is an ancient stone monument located in Yamana Town, Takasaki City and designated as a historic site. Together with Yama no Ue no hi (the monument on the mountain top) and Tago hi (Tago Stone Monument), they are collectively called 'Kozuke Sanpi' (Three Monuments in Kozuke Province).
Summary
The monument was built on April 10, 726.
112 characters of 9 lines are engraved on the pyroxene andesite 110 cm in height, 70 cm in width and 65 cm in thickness.
It was set into the stone pedestal and the epigraph is engraved with incised characters. The font type has characteristics of old Reisho Style (clerical script).
It was unearthed in the middle of the Edo period and is said to have once been used as a washing board at the bank of a small river by farmers in the neighborhood.
The content shows that the descendants of the ruling family of the Miyake (Imperial-controlled territory) in Takada no sato, Shimosanu-go (also known as Shimosano-go), Gunma County, Kozuke Province would build the monument to pray to Buddha for the salvation of their ancestors and safety of their parents by pledging to the heaven and earth, for the parents of the seventh generation, those of the time, and so on. These things tell us about the enforcement of Gori-sei (Township-neighborhood system) and how Buddhism belief prevailed in people in the Nara period.
Miyake' engraved on Kanaizawa no hi has been thought to be 'Sano no Miyake' (ruling family of Miyake in Sano), but with recent excavation research ensuring the existence of Miyake not found in historical records, 'Miyake' can be a different Miyake from 'Sano no Miyake.'
On March 3, 1921 it was designated as a national historic site, and in 1954 a special national historic site.