Epitah for Yamashiro-no-Imiki Masaka

This is an epitaph for both Yamashiro no Imiki Masaka (d. 728) and his wife,Kaya no Imiki Akiba (d. 722);he was a householder householder in Yamashiro Village of Ishikawa District in Kawachi Province, the southeastern part of present-day Minamikawachi, Osaka. Masaaka served the court during the reigns of Emperor Monmu (683–707; r.697–707) and Emperor Shōmu (701–756; r.724–749), and his name is seen among the documents preserved at the Shōsōin. This epitaph plate was presumably excavated from the slope of the mountain along the Yoshino River, but the details are unknown. It is a rectangular bronze epitaph plated with gold. The epitaph plate is rimmed with a line, and the space between the line and the rim is decorated with the nanako-ji pattern.

Three lines of inscription are engraved on the plate which are separated by straight line segment. According to the inscription, Yamashiro-no-Imiki-Masaka from Yamashiro village of Ishikawa county in Kawachi province (today's south-eastern part of Minami Kawachi county in Osaka prefecture) had been serving four consecutive Emperors since the reign of the Emperor Mommu and died on November 25, 728. His wife Kaya-no-Imiki-Akiba died on June 11, 722. Yamashiro-no-Masaka is registered in the census compiled in 721, which is kept in the Shōsō-in treasure house. It is conceivable that his wife's bones were moved into Masaka's tomb after he had died.

— Museum description: Nara National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.