<< Our Photo Pages >> Kaname-ishi - Misc. Earthwork in Japan
Submitted by Aska on Saturday, 15 January 2022 Page Views: 964
Multi-periodSite Name: Kaname-ishi Alternative Name: 要石 鹿島神宮 香取神宮Country: Japan Type: Misc. Earthwork
Nearest Town: Kashima (Ibaraki prefecture) Nearest Village: Kyūchū 宮中
Latitude: 35.968700N Longitude: 140.636230E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Misc. Earthwork in Japan
In those days Japanese people believed that the earthquakes were caused by a giant catfish living in the underground world. Kaname-ishi (= pivot stone)s have been supposed to have function like pins to fix it absolutely still. The one in Kashima Jingū (鹿島神宮) shrine (35.96870N, 140.63623E) is believed to fix the head and the one in Katori Jingū (香取神宮) shrine (35.88468N, 140.52763E), 8km away southward, fix the tail.
There is a legend that Mito Kōmon, ex-vice shōgun (real name : Mitsukuni TOKUGAWA, 1628-1701) who had interested in Japanese history (and also in imported goods from abroad), tried to dig out one of Kaname-ishi but after 7 days and 7 night throughout digging, he could not reached the bottom end. In 2022 Japanese disaster anime Suzume which was inspired by 1995 and 2013 great earthquakes in Japan, one of pivot stones ("keystone" in the movie) gets away from its fixing duty and escapes in a form of living cat, then the underground supernatural power called "(earth)worm" are released and causes an earthquake. Then the protagonists, a girl (named Suzume) and the young exorcist, travel throughout Japan to seal the "worm" leaking points and to capture the runaway "keystone".
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