[Article] Does the Kanaizawa Stela's Inscription Really Mean “the Wife of the Household?” : Challenging the “Wife” Theory through Analysis of Residence Unit Register Formats, Genealogy Styles, and Rural Elite Familial Bonds

The inscription of the Kanaizama Stela, one of the three stelae of Kōzuke Province, shows combined influences from residence unit register formats, Buddhist dedicational text formats, old genealogy styles, and newly introduced Buddhist views towards ancestors. The two stelae discussed in this article—the Kanaizama Stela and the Yamanoue Stela—were located in the Yamabe Locality of the Tago District, which was used to be in the Kataoka District. The Yamabe Locality was the home of the rural elite familial group with the surname, Miyake (miyake in a broad sense), but this group also included other surname members. I argue that “Osada no Kimi Metsura Toji,” which was inscribed in the Kanaizama Stela, refers to one of the “current parents” from the Ullambana Sutra, instead of the wife of “Miyake no ko [missing text]” who offered the dedicational text. In other words, Osada no Kimi Metsura Toji, who was the elder woman of the aforementioned Miyake rural elite group, was the dedicator's close relative from his mother's generation, or possibly his alive mother. This finding reveals the identities of other people listed in the inscription. “Kana Toji” was not the child of “Metsura Toji,” but the child of the dedicator. “Mononobe no Umatari” and his sisters were the dedicator's grandchildren who were children of either Kana Toji or Kana Toji's sister. Until the end of the 7th century, central and rural elite group members had a sense of genealogy which directly connected legendary ancestors and descendants, while having a sense of bilateral kinship of close relatives. Then the Buddhist term, “[praying for] parents of seven generations and my own parents,” introduced to them a new view towards their ancestors. They accepted this concept by superimposing it on their old genealogy narrative. There was a gap between the mechanism of official patrilineal miyake surname groups and that of actual bilateral groups including other surname members. This gap, being intertwined with the ritsuryō polity system and Buddhist ancestral ideas, transformed the elite group's view towards ancestors in the rural community. Kanaizawa Stela and Yamanoue Stela are excellent examples that illustrate this transformation during the late 7th and early 8th centuries.