(2002/08/16)

To mark the 30th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, the Bronze Mirrors Returning to Homeland Special Show opening ceremony and a public lecture on the subject of Ancient Tajima as Reflected by the Bronze Mirrors sponsored by Japan's Toyooka City Government, Toyooka Education Commission and Tajima Japan-China Exchange Society was held on August 11 at Toyooka. Cultural officials from Chinese Embassy in Japan attended the ceremony and made congratulatory speeches.

In the year of 1917, Hirao Gendayuh who lived in Morio Mura, Kitakinki, was building a villa on a mound not far from his home when he found an ancient tomb buried with ancient mirrors, curved jade and cranial bones. Since then the place, known as the Morio ancient tomb, has drawn the attention of some archaeologists who, having conducted a study of the characters inscribed on the back of the mirrors, came to a conclusion that they were exactly the standard squared divine mirror made in Han Dynast at a period when Wang Mang became the emperor. Thus such mirror is generally called Wang Mang mirrors by archaeologists. Later on, in other places of Kitakinki, other ancient mirrors made in China's Han Dynasty and Three Kingdom period were gradually discovered. Japanese archaeologists and historians started to attach great importance as to how ancient Chinese products came to Japan and how the circulation of commodity and cultural exchanges were conducted between China's mainland and Japanese peninsula at that time.

Tajima is the ancient name of the region around Toyooka. The three mirrors discovered in Morio ancient tomb were the oldest ones ever unearthed. To take good care of these precious relics, the one named Chronological Inscription Mirror is kept in Kyoto University's Comprehensive Museum, the Four Immortal and Four Animal Mirror is displayed at Tokyo's National Museum and the smallest one is kept at Toyooka, the place of excavation. To mark the 30th anniversary of normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations as well as the 85th anniversary of the discovery of the Morio ancient tomb, two mirrors were borrowed from Tokyo's National Museum and Kyoto University's Comprehensive Museum respectively for the Ancient Mirrors Returning to Homeland Special Show held at the excavation site Toyooka from August 10 to 18. The exhibits on display include other Chinese ancient mirrors made at the end of Han Dynasty, Japanese ancient mirrors and relevant cultural relics.

At the meeting where the commemorative lecture was delivered, Mayor of Toyooka, Nakagai Souji and president of Japan-China Exchanges Association spoke one after the other. Experts and professors from Tokyo's National Museum, Ootemae University and Shiga University gave academic lectures. About 300 people from Toyooka and nearby places attended the lectures. Local mass media covered news about the event.

By Hasbagen