Japan’s oldest writing revealed as permanent marker ink

In January 2020, archaeologists and scholars investigating the history of writing in Japan were excited by the discovery of what would possibly be ” the oldest writing in Japan”

This writing was found on an inkstone dated to the mid- Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD) which was excavated at the Tawayama site in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. The stone had markings believed to have been made by brush and ink.

In a conference held on January 1, 2020, Takeo Kusumi , of the Fukuoka City Buried Cultural Property Division , stated that the black ink markings were found in Reisho-tai clerical script from around AD 0, since the kanji子and戊could be distinguished. Yanagida Yasuo , a visiting professor of archeology at Kokugakuin University who had also studied inkstones from the Yayoi period, identified the kanji午,壬,戌, and戍.

Other academics who attended the conference expressed skepticism as further analyzes and studies such as infrared imaging had not been done to confirm the results. Soon skepticism was justified.

At a meeting of the Japan Society for Scientific Studies on Cultural Properties, researchers from the Kashihara Archaeological Institute, Nara Prefecture , presented the results of their analysis of the inkstone showing that the markings or “writing” contained oil and matched with the chemical signature of an oil-based permanent marker.

Since the permanent marker was invented in the early 1950s, the marks were obviously not contemporary with the inkstone . Instead, according to the researchers, permanent marker ink from labels or other materials likely transferred during the sorting process.

Reluctantly admitting her mistake, Kusumi had no choice but to withdraw the opinion she made about the inkstone as she had no scientific evidence to refute.

The Matsue City Archaeological Research Department , who owns the stone artifacts, admitted that the city “has improvements to make” if the reason for the erroneous opinion was actually ink transfer.