Persian official served in ancient capital of Nara

The Yomiuri Shimbun NARA — The name of an official that contains the word meaning Persia, now Iran, has been found on a wooden strip from around the mid-eighth century that was unearthed from the ruins of the ancient palace site of Heijokyu, according to the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.

It is the first confirmed excavated artifact in Japan bearing a Persian name. The institute’s finding corroborates the scope of international exchange in ancient Japan in the Nara period (710-784).

The strip was unearthed in 1966 during an excavation of the southeastern corner of the site’s ruins, where the Shikibusho ministry, which dealt with personnel affairs, was located. Some letters on the strip were too pale to read, and others were invisible to the naked eye.

In August, the institute took an infrared photograph of the strip that showed the piece of wood was a work record at the ministry’s daigakuryo institute to train government officials.

The upper part of one side of the strip reads, “Personnel affairs regarding those who worked day and night shifts at Daigakuryo,” and the bottom part describes the person’s position as a “specially appointed official.”

It records his name, “Hashi Kiyomichi,” along with the kanji characters indicating “the first year of the Tenpyojingo era,” or the year 765.

The combination of kanji for his name, Hashi, means Persia. The Chinese word for Persia, although written using different characters, is pronounced similarly to hashi.

The ancient Shokunihongi historical record mentions that a Japanese envoy to China’s Tang dynasty brought back to Japan three Chinese and one Persian, who met Emperor Shomu in 736.

“[The Persian official] may have been in charge of teaching new culture and studies,” said the institute’s history section chief, Akihiro Watanabe.

The strip will be on display from Nov. 1 to Nov. 13 during an exhibition to be held at the institute’s Nara Palace Site Museum in Nara until Nov. 27 (closed on Mondays).