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In various parts of the Asuka region are to be found unusually shaped granite stones and stone-carved figures. Apart from the Shumisen-seki (a garden fixture carved to suggest Mount Sumeru of Buddhist mythology) or the male-female stone carving which likewise was designed as a fountain, the purposes originally associated with the other worked stones, bearing such names as Masuda no iwafune, Sakafune-ishi, Kame-ishi, Miroku-ishi, Nimen-seki, etc., have been for the most part for-gotten. The male-female stone carving. the Nimen-seki, the Saru-ishi ("monkey stones"),etc.,are different from the haniwa and other stone human figures made during the former Kofun (Tumulous) Period. Brimming with a droll sort of sturdiness, they display what is also a completely different quality from that of the later Buddhist sculptures. |
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