S P O T ／ SPOT-230

Tsuzuki-ishi (The Continuing Stones)

続石つづきいし

Deep in the wooded hills of Ayaori in Tono City sits a megalith that seems to defy the laws of balance: a colossal capstone—roughly 7 meters wide, 5 deep, and 2 thick—laid horizontally across two upright base stones, with a gap beneath wide enough for an adult to walk through, as if passing under a torii gate. Strikingly, the capstone appears to rest on only one of its two supports, an off-kilter geometry that has unsettled and fascinated visitors for over a century. Tsuzuki-ishi is a city-designated Natural Monument and one of the most famous sites in Yanagita Kunio's 1910 folklore classic "Tono Monogatari," where Tale 91 tells of a falconer killed by the curse of a mountain deity he disturbed here. A supplementary tale ascribes the construction to the warrior-monk Benkei and notes the structure's resemblance to a dolmen. Beside it stands the "weeping stone," said to have wept at the prospect of being crushed beneath the capstone forever. It is a place where megalith worship (iwakura), oral legend, and ambiguous archaeology converge in a single uncanny silhouette in the forest.