— ken ‘prefecture’ — gun ‘district’ — mura/machi ‘village/town’
～県～郡～村/町
The Kishida family monument acknowledges its origins from Yamaguchi in the top two kanji characters on the left side of the monument, Yamaguchi Prefecture (山口県, Yamaguchi-ken). This is a traditional marking for Japanese headstones.
When there are two vertical lines of characters the husband’s name is traditionally on the right and the wife is on the left.
DEATH
(died on)
～亡
GRAVE
haka
Given name at birth–secular name (ZOKUMYOU) --top two characters are: 俗名
DIED -- BORN
Death and birth dates of the deceased– bottom two characters are:
～寂～生
These 3 lower characters found on the front of many monuments mean roughly "family's grave" or "KE NO HAKA" -- the kanji for 'family' also means 'house' (just as English house is used in House of York). The normal Sino-Japanese reading for 'house' is KA, but in the House of York usage it's pronounced KE, as in TAIRA-KE NO HAKA (Taira-House's Grave).
JIZO (small guardian images for infants and children, protectors of deceased children,
including miscarried, aborted infants). There are only five examples of carved
jizo/Buddha stones in the cemetery.
NAMU MYOUHOU RENGE KYOU: it should be transcribed as Namu Myouhou Renge Kyou.
(Ren-ge is 'lotus-flower' and Kyou is 'sutra'.) "I devote myself to the Lotus Sutra." Commonly used during prayers of the Nichiren Sect Buddhism.
hrīḥ is a Sanskrit symbol of Amida Buddha, representing meditation and compassion. Sanskrit character
Grave Marker Materials Found at the Moiliili Japanese Cemetery
Blue Stone Basalt
Black granite
Gray granite
Light gray granite
Red granite
Pink granite
White granite
Gneiss
Schist
Marble/limestone
Concrete
Wood (very little remaining)
Lettering
Gold
White
Black
Natural recesses
Types of Carving
Hand chiseled
Laser cut
Sandblasted or laser shallow-cut
Recessed carving
Embossed carving (mostly for romaji family names)
Special Characters
cemeterykanji-2jb.pdf
Table here