In the vicinity of the Japanese city of Takasago there is a huge megalith weighing about 600 tons of Ishi-no-Hoden. It is a piece of rock selected from the massif. This piece was given an unusual geometric shape and left in place. One gets the feeling that the megalith is an unused element for some grandiose ancient building object.
Ishi-no-Hoden resembles some kind of gigantic technical detail along which something had to move. Or maybe it had to serve as a support function for some huge structure. On one of the vertical planes of the megalith there is a protrusion in the form of a truncated prism. Therefore, we can assume that this unfinished part is located on the side.
During the study of the object, it turned out that during its creation, the ancient builders had to remove about one ton of stone from the rock. Then it was processed by a technology unknown today. No traces of machine or manual processing have been found on the rock around the megalith. Only at the very bottom of the rock can you notice traces of a tool, like a chisel. But they, most likely, much later, simply widened the passage for people. After all, Ishi-no-Hoden has long been an object of veneration.
According to the only official version available to historians, the megalith was built as a tomb. However, it is difficult to imagine that the tomb could be made in such a strange shape and in such dimensions. In addition, according to local traditions, only sarcophagi were made of stone, the lid of which was always a separate element.
There is an opinion about the material of the Ishi-no-Hoden megalith that it is not made of granite, but of hyaloclastite. This material is a rock consisting of fragments of volcanic glass that arose from the decay of incandescent lava underwater conditions. It is this hyaloclastite that was formed during the eruption of liparite lava about 70 million years ago.
Megalith is located above a stone reservoir filled with water. The records of a temple built nearby indicate that the water in the reservoir never dried up - even during particularly dry periods. If you look at the stone from the side, it may seem as if it is floating in the air. Therefore, Ishi-no-Hoden is also called the Flying Stone. The thing is that it is still connected to the rocky base by a lintel located in the center.
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The surface of the megalith, in contrast to the rock around it, was processed with some kind of tool resembling a mechanical boron. He did not split the material to be processed, but crumbled and grinded it. But on the lower surface there are no traces of processing - it seemed to be torn off the rock in one fell swoop.
There is a local legend that the megalith was created by two gods. They had to build a palace on this site in just one night. But local deities opposed the plans of the gods who came. Therefore, all night the gods did not build a palace, but suppressed the riot. And all they managed to do was this very megalith of Ishi-no-Hoden.
A two-story Shinto shrine was built next to the stone. The stone itself has been considered sacred since ancient times; according to Shinto traditions, it was tied with a rope with tassels. There is also an altar, near which everyone can turn to the spirit of the stone - kami. There is a poster for them with instructions on what to do so that the kami is guaranteed to hear the questioner.