This ancient tomb of Shimosone-village, Yamanashi Prefecture, was excavated in the 40th year of Meiji. Those remains found at this place are now belong to the Anthropological Institute of Tokyo Imperial University.
Among remains discovered there are an ancient bronze mirror from China, various iron implements, such as swords, daggers, axes, a spear-head, arrow-heads etc., also with a jasper bracelet. Some bifurcated harpoon-like iron implements are distinguishable. Near by this mound, there is another huge tomb called Choshizuka, with was excavated at the top of it in the 3rd year of Showa, and a little stone chamber came to light which had the same construction with that of Maruyama.
The remains from Choshizuka now in the Inperial Household Museum of Tokyo contain three bronze mirrors from China, two imitations of them, magatama and other ornamental objects, swords, daggers, bracelets and other articles of jasper, a shell bracelet, stone model postles, etc.
It would be said that both Maruyama and Choshizuka perhaps be built during about the same period, i, e., IV-V century A. D., judging from the resemblance of the stone-chamber construction and sorts and characters of remains found. A noble who buried at Maruyama would probably have some relation with the one who was in the Choshizuka. Discoveries of bronze mirrors from China at these mounds should told how high grade of culture had already been in this local part ; the reason why the situation denote should perhaps be debted to the wandering of people from Kinai, the cultural center at that time, to Kai Province, as some ancient historical records suggest, though the vestiges of neolithic and eneolithic culture are found in the froms of some iron implements and their technics.

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After an exhaustive study of the languages of the two islands, morphologically, phonetically, and gramatically, Prof, E. ASAI published, in 1936, a paper entitled " A Study of the Yami Language : An Indonesian Language spoken on Tobago Island (Leiden), " in which he strongly put forward the opinion that the languages of the Batanes Island and Kotosho are almost the same rather than being merely akin to each other. The present writer compared 131 names of animals and plants used by the natives of these two islands and was struck with the marked similarities among them, thus confirming Prof. ASAI'S opinion.
In the language spoken by the Batanes at present, not a few of the words suggest a Spanish derivation, which is only natural, seeing that the island had long belonged to Spain. In the Yami language, on the contrary, excepting two instances, we can hardly find a word of Spanish origin.
Of the exceptions, one is vaka, the Spanish ox, and the other paluk, from Spanish pale. The Yami Word paluk means water sprinkled with some grains of millet. Before, launching a new boat, the Yami perform a ceremony called the mipaluk, in which each prospective member of the crew of the boat surrounds the boat, and smears its gunwale with the paluk from a pot, this paluk being a charm for the future success of the new boat. The Yami, curiously, have no wine of any kind, although the writer has reasons for believing that they drank some sort of wine in former times, just like all the other tribes of Formosa, which habit, however, has since been discarded. As a matter of fact, the Batanes islanders obtain from the sugar-cane a wine called the Bashi, or palek, which is clearly a derivation from the Spanish pale. According to Yami legend, the close intercourse that existed long ago between the Batanes Island and Kotosho, was broken off eleven generations ago, namely 275 years ago (a generation being 25 years), at which time Spanish ships appeared on the seas adjacent to the Philippines.
These two words of Spanish origin in the vocabulary of the Yami, show that the Kotosho language was slightly influenced by Spanish via the Batanes Isiand. Yami legends also support this 'chronologically. From these considerations the writer believes that communication existed between the Batanes Island and Kotosho about the middle of the seventeenth century.
These two words of Spanish origin in the vocabulary of the Yami, show that the Kotosho language was slightly influenced by Spanish via the Batanes Isiand. Yami legends also support this 'chronologically. From these considerations the writer believes that communication existed between the Batanes Island and Kotosho about the middle of the seventeenth century.

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