This mirror, from Suda Hachiman shrine in Wakayama, includes one of the oldest examples of writing in Japan. The inscription along the edge says that the mirror was made for a king Oshisaka no miya on the tenth day of the eight month of either 443 or 503 (the sixty year zodaical cycle makes this unclear). Click on top left for a detail of the inscription or the bottom right for a detail of the human figures decorating the inner circle.