Abstract
An archaeological sample of organic residue in a noble wooden vessel excavated from the tomb of Japanese Samurai named Tsunamune Date who was buried in 1711 was analyzed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The lipid extracts of plant nuts and vegetable oils were also measured as references to investigate source materials of the organic residue. The FT-IR spectrum suggests the occurrence of fatty acids in the sample, and the profile was similar to the result of IR analysis at the excavation event in 1983. This implies that the major components in the organic residue have not deteriorated, even though it has been stored at room temperature nearly 40 years. The fatty acids and their degradation products, dicarboxylic acids, were detected in the organic residue, implying that plant oil may be included in the sample. In addition, three diterpenes, pimaric acid, dehydroabietic acid, and abietic acid, and another four compounds derived from rosin were clearly identified. This result suggests that the sample analyzed here may be a mixture of lipid extracts of wax and lacquer tree nuts and rosin. Based on the ancient documents in the Edo periods (seventeenth-nineteenth centuries) in Japan, it was surmised that Tsunamune Date used the organic residues as either medical ointment or hairstyling foam in his life.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blair, D. (1973). A History of Glass in Japan. Kodansha International, Tokyo.
Briggs, L., Demesticha, S., Katzev, S., Swiny, H. W., Craig, O. E., and Drieu, L. (2022). There’s more to a vessel than meets the eye: organic residue analysis of "wine" container from shipwrecks and settlements of ancient Cyprus (4th-1st century BCE). Archaeometry 64: 779–799.
Buckley, S. A. and Evershed, R. P. (2001). Organic chemistry of embalming agents in Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman mummies. Nature 413: 837–841.
Colombini, M. P., Giachi, G., Modugno, F., and Ribechini, E. (2005). Characterization of organic residues in pottery vessels of the Roman age from Antinoe (Egypt). Microchemical Journal 79: 83–90.
Colombini, M. P., Giachi, G., Iozzo, M., and Ribechini, E. (2009). An Etruscan ointment from Chiusi (Tuscany, Turkey): its chemical characterization. Journal of Archeological Science 36: 1488–1495.
Copley, M. S., Bland, H. A., Rose, P., Horton, M., and Evershed, R. P. (2005). Gas chromatographic, mass spectrometric and stable isotopic investigations of organic residues of plant oils and animal fats employed as illuminants in archaeological lamps from Egypt. Analyst 130: 860-871.
Dudd, S. N. and Evershed, R. P. (1998). Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economics. Science 282: 1478–1481.
Dunne, J., Höhn, A., Newmann, K., Franke, G., Breunig, P., Champion, L., Gillard, T., Walton-Doyle, C., and Evershed, R. P. (2022). Making the invisible visible: tracing the origins of plants in west African cuisine through archaeobotanical and organic residue analysis. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14: 30.
Eisei Bunko (n.d.) A letter from Hosokawa Tadatoshi to Hosokawa Mitsunao: Documents of daimyo Hosokawa Family. Kumamoto University, Japan.
Eglinton, G. and Hamilton, R. J. (1967). Leaf epicuticular waxws. Science 156: 1322-1335.
Giachi, G., Pallecchi, P., Romualdi, A., Ribechini, E., Lucejko, J. J., Colombini, M. P., and Lippi, M. M. (2013). Ingredients of a 2,000-y-old medicine revealed by chemical, mineralogical, and botanical investigations. PNAS 110: 1193–1196.
Ito, Y., Ito, T., Yamashiro, K., Mineshiba, F., Hirai, K., Omori, K., Yamamoto, T., and Takeshiba, S. (2020). Antimicrobial and antibiofilm effects of abietic acid on carcinogenic Streptococcus mutans. Odontology 108: 57–65.
Iwai, C., Kudo, T., Suziki, Y., Date, Y., Nakazato, T., Nagashima, E., Hayasaka, S., Fujinuma, K., Yamanobe, T., and Yuki, S. (1985). VII Summary of research on Zen’nouden In Ito, N. (ed.), Mausolea and Mementos of Tadamune Date, Kansenden and Tsunamune Date, Zen’nouden. Zuihoden Foundation, Miyagi, pp. 117–189. (in Japanese).
Kadokura, T. (1985). Air compositions in the tombs of Kansenden and Zen’nouden. In Ito, N. (ed.), Mausolea and Mementos of Tadamune Date, Kansenden and Tsunamune Date, Zen’nouden. Zuihoden Foundation, Miyagi, pp. 277–280. (in Japanese).
Murakawa, K. (1985). Analysis of lipid paste in grave goods of the Load Tsunamune Date. In Ito, N. (ed.), Mausolea and mementos of Tadamune Date, Kansenden and Tsunamune Date, Zen’nouden. Zuihoden Foundation, Miyagi, pp. 269–273. (in Japanese).
Okutsu, H. (1979). Current status of topography and ground. In Ito, N. (ed.), Grave of the Load Masamune Date at Zuiho-den and the Burial Goods. Zuihoden Reconstruction Organization, Miyagi, pp. 19–30 (in Japanese).
Onodera, T. (1985). Lifetime of Tadamune Date and Tsunamune Date. In Ito, N. (ed.), Mausolea and Mementos of Tadamune Date, Kansenden and Tsunamune Date. Zen’nouden. Zuihoden Foundation, Miyagi, pp. 7–23. (in Japanese).
Rackham, H. (1968). Pliny the Elder: Natural History. Heinemann, London.
Regert, M., Bland, H. A., Dudd, S. N., van Bergen, P. F., and Evershed, R. P. (1998). Free and bound fatty acid oxidation products in archeological ceramic vessels. Proceeding of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 265: 2027–2032.
Ribechini, E., Modugno, F., Colombini, M. P., and Evershed, R. P. (2008). Gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric investigations of organic residues from Roman glass unguentaria. Journal of Chromatography A 1183: 158–169.
Stacey, R. J. (2011). The composition of some Roman medicines: evidence for Pliny’s Punic wax? Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 401: 1749–1759.
Suryanarayan, A., Cubas, M., Craig, O. E., Heron, C. P., Shinde, V. S., Singh, R. N., O’Connell, T. C., and Petrie, C. A. (2021) Lipid residues in pottery from the Indus civilization in northwest India. Journal of Archeological Science 125: 105291.
Tanaka, R., Tokuda, H., and Ezaki, Y. (2008). Cancer chemopreventive activity of "rosin" constituents of Pinus spez. and their derivatives in two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis test. Phytomedicine 15: 985–992.
Tanaka, K. and Teshima, S. (1985). Cause of death of Tsunamune Date. In Ito, N. (ed.), Mausolea and Mementos of Tadamune Date, Kansenden and Tsunamune Date, Zen’nouden. Zuihoden Foundation, Miyagi, pp. 257–263. (in Japanese).
Van de Velde, T., Deschepper, E., Mestdagh, B., De Clercq, W., Vandenabeele, P., and Lynen, F. (2019). Lipids, funerals, gifts and feasts: Organic residue analysis on Merovingian ceramics from the Elversele burial field (Belgium). Journal of Archeological Science: Reports 24: 30–38.
Whelton, H. L., Roffet-Salque, M., Kotsakis, K., Urem-Kotsou, D., and Evershed, R. P. (2018). Strong bias towards carcass product processing at Neolithic settlements in northern Greece revealed through absorbed lipid residues of archaeological pottery. Quaternary International 496: 127–139.
Yadav, B. K., Gidwani, B., and Vyas, A. (2015). Rosin: recent advances and potential applications in novel drug delivery system. Journal of Bioactive and Compatible Polymers 30: 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0883911515601867.
Yamada, K. (1978). Musk: Flavor in Japan. Hosei University, Chiyoda City. (in Japanese).
Yamada, T. K., Kudou, T., and Takahiadhi-Imagawa, H. (1990). Some 320-year-old soft tissue preserved by the presence of mercury. Journal of Archeological Science 17: 383–392.
Yamanobe, T. and Kamiya, E. (1967). Coffin contents. In Suzuki et al. (eds.), Studies on the Graves, Coffin Contents and Skeletal Remains of the Tokugawa Shoguns and their Families at the Zojoji Temple, Tokyo. University of Tokyo, Tokyo, pp. 90–117. (in Japanese).
ZennŌ-ji Youroku basshou. (n.d.). Abstract about the History of ZennŌ-ji Temple, Giyaman-dera Yuisho, History of Giyaman-dera Temple.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Mr. Yoshiyuki Nakamura and Junichi Ishikawa (Zuihoden Museum, Sendai City, Japan) for supporting the sample collection. We acknowledge Prof. Tsuguharu Inaba and Ms. Noriko Goto (Eisei Bunko Research Center, Kumamoto University, Japan) for their critical suggestion about the history of Hosokawa family during Edo period. We deeply appreciate to Mr. Yoshihisa Iwamoto (Kumamoto Hazero Manufacturing Company, Kumamoto City, Japan) and Mr. Hisashi Takazawa (Takazawa Candle, Nanao City, Ishikawa) for donating the wax tree and lacquer tree nuts, respectively.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Harano, M., Date, Y., Watanabe, H. et al. Analysis of Organic Residue in a Wooden Vessel Excavated from a Tomb of Japanese Samurai Buried in the Seventeenth Century. Int J Histor Archaeol 27, 885–897 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-023-00693-8
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-023-00693-8