original Classical Chinese text; 則獻七枝刀一口 七子鏡一面及種種重寶 仍啟曰 臣國以西有水 源出自谷那鐵山 其邈七日行之不及 當飲是水 便取是山鐵以永奉聖朝 In English; (52nd year, Autumn, 9th month 10th day. Kutyo and others came along with Chikuma Nagahiko) and presented a seven-branched sword and a seven-little-one-mirror, with various other objects of great value. They addressed the Empress, saying :-"West of thy servants' country there is a river-source which issues from Mount Cholsan in Kong-na. It is distant seven days' journey. It need not be approached, but one should drink of this water, and so having gotten the iron of this mountain, wait upon the sage Court for all ages." Inscription on the sword The inscription states: In original Chinese characters: First Side: 泰■四年十(一)月十六日丙午正陽造百錬(銕)七支刀(出)辟百兵宜供供候王■■■■ (作 or 祥) Second Side: 先世以來未有此刀百濟王世(子)奇生聖音故爲倭王旨造傳示後世 Characters in parentheses are ambiguous. Characters represented with black blocks are entirely unreadable. In English: First Side: "At noon on the sixteenth day of the eleventh month [May], fourth year of Tai■, the sword was made of 100 times hardened steel. Using the sword repels 100 enemy soldiers [Appropriate for the polite duke lord] It is sent [bestowed] to the duke lord. (Manufactured by or good fortune to...) [ ]" Second Side: "Never before has there been such a blade. The crown prince of the king of Baekje, who lives under august sounds, had this sword made for King of Wa in the hope that it might be passed on to later generations." Interpretation of the inscription 2nd character on the first side, and when the sword was made: The first four characters are generally decoded as "4th year of Taihe" (the era name of Emperor Fei of the Eastern Jin dynasty in China), but the second one is ambiguous. Taihe 4 corresponds to year 369 CE. Kim Sok Hyong, a North Korean scholar, proposed a theory that the first two characters instead refer to a local era name of the Baekje, but this theory has been challenged since no other archaeological discovery reveals the existence of unique era names assigned by the Baekje. Hong Sung-Hwa, a scholar at Korea University, argues that "十(一)月十六日(the sixteenth day of the eleventh month)" suggests the year 408, because if the 6th, November is 日干支 (日干支 is a day by the sexagenary cycle) of 丙午 in 408, the year is the 4 years by King Jun-ji (腆支王) in Baekje. From this we can speculate that Baekje assigned era names autonomously (Goguryeo and Silla had