Ishikozume

(石子詰め) was a ritual method of execution performed in ancient Japan. The ritual is characterized by waist high burial in earth followed by lapidation (death by stoning). It has traditionally been associated with the yamabushi, hermetic practitioners of the Shugendō religion, because they often used it when rules of their religion were violated. However, it has been observed in instances not involving the yamabushi, and so its exact origins and nature has been debated by scholars. This execution method was used for crimes such as "adultery, rape, murder, theft, arson, blasphemy (killing a sacred deer), association with outcastes, [maintaining] unregistered rice fields, [and] treason."

Historical research
In 1966, the scholar H. Byron Earhart presented competing claims about the issue. He pointed out that archaeological digs of prehistoric Japan has indicated that stones were often found near burial sites. Earhart referred to a Japanese scholar named Ainosuke Fujiwara, who, as early as 1943, went as far as to say that should be viewed not as a method of execution, but rather burial. In the end, however, Earhart wrote that the practice's true meaning and nature can never be known for sure, but that he himself speculated that it served both as a means of execution as well as a means of burial, in light of the practice's Buddhist influence and undertones.