Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2011 20:30:02 GMT
The Kyoto suburbs creep around a grassy mound of earth crowned with a stone memorial, below which are buried tens of thousands of sliced off noses and ears, the grisly trophies of a savage 16th century war.
Led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japan’s invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598 were part of Hideyoshi’s failed quest to control all of East Asia. Previously, the tradition had been to take severed heads of slaughtered enemies as souvenirs, but the distance and mounting body count made that impractical. Instead, soldiers took the ears – and later and more numerously – the noses, of those they had killed in battle. These were were pickled in brine and sent back to be inspected and then interred in Mimizuka, literally translating to “Mound of Ears,” even if it is better known as the tomb for the noses of at least 38,000 Koreans
www.realunsolvedmysteries.com/2010/11/mimizuka/
Suzy
