Nose tomb

Nose tombs (Korean: 코 무덤; RR: ko mudeom) are tombs that contain human noses or other body parts that were brought back to Japan as trophies during the Japanese invasions of Korea in the late 16th century.[1]

Mimizuka, a nose tomb (nominally for ears), in Kyoto
Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592

War trophies were a part of Japanese tradition at the time and samurai warriors were often paid according to how many they collected. It was the tradition to take the severed head of the enemy but the soldiers resorted to taking noses instead due to the impracticality of transporting them and the huge number of dead bodies.[2]

One such nose tomb was discovered in 1983 in Okayama near Osaka. This tomb held the severed and pickled noses of approximately 20,000 dead Koreans which were eventually returned to Korea in 1992 and cremated.[3] A similar tomb still exists today in Kyoto called the Mimizuka, literally "Ear Mound", although it contains noses and not ears.[4] The use of the term "ear" was suggested by the Confucian scholar Hayashi Razan as a euphemism since nose tomb was considered too barbaric.[5] The noses in the Mimizuka Ear Mound were brought from Korea in barrels of brine and remained in the location for 400 years.[6]

In Japan, these tombs are considered relics by the few who are aware of them, but in Korea these tombs are very well known.[7][8]

See also

References
  1. Diamond, Jared (27 October 2004). "The Japanese Roots (Part 1)". Association for Asia Research. Archived from the original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
  2. "Mimizuka". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  3. "20,000 Noses Of Koreans Being Returned By Japan". Orlando Sentinel. 23 September 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  4. Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's Most Influential Men and Women
  5. Ganesan, N. (2015). Bilateral Legacies in East and Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 27. ISBN 978-981-4620-41-3.
  6. Oldale, John (2012). A World of Curiosities: Surprising, Interesting, and Downright Unbelievable Facts from Every Nation on the Planet. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-58040-0.
  7. Kristof, Nicholas D. (14 September 1997). "Japan, Korea and 1597: A Year That Lives in Infamy". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
  8. Thorpe, Norman (1 April 1972). "Mimizuka: A Shrine to Japanese Brutality in Korea". Korea Journal. 12 (4): 58–59. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2010.


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