Mimizuka

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Mimizuka
Close-up of the Gorinto

Mimizuka ( Japanese 耳 塚 'ear mound' ) is a mound in Higashiyama-ku , Kyoto , Japan that houses tens of thousands of noses as war trophies.

History of origin

The hill was formed during the second invasion of the Imjin War , 1597–1598 , which was triggered when Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked Korea under the Joseon Dynasty as a new target after the unification of Japan . Korea's ally was the Chinese Empire under the Ming Dynasty .

In Japan it was customary to collect the heads of those who were killed as trophies ( headhunting ). After a battle was won, the respective generals took the time to look at the cleaned heads on stakes. During the invasion of Korea, however, the transport of the countless heads would have posed great logistical problems. For easier transport, therefore, only the noses of the 3,726 heads collected were used in the first battle of the second invasion of the Imjin War, the siege of Namwon . An exception to this, however, was the Korean military leader. Each unit sent their collected noses, preserved in salt, to the respective army headquarters, where they were counted and then collected and shipped to Hideyoshi in Japan. This made the number of noses collected by a unit an indicator of the success of each unit. At least three noses were required from every Japanese soldier. So has z. B. Kikkawa Hiroie's unit sent in 18,350 noses after just over a month and Nabeshima Katsushige 5,444 noses, the Nabeshima clan collected 29,251 noses in total. Various counts assume a total of at least 100,000 to around 200,000 noses. However, the victims were not exclusively enemy soldiers, but also civilians, including women and children. In some cases, the noses of the living were cut off, so that these deeds were still visible decades after the war in Korea.

The collected noses were buried in front of the hall with the - no longer preserved - Daibutsu , the Buddhist temple Hōkō-ji, and a hill was created over it. This hill was originally called Hanazuka ( 鼻 塚 'nose hill' ) and only in the writings of Hayashi Razan from the 17th century the term Mimizuka ("ear hill") is used. Ears, however, tend not to be buried there, as they are more impractical as head replacements due to their number compared to noses. To appease the souls of the fallen, whose noses were buried here, Hideyoshi had Buddhist rituals performed. The first mass and thus the inauguration ceremony took place on November 7, 1597 ( traditionally : Keichō 2/9/28). The largest contribution from noses to the Mimizuka came after the Battle of Dingon in 1598 with 38,700 pieces.

On the hill there is a Gorintō - “ Stupa of the Five Rings” - in which a Siddham character is carved on each “ring”, which represents a different geometric body . The stupa was added later and is first recorded on a map from 1643.

In all of Japan, however, the daimyo involved in the invasion also created such, albeit much smaller, hills. Therefore, the mimizuka will not necessarily house the total number of at least 100,000 noses alone.

Later reception

During the Edo period under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the nature of the complex was concealed and the complex largely disappeared from the collective memory. During this time, on the one hand, the name was changed to the misleading Mimizuka (ear mound) and, on the other hand, a large bamboo wall was built around the complex to hide it from view.

In the beginning of the Meiji period , when Toyotomi Hideyoshi was again given great veneration, the system was repaired again in 1898 on the occasion of the 300th year of his death and a memorial stone called Mimizuka Shūei Kuyōhi ( 耳 塚 修 営 供養 碑 ; “Memorial stone for Buddhist death prayer and Repair of the ear mound ").

On April 12, 1969, the temple and with it Mimizuka to the national historical site "Hōkō-ji stone wall and stone stupas " ( 方 広 寺 石 塁 お よ び 石塔 , Hōkō-ji Sekirui oyobi Sekitō ) were appointed.

In the 1970s there was a lot of controversy about the hill in South Korea under Park Chung-hee , in the course of which the leveling of the hill was called for. Opponents of the hill believed that it was shameful for North and South Koreans. In some cases, requests were made to move the hill to South Korea, which is supposed to calm the souls of the deceased. In the 1980s, there was a wave of travelers to Mimizuka for funeral services in South Korea. The hill was not mentioned in Japanese textbooks until the mid-80s (see also Japanese textbook dispute ).

A memorial ceremony was held on September 28, 1997, on the 400th anniversary of the inauguration of the hill. South Koreans, Buddhist priests and Christian pastors also took part. This was organized by South Korean and Japanese non-governmental organizations . From then on, this ceremony was held regularly every year.

Nevertheless, the hill is largely unknown in Japan and appears in only a few Japanese travel guides. Most of the visitors are of South Korean descent.

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  1. ↑ Stephen Turnbull: Warriors of Medieval Japan . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2005, ISBN 1-84176-864-2 , pp. 75–76 ( digitized from Google Books ).
  2. ↑ a b c d Stephen Turnbull: Warriors of Medieval Japan . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2005, ISBN 1-84176-864-2 , pp. 80–81 ( digitized from Google Books ).
  3. ↑ a b c d Jurgis Elisonas: The inseparable trinity: Japan's relations with China and Korea . In: John Whitney Hall (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Japan. Volume 4: Early modern Japan . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991, ISBN 0-521-22355-5 , pp. 291 ( digitized from Google Books ).
  4. ^ A b c d Gavan McCormack: Reflections on Modern Japanese History in the Context of the Concept of Genocide . In: Robert Gellately , Ben Kiernan (Eds.): The Specter of Genocide. Mass Murder in Historical Perspective . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-52750-3 , pp. 276 ( digitized from Google Books ).
  5. ↑ a b c d Seiji Inoue: 日本人 の 〈集合 的 記憶〉 と 国際 理解 教育 の 課題 - 歴 史 教科書 問題 の 周 辺 と 底 流 を 見 つ め つ つ - / Amnesia in Japanese “Public Memories” of Being Victimizers in East-Asia during the Last Four Centuries. Reconsidered as an Issue in Education for International Understanding . In: IDEC, University of Hiroshima (Ed.): Journal of International Development and Cooperation . Vol. 8, No. 2 , 2002, ISSN  1341-0903 , p. 6 ( online edition [PDF]).
  6. ↑ a b c HI140 耳 塚 修 営 供養 碑 . Kyōto City, accessed October 4, 2009 (Japanese).
  7. ↑ Conversion of the traditional Japanese lunar calendar date with NengoCalc according to Reinhard Zöllner : Japanese time calculation . Iudicium Verlag, Munich 2003
  8. ^ John Stevens: Sacred Calligraphy of the East . Shambala Publications, Boulder, Colorado 1981, ISBN 0-87773-198-5 , pp. 69 ( digitized from Google Books ).
  9. ↑ 豊 国 神社 （ほ う こ く じ ん じ ゃ） ・ 方 広 寺 （ほ う こ う じ）） ・ 耳 塚 （み み つ か） . (No longer available online.) Hokoku Shrine, archived from the original on Aug. 20, 2007 ; Retrieved October 2, 2009 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / web.kyoto-inet.or.jp
  10. ^ A b c d Nicholas D. Kristof : Japan, Korea and 1597: A Year That Lives in Infamy . In: New York Times . September 14, 1997 ( online ).
  11. ↑ 国 指定 文化 財 デ ー タ ベ ー ス (German "National Recognized Cultural Property Database"). Office for Cultural Affairs , accessed October 4, 2009 (Japanese, deeplink not possible).
  12. ↑ Seiji Inoue: Amnesia in Japanese “Public Memories” of Being Victimizers in East-Asia during the Last Four Centuries . P. 7
  13. ↑ Seiji Inoue: Amnesia in Japanese “Public Memories” of Being Victimizers in East-Asia during the Last Four Centuries . P. 9

Web links

Commons : Mimizuka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 34 ° 59 ′ 29.3 "  N , 135 ° 46 ′ 13.2"  E