Kyoto's Mimizuka monument holds the ears and noses of 38,000 Koreans killed during the invasions 1592-8.
The Mimizuka Ear Tomb is a monument in Kyoto, Japan, dedicated to the sliced ears and noses of killed Korean soldiers and civilians taken as a war trophy during the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598.
The monument enshrines the mutilated body parts of at least 38,000 Koreans killed during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions.
Traditionally, Japanese warriors would bring back the heads of enemies slain on the battlefield as proof of their deeds. Remuneration was paid to soldiers by their feudal lords based on the severed heads. However, because of the number of civilians killed along with soldiers, and crowded conditions on the ships that transported troops, it was far easier to just bring back ears and noses instead of whole heads.
The exact reasons it was built are unknown as it was uncommon for a defeated enemy to be enshrined in this way. The Mimizuka could have been meant as a warning for those who resisted Japanese conquest.
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