The unusual statue of Sofuku-ji, Nagasaki

There is an old Buddhist practice, originating from China, of putting inside the statues internal organs. But only a few such statues are known to exist and one of them is located in Japan, inside the Sofuku-ji Temple in Nagasaki.

The discovery was made in 1935, when the Buddha Shakyamuni statue from this photo was restored: inside there are internal organs, some of them made of silver, others made from cloth. And this isn't the only statue with internal organs in Japan: in 2012, another one was discovered at a nearby temple, Kofuku-ji...