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…

Main Hall, Sofuku-ji Temple, Nagasaki

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Japanese superstitions, the gate of the evil spirits