The Mimizuka (literally “Ear Mound”, often translated as “Ear Tomb”), an alteration of the original Hanazuka (literally “Nose Mound”) is a monument in Kyoto, Japan, dedicated to the sliced noses of killed Korean soldiers and civilians as well as Ming Chinese troops taken as war trophies during the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598. The monument enshrines the severed noses of at least 38,000 Koreans killed during Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s invasions. The shrine is located just to the west of Toyokuni Shrine, the Shinto shrine honoring Hideyoshi in Kyoto. Traditionally, Japanese warriors would bring back the heads of enemies slain on the battlefield as proof of their deeds, however, the process of nose collection in lieu of heads became the feature of the second Korean invasion. Remuneration was paid to soldiers by their daimyo commanders based on the number of severed heads they submitted to collection stations, where inspectors meticulously counted, recorded, salted and packed the heads bound for Japan. 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 noses instead of whole heads. Japanese chroniclers on the second invading campaign do not fail to mention that the noses hacked off the faces of the massacred were also of ordinary civilians mostly in the provinces Gyeongsang, Jeolla, and Chungcheong. In the second invasion Hideyoshi’s orders were thus: “Mow down everyone universally, without discriminating between young and old, men and women, clergy and the laity—high ranking soldiers on the battlefield, that goes without saying, but also the hill folk, down to the poorest and meanest—and send the heads to Japan.“ #destroytheday https://www.instagram.com/p/CFXqi4xhF1_/?igshid=1vqh6xxbbroid