Mimizuka (Ear Mound)
A small mound near central Kyoto holds the severed noses of at least 68,000 people killed during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea in the 1590s.
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Noses replaced heads as battlefield trophies because they were easier to pack onto crowded ships. Noses were collected from soldiers and civilians alike — chronicles specifically note that ordinary civilians in the provinces of Gyeongsang, Jeolla, and Chungcheong were among those killed. Dedicated September 28, 1597, the mound originally bore the starker name Hanazuka, Nose Mound, before being renamed Mimizuka, Ear Mound.
What to look for
- The name change itself: the original Hanazuka (Nose Mound) was softened to Mimizuka (Ear Mound)
- Its placement directly west of Toyokuni Shrine, the Shinto shrine that venerates Hideyoshi — perpetrator and monument share the same block
- The numbers carved into the site's context: at least 38,000 Koreans and over 30,000 Chinese commemorated here
Located immediately west of Toyokuni Shrine in Kyoto — visit both in a single stop.
Mimizuka (Ear Mound) is one of 39 sights worth the detour in Kyoto, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Kyoto pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Kyoto
- Kiyomizu-dera TempleA monk traced a golden stream to its source on Mount Otowa in 778. Pilgrims are still arriving.
- Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)A gold-wrapped pavilion torched by a novice monk in 1950 and rebuilt by 1955 — every gleaming surface you see is modern.
- Fushimi Inari-taishaTen thousand orange gates, every single one paid for by a Japanese business, tunnel up a sacred mountain.
- Heian-kyō (Kyoto)Japan's capital for over a thousand years — and by one legal argument, still.
- Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion)The silver coating was never applied — and that unfinished state became the point.
- Kyoto Imperial PalaceJapan's imperial seat for 538 years — until the emperor moved his residence to Tokyo and the palace lost its central role.