hail as a sign of Hideyoshi's "great mercy and compassion." The shrine initially was known as , Mound of Noses, but several decades later this would come to be regarded as too cruel-sounding a name, and would be changed to the more euphonious but inaccurate , Mound of Ears, the misnomer by which it is known to this day. Other nose tombs dating from the same period are found elsewhere in Japan, such as at Okayama. Effect on modern foreign relations The Mimizuka is almost unknown to the Japanese public unlike to the Koreans. The British historian Stephen Turnbull called the Mimizuka "...Kyoto's least mentioned and most often avoided tourist attraction". A plaque, which was later removed, stood in front of the Ear Mound in the 1960s with the passage, "One cannot say that cutting off noses was so atrocious by the standard of the time." Most guidebooks do not mention the Ear Mound, and only a few Japanese or foreign tourists visit the site. The majority of visiting tourists are Korean – Korean tour buses are often seen parked near the Ear Mound. In 1982, not a single Japanese school textbook mentioned the Ear Mound. As of 1997, the mound is referred to in about half of all high-school history textbooks according to Shigeo Shimoyama, an official of Jikkyo, a publishing company. The publisher released the first Japanese text book mentioning the Ear Mound in the mid-1980s. The Education Ministry of Japan at that time opposed the description as "too vivid" and pressured the publisher to reduce the tone and also to praise Hideyoshi for religiously dedicating the Ear Mound to store the spirits of the killed people. In the 1970s under the Park Chung-hee administration, some of the officials of the South Korean government asked Japan to level the monument. However, most South Koreans said that the mound should stay in Japan as a reminder of past savagery. Activity since the 1990s is aptly conveyed thus: On September 28, 1997, the 400th anniversary of the Mimizuka, a ceremony was held in respect for those killed, which people of all nationalities and faiths attended. The current caretaker of Mimizuka as of August 2009 is Shimizu Shirou (清水四郎). See also Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan Scalping Headhunting Human trophy collecting Nose tomb Yasukuni Shrine References External links Asian Historical Architecture: Mimizuka Japan-Korea Friendship Year 2005 Human trophy collecting Japanese culture Japanese