What do E.T., Nemo, and Jesus have in common? They all apparently look like stones housed in one of Japan's most peculiar (and charming) museums: the Hall of Curious Rocks.
Located in Saitama, outside Tokyo, the collection is filled over 1,700 stones—over 900 of them are "face rocks."
The museum’s founder, who passed away in 2010, collected rocks for over fifty years. Initially, he was drawn to rare rocks, but that evolved into collecting, well, strange rocks—especially unaltered rocks that naturally resemble celebrities, religious figures, movie characters, and more.
These days, the founder's daughter keeps the museum running, and it has been featured on popular, nationwide Japanese TV programs. No wonder, because this is a rather unusual collection.
Yes, there's the inevitable Jesus rock, but there's also the Donkey Kong rock and the Boris Yeltsin rock. There are also more general stones, such as "chorus rocks" (below).
TSome of the rocks resemble the people they are supposed to, some of them do a little, and some of them don't at all. But what makes the museum so delightful is how creative some of the comparisons are. I mean, who looks at a rock and thinks it looks like a Russian politician?
Check out a small portion of the collection below. Photos courtesy of Byoukan Sunday and Another Tokyo.
Donkey Kong
Japanese rocker Demon Kakka
Nemo
Gorbachev
Cold Wind Monjiro from the Japanese novel and TV drama
Jesus
Wrestler and Japanese politician Antonio Inoki
Mickey Mouse
Yeltsin
Turtle shell
Elvis
９００点以上の人面石がならぶ「珍石馆」[Another Tokyo]
あまりにシュールなテーマパーク『奇石博物馆』に行ってきた 摆秒间厂鲍狈顿础驰闭
Insert Photos: abc1008, Impress, Upp, ThisDayinHistory, BiographyOnline, Spectrum, FanPop
To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.