Jimesaa in Kagoshima, Japan
At the back of the Kagoshima City Museum of Art sits a bizarre stone statue nicknamed Jimesaa. It is well-respected by the locals of Kagoshima, who identify it as an effigy of Princess Kameju or Jimyōin-sama, the daughter of 16th-century daimyo Shimazu Yoshihisa. Female civic officials put a new makeup on the statue in her honor every year on her death date, October 5. Legend has it that, while Jimyōin-sama (or Jimesaa in local dialect) was a rather uncomely-looking woman, she was kind-hearted and respected by her people, then deified posthumously. The makeup tradition has been known since 1929 and is believed to help make local women look more beautiful. Though this is a fascinating local belief, many historians and folklorists argue that no historical records mentioning the "ugliness" of Jimyōin-sama exist, and that the statue may not even depict her in the first place. The popular theory is that it is a statue of Ksitigarbha, likely discarded during the persecution and abolition of Buddhism in the 19th century, and later found by locals by accident.
At the back of the Kagoshima City Museum of Art sits a bizarre stone statue nicknamed Jimesaa. It is well-respected by the locals of Kagoshima, who identify it as an effigy of Princess Kameju or Jimyōin-sama, the daughter of 16th-century daimyo Shimazu Yoshihisa. Female civic officials put a new makeup on the statue in her honor every year on her death date, October 5.
Legend has it that, while Jimyōin-sama (or Jimesaa in local dialect) was a rather uncomely-looking woman, she was kind-hearted and respected by her people, then deified posthumously. The makeup tradition has been known since 1929 and is believed to help make local women look more beautiful.
Though this is a fascinating local belief, many historians and folklorists argue that no historical records mentioning the "ugliness" of Jimyōin-sama exist, and that the statue may not even depict her in the first place. The popular theory is that it is a statue of Ksitigarbha, likely discarded during the persecution and abolition of Buddhism in the 19th century, and later found by locals by accident.
