NAGOYA – The statue of 16th-century warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi located at the entrance of a shopping arcade in Nagoya, central Japan, has been beheaded, a local association said Tuesday.
A local resident notified the shopping center association on Saturday that the statue was missing its head. The neck has since been covered with duct tape to prevent further damage, according to an official of the group.
The association, which regards the statue as a symbolic figure of the arcade, is considering filing a damage report with police, the official said.
The defacement of the statue, made of reinforced plastic, comes after previous instances of damage to similar sculptures. In 2022, a statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu was knocked down and had a hole made in its back, while one of Oda Nobunaga was found without an arm in 2019.
The Hideyoshi statue, which sits on a pedestal, had been previously damaged before undergoing repairs. The statues were all donated in 2013.
AloJapan.com