Two hours northwest of Tokyo there’s a small geological museum, and it’s not quite your average educational rock collection.
Rather than focusing on the history, ecology and makeup of the stones, Chinsekikan museum houses over 1700 rocks that resemble human faces.
Featuring celebrities and famous animals as well as good old, normal mugs, the Chinsekikan museum houses over 1700 rocks that look like faces.
The museum’s name translates to ‘hall of curious rocks’, which is pretty fitting. While you could argue about just how much resemblance some of these characters actually have to human or animal faces, you can definitely make out an expression on a great deal of them.
Chinsekikan museum houses all kinds of jinmenseki (rocks that look like faces), from everyday smiling rockies to more famous varieties, including Elvis Presley below:
We’ve seen Japanese art take many forms, from modern street art to the more traditional, practical processes of woodworking. This is definitely one of the most abstract mediums we’ve come across, but you have to admire the artistic dedication of Yoshiko Hayama and her late husband in building this collection over 50 years.
While the exhibition started small, there’s now so many rocks that most of them don’t have names. In fact, if you make your way to Chinsekikan today, you’ll likely be invited to name one of these little fellas yourself.
Via This Is Colossal.
