Inside the world’s strangest natural ‘human face stone’ museum in Japan-Travel

Most museums in the world usually display works of art such as paintings, sculptures … but this strange museum in Japan will surprise you when it only displays stones.

Located a two-hour drive northwest of Tokyo, in Chichibu there is a museum displaying rocks called Chinsekikan. Coming to this place, even if you don’t learn about geology, you will have to change your mind about the cobblestones that you once thought were inanimate.

The museum was founded by collector Shozo Hayama, who spent 50 years collecting naturally eroded rocks shaped like human faces. Mr. Hayama passed away in 2010, and the museum is currently managed by his wife, Yoshiko Hayama.

Not only mimicking faces with all kinds of expressions, many of these stones are also shaped like celebrities, religious figures, movie characters or politicians, typically the stone. Elvis Presley, Boris Yeltsin, Nemo, King Kong, aliens in the movie ET Following,…

The stones are as if surprised to see you

This stone looks like Elvis Presley’s face

And is this the Nemo fish?

Various interesting shapes

According to geological scientists, the strange shape of these rocks is due to the impact of nature. Factors such as weather, temperature, rain and sun wear and crack the stones. The softer the rock, the easier it is to deform.

Chinsekikan Museum is quite famous in Japan and has appeared on many television programs of this country. Many people believe that Mr. Shozo – the founder of the museum has a psychological tendency called “pareidolia”, the phenomenon that makes us see faces on objects and phenomena, the most typical are those cobblestone or cloud in the sky.

Yoshiko Hayama with a stone work at the museum