Police mystified after oily liquid appears on 33 monuments

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Who is vandalising Japan's landmarks? Police mystified after oily liquid appears on 33 monuments

Police are investigating 33 incidents of 'oily liquid' vandalism since April

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 03 May, 2015, 12:32am
UPDATED : Sunday, 03 May, 2015, 8:02pm

Julian Ryall in Tokyo

Priests point to oily spots at Kanjoin Hall at Toji Temple (left) in Kyoto and at Great South Gate of Todaiji temple in Nara.Photos: Kyodo

Japan is mystified at a series of 33 "malicious" attacks on some of its most famous landmarks spread across nine prefectures - and police are no nearer to apprehending the "hooded" suspect.

Authorities at temples and shrines, primarily in central Japan, first began reporting small amounts of an oily liquid had been sprayed on buildings in early April.

Toji Temple, a listed World Heritage site in Kyoto, was a target, with blotches splashed on the Mieido Hall, a designated national treasure, and a ceremonial gate. Abemonjuin temple and Kashihara Shrine, both in nearby Nara prefecture, have also been affected, along with Nijo Castle in the centre of Kyoto.

Reports of damage have also come from Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, Niigata prefecture on the northern coast and Shizuoka, Shiga and Kagawa prefectures.

The National Police Agency has confirmed it is investigating the vandalism.

Masahito Kanetaka, the commissioner general of the force, said prefectural police headquarters have been ordered to step up patrols of properties that might be at risk.

"The incidents represent malicious acts to spoil the value of precious cultural properties," Kanetaka said. "We will cooperate with the relevant organisations to prevent more incidents." Police said an analysis of security cameras has caught images of a man in a hooded jacket who behaves strangely and appears at several of the locations that have been vandalised, although the footage is not of sufficiently high resolution to obtain a clear image of his face.

The Japanese public is bemused at why anyone would deliberately damage the nation's cultural properties.

"It does not seem to be part of a wide, organised political movement, and these are really quite minor attacks on these places, raising the question of why anyone would do it," Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at the Japan campus of Temple University, said.

"These incidents do not seem to reflect any broader societal issues, and vandalism for the sake of vandalism is not generally an issue in Japan," he added.

"I can only think this is an isolated series of acts by a single person or a small group of people," he said.

"It's not political but personal, and I would not be surprised that when the police do finally find the person carrying out these attacks, he or she is suffering from some sort of mental health problem."

He also points to parallels with a case in 2013 in which hundreds of copies of The Diary of a Young Girl, the memoir of Anne Frank, that had been held in the public libraries across Tokyo were defaced.