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…
