HAKODATE, HOKKAIDO – A town in Hokkaido is eager to identify a stone figure found inside a felled tree trunk with no apparent entry hole.

The carving has a cross on its base, which leads some to believe it is a devotional object placed there centuries ago by Japanese Christians fleeing persecution.

The palm-size figure was found on Aug. 1, 1976, when Hideo Okano cut down a 10-meter-high yew tree in his backyard in the town of Imakane. He planned to give the timber to a friend, who wanted to make a table.

He found that the trunk was hollow as the old tree had decayed, and inside was a stone carving about 13 cm tall.

“We would like to display the figure as town residents want to pass it down (to) future generations,” Masayuki Miyamoto, a 42-year-old curator on Imakane’s board of education, said.

“But we cannot designate it as a cultural heritage of the town because we cannot accurately evaluate it. We badly want new researchers to examine it in detail.”

The object appears to have been cut with a sharp tool from local stone and is probably incomplete. A cross is marked beneath the base, which leads some to think it belonged to so-called “hidden Christians” at a time when the faith was outlawed and believers were persecuted.

A survey of the area was undertaken after the find but no similar objects were unearthed, and its identity and origin remain a mystery even now.

Okano died in 1992 and the figure was donated to the town office.

It seems the object was placed in the tree when it was young as the trunk seems to have grown around it. Nobuo Okano, 67, the man’s son, said Hideo examined the tree after it was felled to see if there were any holes large enough to put the stone figure in but found none.

The stump of the tree where the figure was found is now inaccessible in thick woods.

Experts are divided about the figure’s identity.

Some say it was likely brought by Christians escaping religious persecution by the Matsumae domain in Hokkaido during the Edo Period (1603-1868) and who worked at gold mines in Imakane while hiding their faith.

Records show that the domain executed more than 100 Christians in 1639, although there are no records of hidden Christians living in Imakane.

Other experts say the figure was likely brought by people involved in gold mining during the development of Hokkaido in the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

Before Okano’s death, the figure was enshrined as a “stone Buddha of the yew tree” at a hall set up in Okano’s home, funded by voluntary contributions.

The town office no longer displays the figure but keeps it at its warehouse.