Debate continues to intensify around an artifact on display in the exhibition hall of the Idojiri Archeological Museum.
Among the hundreds of items on show — most excavated from nearby sites close to the border of Nagano and Yamanashi prefectures — stands a 5,000-year-old yūkōtsubatsuki-doki earthenware vessel.
Adorned with a swirling relief, the central portion depicts a creature with a humped torso, elongated limbs and three-fingered hands, which the museum’s curator, Kurando Soejima, says is a half-human, half-frog deity symbol, possibly connected with the lunar phases.