Burglars smashed a hole in a wooden latticed wall designated as an important cultural asset at Hiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, police said Monday.
The police believe the 50-cm-wide hole was made between Saturday evening and Sunday morning to gain entry into Toshogu hall and steal monetary offerings.
Several coins were found scattered around a "saisen bako" offertory box in the hall, the police said.
They are treating the intrusion as a burglary.
According to the shrine, a guard found the wooden wall vandalized at around 8 a.m. Sunday. The wall was intact Saturday evening, shrine officials said.
The Kyoto Shimbun reported that most of the money in the offertory box had been moved to another place Saturday, and only several ¥1 coins remained.
The "sukibei" (translucent wall) is designated as an important cultural asset along with the Toshogu hall. There are several other halls within the compound of Hiyoshi Taisha that house Shinto gods.
Although the Otsu burglars may have left empty-handed, thieves in Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, managed to make off with ¥50 million worth of jewelry early Sunday.
According to the Aichi Prefectural Police, the theft took place at around 2 a.m. Sunday at a jewelry store in the Oshiro Town Shao shopping mall in Nishio.
Police and security guards arrived at the store 10 minutes after alarms went off, only to find the showcases broken and jewelry missing.
