Hananuma Masakichi

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Hananuma Masakichi (まさきち　はなぬむら, Hananuma Masakichi^?) was a Japanese sculpture artist, born in 1832. Believing that he was dying from Tuberculosis, Masakichi sculpted a life size statue of himself as a gift to the woman he loved, which was completed in 1885. The artist himself died 10 years later, in poverty aged 63. The statue was later purchased by Robert Ripley in 1934, and was housed in his California Odditorium until his death in 1949. After Ripley's death, the masterpiece toured various Odditoriums until it was stored in the Los Angeles Odditorium where it was damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. The Masakichi statue today is almost unique in the world, as compared to the artist of whom it was based, it is nearly identical. Comprised of between 2000 or 5000 wooden strips (reports differ), it is connected only by dovetail joints, glue and wooden pegs. No join is visible on the statue, and is lacquered to show every detail of Masakichi, including muscle, bone and vein. The artist also manufactured anatomically correct glass eyeballs for the statue. Finally, individual holes were drilled in the statue to represent the pores of the skin, and the corresponding hair inserted.