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Yonaguni, Moai face
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| 4 | 5 | 6 |
The first close-up is from the Okinawa website, and is from the feature on the Ishibutai or "Stage" that is ususally photographed a bit more from the middle, see picture 2, and then one gets the definite impression that it is meant to portray one face with two eyes, so the entire feature is usually called the "Face". Pictures 3 and 4 show that there are definitely two sides to the feature, separated by an edge that in the usual pictures serves as the "nose", e.g. the two "eyes" have definitely different shapes (click on 3 for a proof). The Okinawan picture 1 concentrates on the right half, stating the presence of a 'big hollow like an eye and a mouth', and associates it with 'a big face of a Moai Statue. Especially, there is a bubble corresponding to a pupil in the middle of its eyes on its left'. That is the reason they call this feature “Moai Iwa”, and compare it with the two pictures 5 and 6 from Easter Island, with the following, standard, description: 'The Easter Island is a volcanic island which is located in the Pacific Ocean near Chile.On this island, about 1000 moai statues made of huge stone were arranged. It is 3 to 4 meters high, and 4 to 5 tons in weight. It is made of lava, and on the top of each head, a circular hat which is 1 to 2 meters high is put on. This statue is a symbol of each tribe said to have died such that it began at about 8th century and that it ended at the 17th century. Even today, it stands as if it looking at the far sea, wrapped in mystery.'
Picture 3 shows that this is a reasonable interpretation, showing the left half of the feature also having a definite character of its own, the hole now looking like the mouth of a head or face, see picture 4. If indeed this is the case, it is highly stylized, but remember that the turtles visible on the monument are as highly stylized. Also take a look at the enlargement of picture 3, which takes this one step further.