Discovered on May 13, 1946 / Nagasaki / Department of Petrology and Mineral Deposits, UMUT

Collected during the investigations on the damages of the atomic bomb conducted in 1945-46 by Takeo Watanabe, Professor at the University of Tokyo. This item was originally said to be the guardian lion-dog of the Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine, but it was actually the lion head decorating the arch surmounting the entrance of the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki. On the top of the head made of andesite, we can observe glass resulting from the sudden cooling of black minerals contained in the andesite and which melted with the radiation. It was located about 500 meters away from the centre of the explosion.

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