VOX POPULI: Words sealed inside Buddhist statue read again after 800 years | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

When researchers opened a Buddhist statue undergoing restoration, they found its hollow interior packed with documents from the age of the Genpei War. That was the civil conflict fought from 1180 to 1185 between the Taira, or Heishi, who had come to wield overwhelming influence at the imperial court, and their rivals, the Minamoto, or Genji.