Local News

The Shiga Prefecture Azuchi Castle Archaeological Museum revealed that a museum employee dropped some blue glass tubular beads it had borrowed from the Yoshinogari historical site in Saga Prefecture for an exhibition. About a dozen of the beads, which are important national cultural treasures, broke on the museum’s carpeted floor. The museum said the employee had removed 46 of the 6 to 8-centimeter-long beads, connected by a string, to inspect them, and they fell about 70 centimeters. The 2000-year-old beads have been sent to the Agency for Cultural Affairs to see if repairs are possible.