Furry Elephants. With Claws.

Do you think the artist who carved these beasties had ever actually seen one? I guess it doesn’t matter, as long as the guy who paid the bill hadn’t either.

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix. These elephants are carved on one of the main buildings at the Tōshōgū Shrine in Nikko, built by the first shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa.