Glass Negatives of Christian Painting Survive Japan's 1945 Atomic Bombing

MAINICHI DAILY NEWS
JAPAN -- Photographic negatives showing a Christian painting that was lost when the Nagasaki atomic bomb destroyed a cathedral in the city of SAKAI, Osaka have been discovered in the possession of a university instructor here. The glass-plate negatives show a painting called "Maria Jugo Gengi Zu" (Mary and the fifteen revelations), a 15-panel work depicting scenes from the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. The painting is said to have remained in the possession of clandestine Christians during the Edo Period, and been stored in the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki from the Meiji Period onwards, until the cathedral was destroyed by the atomic bomb on Aug. 9, 1945. [link]