Ken@Japan

If your lovely partner died, how wod you deal with his/her belongings? If you loved his/her so much, you may keep them on your hand. If you didn't love, then you may throw them away. In her case, it was a bit different.  When her husband died, she donated all of his belongings to a temple, which her husband established. The "she" is the Japan's imperial empress Kou-myo（光明皇后）, a wife of the 45th imperial emperor Shomu.（聖武天皇）.  When the emperor died in 756 AD, the empress decided to give the Shomu's mementos to Toudai-ji temple（東大寺）, known as a Buddhist temple with a big golden statue of Buddha.  The items, ranging from her husband's clothes, folding screens to his bed on which he had spent time with his wife, were stored in a traditional warehouse called "Sho-so in" （正倉院） in Nara. This is a historical origin of the treasury warehouse.  For another information, the empress also donated some medicines there, which the husband had taken in hope of ...