In 1973, in a remote convent in Akita, Japan, a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary reportedly began to bleed, perspire, and shed human tears 101 times, in front of witnesses and TV cameras. Laboratory tests on the collected fluids were described as human blood and human tears, while the message entrusted to Sister Agnes Sasagawa spoke of “fire falling from the sky” and a crisis within the Church. In this article, we revisit the facts, the reported scientific examinations, and t