#hitobashira

Japanese Folklore Feat. Reina Scully

Welcome to Episode 89! For our third episode of Spooky Szn 2021, we decided to have on our good friend Reina Scully to school us in the spookiest of Japanese Folklore! This week, we discuss "Kokkuri San", "Hitobashira", "Teke Teke", "Tomino's Hell", and "Kuchisake Onna" in a very special episode of Japanese-themed hauntings.

Kokkuri: Kokkuri, or Kokkuri-san, refers to a paranormal game of divination, similar to the American Ouija Board. The word kokkuri refers to the game, the actual physical apparatus, and kokkuri-san refers to the being that is summoned that is considered by the Japanese to be some sort of animal spirit that is a mix between a fox, dog, and raccoon. The game is played by writing characters on a piece of paper (much like a Ouija Board) and moving a coin around the board instead of a planchette.

Hitobashira: Hitobashira refers to a cultural practice of human sacrifice used formerly in Japan, in addition to many other eastern and southeastern countries found in Asia, wherein humans were buried alive near large-scale construction projects (such as castles, bridges, and dams) as an offering to the gods to keep the structure safe from harm.

Teke Teke: Teke Teke is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a schoolgirl whose body was cut in half when she was run over by a train in a mysterious accident. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of her demise, her ghost is doomed to roam urban areas using only her hands and elbows since her lower half no longer exists. The dragging of her torso across the ground makes a “teke teke” noise similar to a skittering or scratching noise. She carries around a large scythe that she uses to chop unsuspecting passers-by in half.

Tomino’s Hell: Written by Japanese poet Saijo Yaso at the end of WWI, “Tomino's Hell” is a dark and unsettling poem believed to curse, or even kill, anyone who reads it out loud.

Summary:

Kill your brother or kill yourself, Madara said, lying on his back in the dirt.

That Hashirama might turn the knife on Tobirama was not a possibility that had ever crossed Madara's mind.

hitobashira: "a form of human sacrifice. A person was buried alive under or near large-scale buildings like dams, bridges and castles, as a prayer to Shinto gods. It was believed this would protect the building from being destroyed by natural disasters such as floods or by enemy attacks."

For all your “Madara gets what he (nominally) wants but it’s bad” needs.

aka the one where Hashirama kills his brother to prove his resolve and builds the village on his bones

Callivember day9: sacrifices.

I’ve been working on a few things for the first Dev Log that will include some of the Concept Art that’s been sketched and a teaser of the DEMO on its raw stage for insight on the story.

Log will drop October 31st as a Halloween Update! ヘ(◕。◕ヘ)! Expect some Spooky Creepy content to go along with it!

Chapter 152: One Sacrifice

So hello Mutsuki’s back, and the let’s find Kaneki continues, Touka let’s everyone know about the ring and that it would be easier to find him with metal detectors because he’d at least be near where the ring is.

The members of our latest and final unit—Hitobashira

“ An eccentric duo pulled together out of their love of all things supernatural. The unit specializes in punk rock. Their club activities includes investigating the 7 Mysteries of Yumenosaki and holding seances (or at least attempts to). “

the same anon that asked about the japanese castles. I found my city! You don’t have to answer anymore!

Thank you for letting us know (we really do appreciate it!), but we figured that other people might be interested in this sort of thing, so we decided to go ahead and answer it anyway :)

OK, so as we said before there are quite a few castles that have their own supernatural folklore in Japan.

The most famous example is probably Himeji Castle in Hyōgo Prefecture. It’s one of the best surviving examples of feudal Japanese architecture and the foundation dates back to 1333. It was rebuilt and remodeled multiple times after until it became the sprawling complex it is now.It’s got a couples stories attached to it but the most supernatural one is Banshū Sarayashiki, in which a beautiful servant named Okiku refused the advances of her employer, the samurai Aoyama Tessan. To try to force her hand, he hid one of a set of ten plates and accused her of losing it. She counted and recounted the plates until she finally gave up and and admitted she must be guilty. The samurai again asked her to be his lover and he would forgive her for losing such a valuable heirloom. She refused again and he was so angry he threw her down a well to her death.It’s said that she still haunts the grounds around the well, counting and recounting plates morosely.

Matsumoto castle in Nagano Prefecture also has a ghost story, although it's more of a goddess story. A guard was on his patrol when he was approached by a ghostly woman dressed as a miko (priestess) who told him that she was Nijuroku-yashin, the goddess of the 26th night of the month. She said that if the owner of the castle were to build a shrine for her including a bag containing 500 kilograms of cooked rice offered on the 26th day of every month, she would protect the castle so that it would prosper and never suffer fire or attack. She then levitated towards the highest tower of the castle and disappeared.

The lord of the castle decided it was worth the gamble and did as the goddess instructed. There is indeed a shrine in the ceiling of the top floor of the tower and it is true that the castle has survived in good condition to this day.

There is a darker story to go with this castle too. In the 1680's, during a series of farmers' riots staged in protest of massive taxes, the organizers of the unrest were arrested and of course executed. One of the farmers, Tada Kasuke, is said to have cursed the lords of the Matsumoto Domain at that time, the Mizuno family. Its believed that his curse is the cause of a run of bad luck that eventually led to the Mizuno family losing power in 1725.They later provided the funds for a shrine in honor of those killed during the Jokyo Uprising and it still stands on the grounds of the castle today.

More gruesome than that is the story associated with Maruoka castle in Fukui Prefecture. During it's construction in 1576, the stone wall would collapse every time it was built. It was decided that the only way to keep it up was to make a sacrifice and entomb a person within the wall. A widow named Oshizu agreed to become a hitobashira (human pillar), so long as the lord would make one of her sons a samurai. The lord, Shibata Katsutoyo, agreed and she was immediately buried alive in the central pillar of the castle. The sacrifice worked and the walls did not fall down. However, Katsutoyo did not keep his promise and in response, the castle moat would overflow every April. The locals believed it to be caused by Oshizu's anguish at being betrayed and built a shrine to appease her.

It doesn't have quite as intricate a story, but the remains of Nakagusuku Castle in Okinawa are said to be very haunted. It was built in the early 1400's by Gosamaru, a Ryukukan commander, to defend against attacks by Lord Amawari of Katsuren castle.The castle fell in 1458 and has since fallen into ruin.However, in the 1970's, a businessman decided to build a hotel directly next to the ruins. Local Buddhist monks warned against it, saying it would disturb multiple graves and sacred sites. Their warnings were ignored however, and construction started. However, the project was plagued by accidents and eventually the workers refused to continue. The unfinished remains of the hotel are still visible, slowly succumbing to the vegetation.

And now we’ve given ourselves a mild case of the spooks.