While the supernatural had previously been the preserve of rather stiff tales about distant nobles, the Yotsuya Kaidan became a sensation by bringing it for the first time into the homes and everyday surroundings of common city dwellers.Ī tombstone to Oiwa can be found today at Myogyo-ji Temple, close to the spot where she was supposedly buried. ![]() Hideously deformed and abandoned by her husband, she is driven mad with anguish and accidentally kills herself, only to return and wreak a terrible revenge on the ones that wronged her and their families. In its tangled story, Oiwa, the wife of a murderous samurai is tricked by a rival into taking a disfiguring poison disguised as a skin cream. Of all Japanese ghost stories, perhaps the most famous and influential is this kabuki play, first staged in 1825 as the Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan. Today, visitors to Sumida Ward can take part in supernatural walking tours, buy manju in the shape of the seven wonders and even read some of the stories on maps and plaques. The "Sending-Off Lantern" is a phantom light or will-o-the-wisp that appears to lost travellers and leads them off the path, before winking out and leaving them in darkness, while the "Following Wood-Clapper" pursues street-walkers, mimicking their footsteps and drawing closer as they begin to panic. The stories themselves range from the outlandish (a giant hairy foot appears in a house, demanding to be washed) to the surprisingly tame (leaves do not fall from a particular tree), but the most effective stories deal with ill-advised shortcuts and ghostly encounters. Now incorporated into Tokyo's Sumida Ward, Honjo was once a desolate corner of old Edo, covered with vast fields, with only a few scattered houses and mostly unlit at night.īeginning as a series of unconnected urban legends, the Seven Mysteries of Honjo (seven being purely nominal) evolved into a popular topic for rakugo stories, spawning the 1937 film Honjo Nanafushigi and even a remake twenty years later. In a jump-scare moment reminiscent of horror films today, nopperabo stories from all over Japan almost always end with the terrified merchant running home to his wife or into the arms of a passerby, only for that person's face to also suddenly disappear! Afraid that she might be about to drown herself, the traveller stops and tries to comfort her, only to find himself staring into an empty, featureless face. In this version, a merchant making his way through the Akasaka area at night encounters a handsomely dressed young woman, weeping by the side of a deep moat. The most famous appearance of this classic folk-monster can be found in Lafcadio Hearn's Kaidan. The following are five of the most popular legends with enduring links to the city today: Nopperabo While we aren't able to share new content from the road, we hope this collection from our travel archive helps you explore a bit of Japan from your own home.ĭespite its reputation as a high tech city of the future, Tokyo still possesses a rich and fascinating body of folklore gained through centuries of history. Many travel plans, including our own, have been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. ![]() A series about Japanese culture, life and travel for all of us who are currently staying home to flatten the curve.
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