The Dark Side of Japan: Ancient Black Magic, Folklore, Ritual

by Antony Cummings

  Through winter snows and summer heat

  The moss grows grey upon its sides

  But the fowl demon haunts it yet

  Chill blows the blast, the owl’s sad choir

  Hoots hoarsely through the moaning pines

  Among the low chrysanthemums

  The skulking fox, the jackal whines

  As over the moor the autumn light declines

  Another myth in the world of rock is that of the Crying Stone. In the fourteenth century, a pregnant wife was waiting for her soldier husband to return from war. Tired of waiting, she went to find him in the province of Musashi but on the way was raped on the road; the rapist left her for dead. Lying there, she gave birth to a boy but died in labour, and along came a holy man – Jizo Bo Satsu – who took the baby and raised him. When he was old enough, the boy tracked down the murderer (who was boasting of his deeds) and took bloody revenge. The spot of the rape became the birthplace of the Crying Stone, Yonaki Ishi. It can be heard crying aloud in the wind and rain.

  The Japanese Heracles

  Ariwara no Narihira is a legendary twelfth-century warrior who charged into Hell, defeated the ‘Hag of Three Roads’ (Sodzuka no Baba) at the River into Hell, had afternoon tea (well, refreshments) with the Regent of Hell, swam near to China with a shark under each arm, and, in classic Heracles style, pulled up a tree and used it as a giant club. A man to be reckoned with.

  Jikininki

  Muso Kokushi was a Zen priest who was travelling through the land of Mino when he lost his way. Finding a small hermit retreat on a hilltop, he asked for sanctuary for the evening. However, the man inside forbade him to enter, saying that a village was in the valley and that he should go there. Moving on, Muso came to the village and was welcomed, but the villagers were leaving that very night as someone had died and it was their custom to leave the corpse alone and move out of the village each time someone passed on. Muso, telling them he was a priest, declared that he would stay and tend to the body; the villagers told him to be wary. Later that night, in the darkest hours, a vast and vague shape came into the room, lifting and devouring the corpse. When it had finished, it retreated back into the darkness. Muso, having survived the night, left the village and returned to the hut on the hill where he was refused lodgings. The man inside greeted him again, but this time told him that he was ashamed because Muso had seen his true form – he was the monster who ate the corpses of the dead. He was a jikininki, a man-devouring monster, cursed owing to the greed he displayed in his human life.

  The Corpse-Eating Samurai

  There was once a woman who was allowed to pick her own husband. She declared that she would marry any samurai who would pass a test she set, but on their word of honour they would never divulge the secrets of the test. Many brave and rich samurai came and went but none would speak of her test, nor would they attempt it. Then a poor, low-ranking samurai armed only with his sword took up the challenge. The woman instructed him to meet her in the cemetery that night. When he arrived the lady was dressed in white and digging up the corpse of a child. When she reached the coffin she tore it open and ripped away an arm of the dead baby, starting to devour it and offering the other arm to the samurai. As he sat down and started to eat the arm, the lady exclaimed that she had found her brave samurai and that they would be married. In a pleasant twist to the story, when the samurai ate the arm, it tasted sweet and was a delight to savour.

  The Willow Tree Woman

  A samurai from Noto named Tomotada was travelling through the mountains to another province on a diplomatic mission when he was waylaid by a snowstorm and sought shelter in a cottage. The hosts had their daughter serve him, and the samurai fell in love with the country girl. In the hope that she would have a good life with the samurai, the parents presented her to him. The samurai, still on the mission for his lord, hid her and her beauty for fear that the lord he was visiting would interfere. However, the lord saw the truth of their love and allowed them to marry, even though she was of common birth. They returned to Tomotada’s home province and lived a short while, but one day, struck with pain in her side, she called him over and said that their life together had come to an end and that she would soon be dead. Nonetheless, she reassured him that they would be together in the next life. Faced with his disbelief, she was forced to tell the truth. She was no human; in fact, she was the spirit of a willow tree, as were her parents, and at that very moment her tree must have been struck by an axe. After she died, the samurai journeyed back to the cottage where he had met her and there, next to the cottage, were three willow trees, cut down and dead. The woman’s name was Aoyagi, which means ‘green willow’.

  The Samurai and His Tree-wife

  There was once a samurai who wanted to cut down a willow tree in his garden, but a samurai of the same neighbourhood said that the tree had a soul and he should not kill the tree. He offered to buy the tree and replant it in his own garden. The soul of the tree, glad of this, appeared as a beautiful woman and married the man. They gave birth to a son and there was love in the family. However, one day the lord demanded the tree for a wooden beam in a new monastery, and no matter how much the samurai pleaded with the lord, the tree was doomed. His wife died when the tree was cut down, leaving their son behind. No matter how many men were used to haul the tree, it would not budge. The son came over and took the tree by a branch like it was a hand and the tree got to its ‘feet’ and danced to the place where it was cut as a beam.

  The Winter Cherry Tree

  Sakura or Japanese cherry blossoms are famous, but most special in Japan is the single cherry blossom that flowers on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month (normally around February) in full glory and during the season of snow.

  The story is as follows: a samurai had grown very old and outlived his children, and all he had left was one old cherry tree, withered and old but precious as a reminder of the golden years of his life. One year the tree died, giving flowers no more. Devastated, he decided that only one action could take place. He laid out a white cloth on the floor and gave his life for the tree so that it might bloom again. Cutting open his stomach, he died as his blood poured into the roots and the tree burst into life once more. It was the sixteenth day of the first lunar month and the tree blossomed in snowfall – something that would never happen naturally.

  The Tree on Mt Oki

  The mountain Oki-yama has a temple upon it to the god Fudo, and the priest Yenoki had been the guardian of the temple statue for nearly twenty years. However, he had not once seen the statue because only the high priest could see it. One day the door was open and he looked inside; at that instant, Yenoki was struck blind in one eye and cursed to live as a Tengu for a year. After that year his spirit was put into a great tree on top of the mountain. This tree became a beacon and object of prayer during storms, and it is said that if you are in a storm nearby and you pray to the tree and flames are seen in the tree then the storm will abate. On one part of the mountain was a village where the people were said to be without morals, conducting all manner of sexual offences. During the bon-odori dances for the dead, the youth of the village would copulate with anyone and their actions were considered improper. Yenoki changed his guise into that of a handsome youth and lured young girls out of the village area with his looks, but then he tied them to trees until they repented. A representative of the village went to Yenoki’s great tree and pleaded with the spirit. Yenoki appeared to him and said that he may go fetch the women who were tied to the trees and return them to their village, as now they will lead great lives and instruct the others on virtue.

  The Haunted Futon

  The Futon of Tottori is a story of two boys who owned only a futon bed after their mother died. They sold the futon to raise some money, but soon their landlord came and threw them out into the street. Freezing in the snow and with no one to help, they clung desperately to each other but deep in the snow they died. The futon, with its new owner, began to emit strange sounds of boys cryin
g, at which point the new and horrified owner gave it to a temple to take care of the spirits of the dead.

  The Price of Good Health

  In an ancient court there was a prince who fell ill. A high-ranking but elderly woman found a cure, but the cure was made from the blood of children who were born in a particular month. The story continues that one night a traveller passed by the house where the woman killed the children. Entering the house, he was warned not to go in a specific room; however, as it is with tales of mystery, he opened the sliding doors to reveal a room of bones and children’s remains. It is also said that the prince and the elderly woman ate the dead.

  The Master Wizard

  Kakubaku (or in Chinese Kwoh P’oh) was a wizard and philosopher who is said to have mastered ancient secrets and possessed nine bound books on philosophy and Taoist magic. Legend says he died in AD 324, and he is normally shown crossing the sea with a demon on his back – presumably under his control.

  Shadow Destroyer

  This man was a wizard of extreme ability. It is said that he destroyed his own shadow and could divide his body into sections and that he could live in the centre of any inferno. The king decided to test this ability and ordered a pile of wood bundles to be set alight to create a raging column of fire, challenging the man to enter. After he disappeared from view, the king and the onlookers waited till the flames died; to their surprise the man was simply sat reading. He got up and brushed the ash off his arms.

  The Lost Geisha

  When the samurai lost power during the restoration of the emperor, many families had to suffer poverty and lacked work. One samurai family fell to ruin, and having sold all their belongings they were left with nothing. Remembering that they had buried their father with his sword, which had gold mounts on it, they dug up his grave, took the gold off the sword and replaced it with iron and sold the gold. However, the money this provided did not last and the elder daughter was forced to become a geisha to provide for the family. This daughter was Kimiko, who in the end became a famous geisha. She grew famously wealthy, and supported her family so that her sister could get educated as a proper samurai child should. However, in the end Kimiko disappeared and all searches for her failed; she had run away and was never seen again.

  Hikohichi Omori and the Demon Witch

  Hikohichi, a samurai warrior, came to a stream or small river and found a beautiful woman at the edge, waiting for someone to help her across. The samurai, gallant, took her upon his back and started to cross. As he moved through the water, he looked down to the surface of the stream and saw, to his horror, not the reflection of a beautiful young woman, but a demonic crone on his back. Immediately he threw the devil-woman down, drew his longsword and cut her through. An alternative version has the woman not as a demon but a spy, the sister of the great samurai Kusunoki Masashige, sent for vengeance. This story holds that she was in fact wearing a demon mask and was there to assassinate Hikohichi.

  Yuki Chi

  The king of Hang Yu in China is said to have had the most beautiful wife in all the land. However, this became a curse for the king, as while he was surrounded on all sides by his enemies and the land was under invasion, he refused to leave her side. No one could persuade him to leave her and take his armies to war, so the nation was in turmoil. To save the land she retired to her rooms and cut her own throat, leaving the lord free to save the people. Sad and angry, the king rode out with the head of his beautiful damsel tied it to the saddle of his horse. The tale gets sadder, as when the horse was crossing the Black River it saw the head reflected in the water and threw off the king. The enemy rushed upon him but, the king quickly committed suicide so that he could not be captured. And so the wife and the king lay dead in the River Black – well, at least her head, anyway.

  Ghost Dog

  A pious couple who lived next to a delinquent couple had a dog named Shiro who had the ability to find buried gold. The neighbours, trying and failing to use the dog, killed it in anger. But this did not stop Shiro, who returned as a helpful spirit and told his master that if he cut a certain tree down and carved from it the base section of a rice pounder then any rice placed in it would turn to little golden nuggets. Doing so, the family became rich all the more. The delinquent neighbours tried to use the mortar but found it failed them and only produced filth, so they burned it. From here the legend extends to the male of the good couple venturing out on more gold- and prize-finding journeys, but he always stays pious, resulting in the evil neighbours mending their horrible ways.

  Hangonko – The Spirit in the Smoke

  This legend is the foundation of the Japanese Noh play Sendai Hagi. Date Tsunamune, a prince and warlord of the Sengoku period, saw Miura Yatakao, a beauty of rare quality, and coveted her. His power was so great that he ordered her to journey to his distant castle. Upon hearing this, she gave incense to her lover, a ronin (leaderless samurai) called Shimasa Jusaburo, and told him that if she should die then he should light it and see her face in the smoke. Upon getting to the castle, Date Tsunamune gave Yatakao a choice: be his lover or die. She chose death, and it is said that her lover used the incense to commune with her, seeing her spirit in the smoke.

  The Lover of 100 Nights

  Ono no Matchi told her lover that if he visited 100 nights in a row in a show of devotion then she would marry him. He came for ninety-nine nights, but on the 100th he was nowhere to be seen. The next morning it turned out that he had frozen to death trying to make it to his lover in a blizzard.

  Washing Away Sin

  In the province of Echizen, when a woman died in childbirth people would write their name on a square section of white cloth in black ink. They would find a place near a stream and put four sticks of equal size in the ground in a square layout. After this, they would tie the four corners of the cloth to the sticks so the name was facing upwards to the sky (imagine a miniature table with long legs, the cloth facing the sky). Then, a ladle was placed next to the stream and when each passer-by walked past they would ladle one portion of water over the name on the cloth, letting the water seep through. The magic is that by the time the ink has worn off, all of the ‘sins’ of the woman will have gone and she will find paradise.

  The Curse of the Heike and Genji Clans

  The Genpei War was a twelfth-century conflict between the Heike clan (sometimes Taira) and the Minamoto clan (sometimes Genji). Legend says that one species of crab, the Heikegani, is actually an embodiment of the lost souls of the Battle of Dan no Ura in 1185, where the Heike army drowned. This legend also extends itself to a battle between fireflies which is recorded as Genji Botaru. The larger species of firefly is the Minamoto clan and the smaller ones are the Heike and they are re-enacting the famous battle, cursed to repeat it for all time. People who drowned in this war are thought to be in spirit form at the bottom of the ocean, baling the vast expanse of water with bottomless buckets, again cursed for eternity.

  Another legend says that a warrior from this conflict wrote a poem and killed himself at the battle – he was seventy-five years old. After dying he turned into a firefly. The poem reads:

  All the dead,

  Trees that do not bloom,

  How poor the fruit harvest is.

  The Dragon and the Bell

  Once upon a time, a young girl was shown affection by a monk. This affection was returned with a deep and addictive love, and when the girl came of age the love turned into sexual obsession. Being devout, the monk refused her many times, until her love turned to vengeance and hatred. The woman tried spells and charms and witchcraft to get her way or to take revenge on his slights, none of which worked. In the end she turned to deep magic and waited for the monk to walk under the temple bell, a 5-foot-high bronze dome. As he walked past she touched the superstructure and supports of the bell, causing it to crash down with a mighty ringing and encase the monk. The monk was now trapped inside the bell, and the woman, wearing a demonic face, shifted into the form of a dragon and jumped upon the bell, coil
ing around it. With her tail she used a T-shaped hammer to ring on the bell repeatedly while her entire body erupted into flames, forming a blazing prison. When she left, the rest of the monks moved the bell and found only pure white ash where the pious monk had been. On the air they heard one finial prayer to Buddha.

  The Woman and the Bell of Miidera

  There was a great bell in the Temple of Miidera that sounded sweet and was as shiny as a mirror. However, no woman was allowed to touch the bell lest it lose its holiness. One woman, so curious of this bell, dressed herself a man and went to it; captivated by its reflective surface, she touched the bell. Instantly a hole burned through the bronze and all the silver platting came away, ruining the bell forever.

  Another story of the bell of Miidera is of Benki, the famous warrior strongman of Japan who appears many times in Japanese folklore. He stole the bell and carried it to another temple. However, when fixed in its new belfry and struck, the bell simply cried that it wanted to return to Miidera and was therefore returned.

  The Revenge of Kanshiro

  There was a devout man called Kanshiro who had always made pilgrimages to holy places. He was nearing the end of his life and thought that he could make one more to the shrine at Ise. His village came together and gave him a great bag of money that they had collected for him to give to the temple as an offering. On the way to Ise he stopped at a village to rest and asked Jimpachi, an innkeeper to safeguard his money. The innkeeper did so and all was well. Kanshiro took back possession of the bag and went on his way. Further on his trip he opened the bag to check on the money but found no money there but only rocks of the same weight. Outraged, he headed back to the village and demanded that the money be returned, but Jimpachi this time was a different man – he was rude and cruel, and threw him out of the village. The old man returned to his native village and sold his house to pay everyone back the money they had given to the shrine.