Japanese Ghost Stories: Spirits, Hauntings, and Paranormal Phenomena Page 3
This unpredictable Japanese water spirit somewhat resembles one of the best-known ghostly beings of Scotland, the kelpie. Mostly haunting rivers, the kelpie lures the unwary to their death by drowning, usually by assuming the shape of a horse which invites its quarry to mount it, then plunges with its rider into the nearest stretch of water.
Animals, too, both real and mythical, play a vital role in the world of the Japanese supernatural. Creatures most likely to possess magical talents are foxes, badger-like animals called tanuki, and snakes. But the magician’s parade also includes frogs, turtles, cats, dogs, monkeys, birds, mice, wolves, wild pigs, deer, horses, otters, weasels, spiders, butterflies, fireflies, and even lowly earthworms. Earthquakes in Japan, for instance, are believed to be caused when a gargantuan, subterranean catfish stirs in its sleep and sets the entire earth trembling. In tale and metaphor, animals are endowed with human characteristics, or vice versa. They frequently interact with human beings in mysterious ways, creating supernatural frameworks within which to tell stories, teach morals, or point out paths.
Foxes are preeminent tricksters, typically deploying their wiles to frighten, poke fun at, or sometimes seduce human beings. A fox can appear as a beautiful woman who bewitches a man into madness and death, or, more rarely, shows him gratitude for a kind deed he has done for her. The Japanese word for “fox,” or kitsune, can even be used as an adjective for a particularly enchanting, attractive woman. At the same time, foxes have a charitable aspect: a fox is considered the messenger for the deity of abundant rice harvests, and pairs of foxes are evident throughout Japan as guardians at shrines to the god. Crafted of pottery, stone, or bronze, one of the pair carries in its mouth a jewel or power-granting scroll, while the other holds the key to a storehouse of wealth. A well-known fox tale dating back more than one thousand years tells of the “Golden Nine-tailed Fox,” the female leader of a fox tribe who had caused considerable trouble in India and China. She escaped to Japan, and in a twelfth-century version assumes the guise of lady Tamamo no Mae. Loved by Emperor Toba (1103–56), she one day cast a spell on him, and he fell sick and almost died. She was eventually found out by the court astrologer, Abe no Yasunari, who held up a sacred mirror reflecting her true fox form. Pursued and cornered by a skilled archer, she transformed herself at the point of death into a rock that afterward was said to have killed instantly anyone foolish enough to touch its surface. The rock, dubbed sessho seki, or the “death stone,” was finally destroyed in the fifteenth century by the holy monk, Genno, and stories say it disappeared with an enormous explosion of poisonous smoke. Intriguingly, one report claims that the rock’s supposed site in what is now Tochigi Prefecture contains unusually high levels of arsenic in the surrounding area.
Another wily schemer is the tanuki, and a legend from the Shojoji temple in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, tells of the lucky teakettle that was really a tanuki, leading the monks in a merry chase to capture it. When a tanuki reaches the age of one thousand years it acquires supernatural powers which enable it to transform its shape into all manner of living beings and objects, although its favorite disguise is a Buddhist priest. On a moonlit night a tanuki can lead travelers astray by beating on its enormous belly, emulating the comforting, rhythmic beat of a temple drum. Although they are more mischievous than truly evil, tanuki have been blamed for devouring the wives of woodcutters and accused of smothering hunters beneath their oversized scrota.
Particularly strong mystic powers belong to snakes, which in ancient religions throughout the world have inspired reverential awe as well as fear. In Japan, a stylized snake dance, imported from India via China and Korea, used to be performed, reflecting an ages-old Japanese worship of snakes. A white snake is considered a messenger of the gods, while related serpent-dragons control water and weather and protect humankind from fire and pestilence. A Shinto ceremony at the Izumo Grand Shrine in Shimane Prefecture celebrates the arrival of Japanese deities riding on a great, white serpent. Old farmhouses in Japan often have a large snake, or aodaisho, slithering somewhere on the premises, and this is accepted as a good omen tied to the safety and fortune of the house and family. But lustful female snakes may seek human mates, transforming themselves into voluptuous women to seduce unsuspecting males. Snakes appear as symbols of fertility, untrammeled passion, and uncontrollable natural phenomena. One mythological interpretation depicts snakes as the connection between the world of mortals and the world of eternity.
Various specific properties are assigned to the astonishing array of animals on Japan’s supernatural stage. Another messenger of the gods is the deer, a sacred animal associated with prosperity and longevity. Today, more than one thousand tame deer roam freely around the park in Nara, which served as the old capital city of Japan from 710 to 784. According to a much-loved Chinese legend adapted by the Japanese, a magical monkey king named Son Goku, along with a kappa and a boar, accompany the Buddhist priest Genjo Sanzo on his journey to India to collect sacred scriptures. Their travels are plagued by encounters with demons and ghosts, but the group eventually reaches India, where the priest studies at Naranda Temple. After seventeen years, Genjo Sanzo returns to China bearing 657 volumes of sutras. He founds two new Buddhist sects and spends the rest of his life translating the holy texts he had gathered. Television viewers in Japan even now delight in the dazzling special effects that often accompany reenactments of this enduring story.
Additional imports from China include Japan’s circle of mythical animals. The nue is a fabulous bird which has been variously described, with one version depicting it with the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki, the paws of a tiger, and a tail that is a live snake. It was considered the evil spirit responsible for the illness of Emperor Konoe in 1153, and was shot down by the famous archer Minamoto no Yorimasa, then subsequently killed by one of the latter’s retainers. Another composite animal is the kirin, which has the head of a dragon, the body of a deer, scales in place of hair, a strange, ridged breast, the tail of an ox, and the hooves of a goat. Although it runs faster than any other animal, its steps are soundless, and it never leaves any footprints behind. With a single, small horn that is fleshy, not hard, the kirin is regarded as a gentle creature without harmful intent to any living entity.
Such kindness is also a characteristic of the phoenix, the colorful cross between a peacock and a pheasant that was once adopted as the crest of the Japanese empress. The East Asian phoenix, unlike its Egyptian counterpart, is not reborn from its own ashes, but is very rare, appearing only once every thousand years. In 1052, Fujiwara no Yorimichi converted his second home in present-day Uji City, Kyoto, into what is now called the Byodoin temple, today used jointly by the Tendai and Jodo Buddhist sects. One elegant section is the Phoenix Pavilion, structured like a stylized phoenix, with two smaller phoenixes adorning the roof.
Standing at the entrance to many temples and shrines throughout Japan is the shishi, the conceptually misguided Chinese representation of a lion. In Korea the big cat was changed into the “Korean dog,” but arriving in Japan it assumed a dual nature, the Korean dog and the Chinese lion, and some claim that it should technically be called a Buddhist lion. The shishi is distinguished by its large, squarish head, flat, broad nose, bulging eyes, and row of tight curls across its brow. In Buddhism, its primary task is the guardianship of temples and palaces, and, in this capacity, it is posted in pairs at entryways. The female lion often leans her paw on a cub, while the male has an open mouth, frequently holding a ball. The open and closed mouths utter, “ a ” and “ un,” or the beginning and end of all creation, from the Sanskrit equivalent of alpha and omega.
The Chinese male principle of the universe is manifest in the dragon, which, as a rain deity associated with cosmic forces, exerts power over rain and storm. In Japanese art, dragons often do not appear fully visible and are usually depicted half-hidden by clouds or turbulent waves. This cautious approach may arise from the belief that mortals cannot gaze upon the entire body of a dragon and re
main alive. A close relative of the snake, around which cult worship arose, dragons are described in Japan’s earliest legends, yielding such treasures as “tide-ruling jewels” and a “herb-quelling sword.”
Although animals are often endowed with human characteristics, once in a while the tables are turned. Human beings who behave in a beastly manner can be changed into animals, as in the tale of an evil peasant in old Kyoto. The perpetrator of numerous foul deeds, he was finally transformed into a dog unable to eat, dying a miserable death after one hundred days. The monk Raigo, who lived during the tenth century, on the other hand, is said to have changed because of his inner furies into a monstrous rat which stole into the temple to tear up volumes of precious Buddhist sutras with his sharp, rodentine teeth. And humans can be reborn as serpents bent on revenge against those who wronged them in a former life.
Supernatural components also feature in the Noh plays traditionally enjoyed by the Japanese upper classes. There are ceremonial deities, pathetic warrior ghosts, and elegant female spirits. Kabuki, so enjoyed by the common people, also boasts a colorful repertoire of supernatural beings, especially male ghosts, although some renowned kabuki plays center on vengeful female ghosts. Japanese literature includes classic collections of ghost and monster stories, and, of course, the gods almost always play some part. Periods of sociopolitical turbulence in Japan’s history were often marked by a resurgence of popular interest in the supernatural and the ghostly, perhaps underscoring the uncertainties of life and death during times of bewildering change.
Various manifestations of the supernatural strongly re-emerged during Japan’s Heian period (794–1185), as people sought to identify demons of disease and hunger, as well as beings able to transform their shapes and spirits of the dead. Over the next two hundred years, supernatural perceptions broadened to include human ghosts, as well as changeling animals, and during the Muromachi period (1392–1573), inanimate objects, too, were deemed powerful enough to change into living entities. In the Momoyama era (1568-98) and the succeeding Edo era (1600–1867), however, interest in the supernatural significantly heightened, with ghost stories and other paranormal phenomena enthralling audiences. Edo-era artists, especially, were enamored of supernatural themes, creating forceful and detailed woodblock prints, hanging scrolls, and carved netsuke, to portray otherworldly scenes. Japan’s deliberate push for Western-influenced modernization in the Meiji era (1867–1912) did not diminish popular fascination with the supernatural, which increasingly focused on human psychic powers and the strength of links between the living and hidden worlds.
A basis for the prevalence of the supernatural in Japanese culture and mores stems from the creation myth itself. Comparatively simplistic, the story of Japan’s beginnings is chronicled in country’s two earliest written histories, the Kojiki, or Record of Ancient Matters, set down in 712, and the Nihon Shoki, or Chronicle of Japan, compiled in 720. Combinations of legend, fact, and deliberate historical fabrication, these records are attempts to establish Japan’s genealogical lineage and traditions.
Chronicles of the mythological Age of Kami set the Shinto pattern for everyday life and worship. The Kojiki tells of the kami of the Center of Heaven, which appeared first, followed by the Kami of birth and growth. But actual creation begins with the brother-sister duo, Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto, who descend from the High Plain of Heaven and give birth to everything, including other numerous kami and the Great Eight Islands, or Japan. Of the kami the three most important are Amaterasu the Sun Goddess, her obnoxiously behaved brother Susanoo no Mikoto, who governs the earth, and Tsukiyomi, the moon goddess in charge of the realms of darkness. Amaterasu, obviously a shaman warrior of superb magical powers, is the progenitor of Japan’s main ruling families, and it is she who orders her grandson, Ninigi no Mikoto, to become the first actual ruler of Japan. As symbols of divine authority he receives a mirror, a sword, and a necklace of jewels, the three sacred treasures.
Given a historical background steeped in the supernatural, it small wonder that Japanese society offers an intriguing combination of the primitive and the sophisticated, the ancient and the trendy, the mystical and the mundane. This very balancing act epitomizes one dichotomy of Japanese culture itself, a persisting fact which dismays foreigners who wish that Japan would make up its mind over which face to show to the world. In this society of contrasts and contradictions, high technology seems melded with a high sense of supernatural possibilities. The company executive discussing international deals over his cellular telephone may seem up-to-the-minute and firmly grounded in Japan’s technological present. In his inside pocket, however, he may well be carrying a magical charm to ward off bad fortune and evil spirits. The housewife whose home is filled with the latest electronic appliances may yet hang a protective amulet by her doorway to repel unwanted visitors come from the realm of ghosts and demons. Glass-and-steel skyscrapers symbolize Tokyo’s thrust into an aggressively modern age, but from their ancient wooden shrines and temples, Shinto and Buddhist priests are still called upon to purify buildings and exorcise spirits of the restless dead.
As in other cultures, the supernatural in Japan provides a context in which to interpret the phenomenal world. It is both a way to explain the unexplainable and a means to attain deeper insight. As a spiritual quest for mystic seekers, it is a path to transcendence of human frailty and limitations. As folk belief in practice, such as the consecration of a shrine believed to be inhabited by unseen spirits, it is a framework for controlling or transmuting the mysteries of existence. In its present-day guise, it continues to function as a reminder that human beings are more than mere flesh and bones. Rather, humankind is a sentient, spiritual entity inextricably connected to a vast universe of unimaginable subtlety and richness that has yet to yield its secrets. Everywhere around us is magic, and the supernaturally magical event may await just around the next corner.
CHAPTER TWO
Psychic Stirrings
An important thread in Japan’s supernatural tapestry is human psychic power. There have always been people able to enter another dimension of existence where “super-power” becomes possible. Japanese shamans called miko, for example, have long stood as agents between the ordinary world of human beings and the realms of the gods and the spirits. Traditionally unmarried women, miko communicate essential wisdom and exercise valuable healing gifts.
Their role was probably first defined during the Age of Kami. The sun goddess Amaterasu had hidden herself in a celestial cave in disgust at the numerous outrages committed by her brother Susanoo. As a result, the heavens and earth had darkened. To cajole her into coming out again, the other kami arranged entertainment, and the heavenly shaman Ame no Uzume danced in front of the cave. Eventually Amaterasu emerged, and heaven and earth brightened once more.
In Japan’s long history of shamanic and mediumistic practice, especially among religious groups, the ability to tap psychic potential has always played a part. It was not until about the mid-nineteenth century, however, that the paranormal phenomena taken for granted by members of such groups began to be investigated more objectively. Researchers started to examine Japanese people with supernatural powers in an attempt to illustrate and understand what was happening. At the same time, public interest was piqued by sensational press coverage of a number of colorful personalities. A variety of psychic abilities was showcased: clairvoyance, mediumship, telekinesis, and healing. There was sensation and secrecy, skepticism and suicide.
Among the early investigators was the Edo-era scholar Hirata Atsutane, whose specialty was Shinto, but who also looked into poltergeist and reincarnation. Another mystic researcher was Honda Chikaatsu, whose studies in meditation tied to divine possession led him to become a medium. His psychic training techniques were further developed within Omoto, a Shinto-related sect founded by the woman mystic Deguchi Nao in 1892, and whose members would themselves in turn establish various psychic and religious circles. In fact, beginning in 1814 and continuing
for several decades afterward, there was a blossoming of religious movements which centered around faith healing, and became widely popular among Japan’s peasant masses. A forerunner of these schools was the Kurozumi sect, which emphasized faith in the Sun Goddess, and was founded in 1814 by the Shinto priest Kurozumi Munetada. Kurozumi claimed mystical vision after recovering from a severe illness. The Tenri sect was started in 1838 by Nakayama Miki, a faith healer and wife of a farmer near Nara Prefecture. Still thriving today, it has established a major religious complex in Tenri City, Nara. Kawade Bunjiro, a farmer, established the Konko sect in 1859.
Deguchi Nao was born in the Kyoto Prefecture castle town of Fukuchiyama in 1836, during a period remembered as Tenpo no Daikikin, a time of famine and natural disaster, when several hundred thousand people died throughout Japan. Her family, Kirimura, had once been fairly well-to-do but had gradually become impoverished, and when she was ten years old, she was sent to work as a domestic servant. She returned home almost seven years later, and was then adopted into her aunt’s family, Deguchi, in 1853. At the age of nineteen, she entered into a marriage that would last thirty-two years, until her husband’s death in 1887. Five years later, in February 1892, she had her first religious vision when a god appeared to her and she began speaking aloud in a man’s voice.
After several unsuccessful attempts at exorcism, she decided to accept her possession by a god she called Ushitora no Konjin, or the Golden God of the Northeast. After she was ordered by this god to undertake special training with water, her psychic powers developed rapidly, and she began engaging in healing, clairvoyance, and automatic writing. Prophesying—correctly, as it would turn out—Japan’s war with China and then with Russia, she was arrested on April 21, 1893 on false charges, and after her release was held under house arrest for forty days.