In this video we are working with historical
researcher Antony Cummins and we are taking these legends from his new book The Dark
Side of Japan.
Antony and his team have translated old spells, witchcraft and unknown
elements of dark Japanese magic and combined them with a collection of folklore tales which
were recorded in the late 19th century.
More on the book at the end.
The list you are about to see will hopefully be those lesser known legends that are circulating
about Japan and as many of you have a great knowledge on Japan we will try to present
to you the sections of folklore that need more
attention.
10 Dark folklore surrounds the animal kingdom,
and in Japan things can get strange.
Foxes have hidden wisdom and deep power, they can act
as protection from dark powers or can bring calamity and mischief
to an intended victim.
When a magical fox reaches 1000 years old, it can turn silver
white and grow 9 tales.
Likewise dogs hold power and can possess entire families, making them
outcastes in society, there are m any stories about how both foxes and dogs
outwit humans.
Or how about the evil badger who killed and chopped up a man's wife,
after the badger had killed her it magically took on the image
of the wife and then served him her human flesh to eat.
The humble mosquito is thought to be the soul of a human who was evil in life
and is cursed to spend their very short life sucking blood from others.
Finally the cat, who was kept on board ships because it
was thought that the white crests of the waves were the hands of drowned sailors trying to
climb back on to a ship, however, the cry of the cat, kept the dead sailors in the depths
and allowed the ship to have safe passage.
9 The Japanese Medusa It is said that the real intentions of a lady
can be shown by her reflection and shadow.
A gentleman who wishes to know the mind-set
of a woman should watch her reflection in a
mirror and if the beauty he observes in the reflection is actually a hag with writhing
snakes for hair, her heart is not pure and a relationship
with her would be catastrophic.
Likewise, if two women appear to get on in polite conversation
then check their shadows, if both shadows display angry snakes in the hair, each trying
to bite at each other, then know that the women
actually hate each other in truth even though their conversation is polite.
8 Japanese Curse Dolls
We all know the now famous movie trope of the 'voodoo'
doll, but accounts in Japan show us of a type of straw doll used for cursing
a person.
To make one, create a small straw figure,
write the name and age of the target on paper and insert it
into the doll.
Next draw a face on a separate sheet of paper and fix it to the
figure.
At night, visit a sacred space and find an old
tree, then with an iron crown on your head - which holds
three candles - wait for the hour of the Ox – this is similar to our own '
witching hour' but the time is actually between 1 and
3am.
At this time, nail the doll to the old tree and your
curse will manifest itself on your victim.
7 Ku Magic One of the vilest and deadliest magic to be
found in China and Japan is Ku magic.
A black wizard will collect as many venomous animals
as they possibly can, snakes, insects that bite
and any creature that carries poison.
They place them all in a closed pot and leave them to
starve.
The last creature alive in the pot becomes a
ku-creature, an animal of extreme and deadly power.
The evil magician keeps his ku-creature and whenever they wish to kill
someone they can bring its enormous power to bear.
The creature is run over food that is to be eaten and when the victim eats this food
they will die in fits of coughing and blood.
It is even said that whatever food the victim has
eaten will become whole and back to life in their
stomach, bursting them from the inside.
Furthermore, the souls of the victims are then locked
and bound to the magician and they will serve the ku-wizzard in the next life.
6 The demon's gate
Direction and time feature prominently in Japanese folklore and legend.
It is said in Japanese tradition that certain directions are the
realm of demons and of influential spirits.
To counter the effects of these otherworldly entities,
the Japanese would protect important sites in
various ways and they would concentrate their protection
from that direction.
One example was to have an inward facing corner, so that
spirits from that direction would become confused and disorientated by the strange
architectural feature.
Another way was to construct holy sites at certain points away from the
place that is to be protected.
You may not know this, but even today, Edo cattle - which is
now the palace of the Japanese Emperor - is spiritually protected by shrines and temples
around modern day Tokyo, sacred places that have been there for generations and who maintain
the spiritual barrier, protecting the royal family for those directions.
These protection sites are not close by and it takes a train ride to
get to them, but their function of keeping demons at bay still goes on to this day.
5 The magic of incense
We can all picture beautiful temples in dark green forests in Japan, their dimly lit alters
clouded by incense smoke.
This smoke has various rituals and properties attached to it.
Incense smoke is used near the dead to cleanse the air and deter any malign entities from
coming close to the body so that the soul has a clear path way to the afterlife and
that the body is not corrupted by evil.
Incense can also be used to call on the ghosts of the dead.
A stick is lit and the magic user calls out
for the dead to appear before them, such as a family
member or dead lover.
The apparition of the ghost will appear in the smoke but will say that
it does not have long and that the connection to this world is short and that it must return
to the afterlife, even so a brief conversation
can be had with a departed loved one.
However, problem with incense sticks is that when lit
they do attract 'incense eating goblins' who hang
around bodies and temples trying to get a free feed.
4 The River to Hell The Japanese have their own version of our
River Styx – the river to hell or sometimes the river to
the underworld or afterlife.
The Japanese version is known as 'the river of three roads'
and leads souls on to where they should go.
Those who have been bad in life are led to the afterlife by a blind guide and along the
banks of the river, a ginormous old hag steals the
clothes of the dead or makes dead children cry.
The souls are protected by a Saint Jizo, who helps the children find their way and brings
them peace.
Saint Jizo is a popular image in Japan and you have probably seen statues of
him many times.
The Japanese king of hell is helped by ministers who hold up mirrors so
that people's true natures are reflected, this
delivers the truth of the way they led their lives so that they can be assessed.
3 The Crying Stone The wife of a soldier was lost without her
loving husband who was away at war, so she went
on the road trying to find her love.
Along the road she was attacked and raped, an assault
which resulted in a baby boy.
She died in child birth and the boy was raised by a holy man.
When the child came of age, he tracked down the brute who
took his mother and killed him, exacting his revenge.
Legend says that at the spot where the rape took place there is a stone
that cries out, It is said that on nights of wind and rain
the stone can be heard crying and wailing into the night, the soul of the woman
lamenting for her love and for her misfortune.
2 The Blind Story Teller There was once a blind story teller who travelled
and played his lute to crowds, singing of old
deeds and long dead samurai.
One night he was telling the tale of an ancient and famous
battle to a crowd of eager listeners.
Night after night he came back to the same spot to continue the epic story.
However, novice monks brought the old man into a monastery after they had heard him
play and they told him that he had in fact been playing for the ghosts of the very same
warriors of the story and that they were reliving their long ago battle.
In utter fright, the storyteller asked for help, and
as night fell the crowd of hungry dead listeners grew
louder outside the monastery walls.
The monks covered the storyteller in holy script, drawing
all over him from head to foot, all except for his ears.
The story teller was advised to ignore
the ghosts as the magical script would hide him.
When he left the the holy ground, the next night the ghosts were baying for him to finish
the story but all they could see was a floating lute and a pair of ears, so they tore the
ears off of his head in anger and returned to their graves.
The novice monks had not quite saved all of him from the angry audience because
they forgot to write the magical spells on every part of his body.
1 Lovers Reunited After all that darkness and evil we would
like to end on a story of love.
There was once a young samurai and his wife who were soul mates
and truly in love, but the wife became ill and it soon became clear that she was to die.
She told her warrior-husband that he should wait
for her, and that she would be reborn and that she would find him again, then, she died
in his arms.
Years passed and as a samurai it was his duty to form an alliance with another family
and he was forced into marriage.
After many years his second wife and his son both died and
again he was alone.
One day while he was travelling, he came to an inn and was served by a younger woman who
had come of age.
She was so like his first true wife that he asked her questions to find out if it was
truly her.
When she responded to the enquiries she took on the ghostly voice of his first wife, told
him about their promise and about her coming back to find her true love again, at this
she fell to the floor unconscious and never again remembered the incident.
The two were married and true love found happiness again.
Outro We genuinely hope you enjoyed today's list, let us know in the comments below if
there were any points that you were aware of or even the ones you did not know about.
The book is packed full of spells, magic rituals, folklore
and superstitions from across Japanese history, all the way up until present day.
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