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

by Antony Cummings

  Susa-no-o and the Magic Comb

  Once a god called Susa-no-o passed a weeping couple. On being asked what was the matter, the couple said that their daughter, Kushinada-hime, was their eighth daughter and was the only one left as the other seven were sent to a sea serpent to be sacrificed. The serpent had eight heads, and so their final daughter was to be the eighth sacrifice. Susa-no-o said he would save her in return for her hand in marriage. The bargain struck, the god turned Kushinada-hime into a wooden comb and put her in his hair. He took eight jugs of sake and gave them to the serpent, which became drunk. Then, when he felt the time was right, he killed the beast, returned Kushinada-hime to her human form and married her.

  It is of interest that in the early 1700s this legend was recorded by a ninja of the land of Iga. He states that this is origin of the arts of the ninja, because the god transformed the comb as a ninja would transform and disguise himself, making it the first time the arts of deception were used in Japan – according to ninja lore. The full story can be read in Iga and Koka Ninja Skills.

  Prince Yamato and the Mountain Serpent

  Prince Yamato is a famous figure and achieved many things, but one of his darker deeds is as follows. In the land of Omi, there was a great wailing as a mountain serpent had caused the people much pain. Climbing the mountain, Yamato found the creature and strangled it with his bare hands. When it died, the sky darkened and rain fell in sheets. He descended the mountain when the weather cleared, but found that he had pains in his feet – he had been stung with venom. He was taken to a spring where the sun goddess cured him.

  Tokoyo and the Sea Serpent

  There was once a samurai who was banished to the island of Oki and left behind a daughter. The daughter was so distraught that she took passage near to the islands and tried to reunite with her father. Fishermen asked her not to go and to leave well alone, but on a moon-filled night she took a light craft and landed on Oki alone. She climbed up the rocks only to find a priest was about to push a girl, dressed in white, into the waters because if a maiden was not sacrificed then the seas would rage. The daughter offered to stand in for the poor girl and changed clothes with her. She jumped into the sea, swam down to the bottom and found the cave of a sea serpent. Drawing a dagger from her mouth, she killed it. She returned to the surface, was reunited with her father and they returned home.

  Fujiwara and the Legends of Kamatari

  Fujiwara is one of the founding families in Japanese history, and many samurai lines claim descent from the Fujiwara clan. Kamatari is said to be the founder of the Fujiwara line, and he supposedly gave his daughter’s hand in marriage to the emperor of China. When in China, his daughter found a most marvellous jewel and put it on a ship home to her father. Demons, hearing of this great jewel, attacked the ship but could not get the prize from it. After a short while, there came a log on the water; clinging to it was a maiden who was beautiful and fair. After being rescued and having enchanted the crew she was shown the jewel, at which point she snatched it and dived into the ocean, taking it to the Dragon King of the Sea. Later, the privileged Kamatari left his position and wealth behind and took to the mountains. Here he married a common woman and was happy. However, one day he told his wife of his previous status and of his problem with the jewel and the Dragon King. Thinking she could never live knowing she was so low and he so high, his wife ran to the sea and swam to the palace of the Dragon King, where she stole back the jewel. All manner of creatures followed her, but she took a knife and stabbed herself in the chest. As the blood spilled from her, it formed a veil between her and the monsters. Kamatari, looking for his wife on the sea, finds her and pulls her onto his boat, where she gives him the jewel and dies.

  The Monster of Lake Biwa

  There was a man named Hidesato who was walking near Lake Biwa when he came upon a mighty dragon. Completely unfazed, he walked over the dragon as a bridge and got to the opposite bank. When he had crossed, he looked back and the dragon bridge was gone; instead a man with a dragon crown stood next to him. The man said he was the Dragon King of Lake Biwa. He said that he had been looking for a brave man and that Hidesato was the first to not flee upon seeing him. He then went on to explain that he was being attacked by the giant centipede of Mt Mikami and asked Hidesato for help. Venturing to kingdom in Lake Biwa, Hidesato saw such great wonders as dancing fish and fish on ‘harps’ (long before Disney thought of such things), but during a feast there was a disruption and from Mt Mikami came a centipede the size of the mountain itself, with balls of fire for eyes and legs like a line of glowing lanterns. Hidesato took up his bow and loosed a great arrow, but it glanced off the armour of his enemy’s head; he sent another arrow forth, but again it bounced off. Taking his final arrow in hand, he licked the point – human saliva is poisonous to centipedes – and took careful aim and fired. This time the shaft hit hard, and from the dark mountain the eyes of fire dimed and a storm brewed; the evil creature died, but gave birth to a tempest. The following morning the people saw the mighty foe dead in the water and the Dragon King of Lake Biwa held another royal feast and gave Hidesato gifts: a bag of rice, a roll of silk, some bells and a cooking pot. But these were no ordinary gifts; the cooking pot did not need fire, the roll of silk never ended, the bells were magical and the bag of rice was forever full. After this the hero became famous and was known as the Lord of the Bag of Rice.

  The Spirit of the Sword

  One night a ship anchored off Fundo Cape and the crew fell asleep on the deck. The captain heard a tremendous rumble and a maiden clad in white came up through the water and said she wished to return to the land. The next day, the captain asked the local people of this and they said it was the spirit of a maiden who had drowned and been lost in the waters. As a result of the pollution caused by a human corpse in the water, the god of the sea had taken away all the fish in the bay. A fellow called Sankichi was asked to dive and find the bones of the woman but could find none. Instead, he found a shining sword on the sea floor which was not affected by the waters and had remained clean. Bringing this up and recovering from almost drowning, he gave his story and the sword was put in a shrine; the fish then came back to the bay.

  The Mother-Ghost

  In Matsue there was a shopkeeper who was visited each night by a pale woman in white who always bought one rin’s worth of nourishment. The shopkeeper became curious and followed her, but stopped as she entered the cemetery. The next night he had friends join him and investigate. Again the woman came to buy the food and left; this time they followed her to a tomb, and found she walked through the wall. They opened the tomb because they heard the laughing of a child. When they went in they saw the ghost woman and a human child taking in the nourishment that the woman had paid for. It turns out that the woman was buried prematurely and had given birth in the tomb. She came out as a ghost each night to keep her child alive.

  The Necromancer

  Once there lived a necromancer called Saji who was very skilled; he could even produce fish from a bowl of clear water (presumably he could also speak with the dead). His master, who once loved him, became tired and wanted rid of him and his magic. One of the master’s court aides captured him and tried to cut him down, but his sword would not bite. He tried to burn him, but Saji leapt and flew out of the flames to safety and mingled with a herd of goats, changing into one of them. The court aide had all the goats decapitated, but missed the necromancer. Saji, feeling sorry for the goats but in a terrible rush, magically put all the heads back on the goats but unfortunately in the wrong order and thus the herd was a living mismatch of heads on the wrong bodies.

  Eggs and Mionoseki

  The god of the place called Mionoseki hates eggs and chickens, and therefore eggs and chickens of any kind are banned from the temple and surrounding area. The god controls the seas and storms, and any sailor who dares bring fowl near the temple will be cursed. In fact, it is said that if you had an egg for breakfast then you must wait for the following day to visit th
e temple, lest the god punish you.

  The Witch Lover

  The lord of the island of Kyushu had an enemy in a witch named Shiriranui, who used her magic to make him fall in love with a woman called Mikuni Kojoro. The witch killed Kojoro and replaced her with a doppelganger who remained the concubine of the lord. This ‘Kojoro’ became powerful and in the end ruined and killed the lord, making it a victory for the witch.

  Shosei and the Eyes of Lightning

  This gentleman, if he opened his eyes, would emit bolts of lightning and claps of thunder, destroying all around him. To stop the destruction, he closed his eyes for twenty years; he was helped in this state by twenty aides. One day one of his followers persuaded him to open his eyes, just a little, to see what would happen. He did so, and everyone was knocked out in a flash of light and a roar of sound.

  The Hunger of the Thunder God

  For some unknown reason, the god of thunder in Japan loves to eat navels. One ancient gentleman decided he wanted to kill the god of thunder, so in true ‘hero’ style he murdered a woman and stole her navel, attaching it to a kite to lure down the god of thunder so that he could kill him. The thunder god saw this and went for the bait (not such a clever god). He took the navel and began to chew it; however, the ‘murdered’ woman had actually lived through the attempted murder. She got her navel back in the end and the man got to fight the thunder god – overall, this legend is one of Japan’s strangest.

  Thunder God to the Rescue

  A man was once attacked by robbers in the woods and in his flight he called on the god of thunder to save him. The god and devils answered his prayers and came to his rescue. The robbers tried again, but this time the man was waiting for them with nets and traps and a little help from the gods.

  The Ancient Warrior

  Takenouchi no Sukune is said to have lived in the early part of the first millennium and was thought to have reached the age of 280, although other accounts have him at 360 years old. Either way, he was meant to have been of an age that no human can reach today.

  The Zombie Land of Mukeikoku

  In this mythical land live people who dwell in holes in the ground (no, not Hobbits) and have no stomachs (definitely not Hobbits) but eat earth as a steady diet. When they die they are placed in the ground, where they are reborn.

  The Samurai Boy and His Father’s Head

  Once a lord called a young samurai boy to his quarters and placed a decapitated head in front of him. The lord asked the boy whether or not it was the head of his father. The boy realised that a situation must have arisen where an imposter had been used so his father could flee. The boy, seeing that the head was actually not that of his father, saluted it in the manner that would be deemed appropriate if it had been his father and there and then he committed suicide on the spot; the lord was thus assured that the head was his father’s. In truth, the father escaped capture and the boy became a legend.

  The Cave of the Spider

  Earlier we heard about the famed demon killer Raiko and his archery expertise. Raiko had other adventures, and in this episode he was travelling with his friend Watanabe no Tsuna. One day they saw a giant skull coming in and out of the clouds, blood-red and with a beaming halo. They moved into action and followed the giant red skull until they came to a rocky area, and there they saw Yama-uba, a mountain hag. She sat at a cave entrance, her breasts hanging down to the floor, with an ivory wand in one hand. She used the end of the wand to open her mouth and her extremely heavy eyelids. Raiko argued with her, demanding that she show him the entrance to any demon’s hiding place, but she refused; ignoring her, the two of them searched and found a cave entrance. The cave was inhabited by a troop of female ghosts with a female leader, an enchantress who brought the men under a spell and wrapped them in green cobwebs. Waking from the spell he cut left and right, slashing out with his sword. Getting free, he saw in the darkness of the cave a milky white glow trailing into the black – a thread of luminescence. Presuming this to be her blood trail, they followed it deeper and deeper into the cave. At last they came out into a chamber, but found themselves confronted by a huge spider of gigantic size (this is just Lord of the Rings now!) where they did battle. It is said that each leg was the size of a bargepole, and each had spines like iron swords. Fighting with the titanic arachnid, Raiko’s sword breaks as he wounds the spider. However, undeterred, he calls on Shoki, the demon-killer god, to help him; taking a massive swing with his sword, he decapitates the spider-demon in one go. Standing over the corpse, they split open the belly of the creature and some 1,919 warrior’s skulls come out; to their surprise, so do a hundred 3-foot spiders. The two set about killing them all, ending the tale of the spider-demon.

  Other episodes including spiders have men casting iron nets at the entrances to spider caves and then smoking out the cave system with giant fires and thick smoke.

  The Mean Old Man

  An old man was so mean with his money that he kept all for himself, but later in life he found that he was ill. On the tenth night of his illness, a monk came to his side and said that if he let go of his huge money belt and gave his wealth to others his illness would abate. The old man slashed out with his dagger and the lights went out. His servants came in and found a clawed, hairy hand on the floor and followed the blood trail into the garden to a miniature hill where there was a spider’s hole and a spider bleeding nearby. The spider was the goddess Inari. It had been her that had advised the old man.

  Mountain Hag and Mountain Man

  There are various stories of hags in the mountains, and normally the crone archetype is used. The male version is described as large in appearance, hairy like a monkey and extremely strong. He will come into villages and take food from stores and such.

  The Head-Washing Well

  The legend of the forty-seven ronin is one that the whole world knows; the story of these loyal samurai and their vengeance upon the enemy of their lord has been seen in film and on the stage. However, many people are unaware that you can actually go and see the graves of the warriors, and also the well in which they washed their enemy’s head before they presented it to the grave of their master. It is at Sanjakuji temple in Tokyo, and visitors are more than welcome.

  A view of the temple in 1900.

  An old woodblock print of the well where the head was washed.

  Jizo and the Ronin’s Wife

  Jizo is a saint and protector of children. One day, the wife of a ronin made a small cloth cap to keep the statue of Jizo warm; she said that she was sorry that she could not afford to buy cloth to make clothes to cover him in full. Later on the wife died, but her body remained fresh for three days, which stopped her being cremated as people thought it strange. In these three days she was in the kingdom of Hell and the Regent of Hell was punishing her. He said that she had killed many silkworms in her lifetime during her work and therefore she was to be boiled in molten metal for all eternity. However, just as she was getting into the pot, Jizo thundered through Hell to her rescue and told the Regent of Hell that he owed her a debt of gratitude and so the master of Hell let her go back to her body. The wife talks with Jizo and asks if it is a crime to use silkworms so that they die, to which he answers yes, most certainly – but then, reaching over, he whispers in her ear with a smile, ‘But all priests wear silk!’

  The Fall of the Ronin

  Once there was a youthful samurai called Gompachi who was skilled at swordplay, and one day his dog tangled with another samurai’s dog. The two samurai, being young, set to a duel, which Gompachi won. Having murdered his opponent, he fled and became a ronin and made for the city of Edo. Poor but armed with a good sword, he stopped at an inn. Unbeknown to him, the inn was a den of thieves. Late in the night, when he was asleep, the door opened up and a young maiden entered. She woke him and said that he was in danger and that the keepers were actually a band of thieves and that she had been kidnapped from her house in Mikawa. Promising to take her with him, Gompachi pretended to be asleep when th
e robbers came in; before they knew it, he had cut one down and then another and at last found his way to freedom, and he and the maiden made their way to Mikawa and to her parents. Overjoyed to be reunited with their daughter, the parents tried to make the young ronin marry her. He said that he must leave as he was on his way to Edo to make his name, but that he would return. Understanding his intentions, the parents let him leave with the generous gift of 200 ounces of silver. On the road to Edo he was accosted by some bandits and fought off two of the six; they started to get the upper hand, but just then a famous warden of the district came to his aid and saved him from the robbers. The warden took him into his house and put a roof over his head and all was well. However, soon the ronin started to fall into ill repute, frequenting brothels and malicious places. Months went by and he did not find employment and more and more of his money was spent on prostitutes. One day he heard of a new and beautiful prostitute who was said to be the most beautiful woman in Edo, and so he paid to see her. Alas! It was his promised bride, and she had entered into the sex slave industry voluntarily. Her parents had fallen on hard times and had become bankrupt so as a remedy for the situation she had sold herself to help them out, but it did not help as they sank into more debt and in the end died of grief. The once wealthy daughter was thus stuck as a lady of the night. More and more the ronin visited her, and more of his money was lost until he had none. Without cash, and now slung out of the warden’s house, he was set in a life of murder and robbery, and one by one his victims mounted up, but each time that he killed he could afford to see the love that he should have been happy with at the start. Eventually his killings became so much that spies were set on his case (interestingly, this was the job for a ninja in these days) and they tracked him down, captured him and dragged him to an execution ground to be killed as you would kill a dog: he was bound and beheaded. The maiden – a maiden no longer – was devastated by his death. She learnt that the kind warden had buried her love and given him a grave, so she hatched a plan to flee the brothel. One night she crept out of the house, ran to his grave and stabbed herself until she died, and there on her lover’s grave she lay.