Obake – The Ghost
In this child’s game, a person will let down their long hair and brush it in front of their face and cross their eyes in what is a classic Japanese ghost image. They will then hold their arms outstretched in zombie fashion and cry like a ghost, chasing the other children in a game similar to Tag. Remember, obake is the more humorous and ‘childish’ form of the word for ‘spectre’.
Kokkuri – ‘Is Anybody There?’
Take three bamboo sticks and form a tripod, then place a wooden dish or plate on top of the tripod with a bowl of rice in the centre of that. The participants sit around this construction with their fingers lightly touching the wooden plate. They chant the words ‘Kokkuri-sama, Kokkuri-sama, please descend, please descend, please descend quickly.’ Do this for about ten minutes, and then ask if the spirit has come. If it has, ask it to show this by tilting the stand towards one of the people. Questions are then asked; the spirits can answer yes by lifting the leg and no by remaining still. It is also interesting that the name Kokkuri is of unknown origin, but the most common ideograms used to spell out the name are ‘fox’ (ko), ‘dog’ (ku, not inu due to its position) and ‘racoon-dog’ (ri) – which of course are three of the more famous monsters in the supernatural world. It is thought that this game was actually introduced by American sailors in the late 1800s and that the Japanese gave it their own name as they could not pronounce the English name.
15
SUPERSTITIONS IN MODERN JAPAN
This book has been full of legends and myths and old stories, so it seems fitting to conclude with a small selection of superstitions that have made it into modern times and illustrate how the themes and stories discussed have left their mark upon the modern Japanese mind. While the modern world is taking the mystery of out Japan and leaving behind a neon world of business, it is comforting to know that a small trail of weirdness has been left behind in things like anime and Japanese horror films, and also in the following ideas.
You should not kill a spider in the morning, but instead kill it at night. This is done because a spider in the morning brings good luck whereas a spider at night is a thief, someone who infiltrates. Also, a spider in the morning is a messenger from Heaven, while a spider at night is a messenger from Hell.
If a cat washes its face then it is going to rain.
Do not remove navel fluff; if you do you will get stomach ache.
If you cut your nails at night, you will die before your parents. This may be because night (夜) and nail (爪) together is pronounced ‘yozume’, which is the same as 世詰, which means ‘to shorten life’.
If you whistle at night, a snake, ghost or monster will appear before you.
If you want to grow more hair, you should eat wakame and konbu seaweed.
If you play with fire at night, you will wet your bed.
A woman who is born in the year hinoe-uma (one of a sixty-year cycle according to the old Chinese calendar) is a great worry for the family. The supposed problem with women born in this year is due to ‘hinoe’ being associated with the fire element and the resulting implication that a wife born in the year has the stubbornness of a horse and a fiery temper; it is even said she may kill her own husband. This idea comes from the famous Edo period story ‘The Greengrocer’s Daughter’ (mentioned earlier), where in 1681 the titular daughter, Oshichi, fell in love with a man as she was taking refuge from a fire. She thought she could meet him again if there was a fire in the town and so she started another fire; at this time she was supposedly sixteen years old, being born in the year of hinoe-uma in 1666. This story was often used in books and plays and has resulted in people trying to avoid having a daughter who is born in the year hinoe-uma. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Kosei Rodo Sho), the Japanese birth rate dropped by 25 per cent in 1966, the last occurrence of hinoe-uma. The next year of hinoe-uma is in 2026, so it remains to be seen if the same thing will happen.
A wife who is bossy in her family tends to have a boy, while if the husband is bossy the wife tends to have a girl.
It is considered bad manners to stick your chopsticks into your rice in an upright position. This is because it mimics a part of the funeral rite when dealing with the ashes of the dead.
If you are in the middle of three in a photograph you will die earlier than the other two people.
If you do not put dolls away after the Girls’ Festival (3 March in modern Japan), you will not get married or will get married late.
When serving fish, the head must point to the left or it is unlucky.
It is a sign of good luck to have a tea stalk floating erect in your tea; however, if you tell someone, your luck will flee.
Do not give a potted plant to someone who is in the hospital or who is sick. People do not like it because ‘potted plant’ in Japanese means ‘take root’, which also means ‘stay in bed longer’. Also, the Japanese do not choose the camellia flower when visiting people. Camellia is not favoured because when the petals fall they often fall as a complete head, which is reminiscent of the decapitated head of a human and therefore associated with the beheading of a criminal.
The Japanese consider odd numbers as lucky and even numbers as unlucky based on the idea of yin-yang (positive and negative). When giving someone celebratory gift money or obituary gift money, people choose amounts with the numbers one, three or five, for example: ¥3,000 (three notes of ¥1,000); ¥5,000 (five notes of ¥1,000); ¥10,000 (one note of ¥10,000); ¥30,000 (three notes of ¥10,000); ¥50,000 (five notes of ¥10,000). They never choose the numbers four or nine, for the reasons discussed earlier (see the Numbers section in chapter 13).
The shikii (threshold), the wooden rails that shoji (sliding doors) and fusuma (panels) move along, must not be stood upon. This is bad manners because a god lives in the threshold, and if you step on them then your family will not prosper. The shikii can also be seen as a barrier between worlds, between inside and outside, and therefore if you step on it you break the barrier. Also, you should not step on the edge of a tatami mat.
When women are nineteen and thirty-three years old they visit shrines to get rid of evil because these years are considered malevolent. The same goes for men when they are twenty-five, forty-two and sixty years old (but remember that Japan used to start counting lifespans at one, so it will be the year before for each of the above in the West). See photo overleaf.
If you urinate onto an earthworm (also a slug), your penis will swell (get digging, boys!).
If you talk to someone who is talking in his sleep they will die young.
If your sandal string snaps, your teacup breaks or a picture frame falls by itself, something bad will happen soon.
Do not do needlework before you go out of the house.
Wear new shoes for the first time before sunset. However, if you have to wear shoes after sunset, you should put charcoal on the soles.
Yo-me and to-me is a warning not to date people four or ten years younger or older than you as it is bad luck.
If you place a hand mirror with the mirror side upwards then evil things will come to you.
When pregnant women attend funerals they should put a mirror near their belly – probably inside their clothes.
In modern Japan, a pregnant woman will wear a white cotton obi belt on the Day of the Dog in her fifth month of pregnancy. Then she will pray for an easy delivery, like that of a dog.
If you leave grains of rice in a bowl after a meal, you will lose your sight.
If a swallow flies low, it will rain.
Cover your navel when it thunders because the god of thunder will take your navel (remember the crazy story from before where he wants to eat them).
When a child loses its first teeth, throw the bottom teeth on to the roof and throw the upper teeth under the floor into the space between the ground and the house.
If you tell a lie, the Regent of Hell will pull your tongue out.
If you sleep or lie down as soon as you
finish a meal, you will turn into a cow.
CONCLUSION: PUTTING THE MAGIC BACK IN JAPAN
It is my hope that you will no longer see Japan as a domain of the salaryman but instead as a realm where the stories and customs of the past have been imbued with new life. Where once there were stacks of flat-screen televisions, now visualise clusters of moss-covered gravestones; where once you saw the bullet train, envision the passage to the underworld; and where once you saw capsule hotels, visualise the realm of the gods and the vast magic of the stars.
It cannot be said that Japanese culture is greater or lesser than any other world culture, but what makes it distinct is that it was untouched by the modern world for so long; indeed, it was only a few generations ago that its medieval period faded from living memory. The strong echo of that time has only begun to die in the last few decades, and before it falls silent it is our task to capture it.
The inevitability of the loss of Japanese customs is certain, as no nation in the world remains untouched by our pervasive new global culture. While our move towards the future is achieved at different rates in different countries, we are all moving towards a single global community with a single world culture, and slowly but surely the old world is fading. The reason we must try to capture as much of the zest of old Japan – and indeed of all customs of the past – is because without known truths, the media will reinvent history for us. For newer generations, popular history is taught through film, TV and comics. In itself this is a good thing, for without them history would not exist for the youth. But why not give them real history through those media avenues? Why not demonstrate that true history is far more exciting than invented history?
Your journey into Japanese folklore and magic is not at an end, as only the dark side has been covered here. There is still that which is curious and that which is heavenly, and they, with this volume, form a snapshot of a land before our time which supported a culture that was truly magical.
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Blacker, C., The Collected Writings of Carmen Blacker (Surrey: Japan Library, 2000)
Byron Earheart, H., A Religious Study of the Mount Haguro Sect of Shugendo (Tokyo: Sophia University, 1970)
Cummins and Minami, The True Path of the Ninja (Vermont, Tuttle Publishing, 2011)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR
Antony Cummins heads the Historical Ninjutsu Research Team, a project that documents, translates and publishes medieval documents pertaining to the shinobi of Japan. Alongside this, Antony has revived an old samurai school of war, Natori-Ryu, with the aim of educating people on historical Japanese warfare. He would like to establish a correct understanding of Japanese military arts and to bring about a deeper understanding and respect for them. He is on most social media and information can be found at www.natori.co.uk.
David Osborne lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in the United States. He is a full-time criminal investigator for a police department where he supervises a unit of detectives. He is also a North Carolina certified instructor in police arrest and control concepts. David has trained in a variety of traditional martial arts systems during his life and has a diverse background of study. His primary focus has been in Samurai Aiki-jujutsu and more recently in modern systems such as Krav Maga. His years of study and personal research in martial arts have led him to create a new system of Goshin Jutsu under the school name of Yamakage Ryu. As a student of Natori Ryu, he follows the historical research and work of Antony Cummins and facilitates a study group of Natori Ryu teachings in his area.
Images on following two pages courtesy of the Library of Congress and Rijksmuseum
The Dark Side of Japan: Ancient Black Magic, Folklore, Ritual Page 15