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Topic: Yuurei Info (Read 9447 times) |
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Tonguespout
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Another thread originally elsewhere but now continued here.
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #1 on: 01/05/06 at 00:25:54 » |
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Kuchisake Onna: Part One
The split/cut-mouthed woman.
http://www31.ocn.ne.jp/~denkidensetu/other/e/kuchisake.jpg
The basics of the kuchisake onna have been told in the tea house: She was a vain woman married to a samurai (in some accounts, a ninja) who distrusted her. Believing she was cheating on him, he slices her mouth open at the sides. splitting her face open from ear to ear. She wanders, hiding her mouth behind a fan, the sleave of a kimono, a stole, or the surgical-style masks now worn in cold and allergy seasons in Japan. She asks someone "watashi, kirei?" (Do you think I'm beautiful?). The answer is usually a resounding "yes" due to her other-worldly beauty, but then she exposes her face and repeats the question...her other-worldly beauty giving way to other-worldly horror. If the person says or does anything besides saying "yes", she pursues him with a kama (sickle) or knife and replies "I want to do for you what has been done to me." She can't be out-run, and eventually slices her victim's mouth open ear to ear. Women killed in this fashion return as kuchisake onna themselves.
In some accounts she is said to run lightning fast, in others she "floats" (due to a famous ukiyo-e artist in the edo period always painting ghosts with no feet, it was generally regarded by many Japanese that all ghosts had no feet...nothing to "truly link" them to the material world).
She has appeared in picture scrolls of youkai and demons as early as the Edo period and was seen on certain snowy nights in Ohme ward, Tokyo during the early showa period. She was eventually "forgotten" as the Japanese entered the modern age and built a war-machine, and then recovered to form an economic giant...but kuchisake onna returned with a vengeance in late 1979. In late 1979 and even into the early 80s, there were many sightings of kuchisake onna. The urban legend probobly grew from an actual attack against a child, like these attacks:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20020822a4.htm
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030408a6.htm
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030403b3.htm
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040724a9.htm
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030409a9.htm
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| « Last Edit: 01/05/06 at 00:37:36 by Tonguespout » |
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #2 on: 01/05/06 at 00:26:23 » |
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Kuchisakeonna Part Two
The kuchisake onna from the 70s and 80s attack only children, and they attack regardless of whether the answer to her second question is "yes."
The basics: A woman in a long red coat and mask with waiste length hair suprises a child, stepping out from behind a telephone or lamp pole and asks the infamous question: watashi, kirei? The child answers, and she removes the mask to show a hideously deformed face, the kid tries to run, is chased down by the woman and slashed across the mouth by knife or sickle. School kids spread the story and it actually created scares in many towns, prompting increases in police patrols and schools to send teachers to walk students home in groups.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-King/7623/kuchisakeO.html
There are variations to this urban legend depending upon the area you are in:
Origins: she was the victim of oral surgery gone wrong, plastic surgery (which she may or may not have been prompted to get it by her husband who may or may not have left her after the accidednt-taking her children with him), victim of a bus/car crash, (my favorite) victim of environmental polution (which also gave her 7 toes on each foot allowing her to run so fast), she's an escaped mental patient who cut her own mouth (and may or may not have a younger sister who she believes "put her away"), victim of a motorcycle gang's gang rape (leaving her insane-sometimes the bikers cut her mouth, sometimes she did it to herself due to her insanity)
Weaknesses: Fruit, Rock candy (which she either loves, stopping to eat it in some cases, or hates because she can't eat it and leaves because of her reminder and her depression), pomade (a scented hair-tonic--because the bikers who raped her/ doctor who messed up stank of the stuff), she has a hard time catching people with blood type "O", she can't use stairs, she won't attack anyone who offers her band-aids or bandages, if you face her and say "garlic" (ninniku) three times and write the kanji for "dog" (inu) on your hand-show it to her and yell then she won't attack you, some people believed that if you answered "so-so" to the second question she would not attack
I've asked about four different people about the kuchisake onna legends from the 70s-80s and they all remember them, and remember being terrified of the stories. They all believe it was merely an urban legend that expanded from an actual case of a woman attacking a school-kid.
The urban legend bears a resemblance to other urban legends such as the teke-teke and the bathroom ghost hanako/reiko (which are strikingly similar to teke-teke). Recently, the urban legend has moved to South Korea via the internet and there are urban legends in Malaysia and Europe about "Smiley gangs"...gangs of youth (ethnic minorities, usually) who give a woman they corner an option: rape or a smile. The woman invariably says smile, and the gang slits her mouth open ear to ear.
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| « Last Edit: 01/05/06 at 00:37:59 by Tonguespout » |
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #3 on: 01/05/06 at 00:27:03 » |
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The Bansho Sarayashiki (or: The Story of Okiku)
http://www.asianart.com/articles/rubin/2.html
http://www.sinister-designs.com/graphicarts/okiku2.html
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/edoghosts/pages/okiku2.ht ml
http://www.japankunst.de/japanbild/3504_e.htm
Baron Aoyama Tessan was a courtier of the young Shogun Ietsugu Tokugawa, and like all courtiers, spent alternating years at the Shogun's palace for a year and at Himeji castle for a year. He had in his possession a set of gold inlayed Dutch china that he is keeping for a Dutch merchant.
Okiku was his favorite maid, and one day she overhears plans to kill Aoyama. She reported the assassin's plans to the baron, causing them to fail. The would-be killer turned his hatred towards Okiku, arranging for one of the plates she was in charge of to be broken and having her framed for theft. Despite her position as favored maid, she is beaten, tortured, and eventually put to death for the crime. Instead of being properly buried (or burned), her body is casually tossed into a well on the property.
Soon after, Aoyama discovers the truth of the "theft", but it is too late. Okiku's ghost comes to the castle every night thereafter and, standing in front of the plates, begins to count "ichi-mai, ni-mai..."(one, two...). After counting nine plates, she begins to to wail and cry because she is unable to find the tenth plate (in one version, she materializes plates from the ether and telekenetically hurls them about the room as she counts). Aoyama eventually is driven insane by both the ghost's wails and the knowledge that it was he who had "created" her.
As in any legend, there are several variations on the tale, the most interesting of which are about the ending. Some sources claim that the ghost of Okiku was laid to rest by a monk who shouted "ten" at exactly the right moment, other sources say this monk was a samurai. Other sources say that her wailing created dementia in all the members of the castle house-hold and they all eventually died of illness. Yet another version says that when another maid in the employ of the family was threatened at the castle, Okiku sent a plague of beetles which have a rough image of her on their backs. These beetles are called kiku mushi (Okiku's Insect) and "only exist on the grounds of Himeji castle." Yet other accounts say that Okiku can still be heard in Himeji castle and town, counting and wailing.
There are other variations of the story as well: The baron attempted to seduce Okiku and created the story of theft after she turned down his advances, Aoyama's wife broke the plate (either on purpose or by accident, but blames Okiku), Okiku committed suicide by throwing herself into the well, the plates (Dutch, Chinese, or Korean), the "master" of Okiku's house is a police constable who regularly uses torture and, in a rage upon hearing Okiku's confession of breaking a plate, locks her, tied, in a closet and cuts off one of her fingers every day. She eventually bites her way free where she hurls herself into a well and drowns.
It is clear that the story of Okiku was one of the inspirations for the Ring.
One plate from the original ten is said to be enshrined at Himeji castle, and Okiku's well is a popular tourist spot:
http://www.japanese.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.him eji%2Dcastle.gr.jp/ENGLISH/okiku.html
Addendum: the second Okiku. The "second" Okiku (mentioned above) was the object of bullying by the wife of a different baron in the castle. The wife fealt jealous of this woman's beauty and placed a metal pin in her husband's food. As the man ate it, he injured his mouth bighting down on the pin and even nearly swallowed it. His wife pointed at Okiku and said she saw her put the pin in his food to hurt him. He was enraged and beat Okiku, she was arrested and bound and while awaiting her punishment, the castle was over-run by beetles. The husband, shocked by the insects (which seem to have an image of a woman with her hands bound behind her back) begins to question why his wife, who claimed to see Okiku put the pin in his food, did not warn him sooner. Okiku is eventually released...but in some versions she is killed outright and, hands bound, thrown into a well...the beetles are her plague and not the original Okiku's.
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #4 on: 01/05/06 at 00:27:27 » |
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Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (or: The Story of Oiwa) Part One
http://ebikani.org/youkai/hariko/oiwasama02.JPG
http://ebikani.org/youkai/hariko/oiwasama03.JPG
In the above pictures, note the daruma-san's face is deformed rather than Oiwa's.
This story depicts the savage power usable by vengeful ghosts in Japan (of whom, Oiwa is easily the most famous), and has so many variations, I don't think I will be able to find them all (the kabuki play was, at one point, incorporated into the larger story "The 47 Ronin" over the course of two days!). But, I will try to relate the story with as many variations as possible...
Iemon is a masterless samurai, a ronin, who has fallen on bad times. He finds work making oil-paper umbrellas, kasa, for mere pennies...and can't support himself, much less his ailing bride, Oiwa, and their new born son. Oiwa hasn't been the same since giving birth, and her health continues to decline:
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/edoghosts/pages/yotsuya1. html
http://www.islandillustrators.org/membpage/victor-b/Oiwa.jpg
Samon, Oiwa's father, comes to visit Iemon and argues with him...wanting him to seperate from Oiwa so she can come home and recover at her father's house. The argument turns violent and Iemon kills Samon.
Enter Osode, Oiwa's sister and wife to Yomoshichi. Yomoshichi is involved in a plot to kill the man responsible for his master's death (the 47 Ronin connection), and being Ronin and penniless-and plotting an assassination that will force him to commit seppuku, he seperates from Osode. Meanwhile, Osode, unable to support herself, finds work at a brothel run by a man named Takuetsu. Naosuke, a medicine vendor, secretly lusts after Osode and approaches her in the brothel. He is interupted by Yomoshichi who comes to apologize to his wife. Takuetsu, a worm of a man, shows up and tells Yomoshichi that Osode is his prostitute and HE will decide who she sleeps with...but asks Naosuke to pay a really large sum for the "honors." Unable to pay, he is driven out by Takuetsu as Yomoshichi and Osode berate the medicine vendor, and Yomoshichi leaves Osode behind, unable to to do anything about her situation due to the tides of revenge his group has already set in motion. Naosuke later sees a man he believes to be Yomoshichi and kills him...
Iemon and Naosuke, each in turn, pledge to find "revenge" on the murderers of Samon and "Yomoshichi" (knowing that they are the two killers). Naosuke, in return for his pledge, recieves the hand of Osode in common-law marriage (that also gets her out of the brothel).
Iemon, still poor and still unable to care for his wife, begins to slowly resent her and then even hate her. He borrows money from his neighbor, Ito Kihei, a rich merchant, in order to make ends meet (cultural note: In the Edo period it was not uncommon for samurai to be penniless while the lower merchant classes became rich. Some samurai were forced to sell even their sword and would wear scabbards with wooden fake swords to hide their shame). Ito's beautiful grand-daughter, Oume, instantly falls in love with Iemon...and her grand-father begins to act as a liason to arrange a marriage between the two, the only obstacle being Oiwa. Iemon by now thouroughly hates Oiwa, thinks Oume is beautiful, and appreciates the fact that he will be "marrying into money." He agrees to the "plan."
Ito gives Iemon poison to give to Oiwa, which he decieves her into drinking claiming it's medicine (the Ito family are known to have possesion of a powerful healing medicine). Overnight, she becomes horribly disfigured, and one side of her face turns black from the pooling of blood under the skin as she slept (sources disagree as to left side or right, but most often it is left), but she does not die...
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #5 on: 01/05/06 at 00:32:15 » |
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The Story of Oiwa Part Two
That is not the end of her torture. Iemon then has Takuetsu, who is now Iemon's servant, rape Oiwa so he has grounds for divorce. Takuetsu rapes the horribly weak and mutilated Oiwa, and Iemon enters at the end of the rape to accuse her of infidelity. She pleads with him that she was raped but Iemon won't listen. He marches off. Takuetsu laughs at Oiwa, telling her that Iemon asked him to rape her, that he plans to marry Oume and then he gives her a mirror...she has yet to see the effects of the medicine given to her. She looks at herself in the mirror, and then steels herself for a confrontation at the Ito household. She begins to comb her hair to look "presentful" but as she combs, clumps of hair and blood fall from her scalp:
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/edoghosts/pages/yotsuya3. html
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~copeland/oiwa.jpg
She stands to leave, but Taketsu prevents her from doing so, at one point barring the door with his katana and accidently cuts her throat. Oiwa dies cursing Iemon and the Ito family.
At the Ito household, Kohei, a former servant of Iemon and present servant of the Ito family, attempts to steal the healing elixir the family is known to possess. He is discovered by Iemon who kills him. Iemon returns to his house to find Oiwa dead. Any investigation into the "accident" of Oiwa's death would likely reveal everyone's culpability, so Iemon and Takuestu quickly develop a plan, and nail Oiwa's body to one side of a door and Kohei's body to the other. They throw the door into a river and begin telling people that Oiwa has run off with her lover, Kohei:
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/newscans/yotsuya02.jpg
Iemon is now free to marry Oume, and at the wedding ceremony, lifts her veil only to see Oiwa's hideously deformed face coyly smiling at him. Shocked, he draws his katana and severs the head of his former wife, only to discover as it hits the ground that he has just killed Oume! The other guests become alarmed and one of them approaches Iemon with a confused look on his face. When Iemon looks closer, he sees the man is none other than Kohei! He attacks Kohei and kills him, but as the body hits the floor, the face changes back into the face of Ito Kihei. Other guests flee in panic or attempt to attack Iemon, but he drives everyone away:
http://spectacle.berkeley.edu/~fiorillo/texts/ukiyoetexts/ukiyoe_pages/y oshitaki4.html
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #6 on: 01/05/06 at 00:32:40 » |
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The Story of Oiwa Part Three
Iemon begins to see the ghost of Oiwa everywhere: http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/edoghosts/pages/yotsuya2. html
http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?keywords=%67%68%6F%73%74&art ist=&country=&period=&sort=&start=11&position=14&record=23747
Believing Oyumi (Oume's mother) to be Oiwa, Iemon kicks her into a canal where she drowns, and her maid dies, too, trying to save her. Believing other servants and members of the household to be Oiwa, he begins killing everyone at the Ito estate, including Takuetsu. Naosuke arrives and blackmails Iemon into giving him a valuable document. Iemon, trying to "get away from it all" and think about his prospects (being hunted by both city officials and a vengeful ghost) goes out into the wilderness and begins fishing. He catches something, but it is not a fish...he hooks the door with Oiwa's and Kohei's bodies on it. The two bodies come to life for a while, detatching themselves from the door and berate Iemon for his actions. Elsewhere, Naosuke and the living Yomoshichi, in disguise, struggle for possesion of the document recieved from Iemon, relating to the vendetta against the lord responsible for Yomoshichi's master's death. Losing the note, the two men head back to the city.
Later, Naosuke watches as his "common-law" wife washes clothes (her new job, allong with selling incense and aniseed). Suddenly a pair of ghostly hands rises from the bucket. Shocked, she runs into Naosuke's arms. He berates her for having never consumated their marriage, she has learned however, that Yomoshichi might still be allive. Naosuke preasures Osode into having sex (rape), at the end of which a disguised Yomoshichi arrives and accuses her of adultry. Osode resigns herself to death in order to attone, and tricks Naosuke into mortally wounding her. As she dies, she presents Naosuke with a farewell note for Yomoshichi that bears a lot of surprising information for Naosuke: he learns that Osode was actually his younger sister (and thus, Oiwa's as well) and the man he killed was not Yomoshichi, but in actuallity his own former master.
Naosuke prepares for seppuku, but seeks out Yomoshichi before. He gives him the note, reveals everything he knows about Iemon's murder of Oiwa and Samon, and asks Yomoshichi to seek revenge for them all...he then comits seppuku with Yomoshichi as his second.
(Cultural note: When samurai preformed seppuku, sometimes they would have a "second." In seppuku, a blade is inserted into the abdomine and three strokes are made. The samurai preforming this action loses honor if he screams in pain. The second would stand by, and at the completion of the third stroke would sever the head of the person doing seppuku to release him from pain and the chance he may cry out).
Meanwhile, the ghost of Kohei steals the healing elixir from the now abandoned Ito estate and meets a samurai, Matanojo, involved in the vendetta to seek revenge for the death of his master (another 47 Ronin link). This man has fallen ill and, unable to aid in the vendetta, is about to commit seppuku. The ghost of Kohei persuades the samurai not to kill himself and gives him the elixir he has stolen. For his act of compassion, the ghost of Kohei is allowed to be reborn into the Buddhist paradise.
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| « Last Edit: 01/05/06 at 00:34:52 by Tonguespout » |
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #7 on: 01/05/06 at 00:33:04 » |
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The Story of Oiwa Part Four
Iemon, now nearly insane, runs to Snake Mountain with his single remaining living servant, Chobei and his two parents (who have come looking for him having heard all the rumors). They arrive at snake mountain and Jonen, the care-taker, gives them shelter. As Iemon sleeps, Jonen, Chobei, and Iemon's parents begin praying for Iemon to recover...with no success.
Oiwa enters Iemon's dream as he is sleeping. In his dream, he is a fully restored and honorable samurai of the highest rank, and he encounters a beautiful maiden in a pavillion while on a summer hunting trip. He immediately falls in love, but fails to recognize that the maiden is Oiwa. He dismisses his servants for a tryst. His servants approch the pavilion later only to see the hidiously deformed Oiwa on top of Iemon, oblivious. The squash on the vines covering the pavilion transform into her face and the vines animate, driving off Iemon's would-be rescuers. Oiwa seizes Iemon and drags him down to hell.
http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?keywords=%67%68%6F%73%74&art ist=&country=&period=&sort=&start=11&position=20&record=23628
Iemon awakens in a cold sweat as items in his room and all over the mountain animate and take the form of Oiwa, while an ominous snowstorm appears out of nowhere:
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/newscans/yotsuya01.jpg
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/edoghosts/pages/yotsuya4. html
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/edoghosts/pages/yotsuya5. html
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~copeland/Oiwa.gif
The animated objects kill: first Chobei, and then Iemon's parents, all while Iemon watches. By now, he has gone completely insane and runs off into the snowstorm. Unable to see, he literally runs into the arms of Yomoshichi, who has pledged to kill him. Yomoshichi draws his katana and kills Iemon with one swipe.
Some people believe the spirit of Oiwa was released upon the death of Iemon at Yomoshichi's hands...others believe she is still around and protects children and women from the deprivations of men in Tokyo. Failing to protect them, she seeks vengeance. She also ensures she is paid proper respect by people turning her story into a movie, or play...
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| « Last Edit: 01/05/06 at 00:35:12 by Tonguespout » |
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #8 on: 01/05/06 at 00:33:26 » |
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The Story of Oiwa Part Five: Modern Sightings
Many people in Tokyo have claimed to have seen a beautiful woman in white, whose lovely long hair conceals the side of her face. As she approaches, she suddenly sweaps her hair back away from her face with her hand, exposing the twisted scarred side of her face and dissapears laughing as the veiwers flee. This storey is linked to the stories of the Kuchisake Onna and the "Tokyo Taxi Ghost" ( a variation of the "phantom taxi passenger" in America): A beautiful woman all in white hails a taxi along Aoyama Dori, a street next to a cemetary. The driver stops and the woman gets in. The driver asks "where to?" and either turns around to find no one in his cab, or gets directions, goes there, and discovers his taxi is empty. Most cabs won't pick up passengers allong that stretch of road at night anymore. (Picture Samara, or the Japanese version's Sadako, of the Ring with a white dress and hair partially or totally concealling her face...spooky)
http://www.ringhorror.com/images/ring_004scrnsht.jpg
Then there are the strange events surrounding the movies made about her. There have been many movies about her and others that combine her story with that of the 47 Ronin. Here's a list:
http://www.fjmovie.com/horror/b0/03.html
There have been numerous mysterious happenings surrounding the making of the films about her: unexplained fires, mechanical failures, vanishing film, oddly exposed film, and even some injuries from unexplainable and downright strange accidents that made the news. These things stopped when the cast and crew made a pilgrimage to her shrine in Yotsuya and paid homage through prayers to Oiwasan. The latest of these hauntings was during the made-for-TV version. The crew complained about mysterious goings-on but the director refused to "give in to hysteria"...that is, until he fell (or was pushed?) mysteriously, breaking both of his legs. The cast and crew made haste to her shrine to pray for Oiwa, and the hauntings stopped.
Apparently, there was also an actor who went to a Halloween party dressed as Oiwa. His costume was so realistic that he frightened the Japanese at the party, some of whom warned him to be careful, to which he laughed. Upon returning home he found furniture up-ended and a screen with multiple tears in it...with no evidence of break in or even wind, he became quite afraid. He was told to make the pilrimage to Oiwa's shrine...and did so the next day.
Her grave is in Sugamo and says that she died on February 22, 1636 (the 47 Ronin supposedly takes place in 1701), and her shrine is in Yotsuya. It is said if you visit her grave (http://www.imagelodge.com/getimg/inari.jpg) only out of curiosity, then your eye will swell like Oiwa's, it is also said that if stand at her grave and wish hard enough then your wish will come true. Like the woman who visits Edgar Allen Poe's grave sight every year on his birthday with a single rose, there is a mysterious woman who takes care of Oiwa's shrine...
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| « Last Edit: 01/05/06 at 00:35:47 by Tonguespout » |
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Tonguespout
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #9 on: 01/05/06 at 00:34:05 » |
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The Story of Oiwa Part Six: Variations
These are some of the major variations in the ghost story of Yatsuya:
-The side of Oiwa's face mutilated by poison changes from left to right
-Yomoshichi is Oiwa's brother, is or is not married to Osode (who is not related to Oiwa)
-Oiwa's father Samon intended to sell her into prostitution
-Ito Kihei is Oume's father
-The Ito family tell Iemon that the poison is medicine, tricking him into making Oiwa ugly...thereby ensuring his marriage to Oume
-Takuetsu can't bring himself to rape Oiwa, instead takes pity on her and tells her of Iemon's plot
-Naosuke and Takuetsu are blended into one character
-Iemon poisons Oiwa without the Ito family being involved
-Oume gives Oiwa the poison with out the rest of her family or Iemon being involved
-Iemon kills Oiwa after seeing her mutilated face
-Oiwa commits suicide after seeing her mutilated face
-Oiwa's body is disposed of in a well (hints of Okiku here)
-Kohei witnesses Iemon's evil (either poisoning Oiwa, killing her, or his arranged rape) and either is discovered and killed or confronts Iemon and is killed
-Oiwa's vengeance is over after Iemon kills Oume and Ito Kihei, and is killed by Yomoshichi at the wedding ceremony
-The door with Oiwa's body is dicovered by Oiwa's brother (either Yomoshichi or Naosuke depending upon the version) who realizes Iemon's story of her running off with a lover is a lie
-The ghost of Oiwa kills off all the guests present at Iemon's second wedding
-Iemon goes totally mad at the wedding and kills off all the guests (due to Oiwa or possibly possession by her or Kohei's ghost)
As you can see, there are many many variations, and I'm not even sure I touched on even "most" of them...
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #10 on: 01/05/06 at 00:39:41 » |
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Mothers, Sons, Filial Duty, and the Afterlife (or: Mizuko, Kosodate, Ubume, and other family related "spirits") Part One
Both Japanese religion and culture is comprised of a mix of native and foreign (Chinese) ideas. There have been periods of major influxes of foreign ideas several times during Japans history, often followed by a period of cultural isolationisolation that became a fertile ground for the Japanese to fully incorporate foreign ideas and truly make them Japanese. It is interesting to watch the change in attitudes in these ideas and they are made more Japanese. Take Buddhist art as an example: initially Japanese artists images of Buddha and other symbols of Buddhism were almost exact replicas of items from India and China. Over a period of about 300 years, Japanese artists eventually began painting the Buddha appearing Japanese, made images of other symbols more Japanese-like and invented some of their own, native, symbols. Major religions and philosophies to come to Japan from China include Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
Women in Japan (keep in mind this is an overview-whole books have been devoted to this issue)
Position: Confucianism, while never institutionalized by the state, was around as an idea, and impacted the Japanese heavily, already having a very patriarchal and hierarchical society. Confucianism would have its greatest impact late in the Edo period and throughout the Meiji as official, state implimented, philosophy concearned with creating "good wives and wise mothers" In this society, women were relegated to the position of mother. They were responsible for maintaining the household and the health of the people in it. The higher one's social status, the more rigidly these "rules" applied.
Buddhism and women: Women had little official rank or "standing" in society (even among nobility, a stark contrast to earlier eras in which inheritance and rank passed from mother to children such as the era of the first empress of Japan: Himiko--however, especially in Heian times, women had both "rank" and manipulated politics from behind the curtains...literally), they had even less so in the eyes of esoteric Buddhism. Women were incapable of being reborn into the Buddhist heaven, and had to rely on either being re-born later as a man after a period in hell, or being saved through the efforts of a son. Granted, there were exceptions to this rule, most notable of which is an entire sect that believed anyone and anything is capable of being reborn in paradise:
http://ddb.libnet.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/exhibit-e/otogi/tsukumo/tsukumo.ht ml
Women in Heian Japan created their own Buddhist culture, centered on the Lotus Sutra (the only one devoted to saving women) and women would later be instrumental in the spread of asvior-based Amida Buddhism.
Women, in fact, were consigned to a period in hell due to the very nature of their sexand a special hell for women who die while pregnant or during childbirth also existed. These unfortunate womens punishment for not living up to their duty as mothers is to continually drown in a pool of menstrual blood and after-birth. Yet, in a society were giving birth was dangerous, more and more women found themselves in this hell of bodily fluids. Remember, even in the west, childbirth has only recently become reasonably safe. Women needed sons to both fulfill their filial duty and to rescue them from the ravages of Buddhist hell. Some ghost stories feature a woman who has died unwedlooking for a lover with whom she can lead a second life with, faithful and lovingand bearing him childrenwho would later save her.
This aspect of esoteric Buddhism was a hotly debated topic, and while it was true at a point in time for monk practicianers of Buddhism, the "save-abilty" of women among lay-followers was much less an issue. Also remember: people could be reborn as the opposite sex; everyone has an equal chance of suffering "hell"...and this suffering is the core concept of Buddhism.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #11 on: 01/05/06 at 00:40:04 » |
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Mothers, Sons, Filial Duty, and the Afterlife (or: Mizuko, Kosodate, Ubume, and other family related "spirits") Part Two
Sex and marriage in Japan:(very brief and generalized)
To the Heian period:
Chronicals of Japan ("Wa") from ancient times claim that Japanese women enjoyed the same freedoms as men, BUT that Japan practiced polygyny. During the Heian period, we only have records for aristocrats, but polygyny is still around. Men would marry a "primary" wife (usually arranged and loveless to promote family or maintain family power). Daughters of marriageable age were seen as an asset: marry her off to a man of higher rank. Women had to stay indoors, when the ventured out, they needed to go in ox-driven carts, and exposed skin was considered taboo (some courtesans had to wear many many layers of kimono and some historians speculate that intercourse was preformed while at least partially dressed). Men and women both had many affairs, virginity in women was not seen as a virtue unless the women was destined for life as a High Preitess, Miko, or shaman.
After the Heian period: As the samurai culture grew and developed, the code of conduct for them and their families grew, too. People still married for political purposes and advancement. Men could divorce women (not the other way around), but divorce marked the end of an alliance between families as well as the marriage. Women stuck in bad situations would join a convent, or have her family "buy" her divorce from the husband. Divorced men and women often remarried (divorce was not the pariah it is today). Until the Meiji period, lower class women had more freedom than their samurai and wealthy merchant class counter-parts. The Meiji government tried (rather successfully) to integrate the samurai ideals of womanhood into the larger population as a whole.
Mothers and Sons:
http://www.japankunst.de/japanbild/4004_e.htm
Unlike Buddhism in China, the biographies of famous monks in Japan always includes references to their mothers. Often, shrines to monks mothers are set up outside of the monasteries their sons studied at. Women were unable to enter the monastery, but would often pray to the monks mothers outside the shrineoften asking for children, or a safe pregnancy. It literature, it is the mother of great heroes who impact the hero more than any other influence save that of spirits or gods. For examples, one need not look further than Kintaro (whose mother was a Yamamba), or even the Genji Monogatari (who was so captivated by his mothers beauty and grace all of his future lovers would invariably pale in comparison). Abe no Senmeis mother was a kitsune who, fearing Abe might become the subject of attack due to her presence, leaves himbut leaves him with the ability of clairvoyance or second sight. Bonds form between mother and son, not father and son, in Japan (and no bonds are usually formed between parent and daughter, as she will join another family upon marriage). This bond is similar to the bond of love that bonds two lovers togethereven after death.
Spirits, kami, and ghosts: In Shinto, everything has a spirit, or kami. Long ago in Japan, there was a debate as to whether unborn children had their own kami or shared that of their mother. Eventually, it was decided that children did indeed have their own spirit, but this spirit was only bound loosely to the body. This conveniently explained still-births and SIDS, and contributed to the belief in Mizuko (Water-Child). Even today, in some parts of northern Japan there is a belief that a child is not fully of this world until he or she reaches the age of seven, and that until then he or she belongs to the world of the spirits. Mizuko, the spirits of still-born and children who died suddenly and without apparent cause, must have special funerary rights to appease their spirits, a practice that continues to this day (which also now include aborted children). If not, they may possess family members and cause health problems (headache and back pain being the most common) until it is appeased. All spirits, and ghosts, could hover above people and cause sickness, including wasting away until death. It is a common belief that ghosts and spirits that haunt a person cause pain in that persons shoulder because the spirit rides the person on their shoulder.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #12 on: 01/05/06 at 00:41:55 » |
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Mothers, Sons, Filial Duty, and the Afterlife (or: Mizuko, Kosodate, and Ubume) Part Three: Kosodate
Kosodate and Ubume: These two ghosts are often confused with one another, but they are very different ghosts indeed. There seems to be good reasons women who die while pregnant or giving birth should become ghosts: the Buddhist hell doesnt seem an attractive alternative to existence as a ghostand ghosts might yet find a way of reaching the Buddhist paradise.
Kosodate:
http://www.japankunst.de/japanbild/3504_e.htm (though it says this is the ghost of okiku, okiku was never associated with holding a child)
http://www.o-minwa.com/image/illust/003.jpg
The kosodate (sometimes called kosodate yuurei: kosodate=child raising), or protective mother ghost, is a type of ghost that appears when a pregnant woman dies and is buried. Because the child inside her has its own soul, it is not yet dead and the corpse delivers the child inside her coffin. Here is a typical example:
One day, a strange woman appeared at a candy shop in a remote village during the hour of the ox (from2-4am, the witching hour) and knocked on the shop keepers door until she roused him. Angered at being awakened like this he asked her what she wanted. She merely asked him to sell her candy and handed him a coin. The shop keeper, though angry, knew the value of money, so gave her the candy she wanted and she left.
The second night, she returned at the same time looking extremely pale, and repeated the process, getting her candy from the shop keeper, who asked her to please come to the shop during the dayto which she replied she couldnt. She came back a third, fourth, fifth and sixth time, each night at the same hour and buying her candy and looking paler with each visit. The shop keepers imagination went wild, for he had never seen this woman before, and showed obvious signs of not being well.
The seventh night she returned and asked for the candy, but said she had no more money. Initially, the shop keeper refused. The woman reached down and tore the sleeve of her beautiful kimono and asked the shop keeper if he would not trade some candy for it. Shocked, the shop keeper gave her candy. She began slowly walking away, but the shop keeper followed her this night. She walked out of the village and up a lonely mountain to a cemetery and disappeared. The shop keeper found the monk who lived on the mountain and related the story to him, showing him the sleeve.
The monk relates the story of a young pregnant woman who visited him one week earlier, asking for shelter as she didnt have enough money for an inn. She died during the night and he preformed a burial service for her, including the six coins that would buy her passage to the next world (a Buddhist idea similar to the River Styx). Interring her with the baby clothes she had brought with her, the same kimono the shop keeper now had a sleeve of, and six coins! The two men went to her grave-sight and heard the faint sounds of a baby crying.
Immediately, the two men began digging her up. When they opened the coffin, they found her corpse; cradling the clothed boy in her handsshe had fed the child with candy having been unable to supply him with milk. The monk raised the child as his own and eventually sent him to train as a monk. The boy grew into a famous monk and preformed the Lotus Sutra (a sutra used to save women after death) for his mother.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #13 on: 01/05/06 at 00:42:31 » |
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Mothers, Sons, Filial Duty, and the Afterlife (or: Mizuko, Kosodate, Ubume, and other family related "spirits") Part Four: kosodate
Other kosodate stories:
The Wailing Stone: this is another version of the kosodate, yet the ghost also takes on some aspects of the goryo (vengeful ghost):
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/GHOSTS/html/edoghosts/pages/weepingro ck.html
In this version of the tale, the Kosodate is killed by bandits, her blood lands on a rock, and the rock begins wailing at night. She appears to her husband (or son) to deliver him her son, and asks the husband (or son) to get revenge (this last aspect has more of a vengeful ghost feel than that of kosodate).
Koya-monogatari: Toyora no Shiro has two wives, the older of whom kills the younger-who is pregnant. The murderess leaves evidence that her victim ran off with a monk. Toyora begins killing monks. Later, a monk seeking refuge from Toyora, stays the night where the younger wife's body has been burried. The ghost of the woman appears, gives the monk evidence that she appeared to him and gives him a message for Toyora. The message is to remove the baby from her womb. She is dug up, her breasts swollen with milk, and her son is cut from her belly. Though it doesn't explicitly say the child is alive, the swollen breasts would indicate the son was. Toyora then became a priest.
Kokua Shonin: Before he became a monk, he was married. He was away on official business when his pregnant wife died and was burried. Feeling he must do something to aid in her salvation, he gave three gold coins to an outcast beggar every day until he could return home. Upon visiting his wife's grave, he heard sounds of a baby, dug up the coffin. Inside was his decomposed wife...with a living boy. He heard from a nearby tea shop owner that a ghostly woman came each day and bought three gold coins worth of mochi (a pounded rice cake) every day. Kokua gave the boy to the owner for adoption and became a monk.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #14 on: 01/05/06 at 00:43:50 » |
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Mothers, Sons, Filial Duty, and the Afterlife (or: Mizuko, Kosodate, Ubume, and other family related "spirits") Part Five: The Ubume
http://ebikani.org/youkai/hariko/t-ubume.JPG
http://www.artsanddesignsjapan.com/view.php?t=1&c=22&n=56
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~s-now/otogisousi_031.htm
The Ubume is the ghost of a young woman who died in childbirth. That is how all the explanations of the ubume start (though sometimes she has been exiled for her "wanton behavior" and dies in the wilderness). She can be found along bridges, rivers, and in the wilderness, often crying "obareu" (be born!). She hails passers-by and tells them (some sources say ask) to hold her baby. Should these passers-by hold the baby, then it will become heavier and heavier (and in one source, the babys head will grow and attempt to eat the holder). Should the holder manage to bear the load he or she is said to gain what they truly wish from the ghost. In some versions, the child is alive (though these versions are more likely the result of a kosodate tale becoming intertwined with that of the ubume). The ubume is drenched in blood from the waist down and often she is depicted with an open kimono top (or topless). All this begs the question: who in their right mind would hold a baby offered to them by such a person?
In Japan, introductions with a stranger are a formal affair, for in meeting someone, a person creates giri, a kind of social obligation that binds everyone in Japanese society. The ubume is obviously not part of society, being both a ghost, and someone who has either been rejected by both the father of her child and of the society of her village or someone who has failed preforming her most important "duty" as a "woman": giving birth. More than this, unlike other pregnant ghosts who attempt to finish their filial duty and protect her child, the ubume may be the mother of an unwanted child-unwanted by society, the father AND the mother. But the ubume is actually a cursed ghost (one source described the ubume as being the spirit of the woman's pain and sorrow at not having given birth rather than an actual ghost in the Western sense). The child is a curse, a burden, to the ubume in birth (note the blood drenched clothing indicating a painful birth) but also in death (she must continue to care for the burden until someone else takes it up for her: note that in most depictions of her she appears tired and hunched over) all the while living a lonely existence somewhere away from all society.
Why would someone hold her baby for her? Lets keep in mind that most accounts of a meeting of her end up with a person either crushed under the weight of the baby, or killed by its enormous head. Thus we can safely assume most of these accounts were witnessed and reported by a third party. Ghosts traditionally have the ability to use illusions (ghost lovers who appear beautiful to their lovers but as skeletal corpses drifting off into smoke below the waist to other observers, etc.) and the ubume would not be an exception to this rule. Being rejected by society and/or failing in her duty as a mother, the ubume knows the rules of giri only too well and could probably take the image of someone the passer-by knew, and had a social responsibility to. Ghosts could also use a form of kitsune-tsuki: spirit possession (ghosts that drain lovers life forces all the while the victim is either oblivious or actually enjoys it). This form of possession could be at work here as well.
Why hail passers-by at all? The ubume is cursed to wander until someone can remove the burden she carries and she can move on. Should the test of holding the ubume's child fail and the holder die, there is a remote chance that the victim might become a ghost as well, easing her loneliness. Of course, her goal is freedom, and when she obtains it by someone managing to carry the burden she was unable to, she bestows a gift to this person. What would this gift be?
The gift she leaves could be anything, but I have some suggestions. In a Buddhist sense, the person who sets her spirit free has managed to atone for her sins and possibly the sins of an entire community, and won for him/herself a great deal of good karma. Alternately, the ubume may become a guardian spirit, warding her hero against spiritual attack, including sickness. Yet another alternative, as most ubume would be found in remote locations, is that the person who has set her free has become lost as the ubume once did (or possibly, she used onibi willow-wisps to cause the traveler to become lost), and she shows the traveler the way home.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #15 on: 01/05/06 at 00:46:44 » |
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Mothers, Sons, Filial Duty, and the Afterlife (or: Mizuko, Kosodate, Ubume, and other family related "spirits") Part Six: Ubume
One version of the Ubume story has the baby's head growing larger and larger until it bites off the head of those who hold it. One day, a brave samurai held the baby while holding a sword in his mouth...because of the blade, the baby couldn't bite his head, and he was gifted with super human strength.
Other variations: some sources describe the ubume as a woman who dies pregnant in the wilderness, rather than in child-birth. Some sources have her wading in water, and some sources describe her "child" as a stone that, while being really heavy, doesn't increase in weight, or even a Jizo statue (statue left as an offering for a dead, often unborn or aborted, child). There is a variant of the ubume called the "ugume" from Ehime prefecture who weeps like a child and causes passers-by to stumble. In Yamaguchi prefecture, a special ceremony was held to prevent the body of a woman who dies during pregnancy from becoming a ghost or youkai.
Finally there is a Yukirei (snow spirit) often erroneously attributed to Yuki Onna that has a baby, gets someone to hold it, but the baby instantly freezes the holder. This Yukirei is undoubtedly a variation of the ubume.
Addendum: the ubume is sometimes confused with a harpy-like creature called the kokakuchou. Kanji in Japan has two types of pronunciation: the Japanese way and the original Chinese way. The kanji for kokachou can also be pronounced as "ubume" but the two creatures are totally different and use different kanji. The kanji for the ubume ghost translates loosely into naive daughter or naive young woman.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #16 on: 01/05/06 at 00:56:13 » |
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Emotions and the Monsters Within (part 1)
What about Japanese people, then? It is said that Japanese people use less facial expression than Westerners. Does this mean we are unemotional? No. We are traditionally good at masking our emotions. For example, when we are afraid, we often smile or laugh. This makes Westerners misinterpret our true feelings.
-excerpt from Lesson 8, Faces Say More Acorn English II Japanese High School English textbook published by Keirinkan
Emotions and emotional expressions remain fairly constant across all cultures, but the social rules of when and how an emotion may be expressed vary greatly from culture to culture. Japan is no exception. Researchers of body language from various social science fields have noted that Japanese people have a tendency to mask emotions when in the presence of authority figures. Society in Japan is based upon a strict hierarchy, and social norms governing the display of emotions are strictest when in a social situation involving hierarchical positions. In other words, Japanese people laugh and cry freely when with friends, yet act totally different at work, school, or in the presence of an authority figure (doctors today, in the past: samurai, daimyo, people of a higher rank, etc.)
The social norms governing the display of emotions in Japan suggest that highly emotional outbursts disturb the wa (the sense of peace and harmony or group harmony). They are looked upon as uncivilized. They are even dangerous.
In the story of the 47 ronin, a samurai lord is forced to commit seppuku (aka: hara-kiri) after, in a fit of anger, he drew his katana in a higher ranking lords home. His inability to control his anger leads to the suicidal revenge of his vassal samurai. There lies the rub. Emotions cant always be controlled, though there is an expectation that the way these emotions are displayed exists in Japan. Intense emotions, whether masked or not, cause problems with the wa. A smooth, harmonious, peaceful running of things was a goal (not a means) that required strict formality.
Many school classes today still begin with formal introductions in unison: Stand! Attention! Bow! Sit! At business meetings, people arent sure of exactly how low to bow until they have received meishi, business cards, from everyone in the meeting and know their place in the hierarchy. Meetings with higher-ups occur through an intermediary who makes initial introductions, usually over an obligatory cup of green tea or coffee. These are all examples of things that still happen in the relatively classless Japanese society of today. What about the past?
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #17 on: 01/05/06 at 00:56:47 » |
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Emotions and the Monsters Within (part 2)
People of the peasant class were probably less expected to adhere to the rigid rules of high-society. The higher your status, the more you were expected to adhere to these social norms. These rules took shape in the Heian period among the aristocrats that would later give way to the samurai class. The words civilized and the things that it represented, sado (tea ceremony), flower arrangement, etc., implied the existence of formal rules that must be followed. These trappings of civilization were carried on into the era of the samurai. Knowing how to fight was not enough. Knowing the tea ceremony meant constant practice, following exacting rules on the type of kettle to be used, how long to steep the tea, how the body should be positioned, etc. Formality was the glue that kept society together. It wasnt until after the Meiji restoration that the government tried to instill this formality in the general population.
Japanese have emotions, and they obviously display them. How are emotions displayed in Literature and the arts? Emotions were suggested. In the Genji Monogatari, the author Murasaki Shikibu delves into the emotions of her main characters (particularly Genji and his growing awareness of the causes and effects of his many love affairs). While dealing with the characters introspective moments, the characters feel a broad range of emotions, however, in public they had to suggest them. People would woo courtesans with an appropriate poem, not too suggestive, yet its meaning must be clear. Sorrow, too, was suggested, as in a poem written by Genji upon the death of his wife. Stoicism was the mask worn by aristocrats in public. Even the 3-D masks used in Noh Theater, designed to appear to change features as the actor shifts his head to a different angle, are meant to suggest emotions. Indeed, there are a very limited type of Noh masks used to express a variety of character types based on emotions such the Hannya mask being used for vengeful ghosts, women oni, ikiryo alike. In Noh theater, emotions are suggested by the masks, formal gestures and dances, the music, and the chorus.
Bad things happen when emotions run rampant. Youkai can be created, as with the Oburoguruma, Hannya, monks who turn into dragons and destroy their temples, and futaguchionna, monks who fall in love with apprentices and so on. Ghosts are created by the deaths of highly emotional peopleand also by the very emotions of living people! Samurai unable to contain themselves might have to commit hara-kiri (as mentioned above) or suffer the fear of such a fate (as in the story, the Willow Wife). Intense emotions, even love, can cause someone to waste away. In the Tale of Genji, Genji has a profound introspective moment upon wakening to find his lover, Yugao, dead. He falls into s fit of depression and becomes physically ill. Later, his adoptive daughter has a lover force himself on her in what we today would only call rape. This "lover" (rapist) falls into a state of guilt becoming progressively sicker until he dies.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #18 on: 01/05/06 at 00:57:20 » |
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Emotions and the Monsters Within (part 3)
Spirits and souls abound in Japan. According to Buddhist thought, souls leave the body only to be re-born as a new person until enlightenment. These souls can stay behind in the world of the living as ghosts; they can split and become several other people, or even combine in one person when it is time to be reborn. The belief in reincarnation is such that lovers may vow to love each other for several incarnations, and curses can stay with a family for that length of time also.
In Shinto, everything has a spirit, and these spirits change. Spirits can be created by certain events, and part of a persons spirit can be left behind in an object (such as the swords created by the insane master sword-smith Muramasa). In the Story of an Amorous Woman, the title character reveals the secret to writing fantastic love letters (her profession at the time): one must put their entire soul and heart into each letter. As a result of her pouring her heart and soul into these letters, she later begins to fall in love with some of her clients, forgetting that it was her, not the client, that had written these letters. The letters had so much power in them that they even beguiled their writer! Spirits dont need a corporeal body to exist, and the spirits of living beings could also sometimes leave their bodies.
Certain people in Japan could have more than one soul. They might even accumulate other spirits, such as kitsune, tanuki, inu-gami, and badger-spirits that act on their behalf with out them even knowing. Additionally, some people trained in the more metaphysical arts such as Onmyouji, shamans, witches, yamabushi, ninja, and sorcerers might have spirits (such as the ones mentioned above, gama, or kamigami) that enforce there conscious will. Sometimes, another persons ancestral spirit might attach itself to a person who did some sort of unusual kindness (and was sometimes an excuse for not acting in the interests of others by superstitious laborers). In addition to these accumulated spirits, a persons soul might sometimes leave its body and travel. This sort of thing wasnt so much a problem if the soul returned after a short time, but a prolonged absence of the soul would cause illness: wasting away. The permanent absence of a soul would, of course, mean death. In short, there are a lot of spirits floating around willing to help allies and even souls leaving bodies body were not an uncommon source of spirit happenings:
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/japanlove.html#firefly
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kwaidan/kwai15.htm
Further, the body in Japan also seems to have a fluidity in matters supernatural that is not shared by normal mundane people. Goblins in Japan are often distinguished by elongated body parts (arms, necks), multiple body parts (mouths, eyes, faces), body parts were none should be (eyes on arms), and deformed body parts (Oiwasans face, slit-mouths, layers of loose fat-like skin). There is even a rare phobia in Japan in which a sufferer believes a part of their body is particularly offensive to other people. The metamorphosis of the body is seen as monstrous in Japan. Strong emotions are monstrous and can sometimes cause monstrous transformations.
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Re: Yuurei Info
« Reply #19 on: 01/05/06 at 00:58:39 » |
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Emotions and the Monsters Within (part 4: the Ikiryou)
That brings us to spirit possession in general and Ikiryou in particular (it is noteworthy that the two are often seen as the same phenomenon by the Japanese):
http://aya.pya.jp/100yakou/ikiryou.html
The Ikiryou has been described in some sources as a kind of astral projection by a persons intense emotions (usually a woman, and usually jealousythough there are exceptions). Sources disagree as to the particular characteristics of the Ikiryou, such as whether it is visible to people other than its intended victim and whether it is the actual soul of a person traveling away from its body or a separate spirit given life by the creators emotions. There are some common attributes, however: once possessed, the victim begins to waist away, the victim can apparently see the apparition, once the possession takes place, the only way to acertain the identity of the spirit is by questions from someone with mystical power over spirits (monks, priests, miko, onmyouji, shamans, etc.). A final attribute shared by those capable of sending out Ikiryou has been described as a strong will, a will that often leads them to become marginalized members of society.
The Rokujo lady: There is much written about this lady from the Genji Monogatari. She is blamed for the death of one of Genjis earlier lovers, Yugao, though this is hotly debated by literary scholars. The debate is centered on the fact that Genji sees an apparition of a beautiful woman just prior to Yugaos death (and the reader is left to infer the apparition is that of the Rokujo lady), yet he does not recognize her as the Rokujo lady. There are many possible explanations for this. The Rokujo lady is definitely responsible, however, for the Ikiryou possession of Genjis wife, the Lady Aoi, when she is pregnant (and at her most vulnerable).
The Rokujo lady is the widow of a prince who would have become emperor had he lived into adulthood. She never remarries, yet she doesnt retreat from society as a nun, but still maintains her place on the skirt of societyeven to the point of taking a lover (Genji). Genji contemplates leaving her, citing her strength of will (and her inability to be pleased, her dogmatic insistence on being proper even though she, herself, is lacking in this regard).
http://www.operajaponica.org/graphics/photos/america/stlouis/otslgenji/o tslgenji1.jpg
http://members.aol.com/okrobert/classic/720920b.jpg
http://www.usm.maine.edu/theater/Shows/Title_Rokujo.gif
The Rokujo lady, prior to a move that will take her farther away from society (though not out of it) with her virginal daughter (another fact that serves to marginalize the Lady Rokujos family), goes to a festival to catch one last glimpse of her beloved Genji. She parks her carriage (an ornately decorated one as befits a lady of her rank) to one side, an act that partially obstructs the road to the festival grounds. When Aoi, Genjis wife, tries to get by her retinue damages Rokujo Ladys carriage. That act, committed (innocently enough as it was, though would later be described in Noh theatre as more aggressive) by someone of inferior rank, combined with the fact everyone recognized her carriage and why she had come to the festival making her a laughing stock, caused her blood to boil. Ever a student of propriety, she masked her jealousy and hatred well, yet her emotions created an Ikiryou:
http://www.sainet.or.jp/~eshibuya/eiri043.gif
http://www.sainet.or.jp/~eshibuya/eiri045.gif
The Ikiryou of the Lady Rokujo takes possession of Aoi, Genjis wife, and she begins to waste away. A miko and a priest are summoned, and call her spirit forth to ascertain its identity. It is found that the Ikiryou is that of the Rokujo Lady. An exorcism is preformed in which incense is constantly burned in Aois chambers. The Lady Rokujo, who doesnt know her Ikiryou is possessing Aoi, has nightmares about attacking her and cant seem to rid herself of the smell of incense. The exorcism allows Aoi to recover enough to deliver a baby boy, but she soon dies afterward. Later, her jealousy is calmed both by the fact she discovers her Ikiryou is responsible for Aois death and by a conversation she has with Genji. When she dies, it is suggested that she has truly moved on. Yet, later, when Genjis second wife, Murasaki, is pregnant, the spirit of the Rokujo Lady appears again, eventually claiming a second (confirmed) victim.
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| « Last Edit: 01/05/06 at 01:04:32 by Tonguespout » |
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Меня зовут Стивен Хаверфилд.
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