|
|
Browse Blog Archive By Keyword
Displaying 6 results for keyword Creature Feature.
|
Creature Feature: Earless Hoichi
|
Unlike previous Creature Features, Earless Hoichi is not actually a creature. In fact, he's the unfortunate victim of a long-dead military clan. The story of Earless Hoichi (耳なし芳ー, literally "Hoichi without ears") is a classic Japanese ghost story, and is required reading for anybody interested in understanding Japanese horror.
You can read the story of Earless Hoichi for free online, or you could buy a copy of Lafcadio Hearn's fantastic Kwaidan. I'll present a short summary of the tale here, but I highly recommend that you read the original.
Hoichi is a player of the biwa, a kind of Japanese lute. He is a fantastic player, one of the best in the country, but unknown and poor. Hoichi is also unfortunate enough to be blind. Having no home, he seeks refuge in a temple (Amidaji, which still exists today as Akama Shrine), where a friend of his resides as a priest. One night while sleeping at the temple, Hoichi is approached by a gruff samurai who insists that he play for the samurai's master. Even though it is the middle of the night, Hoichi follows the samurai to a secluded area that seems to be filled with people talking in hushed voices. He is asked to play a rendition of the Tale of the Heike, a story at which he is particularly skilled. His performance is so astonishing that his audience is moved to tears. On the way back to the temple the samurai tells Hoichi not to speak of the event, as his master is traveling incognito.
Hoichi is visited by the samurai the next night, and the night after that. The priest of Amidaji notices Hoichi's absence, and has some of his servants follow the lute player the following evening. What they see astounds them; Hoichi appears to stand up in the middle of the night and walk briskly out of the temple. His speed is unbelievable for a blind man, and eventually they find him playing his lute furiously in the middle of a deserted graveyard. When they drag him back to the temple, Hoichi relates the story of the samurai and his secret master to the priest.
Realizing Hoichi has been bewitched by ghosts, the priest vows to save his friend from further torment. He paints Hoichi's body with the text of a holy sutra to protect him from the ghostly samurai. The priest also instructs Hoichi to remain motionless at all times; any sound or movement, and the spell will be broken. That night the samurai calls for Hoichi as usual, but Hoichi is nowhere to be found. In his place, the samurai finds only a pair of floating ears. Though the sutra has rendered Hoichi's body invisible to the ghost, the priest has neglected to paint 
A statue of Hoichi at Akama Shrine
Though Hoichi loses both of his ears, the priest's spell is effective at freeing him from the clutches of the dead clan. He is thereafter never bothered by ghosts again, and goes on to become a famous lute player.
The story of Earless Hoichi is important because it is widely known. It is also interesting because embedded within it is another widely known story, the Tale of the Heike, which is based on real events. To understand the significance of some of the details of this story, it's good to have a little background.
In the 12th century, the rival Minamoto and Taira clans had an extended conflict called the Genpei War. The final battle in that war is called The Battle of Dan-no-ura, which ended in victory for the Minamoto clan, giving them control of Japan. Dan-no-ura was a navel battle, and when the Taira elite realized that victory was impossible, most of them (including the six year old Emperor Antoku) chose to jump into the sea rather than face defeat. The word Heike means "Taira clan" ("hei" is the alternate reading for "taira"), and the Tale of the Heike chronicles the conflict and eventual demise of the Taira.
The decisive Battle of Dan-no-ura took place in the straits of Shimonoseki, which is where Amidaji is located. During the Meiji Restoration shinto became the state religion, and at that time the Buddhist temple of Amidaji was converted into a shinto shrine. The temple was probably originally constructed in memory of the child Emperor Antoku and the others of his clan who drowned themselves; today it also pays tribute to Hoichi.
Considering the location of Hoichi's story and the specific reference to the Tale of Heike, I think it is safe to assume that Hoichi's ghostly assailants are indeed members of the dead Taira clan. Thus their interest in Hoichi's ability to recount the sad story of their demise is easily understood. This story is a classic Japanese ghost story in many respects, but I think the most telling theme is that of intense sadness: the Taira who died in the Battle of Dan-no-ura feel so strongly about their end that their emotion is able to reach out from beyond the grave and interfere with the real world, even though the Minamoto, their enemies in life, are long dead. |
|
|
|
|
Creature Feature: Tsuchinoko
|
It's been a while since the last Creature Feature, so I think it's high time for a new one. This time around the creature in question is the tsuchinoko, a mythical snake from Japan. Unlike previous Creature Feature entries, the tsuchinoko is hardly a monster or supernatural entity; though some versions of the story suggest that they enjoy drinking and are capable of speech (but should not be trusted), most accounts paint the tsuchinoko as just an extremely rare species of snake.
Tsuchinoko are said to have short, wide bodies and triangular faces. They are sometimes described as being able to jump long distances or form a rolling wheel by biting their tail. Apparently, some people in Japan actually believe that the tsuchinoko exist and have simply managed to elude scientific categorization. Several cities in Japan have offered rewards for the capture of a live tsuchinoko (up to $200,000), but so far the creature has not been caught. The Phantom Tsuchinoko is a pretty comprehensive page (in Japanese) about the creature.
For whatever reason, tsuchinoko show up in a lot of video games, often as secret items. There's actually a whole section in Siren about the tsuchinoko. For some reason this creature continues to interest many Japanese, perhaps because it's difficult to be sure if it is an actual species or simply legend. |
|
|
|
|
Creature Feature: Nopperabou
|
Nopperabou is a creature from Japanese folklore. Though they look like normal people, the nopperabou's distinctive feature is their face, which lacks eyes, a nose, or a mouth. Instead of normal human features, nopperabou have only smooth skin. People who encounter nopperabou usually do not immediately realize that they are talking to something that is otherworldly, as the creatures are able to create the illusion that they have a normal human face. A nopperabou will wait for the right moment before causing their features to disappear, scaring the person they are speaking with. People usually run into nopperabou at night in lonely rural settings, although they can appear anywhere as long as the area is deserted. The nopperabou's primary purpose is to scare humans, but beyond that they do not seem to have any sort of agenda.
One famous nopperabou story is Lafcadio Hearn's Mujina. The story is short and deftly describes an encounter with a nopperabou, but it is also the source of much confusion. In the story, Hearn refers to the creatures as mujina, which is actually a different type of creature altogether (a sort of badger). This mistake has caused a lot of Western readers to mix up the names for nopperabou and mujina, and even today you will run across authors and scholars that are using the wrong name. Regardless, the story itself is a very typical tale of nopperabou mischief. |
|
|
|
|
Creature Feature: Gashadokuro
|
Gashadokuro (pronounced "gah sha doh kuroh") is a giant skeleton monster from Japan. They can reach huge sizes (up to about 90 feet tall), and are constructed out of the skeletons of people whom have died awful deaths in war or from starvation. The bones are collected into this giant creature by the dead's feelings of anger at their own grisly demise (yet another application of onnen). The Gashadokuro wander at night, making a "gachi gachi" sound. If they come upon a living person they will attack, often biting victims heads off.
In one famous story, a man from Bingo (the old name for an area in east Hiroshima) was out in the fields one night when he heard a strange voice complaining about a pain it its eye. In the morning, the man located the weather-beaten skull of a Gashadokuro, and was able to appease it by removing the bamboo shoots that had grown up through its eye socket and leaving a bowl of dried boiled rice as an offering. |
|
|
|
|
Creature Feature: Rokurokubi
|
Rokurokubi is another youkai from Japan. These creatures look and act like normal humans, but at night their necks elongate, freeing their heads to move around almost independently from their bodies. Most Rokurokubi are women, and they take pleasure in scaring regular humans. Rokurokubi are also apparently fond of licking the oil used to light indoor lanterns.
Some Rokurokubi actually prefer to live their lives pretending to be a human. Though they may appear to be completely normal people, every night they must combat the urge to stretch their neck out and go off scaring humans. Rokurokubi have been a staple of Japanese horror stories since the Edo period.
There is also another, more sinister form of Rokurokubi. This version drinks blood and lives only to prey on normal people. These monsters differ from their less-threatening counterparts in that their heads completely detach from their bodies and fly around disconnected at night. Instead of a long neck, the flying, disembodied head is the defining characteristic for this version. These Rokurokubi attempt to hide their bodies at night, and can be killed if their bodies are discovered while the heads are detached.
There is some discussion that the name Rokurokubi only applies to the long-necked trickster version of this creature. The latter monster, it has been suggested, is more correctly called Nukekubi. The confusion seems to date back to Lafcadio Hearn's story Rokuro-Kubi, which describes the more malicious form. That said, the former long-necked form is by far the most common and well-known. |
|
|
|
|
Creature Feature: Kuchisake Onna
|
Kuchisake Onna (lit. "slit-mouth woman") is a monster from Japan. Her defining characteristic is her mouth, which extends from ear to ear in a horrible, permanent smile. As the story goes, a samurai mutilated his lover in a jealous rage in order to destroy her beauty. She became a vengeful spirit, and nowadays can sometimes be found wandering the streets wearing a surgical mask. Japanese people often wear such masks during the cold season to prevent others from catching their colds, so Kuchisake Onna does not particularly stand out in a crowd.
Should you meet Kuchisake Onna, she'll likely ask you if you think that she is beautiful. Apart from her surgical mask, she does appear to be a very beautiful woman, and anyway, most people say "yes" automatically to be polite. However, upon receiving a positive response, Kuchisake Onna will tear her mask off and show you her awful mouth, slit on each side all the way up to her ears. She will then ask you again if you think she is beautiful. Those who answer "no" or try to run away will be chased down. Kuchisake Onna can apparently run 100 meters in 3 seconds (thats like 75 mph!), and she usually carries a knife or scythe. Men will be killed immediately, while women have their mouths cut, creating a new Kuchisake Onna. Depending on the version of the tale, the only way to escape is to tell the Kuchisake Onna that she is beautiful the second time, or to distract her with fruit or candy.
As with many Japanese horror tales, this one is recursive: women who are accosted by Kuchisake Onna can themselves become monsters if they answer her question incorrectly. Apparently there was a wave of Kuchisake Onna rumors in 1979 in Japan. More recently, 1994 film about Kuchisake Onna modernized the tale by making her disfiguration the result of a plastic surgery mishap. Another film of the same name is planned for release in 2007. There's more to read about Kuchisake Onna at The Youkai Mura and Wikipedia.
Update: Removed link to other film that was actually porn. Oops! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
