A city of sparkling skyscrapers, neon signs and clogged overpass cars, Tokyo – like a living decoration from science fiction movie. However, of all genres, the Japanese prefer mysticism: it seems that the line between the world of the living and the world of the dead in The country of the rising sun is especially thin.
As in any other capital of the world, organized mystic tours in Tokyo is very popular among tourists. Alas not everyone during such walks manages to see something really supernatural, but hardly anyone is left on loss having heard an incredible multitude of chilling urban legends whose heroes are the ghosts of ancient samurai, deceived wives, victims of car accidents and maniacs.
THE CURSE OF SAMURAI
In the financial heart of Tokyo, the Oemati quarter, among concrete boxes supporting the sky lost an untouched patch of land – the most damned place in the city, according to its watchmen. Here there is a sanctuary that was erected in order to pacify the fierce spirit Tyra no Masakado, the rebellious commander who once proclaimed himself the new emperor of Japan and having paid for his own life. He died in battle in 940; as a warning to other rebels Masakado chopped off his head and sent her to the capital Kyoto, where put on public display.
Photo from open sources
Amazingly, even after three months, as the legend says, the head looked like a living one, only the face of the samurai was even bigger distorted from anger, and animal fear seized those who ventured look into his eyes burning with hatred. Finally in one moonless night the head lit up and, rising into the air, went on body searches – in Shibasaki, Masakado’s native village, on the site of which and is located in the Oemati quarter these days.
Having discovered it, the villagers washed their hair and buried it exactly where she “landed”, and then erected a funerary hill. But the spirit the vengeful warrior never found peace: ten years have passed, and from a poisonous glow began to emanate from his grave, and he began pay a visit to the living. Calmed the ghost constant prayers and offerings. Over time, they almost forgot about him, while in XIII century did not break out the plague, in which, of course, accused Masakado: they say the commander’s anger was caused the construction of the Tendai Buddhist sect temple next to his the grave.
For the next centuries, the hill with Masakado’s head remained untouchables: no one dared to disturb the rebel’s peace – so strong there was faith in his curse. But after the Great in 1923 Kanto earthquake – one of the most destructive in the history of Japan – virtually destroyed Tokyo, the Ministry of Finance decided seize the opportunity to level the sacred mound with the earth and build a new office building there.
A photo from open sources 
A photo from open sources
For two years, everyone who had anything to do with this then, including the minister himself and 14 of his colleagues, they died under unclear circumstances. Misfortunes also befell ordinary workers, employed at a construction site who from scratch received serious injuries and fractures. The project was decided to wind down – demolished and through a series of Shinto rituals designed to calm the evil spirit, the hill was restored.
Every year there was a service in honor of Masakado, until World War II broke out. In 1940, lightning struck the main building of the Ministry of Finance, provoking a fire that destroyed structures around the hill. Just on the anniversary of the death of the legendary commander, to to please Masakado, Tokyo officials set on a cursed place stone memorial, which stands to this day.
But the story of the restless samurai from the other world never is over. Americans taking control of Japan at the end war, tried to clear the hill under the construction of a military fleet, however, on the first day of work, the bulldozer turned over, burying the driver underneath, followed by others accidents. Panic among builders along with exhortations by superstitious Tokyoites forced high command abandon their plans for a tidbit of land by returning Masakado peace and quiet.
A photo from open sources
But what happened to the body of a samurai? Oh, according to legend, it also tried to find her head, wandering at night and terrifying the peasants from Shibasaki, until she gave up, falling where she was subsequently Kanda Myojin Temple was erected – one of the attractions modern Otemati. Masakado himself, by the way, has long been canonized. and revered as the patron saint of Tokyo.
A festival in his honor is traditionally held in Kanda Myojin in May. The road to the hill where the warrior’s head rests is not forgotten: clerks from banks and offices in the neighborhood do not cease to “appease” the spirit Masakado, moreover, even place tables in offices so that no Never sit with your back to the grave. You never know …
CLASSIC JAPANESE HORROR
The story of another Tokyo ghost legend is also full thirst for revenge – she tells of the unfortunate Oiva, the wife of ronin, who lived at the beginning of the Edo period in the village of Yotsuya, which eventually became part of the metropolis. They were called a beautiful couple – Oibu and Jemon, not guessing about the ambitions of the latter – a selfish person and depraved.
While his wife was expecting a baby, he started an intrigue with Oyume – a young girl from a noble family, with whom she promised a marriage Iemon and office, and wealth. The villain decided to get rid of Oiva and persuaded the servant to pour deadly poison into her drinks. The state of the deceived woman worsened every day, she fell out hair, and the right side of the face was paralyzed, turning it into an ugly scary mask.
A photo from open sources
When Oiva died (February 22, 1630, as engraved on her gravestone), Yeh-mon married a mistress, but on the wedding day, when ronin lifted the veil from her head, that terrible thing looked at him, as if a person frozen from deadly horror is the face of Oiva, which, dying, she vowed to return and take revenge on her killer. In agony Iemon grabbed the sword and cut the head of the phantom, but when he looked into his eyes, he saw that they belonged to Oyum.
Pursued by Oiva’s laughter, the samurai rushed to the door and, accepting for her ghost the father of his bride, chopped into pieces and him, but the devilish laughter did not cease. Hiding in his chambers, Iemon spent a night full of nightmares and visions, and in the morning brought to despair rushed off a cliff. Witnesses of the tragedy to prevent probable atrocities of an angry spirit, built an altar where they brought their gifts to Oiva, although her remains rest in the Myogoji Temple in Sugamo area.
However, in both places pilgrims are still today – so propitiate a ghost. These are mainly actors who will play in the classic kabuki play based on the story of Oiva. It is called Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan – “The Story of a Ghost from Yotsuya Village in the Tokaido Region. “The play was written in 1825 Tsuruya Namboku IV, the famous author of kaydans (literally – “short stories” about the supernatural “) – mystical stories, many stories and the characteristic details of which are known to us from Japanese horror films and their American remakes such as Curse, Dark Waters and iconic “Call”. All of them are about revenge and karma, in which they believe so. Residents of the Land of the Rising Sun. Heroes of classic kaydans – witches, demons and, of course, ghosts.
Prejudice or not, but over those who played in the play about Oiva’s story, as if overhanging hard rock. Them on all fronts began to pursue failure, accidents occurred, leading to serious injuries, they fell ill with unknown, not treatable diseases, infecting loved ones.
Especially gloomy stories went about staging in Tokyo Ivanami Hall in 1976, when the curse of the samurai’s wife felt not only the actors, but in general all who had Attitude to the show, from rezitors to producers. To soften her spirit, the whole team held a memorial service at the grave Oiva, and on the day of the premiere, one of the chairs in the front row was left free – for the most important viewer from another world.
THE MYSICA OF AOYAMA CEMETERY
Where to look for ghosts, if not in a cemetery? And the most mystical of Aoyama, a cemetery which at the same time is and one of the most picturesque in the world. Founded at the beginning of the 19th century, Aoyama cemetery is a huge, buried in greenery a park. Colors change in April when sakura blooms, which means The Hanami season begins – admiring the flowers, lasting just a week.
A photo from open sources
The Japanese do not forget this ancient tradition, which is evident from the number people who visit the Aoyama cemetery these days, as, however, and parks of the capital, where sakura trees are planted. Harmony collapses with dusk, when the time comes for ghosts. Everywhere someone’s shadows appear, moans and sobs are heard, seen here and luminous orbs, and in the morning, cemetery ministers often found mysterious black prints on the monuments – they say they arise only at the graves of suicides.
Among the Tokyo taxi drivers from the late 1990s there is a legend about mysterious passenger who supposedly catches a car at the cemetery Aoyama at night in a storm, but it’s worth opening the door for her, as she disappears, merging with the rain. However, the chosen lucky still managed to “give her a lift.” So, one driver picked up a sad a young girl soaked to the skin, deciding that she is returning after visiting the grave of a recently deceased relative or friend.
Usually talkative, he did not start empty conversations and in full the passenger drove to silence to the indicated address, however a stranger did not go out and whispered to the taxi driver to wait. Time as if it had stopped – the girl gazed steadily at the windows of the second floors, watching the movements of someone’s lonely figure. Meanwhile the rain only intensified. Finally, breaking the silence, she called a new Address – Private home in a respectable area.
Arriving at the place, the driver turned around to get a ride money, but the back seat was completely empty – which left from the mournful passenger, so this is a small puddle of water! IN the same moment someone knocked on the door – an elderly man with an umbrella, pulling out his wallet, he asked what was owed by the counter. It turned out he wants to pay for his daughter – the girl who died in car accident a few years before and buried at Aoyama cemetery. According to her father, she sometimes leaves her place resting in order to “visit” your beloved boyfriend and parents at the same time, shocking gullible taxi drivers.
DEATH IN THE TUNNEL
The city of the future, Tokyo is riddled with a concrete web of highways with multi-level interchanges and underground tunnels – quite it is predictable that some sites enjoy a bad reputation, for example, the Sandagaya tunnel.
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Hastily built for the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 1964 year, he lies exactly under the old cemetery at the temple Senjuin. According to eyewitnesses, it often appears here a girl who, like the previous heroine, is trying to stop taxi to disappear as soon as the driver opens the door.
Another “inhabitant” of the tunnel, dressed in a red dress, sometimes runs through a stream of cars, often passing through them. And in the area of the northern exit you can observe the phantom of the long-haired a girl who hangs upside down under the ceiling and then breaks down and falls on the roof of a passing car.
Motorcyclists driving through a tunnel, horrified at rearview mirrors children’s faces with black dips instead of eyes. The Syrogane tunnel can compete in the hell with Sandagaya, known for skewed in a silent cry persons dancing on his to the walls. Due to sad statistics of fatal accidents Tokyo people believe that he is cursed: the case, they say, in cruel experiments on animals that were carried out in a research center that Once located in the area of the tunnel.
They also say that Shinigami itself happens here – the Japanese spirit death, waiting for their new victims. No less sinister reputation the Kominee tunnel on the outskirts of the metropolis, it is connected with the name Tsutomu Miyazaki – the serial killer who killed four small girls in 1988 and 1989. Actually, it was discovered here the mutilated corpse of one of them, and although the death sentence maniac was executed b years ago, the spirit of his innocent the sacrifice still remains in the world of the living.
Until the tunnel was closed in 2001, motorists told about the phantom of a bleeding girl who ran out to the middle road and rushed right under the wheels. Now they’re in Komine, perhaps only ghostbusters specifically coming in the dark to tickle your nerves to the quiet children’s cry from the black, frightening depths of the abandoned the tunnel.
Alexandra MALTSEVA
Drivers Time Life Sun Japan
