leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or a practice based on
such a belief.
Many countries, nations and cultures have superstition some are very vague or
sound pretty crazy. Japan runs on myths and spooks which give lessons and/or
warnings in the stories the locals tell. In Japanese society there are lots of
superstitions that can lead to a consequence if you don't follow the belief. Like
any other country these superstitions are pretty unique where that superstition explained the unexplainable by turning it into living things. It is said that Japan was a rich supernatural world where spirits lurked in every shadow and monsters walked in the footsteps of men.
Here are some Japanese superstitions:
According to folklore, the supernatural was as big a threat to Japanese travelers by night as were wildlife and bandits. It was only natural that many travelers got lost in the dark when the only light to show you the way came from the Moon and stars, unless you carried a lantern. Superstition, however, pinned their detour on a monster.
Getting Lost at Night-
A yokai is a Japanese monster - the nurikabe was a yokai shaped like a wall that appeared in the paths of travelers. Usually invisible, it would completely block a road, forcing travelers to go around it. Like many yokai, though, the nurikabe was a trickster. Even if someone tried a different path, the wall would stretch out or uncomplainingly get up and move. It was said that anyone who encountered a nurikabe could get lost for days.
Mysterious Foot From an Empty Room-
Roughly translated zashiki-warashi means “parlor child,” and were child-like spirits that lived in empty rooms. They were said to be at most 12 years old and would occasionally appear to the house’s tenants. While the noises they made were mysterious and their sudden appearances would probably have given most families a shock, zashiki-warashi were said to bring good fortune and prosperity to whomever they lived with.
Unfortunately, they also took it away when they left. Zashiki-warashi moved from place to place whenever they saw fit. In one story, a family had two living with them who brought prosperity to their household while they were present. Eventually they left, however, and soon after almost the entire family died when the servants mistakenly served them a meal of poisonous mushrooms. The next family that the two zashiki-warashi moved in with, meanwhile, immediately became prosperous. Due to their association with fortune, it’s been theorized that zashiki-warashi were a device used to explain the sudden rise and fall of wealthy families.
Missing Children-
There could be any number of reasons for a child to go missing, but according to ancient Japanese superstition, most missing children were spirited away by a monster called an ubume. An ubume is a bird-like creature that became a woman who kidnapped children once its feathers were plucked. Ubume were believed to be the spirits of women who died in childbirth, though they could also have died while pregnant. Either way, their attachment to their lost child lingered after death and gave them an insatiable need for one of their own, which they appeased by kidnapping one.
A different story of the ubume is that there is a topless woman carrying a baby. Appearing at dusk at crossroads and bridges, the ubume would ask passersby to hold her child while she ran an errand. The baby grew heavier and heavier until the person holding it recited a Buddhist prayer, whereupon the ubume returned and thanked them for bringing her child back into the world of the living. Still other accounts had ubume searching for guardians to care for her baby after her death, while in others she did so herself by making occasional visits into town to buy supplies with coins that turned into dried leaves after she disappeared.
Missing Lantern Oil-
Work done at night was usually done by oil lamps in ancient Japan. Unfortunately for those who made their living at night, the preferred oil was fish oil, a favorite of both mice and cockroaches. The pests would drink the oil and force the worker to waste time fending them off. Sometimes, though, when the loss of oil was thought to be too much for the critters to have stolen, superstition held that it was taken by a monster called the himamushi-nyudo.It was said that the soul of a person who wasted all his free time would become a himamushi-nyudo—which roughly means “oil licker”—and interfere with the night work of others. Despite the superstition, the connection to cockroaches was not lost on yokai catalogers, and the monster was often depicted alongside cockroach symbolism. This association led to the suggestion of himamushi-nyudo being giant anthropomorphic cockroaches.
Dirty Ceilings and Night Chills-
Without modern heating and insulation, ancient Japanese houses were very cold in the winter. Those with high ceilings also grew quite dark at night. Superstition held that both winter’s chill and the dark were caused by a monster called the tenjo-name. The creature would float in the upper reaches of the room, bringing down the temperature and obscuring the ceiling. It was a tall, bony creature with a long tongue that it used to lick the ceilings. When the tenjo-name licked the ceiling it became dirtier, not cleaner.The Feeling of Being Watched-
Like today, taking shelter in an abandoned house often proved an unnerving experience in ancient Japan when taking shelter was necessary for protection against the elements. It was often reported that people who slept in an abandoned house had an uncanny feeling that they were being watched by an unseen presence. Unwilling to chalk the sensation up to mere imagination, superstition held that uninvited guests were in fact being watched by the house itself. Called a mokumokuren, the old, abandoned house would sprout hundreds of eyes that would watch them closely.These are just some Japanese superstitions...I will make another post with more superstition but for now I hope you are satisfied.
-The more you know~
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