. Japanese legends and tales 伝説 民話 昔話 - Introduction .
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dokuro 髑髏と伝説 Legends about the Skull
gashadokuro, gasha-dokuro がしゃどくろ "rattling skull
sharekoobe しゃれこうべ Sharekobe
. skull (dokuro, sharekoobe 髑髏) .
- Introduction and Haiku -
. Shigeru Mizuki (水木 しげる Mizuki Shigeru) .
- quote -
Gashadokuro, Gasha Dokuro がしゃどくろ
TRANSLATION: onomatopoeic; rattling skull
ALTERNATE NAMES: ōdokuro (giant skeleton)
HABITAT: any; usually found near mass-graves or battlegrounds
DIET: none, but enjoys eating humans anyway
APPEARANCE:
Gashadokuro are skeletal giants which wander around the countryside in the darkest hours of the night. Their teeth chatter and bones rattle with a “gachi gachi” sound, which is this yokai’s namesake. If they should happen upon a human out late on the roads, the gashadokuro will silently creep up and catch their victims, crushing them in their hands or biting off their head.
ORIGIN:
Soldiers whose bodies rot in the fields and victims of famine who die unknown in the wilderness rarely receive proper funerary rites. Unable to pass on, their souls are reborn as hungry ghosts, longing eternally for that which they once had. These people die with anger and pain in their hearts, and that energy remains long after their flesh has rotted from their bones. As their bodies decay, their anger ferments into a powerful force – a grudge against the living – and this grudge is what twists them into a supernatural force. When the bones of hundreds of victims gather together into one mass, they can form the humongous skeletal monster known as the gashadokuro.
Too large and powerful to be killed, gashadokuro maintain their existence until the energy and malice stored up in their bodies has completely burnt out. However, because of the large amount of dead bodies required to form a single one, these abominations are much rarer today than they were in the earlier days, when wars and famine were a part of everyday life.
LEGENDS:
The earliest record of a gashadokuro goes back over 1000 years to a bloody rebellion against the central government by a samurai named Taira no Masakado. His daughter, Takiyasha-hime, was a famous sorceress. When Masako was eventually killed for his revolt, his daughter continued his cause. Using her black magic, she summoned a great skeleton to attack the city of Kyoto.
Her monster is depicted in a famous print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
- source : yokai.com/gashadokuro -
相馬の古内裏 Soma no Furu-Dairi - 歌川国芳 Utagawa Kuniyoshi
善知鳥安方忠義伝（うとうやすかたちゅうぎでん）
- reference : wikipedia -
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kitsune 狐 fox
A fox of 100 years will become an inpu 淫婦, a prostitute.
A fox of 100 years will become a 美女 beautiful woman.
A fox living on a kofun 古墳 Tumulus will become a beautiful woman.
Others say a fox has to become 800 years or 300 years, before shape-shifting into a human.
CLICK for more foxes with skulls 髑髏被り !
A fox might place a skull on his head and pray to the 北斗七星 big dipper. The skull is a 霊天蓋 ritual canopy for the fox. But he has to practise so the skull will not slip from his head. If he can manage to see the Big Dipper 100 times, he will gain the power to shape-shift into a human.
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dokurozake 髑髏酒 drinking Sake from a skull
Once in autumn a man left the village on a horse. In the evening he met a woman who offered him a drink. Just then came a hunter with a dog. And the woman shape-shifted back into a fox. The cup in the man's hand suddenly turned into a skull cup.
dokuro hai 髑髏杯 / どくろ杯 scull cups
from the enemies of 織田信長 Oda Nobunaga,
. kitsune densetsu 狐 伝説 fox legends .
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- - - - - ABC List of the prefectures :
.......................................................................... Aichi 愛知県 ......................................
yamanba 山姥 the old hag from the moutain
岩陰から湧き出る水によってできた鞍が淵には、山姥が美しい螺鈿の鞍となって淵に浮かんでいた。通りすがりの人が目にとめ欲を起すが最後、その人は手も足も離れ離れになり、髑髏になって岸に投げ上げられなければならなかった。
.......................................................................... Gifu 岐阜県 ......................................
On mount 金勝山 Konzeyama there is a rock cave with a skull placed on an altar. The skull is pierced by a sword behind the two ears. The skull is about three times as large as a human one. What might it be?
.......................................................................... Hiroshima 広島県 ......................................
. sharekobe 髑髏 skull in the bamboo grove .
a story of the year 774 from Bingo no Kuni 寶龜９年備後國.
.......................................................................... Ibaraki 茨城県 ......................................
真壁郡 Makabe district 協和町 Kyowa
suika 西瓜 watermelon
Once a farmer found a watermelon in his field, but he did not remember having planted any. When he looked closer, there was a skull and the melon had grown from its eye.
source : アマゾネス
.......................................................................... Kanagawa 神奈川県 ......................................
鎌倉市 Kamakura
深沢の大蛇 the huge serpent of Fukazawa
In the year 1676 there was enormous flooding in the area of Fukazawa and a lot of landslides happened.
Out of one of them came a large skull of about one meter with huge teeth.
source : okab.exblog.jp
In 江の島の縁起 the history of Enoshima it is called "the huge serpent of Fukazawa".
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Oodate Jiroo 大舘次郎 Odate Jiro
Once the blind poet 高野蘭亭 Takano Rantei (1704 - 1757) wanted to get hold of a skull cup. When he begun looking for it at the 大館次郎の塚 Mound of Odate Jiro, suddenly the fine weather changed, it became cloudy and soon a huge storm and thunder filled the sky.
source : 4travel.jp/travelogue - 鎌倉十一人塚 -
Odate Jiro is related to the battle of 新田義貞 Nitta Yoshisada.
- quote -
Juichininzuka (十一人塚) Juichininzuka Mound of 11 people
The monument was erected in memory of Odate Jiro (大館次郎) and eleven of his followers. (The inscription incorrectly adds the character "又" to his name:又次郎.)
In 1333, when imperial troops headed by Nitta Yoshisada (新田義貞, 1301-38) attacked Kamakura, Odate, a general of the Nitta forces, rushed to Gokurakujizaka Pass with a large number of his soldiers. Evading a hail of logs and rocks from both sides of the pass, they broke through the Hojo (北条) defense and headed towards Yuigahama, where the enemy awaited.
Faced with a counterattack by the troops of Honma Yamashirozaemon (本間山城左衛門) of the Hojo side, Odate's army was forced to retreat to Gokurakuji (極楽寺), where Odate and most of his men were killed near the Inasegawa River (稲瀬川).
In the end, only eleven of Odate's men were left, but rather than give up and surrender they chose to take their own lives with their own swords.
The eleven are said to have been buried here, and a statue of Eleven-faced Kannon (十一面観音菩薩, Juichimen Kannon) was erected to their memory under the name Juichininzuka, "Mound of the Eleven." Generally, tsuka (塚, also pronounced zuka) refers to a tombstone, but this particular tsuka was erected later as a memorial.
- source : kcn-net.org/e_kama_history-
.......................................................................... Kyoto 京都府 ......................................
oni no kubi 鬼の首 the neck of an Oni demon
At the temple 建仁寺 Kennin-Ji there is a skull of about 30 cm which is seen as the head and neck of a demon.
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tooru no daijin no rei 融の大臣の霊 / Tôru daijin / The Minister Toru
Most of the stories of ghosts are about people becoming ghosts and appearing as a skull.
One of the oldest records is the Nihon Ryooiki 日本霊異記 Nihon Ryoiki.
宇多院 Emperor Uda (867 - 931) made an official visit to 河原院 Kawara no In (the official residence of Minamoto no Tooru 源融 Toru (822 - 895).
The late owner of this Kawara residence, Toru, appeared clad in 衣冠 formal robes as a ghost to greet the visitor.
. Kawara no In 河原院 源融 Minamoto Toru . (822 – 895)
. Nihon Ryōiki 日本霊異記 Nihon Ryoiki .
Ghostly Strange Records from Japan
Record of Miraculous Events in Japan
by Kyookai 景戒 （きょうかい/けいかい) Kyokai - Keikai, priest of Yakushi-Ji in the Nara period
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source : kimono-kyoto.jp
Decoration of the inside of a Haori Jacket.
- source and more photos : karapaia.livedoor.biz -
dokuro to tokage 髑髏と蜥蜴 Skull and Lizard
河鍋暁斎 Kawanabe Kyosai (1831 - 1889)
. . . CLICK here for more spooky ukiyo-e about skulls !
歌川国芳 「相馬の古内裏」
歌川国芳 「於岩ぼうこん」
歌川国芳 「国芳もやう正札附現金男野晒悟助」
歌川国芳 「源頼光公館土蜘作妖怪図」
葛飾北斎 『百物語』より「こはだ小平次」
月岡芳年 「地獄太夫悟道の図」
月岡芳年 「清盛福原に数百の人頭を見るの図」
月岡芳年 「新撰東錦絵 一休地獄太夫」
月岡芳年 「和漢豪気揃 髑髏」
歌川広重 平清盛福原にて怪異を見る図」
小林清親 「地獄太夫」
河鍋暁斎 「美女の袖を引く骸骨たち」
河鍋暁斎 「一休地獄太夫」
河鍋 暁斎 「髑髏と蜥蜴」
小林清親 「清親放痴 東京谷中天王地」and more modern paintings
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.......................................................................... Nagano 長野県 ......................................
Hitotsume Kozoo 一ツ目小僧 (一つ目小僧) Hitotsume Kozo - Young Monk with One Eye
and his grave 一ツ目小僧の墓所
His grave is said to be here in the mountains. During the early Meiji period, an old grandpa wanted to clear the place and opened it. He dug out some human bones and re-arranged them anew, because there have been roots of 山芋 mountain yam (Dioscorea japonica) going through one eye of the skull.
There are other regions in Japan who claim his grave is there.
and some graves are dedicated to Jizo Bosatsu
- 一つ目小僧地蔵 Hitotsume Kozo Jizo -
where people found a skull with only one eye opening 眼窩が一つしかない頭蓋骨.
. Hitotsume Kozoo 一つ目小僧 Hitotsume Kozo - Young Monk with One Eye .
.......................................................................... Nara 奈良県 ......................................
The emperor 花山院 Kazan-In (Kazan Tenno 花山天皇 (968 - 1008)) was suffering from a severe headache.
His "doctor", Abe no Seimei, said this was caused by a problem in his former life. The emperor had been a mountain pries and died near mount Omine 大峯の某の宿. Because of his good deeds he was then re-born as the 天子 Imperial Prince. But the skull of his former body had fallen between two rocks, so now he had to suffer headaches. They searched for the skull, took it out and buried it properly. And what do you say - the headache was healed, of course.
. Abe no Seimei 阿倍晴明 (921 - 1005) .
. Matsuo Basho at Natadera 那谷寺 .
The name was changed to Natadera by the emperor Kazan, who ruled during the Heian Period.
... the 65th emperor of Japan ...
Morosada-shinnō (師貞親王) - his priestly name was Nyūkaku.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !
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hikarimono 光物 the sparkling something
In the year 1672 at a place named 厨子 Zushi, something was sparkling and shining all night long. When the villagers dug at that place, they found something like a skull. They did not like it and feared its power, so after they disposed of it, the shining and sparkling stopped.
.......................................................................... Okinawa 沖縄県 ......................................
石垣市 Ishigaki
. majin, mashin 魔神 - akujin, akushin 悪神 devil, Teufel .
Once the grandfather of the store ナーマ屋 Ｎａmaya when to the beach where he met majin 魔神 the devil. He had long dissheveled hair, a poisonous snake around his neck and a wig of dokuro 髑髏 skulls. Around his hip was a chain of skulls. He wore a red fundoshi 褌 loincloth. He begged grandfather for some water and gave him an amulet and advise to avoid bad influence.
Using shimenawa 七五三縄 a ritual rope and chanting ナーマヤーヌ・マリビキドー Naamayaanu marihikido was part of it.
Grandfather taught this to the other villagers and they never experienced bad things.
.......................................................................... Tokushima 徳島県 ......................................
大原町千代ヶ丸 Ohara, Chiyogamaru
In the year 1702, on the 24th day of the 4th month, the 観音堂 Kannon Hall at Chiyogamaru was to be repaired. In the ground they found a large stone sarcophage 長さ9尺8寸、高さ2尺9寸、奥行き3尺. Inside were two skulls and two swords, spears and arrow heads. The skull was about 3尺7寸 in diameter, and 1尺4寸 in length.,
1尺 - 30 cm, 1寸 - 3 cm
- reference and photos : awa-otoko.hatenablog.com -
.......................................................................... Tokyo 東京都 ......................................
tatari たたり a curse
At the 服部坂 Hatorizaka slope there was a Zen temple called しうりん院 Shorin-In.
Once they found a skull in the back mountain of the temple. So they made a grave marker and venerated it on the 位牌堂 Hall for Ancestral tablets (ihai).
But after seven days, the skull begun dancing out of the hall with its tablet. The head priest could not sleep and became ill. When another priest visited, he took the skull and stamped on it in the garden until it was broke. Then the curse was broken and the head priest healed.
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Fukiage Goten 吹上御殿 / Fukiage Gosho 吹上御所
Fukiage section of the Imperial Palace
On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month in 1727 there was a strong thunderstorm and a skull fell into the park of the palace.
It was about 18 cm long and 24 cm wide. It had two holed for the eyes and a mouth like the beak of a bird. The teeth were only in the upper chin.
They never found out if it was from a bird or fish or other strange animal.
.......................................................................... Wakayama 和歌山県 ......................................
In a former life 後白河法皇 Emperor Goshirakawa had been a mountain priest named 蓮華坊 Renge-Bo, but he had fallen into a ravine and lost his life. A willow tree grew on the spot, piercing the skull and causing the Emperor a constant headache whenever the wind blew the branches of the tree.
On a pilgrimage to Kumano to get rid of the headache, the Emperor learned of his former life and made a search for the skull. He buried the skull properly and used the willow tree to make a beam of the Sanjusan Gendo hall 柳で三十三間堂の棟木. Other versions say he had a Statue of Kannon made and placed the skull inside to show this greatfulness for being relieves of the headache.
This story is similar to the one of Kazan from Nara, see above.
To our day the temple has an event in January known as the Rite of the Willow (柳枝のお加持), where worshippers are touched on the head with a sacred willow branch to cure and prevent headaches.
. Sanjusan Gendo Hall in Kyoto, .
. Emperor Goshirakawa 後白河天皇 Go-Shirakawa (1127 - 1192) .
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- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -
21 髑髏 collecting
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勝川春章 Katsukawa Shunsho (1762 - 1793)
ドクロ DOKURO
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. Legends about Kobo Daishi Kukai - 弘法大師 空海 - 伝説 .
. Japanese legends and tales 伝説 民話 昔話 - Introduction .
- Yookai 妖怪 Yokai Monsters of Japan -
- Introduction -
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. Join the friends on Facebook ! .
- #dokuro #sharekobe #skull -
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