Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Today, join Sakura and Megumi with special guest Marky Star for a new creepy culture class! In this lesson, Marky talks about one of his favorite things - haunted Japan! Ghosts, graveyards, and more - you don’t want to miss this one! After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com for the accompanying PDF focusing on Suzugamori with lots of pictures included!
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Japanese Culture Classes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
26 Responses to “Japanese Culture Class #39 - Haunted Japan”
JapanesePod101.com says:
February 10th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Mina-san,
Give Marky a big thank you for sharing his expertise on this subject with us!
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
robert~phila says:
February 11th, 2007 at 4:00 am
WOW! this is quite scary…
Q: Does anyone know where the exact location of the movie “the Ring” was filmed?
Thanks Marky for the info, it makes me want to do a seance tonight.
Also, I found this great Kanji site–it uses quicktime:
http://kanjialive.lib.uchicago.edu/main.php?page=overview&lang=en
take care.
Daniel Beck says:
February 11th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Markyさん、
Thanks for doing the research. Pretty creepy though. 
Sakuraさん、
You seemed a little too pleased that Peterさん wasn’t on the podcast today. 
Alan says:
February 11th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
I dug up this link 
http://www.shejapan.com/jtyeholder/jtye/living/ghost/ghost0.html
marky star says:
February 11th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
有難う御座いま～す！
yeah, it’s creepy, I know. i suggested saving it for next halloween, but peterさん seemed pretty excited to do it right away. it was pretty funny chatting with megumiさん before going to the studio. she was really into this stuff. hahah. i hope everyone enjoys it! 宜しくお願い致します！ ｍ（＿Ｔ＿）ｍ
actually,
this afternoon i visited the kubi-zuka mentioned in the JCC. This is the place where the head of 平將門 （たいら・の・まさかど, Ｔａｉｒａ no Masakado）is buried.
this is the most recent monunment. notice the expensive, fresh flowers which are set out daily. i’ve visited a lot graves in tokyo, and i have to say this one was spotless. really clean and tidy. the flowers were expensive. and incense was still burning when we arrived. 
behind the nice new monument, you can see the original stone (i think this one was erected in the 1300’s, but i could be wrong, it might be in late 900’s when the dude was actually beheaded). anyways, it looks really old. 
one interesting thing i learned today was that 平將門 has a bank account. supposedly it was valued at about $200,000 US in 2004. so that might make him the only japanese warlord with a bank account. 
ところでさ、if those links posted aren’t working, you can click this link to see the photos:
http://usera.imagecave.com/tokugawa/masakadonokubizuka/
_petiteclaire_ says:
February 11th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
皆さん、今日は from Paris !
Great lesson ! I loved the “creepy-travelogue”. I never realized it before when visiting Ueno’s Toshogu, but Marky-San is 100% right : temperature does drop right in front of the entrance to the temple ! Guess I’ll never look at it again in the same way. It still is quiet a lovely place, but I’ll be sure to be extra-careful for samurai-ghosts when I’m in Tokyo next time. And I’ll definitely check out the other locations.
Japanesepod101.comの皆さん, 頑張ってね！
Hugo says:
February 11th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Very cool Markさん, I love this JCC, very creepy no place to doubst, the photos are interesting to! Well, now I know a little more about this places, greetings to all!
Abrassart says:
February 11th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Really nice Japanese Culture Class. I’m interrested by all kind of fortean phenomenas, so it was really fun to ear about some of the japanese’s one on JP101.
Daniel Beck says:
February 12th, 2007 at 5:17 am
yeah, it’s creepy, I know. i suggested saving it for next halloween, but peterさん seemed pretty excited to do it right away.
Peterさんぽい！
Alan says:
February 12th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
That should be それは知ってる言葉です。Incidentally, I came across that word in the Tomo-chan character song from Azumanga.
http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/azumangadaioh/poipoipeace.jis
No way I’m forgetting it after that.
marky star says:
February 14th, 2007 at 1:34 am
皆さん有難う御座います！
thank you!
robert~philaさん、
リングのロケーションわからないんですね。御免為さい。
i don’t know where ‘The Ring’ was shot, i’m sorry.
i’m actually embarrassed to say, i’ve never seen ‘The Ring’ in its entireity.
thanks for the link too! i just checked it out, very useful!
Alanさん、
i’ve seen that page before.
it’s actually really useful!!
the way we talk about ghosts in western languages is very different from the asian ways (and especially the japanese way). so it’s a great way to understand an esoteric, but intergral, part of japan! i’m gonna read that page again tonight. there is a lot of good info in there, don’t you think?
petiteclaireさん、
you just made my day!
like you, i didn’t know it was a haunted place. but i had a feeling… well, i was attracted to that spot. i went there every day for like 2 weeks when i first visited japan. i was staying in uguisudani for 2.5 months and i didn’t know anything about that place, but every day i had to go there. to this day, that Ueno Toshogu and Ueno Kiyomizu Kannon-Do are my favorite places in tokyo.
when did you visit?
Hugoさん & Abrassartさん、
we’ll have more like this to come, i promise!
in the future, i’ll give you more photos with the stories. it really helps to bring things aliveね！
if it’s not too creepy, i’d like to share my experiences and photos of the 3 江戸死刑場 (the 3 Edo Punishment Places) with you. It’s pretty intense, so we’re just testing the waters now….
good night & don’t let the bed bugs bite!
marky
george says:
March 28th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I like ghost stories. I’ve read allot about Sunshine 60 building.
Steve says:
January 13th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I just subscribed to japanesepod101 a few months ago, so I’m only now getting to this podcast about Haunted Japan. ( I hope people are still reading comments.)
The Bunraku Puppet Theatre of Japan was in Berkeley, California in October, and one of the performances was called “Oshichi of the Fire Watch Tower” or “Date Musume Koi no Higanoko.” I didn’t realize it at first, but the Oshichi mentioned in the podcast was the same one the play was based on. I didn’t know she was a real person.
Does anyone know where Oshichi’s grave is? I’ll be in Tokyo in late February, and I’d like to visit it. I believe it’s in Bunkyoo-ku, but I don’t know exactly where it is. Any information would be appreciated.
(I’d also like to visit Infant Island…the home of Mothra. I can’t seem to find it on any maps. )
Arigatoo.
markystar says:
January 13th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
i’m not sure about o-shichi-san’s actual grave. but it might be mentioned in wiki.
her execution spot is 大森海岸 (omori kaigan) at 鈴ヶ森 (suzugamori). exit the station, turn left 2 times, walk past yoshinoya until you come to a what looks like a creepy, small park in the middle of the street. that area was the killing floor. I’m about to leave my house now, but if i remember in the morning, i’ll try to dig my photo of the spot where she was burned alive.
most japanese people i know won’t go to this spot. there is a small shrine or temple next to it, i don’t remember which. you might want to stop by there before going home to make the ghosts not try to follow you home.
maxiewawa says:
January 13th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Hey Steve, welcome to the site.
Thanks to the miracle of RSS technology, many readers (like marky星 and I) are automatically updated when a new post is made.
I use http://www.bloglines.com, have a look, it’s easy and convenient.
Steve says:
January 14th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Thanks for the responses, and accommodating a latecomer like me.
So far, I’ve tracked-down that her grave is in a temple in Hakusan in Bunkyoo-ku. (Should it be spelled Bunkyo or Bunkyoo?) I also read that the ancestral gravesite of the family was at Kichijo-ji, which looks like it may be in Hakusan, so my guess is that it’s there.
Steve says:
January 14th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I just read that Oshichi’s gravesite is at Enjou-ji in Komagome. Nothing on Google about where exactly Enjou-ji is located, but from the picture of the grave, the temple looks very small. Not much bigger than a bus stop.
The things I get obsessed about…
Steve says:
January 14th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Enjoji （円乗寺）
1-34-6 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku
9am-4pm
3 min walk from Hakusan station
george says:
January 14th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I’m planning to come to Japan this fall and hopefully around Halloween if not before. I would love to check out all the haunted places in Tokyo and other towns nearby (if I can afford it).
Steve says:
February 25th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Made it! My Tokyo pilgrimage is complete. I found the grave of Oshichi today. After leaving Hakusan station and walking around for 20 minutes, it turned out to be only a block away from the station.
One thing that’s driving me nuts about the maps of Tokyo is that the tops of the maps rarely point north. The maps around Hakusan had north pointing to the bottom of the map, which means I have to read the maps standing on my head to get my bearings.
Steve says:
February 26th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Yes, I got 4 or 5 pictures. I haven’t downloaded them off the camera yet. I was so exhausted from walking around Tokyo that I could hardly move when I got back to my hotel room. I’ll make them available soon.
Steve says:
February 26th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Hopefully, this links to my pictures of Oshichi’s grave.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24128290@N03/sets/72157603988973081/detail/
タネ says:
May 20th, 2008 at 2:41 am
I just subscribed a few weeks ago, so I’m getting caught up on the Culture Class lessons now. I love the Shinagawa-eki area (so conveninet for transit!!), and anything related to ghosts (but not horror movies, go figure), so I’ll be sure to check this out when I’m there this coming August.
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Category: Japanese Culture Classes |
Topic: haunted places in Japan
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