MIB
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 Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2002 11:30 pm Post subject: Tokyo ghost tour sends chills through the sweltering days of |
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By TAKESHI FUJITANI, The Asahi Shimbun
It\'s not easy to cool off in Tokyo in the height of summer. But one tour operator has come up with a way to bring about a chill amid the sweltering heat: a ghost tour.
On one hot weekday morning in early August, a Hato Bus tour left the bus terminal near JR Tokyo station. The sun didn\'t seem to melt the enthusiasm of the seven people on board-a couple and a family-for the journey ahead.
``I\'m interested in supernatural phenomena,\'\' said Keizo Komine, a man in his 40s from Hachioji, Tokyo, accompanied by his mother, sister and nieces. ``It\'s difficult to visit places like a haunted graveyard on our own. As I got to know about this tour on TV, I immediately booked it.\'\' he said.
Leading the group through the excursion was no ordinary tour guide. Their host was a professional kodanshi, or storyteller of kodan (a tradition Japanese form of narration), who took them to a series of temples, graves and shrines known for their connections with ghost stories and supernatural phenomena.
At each spot, excerpts of famous ghost stories such as ``Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan\'\' or ``Bancho Sarayashiki\'\' are recited, complemented with a bit of well-researched background information.
``I\'m surprised so many people are interested in ghosts and supernatural happenings,\'\' said Kanda Aguri, a young female kodanshi leading the tour.
Naoka Matsushita of Hato Bus said the tour runs only in August: ``Thanks to the media coverage, the tour has been popular. With the enthusiastic support of our clients, this is our fourth year of operating the tour. On weekends, as many as 50 people take the tour, and we have to add another bus to serve the demand.\'\'
As Aguri led her weekday tour, the temperature had risen well beyond 30 degrees by 10 a.m. The first stop was the Oiwa Inari Tamiya Shrine, a Yotsuya shrine dedicated to Oiwa, the protagonist of the popular ghost story ``Yotsuya Kaidan.\'\'
In this masterpiece-originally written as a Kabuki play, and later adapted to kodan and rakugo (traditional comic story)-Oiwa, who was betrayed by her husband and died holding a grudge, became a ghost and put deadly curses on her husband and the people around him.
The small shrine is built on the house where Oiwa actually lived, and is currently served by a Shinto priest who is one of her descendants. Tour participants clapped their hands in worship at the shrine.
Then Aguri the kodanshi, with the sound of the cicadas in the background, began explaining the history behind the well-known story and the shrine. Although Oiwa really existed, Aguri said, she was not like the woman in the story.
``However, it\'s said that Oiwa was angry about how she was portrayed in the story, and that many of those who performed `Yotsuya Kaidan\' became cursed themselves because of Oiwa\'s grudge,\'\' Aguri said.
Apparently for that reason records of donations from celebrities such as Kabuki actors, kodanshi and rakugoka, as well as amusement parks that operate haunted houses based on the story, were on prominent display at the shrine. These donors also customarily organize a Shinto rite to exorcise the shrine.
``To avoid accidents, every year before the tour we also come here to ask for a special exorcism rite,\'\' Matsushita said. Last July\'s rite was attended by about 10 staff, including tour guides, kodanshi and drivers.
A few years ago, a guide in charge of the ghost tour had to take a week off work with an illness even doctors could not identify. ``It was very odd, but things like this always happen,\'\' Aguri said.
The next stop on Aguri\'s weekday tour was another strange spot near the Imperial Palace known as Masakado no Kubizuka (Barrow of the Neck of Tairano Masakado). The small plot of land, located in the very center of the Otemachi district a few hundred meters from a palace gate and next to the headquarters of Mitsui & Co., is flanked incongruously by office buildings.
There, Aguri began the story of the legend of Heian Period (794-1185) warrior Tairano Masakado. After the pretender to the imperial throne was killed in the 10th century, his neck is said to have flown from Kyoto in search of the rest of his body, eventually coming to rest at Masakado no Kubizuka.
Later in the Meiji Period (1869-1912), when the then Treasury Ministry tried to level the land to make way for new government buildings, many officials, including the treasury minister himself, suddenly passed away or became seriously ill. ``People then started to realize there were supernatural forces surrounding Masakado no Kubizuka. The ministry hastily set up a tombstone to pacify the haunted spirit,\'\' Aguri said.
``I\'ve heard about the Masakado no Kubizuka, and several horror stories about the Masakado no Kubizuka, but I didn\'t expect it took place in the very center of Tokyo,\'\' said Keizo Komine, a participant on the tour.
In the afternoon, as the mercury inched up to a seasonal high of 36 degrees in the city, the tour made its way from temples connected with the greatest fire of the Edo Period (1603-1867) and a visit to Oiwa\'s grave, both in Sugamo, and headed for its final destination: Zenshoan temple in Yanaka district. Zenshoan is known for its extensive collection of old hanging paintings of ghosts, including one drawn by Maruyama Okyo, from whom an Edo Period art movement took its name. The paintings are only shown to the public every August.
As the tour neared its end, one man gave his fellow tourists the shivers by claiming to feel pain in his hands from one of the paintings. ``This sometimes happens. Last year a lady saw a ghost in a painting,\'\' Aguri said.
``The tour was very enjoyable, because it is rare to hear kodan stories live\'\' said one participant, Emiko Komine, after the tour wrapped up at 4 p.m. Her son, Keizo, agreed, saying: ``The tour was very informative and I learned a lot from it, thanks to Kanda Aguri. I think it was worth paying 9,200 yen for the tour and some extra for cold drinks.\'\'
Aguri, laughing, said, ``I often joke about this tour that customers get so exhausted with summer heat that, in the end of the day, they become like ghosts.\'\'(IHT/Asahi: August 20,2002)
http://www.asahi.com/english/feature/K2002082000260.html |
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