日本の怪談: 呪い (Nihon no Kaidan: Noroi) – Japanese scary story: Curse

27th July – 文月

Do you know how to make this hot summer shivering cold?

…Yes, talking about 怪談 (kaidan = scary story ) can somewhat help you feel chilly!

Today’s theme is about Japanese curse, 呪い (Noroi = curse).

Probably the most famous way of cursing somebody in Japan is called 丑の刻参り (Ushi no Koku Mairi). If this curse is successful, the person who are cursed is believed to have terrible bad lucks or in the worse case, die from it.

丑の刻 (Ushi no koku) (Also known as 丑三つ時 – Ushi Mitsu Doki) means the time between 1:00am to 3:00am, this time period is considered as the time when demons and dead people come out, therefore people are afraid of ghosts during that time. お参り (Omairi) stands for visiting shrines and temples.

丑の刻参り is to visit shrines / temples at 丑の刻 and hit long spike to a straw doll toward a sacred tree or Torii gate with hammer – for 7days.

I hope my blog readers will not conduct 丑の刻参り, but in case if you are curious how to do it, here are more information!

藁人形 (Wara Ningyou)

藁人形 is a doll made of straws. this doll is a substitute of the person who are cursed (Peson B). The person who conduct 丑の刻参り(Person A) put Person B’s photo, hair or paper with B’s name on this doll. 藁人形 has very simple shape, just have head, hands, stomach and feet.

By hitting 五寸釘 (Gosun Kugi = long spike) to 藁人形, Person A curse Person B. Some says depending on the spot where the spike is stubbed, damage on Person B can be vary.

Head: causing accident, incident or disaster

Chest: death

Hand or feet: cure habit of cheating

Preparation

Person A has to prepare a lot for conducting this curse, as this curse is very strong and it has to be continuously done for 7 days. (Those who does must have very strong resentment to do so… plus breaking possession of shrine or temple is a crime, so it is risky curse)

Firstly, Person A look for the shrine or temples where not many people would visit at late night. Then prepare following items:

-藁人形

-五寸釘

-白装束 (Shiro shouzoku): entirely white gown with white belt

-wooden clogs with one blade

-white headband with 3 candles

-hammer

-懐刀 (Futokoro Gatana): short sword

-small round comb

-round mirror

For ladies, put special makeups (white powder, tooth blackening, deep red lipstick).　Wearing those costumes and hanging round mirror on the neck, holding comb on mouth and hide 懐刀 on the waist, then going to the shrine or temples at 丑の刻. Then hitting 藁人形 with a grudge.

Most importantly, this process must not be seen by any other people for 7days – otherwise, the curse will come back to Person A unless Person A kills the witness who saw the conduct…mmm very risky!

Actually, there are many different witnesses who saw 藁人形 in several forests in Japan, means there are people who have very strong grudge toward others. Well, I hope there are no photo of me on one of those 藁人形…!!!