I work as a yokai exterminator, ask me anything?

[1] Answering questions while I do sit-ups, ’cause I’m bored.

• [2] What’s the cutest Yokai you’ve ever exterminated?

Yokai: A general term for a wide variety of supernatural entities in Japanese folklore. It’s a broad concept encompassing gods, demons (oni), spirits, tsukumogami (objects inhabited by spirits), mysterious phenomena, and more. Often depicted as beings that harm humans or cause inexplicable events.

• [4] Tell us your specs.

[5]>>2 There aren’t many cute yokai, but if I had to pick one, maybe the one commonly called the “Great Plains Sloth.” It looks like a sloth, but I’ve never really heard its official name. Its claws are super sharp, and it attacks livestock and stuff.

[6]>>4 I’m still a newbie, 22 years old, male. 174cm tall. My school is technically called “Banzan.” As for my face, being too handsome interferes with the job, so I’ve got a plain face, maybe leaning towards ugly. Virgin. That’s also more convenient for work.

School “Banzan”: In context, refers to a specific school or style within yokai extermination or related techniques and philosophies. Like a specialized group or lineage.

• [8]>>6 Did you graduate from college? Are there any specific university departments or majors that make it easier to become a yokai exterminator?

[10]>>8 I only finished junior high. I grew up in the countryside, and when I was little, I got possessed by something strange once. The person who came to exorcise it is my master now. Most of my family died, so my master took me in, and here I am. Apparently, my master specialized in archaeology in the literature department at Kyoto University.

Junior High Graduate (Chusotsu): An educational background in Japan indicating completion of junior high school (compulsory education, typically finished at age 15).

• [13]>>10 Sounds like you’ve been through a lot. Who pays you? What’s your monthly income?

[15]>>13 I don’t really have a monthly income. Sometimes temples or shrines request my services, I give them an estimate, and they pay me. Usually, it’s around 1 to 3 million yen per job. If it’s a dangerous mountain or something, it can go over 10 million yen. But those kinds of requests only come about once every two or three months.

Temple/Shrine: Temples are Buddhist religious facilities, while shrines are for Shinto (Japan’s indigenous religion). They sometimes serve as points of contact for resolving spiritual issues in local communities.

• [17] How do you exterminate them?
• [19] Does a job like that really exist? I thought this was trolling.

[20]>>16 >>17 It’s mostly guesswork, you could say. Yokai aren’t neatly categorized like Kappa (yokai said to live near water) or Tengu (yokai said to live in mountains with supernatural powers). Each one is completely different. So, I figure out countermeasures based on the situation. Our school, the Banzan style, tends to solve things pretty forcefully. Other schools might use things like Feng Shui or formations (jin). For example, a job my master did recently involved getting rid of a bad Zashiki-warashi-like thing (a child-shaped yokai said to haunt houses). He just slapped a bunch of ofuda (talismans) everywhere and burned the house down (lol). Yeah, it’s effective quickly, but it’s rough.

Ofuda: Paper or wooden talismans issued by shrines or temples, bearing the names of deities, symbols, or scriptures. Used as protective charms against misfortune or for prayer fulfillment.

[21]>>19 Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend this job. In yokai manga and stuff, characters often interact with them, but it’s not like that in reality. It’s basically like trading your lifespan for money.

[23] By the way, about the ofuda and stuff, we don’t make them ourselves. We ask highly virtuous, important people to make them. They’re really expensive.

• [25] Do you guys have sports days in graveyards at night?

[26]>>25 Not so much anymore (lol). Apparently, people in this line of work used to moonlight as grave robbers back in the day, so maybe they did have sports days in graveyards.

• [27] Where are yokai usually found? In my mind, it’s places like Kyoto, Izumo, Tono. As someone from Tohoku, the idea of them being in Tono feels romantic.
• [28] My bangs always stand up like an antenna. Could I be sensing yokai energy?
• [30] Are yokai all enemies? Aren’t there any friendly ones?
• [31] Are things like Kunekune or Hasshaku-sama from scary stories considered yokai?

[32]>>27 It’s hard to explain, but the ones in places like that are probably those that the Emperor of the time made proper contracts with through Onmyoji and such. Unlike foreign countries where dynasties change often, Japan has almost always had the Imperial family, and that’s why. Apparently, things get pretty bad without the Emperor’s authority. Actually, when I work, I carry a picture of the Emperor (lol). They’re in other places too. Usually, those are the dangerous, stray ones.

Emperor/Imperial Family: Japan’s hereditary monarch and their family. Historically, they also held the role of the highest priest in Shinto, possessing spiritual authority related to the peace and order of the country.

Onmyoji: A position in the Japanese imperial court from ancient to medieval times. Experts based on Yin-Yang and Five Elements philosophy, involved in astronomy, calendar making, divination, and even sorcery and rituals.

[33]>>28 No (lol). It’s not really ‘yokai energy,’ more like you feel it on your skin when they’re around. It’s something you get used to. I’ll share an episode after I finish my sit-ups. >>30 It’s not really like they’re all enemies… maybe they don’t even have the concept of ‘enemy’. The bad ones are like pests, just being there and causing trouble (haha). You might sense malice, but it’s just part of their nature. Apparently, people used to get help from things like Shikigami-sama, but that’s become impossible recently. The biggest reason is that the Imperial family hasn’t been renewing the contracts, or rather, they can’t anymore. Probably because so many people died in the war, and those traditions got lost. >>31 Just reading the stories briefly, I can’t really tell. But Hasshaku-sama sounds like a yokai.

• [34] Is there a connection between shrines and yokai? Is Oinari-sama a type of yokai? Is it different from Onmyoji? Can Shikigami really be used continuously?

Oinari-sama: The deity enshrined in Inari shrines, widely worshipped in Japan, or the foxes considered their messengers. Generally worshipped as gods of grain fertility and business prosperity, but sometimes also objects of fear.

• [36] Can you do this job because you have spiritual sensitivity?

[37]>>34 Some shrines are definitely related. As for Oinari-sama, Wikipedia actually has a lot of detailed info (lol). Surprisingly so. That reminds me, you know the nine-tailed fox? It’s portrayed as the epitome of evil foxes, but based on the descriptions, it really should be a good fox…

[39]>>34 It might be a bit different from Onmyoji. Those types of schools have proper logic, like “If you do this, then this will happen, so you should do this.” But our school is rougher, more like, “Based on past experience, doing this should work! No guarantees though!” >>36 Actually, I think I have less spiritual sensitivity than average. You can substitute with tools even if you don’t have it. Having it is often more dangerous.

• [41] Don’t you have a non-human partner like in manga?

[42]>>41 Nope (lol). I don’t have many friends, so I want to get a pet, but my master told me, “Don’t, it’s dangerous.” Apparently, animals can bring harm too. Also, I try to keep my personal belongings to a minimum.

• [43] I don’t believe in yokai at all, but is there a chance something like that could appear before me?
• [45] Are there things we should be careful about in daily life? Things not to do, places not to go?

[46]>>43 Well, I don’t know your situation, so I can’t say for sure, but it’s better not to wander around too much after dark.

[48]>>45 When you drink water at night, maybe don’t drink what’s already in the cup. Get fresh water from the tap. There are other things, but the most important thing is probably not to walk around outside late at night.

• [49]>>31 Kunekune was made up on 2ch (an online forum)…

[50] Sorry. Finished my sit-ups, gonna take a bath. When I get back, I’ll tell a longer story or something.

• [51]>>37 Thanks for the reply. I haven’t checked the wiki for Inari gods, so I’ll look later. Can I ask a few more questions? In manga and stories, big shots in government or business often rely on occult powers. Does that happen in reality? Also, how do you make a living? If that’s your job, where does the money come from?

[54] I’m back. >>51 Like I wrote before, I get paid pretty well for the jobs. But because of the nature of the work, I live a pretty simple life. I’m not supposed to get attached to belongings, so even if I buy manga or books, I sell them right away. I use a computer, but I change it often. I try to use cheap phones and switch them out regularly.

[55] What kind of stories do you guys like? Shorter ones better?

[66] Sorry if my wording is weird sometimes, I only finished junior high.

• [87] Interesting. Tell us the scariest experience you’ve had.

[89] I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll answer questions here and there if you have any. >>87 The scariest one, maybe colored by memory, is probably my own story from when I was little. It’s a bit long, so maybe later tonight when I have time.

[94] Okay, got some time now, so maybe I’ll tell a longer story. The story of why I started this job. Well, the first half is mostly about my grandpa, so I wasn’t directly involved. The second half is where the consequences came back to me. It’s about when my grandpa was a kid. During the war, because of the air raids, young children and women were evacuated to the countryside, right? My grandpa was about 12 or 13 then, and for the evacuation, he went to stay at his paternal grandma’s house.

[95] My grandpa was kind of a rough-and-tumble kid, more of a city boy, but he quickly got used to the countryside and made friends. Since it was wartime, food wasn’t plentiful, so he and his friends apparently used to catch rabbits and tanuki (raccoon dogs) around the area and roast them to eat.

• [96] Looking forward to it.

[97] There were various ways to catch them, but my grandpa and his buddies apparently swiped several of those big pincer-like traps that local hunters used to catch animals by the leg, and they’d reset them elsewhere. Kids were forbidden from going into the mountains because it was dangerous, but during that time, most able-bodied men had gone to the army, and there was no one to watch them. So, if they slipped away while helping with farm work, they could easily get into the woods.

• [98] So, what happened?

[99] Grandpa, being active, to put it nicely, apparently ditched farm work to go play in the mountains. Of course, his grandma scolded him when he got back, but he didn’t learn his lesson and often went into the mountains to play or sometimes catch animals for a BBQ. This was supposedly around September. One day, grandpa went into the mountains, checking the traps he’d set on the way, and found a huge cat caught by the leg. Its fur was apparently slightly reddish. Grandpa was thrilled, thinking he’d get more meat, but then he heard footsteps behind him.

[100] Looking back, it was one of the few hunters left in the village. This guy was apparently a real jerk, sometimes stealing kids’ catches, saying things like, “No way a kid caught this,” and would often rat them out if he saw them playing in the mountains. Grandpa thought, “Uh oh, here comes trouble. If he sees this cat, he’ll definitely take it.” Deciding, “Better let it go than give it to that jerk,” grandpa released the trap from the cat’s leg and shooed it away, trying to scare it off. Then, the cat, realizing grandpa meant no harm, looked at him with teary eyes as if in gratitude, and ran off into the woods.

[101] Then the mean old hunter arrived. Hunter: “Hey, see anything?” Grandpa: “There was a cat, but it got scared when you showed up and ran off.” After hearing that, the hunter figured, “The cat’s injured, it can’t have gone far,” and hurried off chasing the cat. Grandpa went home for the day after that.

[102] About a month later, it was October according to the old lunar calendar, the time of Kannazuki (the month without gods). Well, as you all know, Kannazuki is when the gods supposedly head to Izumo, but most yokai aren’t that high-ranking, so for them, it’s like New Year’s. They apparently gather together. That might sound cute, but it’s more sinister. Old tales say people avoided mountains during the 10th lunar month. I wouldn’t want to go either. But grandpa didn’t believe in superstitions at all and still went into the mountains. By then, though, it had started snowing a little, and his grandma told him, “It’s dangerous, don’t go to the mountain anymore.” But grandpa thought, “Just one last time,” and went into the mountain anyway.

Old Calendar: The lunisolar calendar based on the moon’s phases. Officially used in Japan until the adoption of the solar calendar (Gregorian) in 1873, it still influences seasonal events.

Kannazuki: Another name for the 10th month of the old Japanese calendar. Legend says the gods from all over Japan gather at Izumo Taisha Shrine (in present-day Shimane Prefecture) for a conference, leaving other regions godless. Conversely, in the Izumo region, it’s called “Kamiarizuki” (the month with gods).

[103] So, the day after grandpa came back from the woods. Since it was the 10th lunar month, it was probably actually November or so, and must have been quite cold. Snow had piled up on the ground, and you can easily imagine how chilled to the bone you’d get standing outside for a while, even bundled up. On a day like that, suddenly, my grandpa went stark naked, as if he’d gone mad, and started rolling around in the snowy fields of the village, laughing hysterically. Of course, the villagers tried hard to stop him, but the crazed grandpa was unnaturally strong, and even 3 or 4 adults couldn’t hold him down. The villagers knew grandpa often went into the mountains, and seeing him thrashing about, they got scared. Superstitious old folks started saying things like, “Maybe he’s been cursed by a Yamahijiri or Ogori-sama or something like that,” and ended up just surrounding grandpa and watching helplessly.

[104] After a while, they called a doctor, but of course, the doctor couldn’t examine the thrashing grandpa. Grandpa’s grandmother was wailing, “How could this happen to my grandson?” Eventually, some adults took pity, ganged up on grandpa, subdued him, tied him up with ropes, and carried him into a room. The doctor examined him there, but couldn’t find anything wrong. They ended up deciding, “Maybe an acquaintance of the doctor can help,” and decided to call that person.

[105] Getting scared of the forum posting limits (lol). Anyway, the person they called was someone involved in that kind of stuff. First, they observed grandpa’s condition, thought for a bit, then had a large amount of ginger water made by boiling ginger. They dumped a ton of salt into it and forced grandpa to drink it. By then, grandpa was tied up on a futon, his face deathly pale, probably from the cold, yet he was sweating profusely. His grandma, worried sick, immediately followed the instructions and forced the heavily salted ginger water down his throat. Suddenly, grandpa’s eyes flew wide open, he sat bolt upright, and started vomiting with a “Waaack!” But what came out wasn’t digestive fluids or undigested food, but thick, black, sludgy stuff. It wasn’t very watery and smelled incredibly foul. The person who’d been called set fire to it and burned it. After that, grandpa became weak but regained his sanity. By the way, the salted ginger water trick is actually recommended. Good to drink after visiting graveyards and stuff.

• [106] Interesting. Please continue.
• [107] Sounds surreal but interesting.
• [108] Gotta make that salted ginger water myself now.
• [109] Do you have to throw up the salted ginger water? I can vomit without sticking my fingers down my throat, so maybe I could manage.

[110] When grandpa woke up, the person calmly asked him what had happened yesterday and today. Grandpa started talking about what happened on the day it snowed lightly. Since the snow was starting to pile up and the mountain would soon be completely inaccessible, grandpa had secretly gone into the mountain one last time to see if he’d caught any game. But none of the traps had anything. Getting a bit desperate, grandpa searched until dusk, but still nothing. Resigned, cold, and hungry, he decided to roast the potatoes he’d filched for lunch and then head home. He headed towards a relatively dense part of the woods. It was an area he didn’t usually go to, but it wasn’t that far, and maybe he thought it would be easier to find firewood where there were more trees since it was winter. Then, he heard a cheerful voice from behind.

[111]>>109 Well, you can vomit it out, or just keep it down, I think. Apparently, if there’s something bad inside you, you’ll naturally throw it up.

[112] Grandpa was startled. It was getting dark by then, and someone suddenly called out to him in the woods. Being from the old days, grandpa had some superstitious beliefs and almost screamed. But he quickly realized who was behind him. It was that mean old hunter again. The hunter acted overly friendly, putting his hand on grandpa’s shoulder and saying things like, “It’s late, I came looking for you. Let’s go home quickly.” Grandpa felt a bit creeped out by how overly familiar the hunter was being, shook off his hand, and said something like, “I’ll go home when I’m ready. Who’d want to go home with you?” Hearing that, the hunter seemed strangely agitated and said, “It’s late, the mountain is dangerous. Let’s hurry home,” trying to forcibly drag grandpa back towards the path home. Since grandpa usually didn’t get along with the hunter and disliked him, he ran away from him.

[113] Being in the mountains and the hunter being relatively old, grandpa managed to lose him quickly. Suddenly, he felt chilled all over. He hadn’t felt that cold just moments before. Did running around cool him down? He got irritated, thinking, “This is all that old man’s fault.” Still cold, hungry, and tired, he decided to roast the potatoes after all. He looked around for a dry place to start a fire and found a small clearing in the woods. Perhaps because it was open, all the snow had melted, and in the middle was a large, broken tree. The tree looked very old, its inside rotten but quite dry. There was a small hole near the base of the roots. Grandpa thought, “This hole is perfect for starting a fire,” and happily stuffed dried branches and leaves into it and lit a fire.

[114] After a while, smoke started billowing out of the hole. Just as grandpa thought, “Alright, time to warm up!” he heard animal squeaks like “Chi, chi!” coming from the hole. Looking closely, a creature resembling a rat shot out from the hole. It was hard to see clearly through the smoke, but it looked like a slightly large squirrel was there. Squirrels weren’t that rare in the mountains, and grandpa had eaten various mountain creatures before. Being cold and hungry, he thought, “Oh, perfect timing, some meat right here!”

[116] So, grandpa quickly stomped on the squirrel trying to escape, killed it, and tossed it into the fire. Then, he heard lots more “chi, chi” squeaks coming from inside the hole. Thinking, “Wow, there are quite a few in there, I’ll get a full meal,” he stuffed a bunch more branches and leaves into the hole, partially blocking it to prevent escape. About 10 minutes later, the animal noises from the hole stopped, but around then, the smell of burnt meat drifted on the smoke. Grandpa had actually roasted and eaten rats and squirrels before. But this smell didn’t belong to either of those; it was incredibly foul.

[117] Thinking, “That’s weird,” grandpa used a stick to poke around inside the tree hole and found about a dozen animal carcasses. Looking closely, they were weasels. Weasels have terrible meat quality, very stringy, and smell awful, so not even hunters, let alone anyone with a little mountain knowledge, would eat them. Plus, like foxes, weasels are often said to shapeshift and haunt people. They’re one of those creatures you don’t want to mess with. Apparently, the one that escaped first was a baby weasel, small enough to be mistaken for a squirrel. Grandpa thought, “Ugh, what bad luck,” suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck, got creeped out, and rushed home, leaving the potatoes behind.

[118] Hearing this story, the person who was called—in our line of work, we call such a person a “Johan” (助搬, helper/transporter)—also felt like, “Ah, this is impossible.” Still, when grandpa and his grandma pleaded tearfully, the Johan said, “Well, I don’t know the details yet, but if it was just ordinary weasels he killed, they shouldn’t have the power to curse a human to death. But for things to get this bad, there was probably something else besides the weasels in that tree hole, and that something is haunting him.” As I keep saying, the good thing about yokai is that they aren’t usually persistent. But based on the story, if that yokai was already killed, it would emerge as a vengeful spirit (Onryo), which is outside our expertise. It’s outside the natural order of things, so you can’t reason with it or manage it with the Emperor’s authority. Plus, if it’s a type of weasel yokai, weasels are extremely vengeful. Not only would the person responsible die, but harm would likely come to those around them too. The Johan, fearing getting caught in the crossfire, refused to help.

[119] Rereading my writing, sorry if this is confusing. The last time I wrote anything long was my summer vacation book report in junior high (lol). Anyway, after much pleading, the Johan said, “I can’t do this alone, so I’ll call for backup. Please wait one day.” That day was apparently hell for grandpa; he spent the whole day vomiting that strange black substance. Meanwhile, the Johan called his friend, in this case, called a “Kyohan” (响搬, resonator/transporter). The next night, the two of them attempted to resolve the situation.

[120] The ritual was decided to be performed late at night. The reason rituals are done at night, I recall, is supposedly out of maximum respect for the yokai. Yokai and humans are equal, and “yokai extermination” isn’t really accurate. The job is originally more like a civil court, negotiating and settling things with yokai. There’s a story about me getting into trouble for looking down on yokai, but let’s leave that for now. When night fell, the Kyohan and Johan poured urine all over each other. This is one of the weird parts of yokai extermination. Shinto priests purify themselves, but we have to do the opposite and get dirty. Don’t know why (lol). They extinguish all lights in the room and place a candle on the east side. Then, the Kyohan strikes a percussion instrument (forgot the name, don’t use it much) at regular intervals. Meanwhile, the Johan continuously lightly slaps grandpa’s face. The sound of the instrument echoes in the room, and eventually, the candle flame flickers out. When the echoing sound seems to come from a different location, it’s a success. Then, it’s time to negotiate.

• [121] Cheering you on.

[122] Once the negotiation time started, grandpa apparently suddenly rolled his eyes back and began shaking violently. The Kyohan stopped playing the instrument, moved the extinguished candle to the center of the room, and relit it. There are some finer details here, like lightly pricking grandpa’s ring finger with a needle to draw a little blood, but I’ll skip those. Then, they recite something like a poem, the general meaning being, “Thank you for coming! Please, sit down and rest first. How about some fruit to start?” Around then, thump, grandpa violently slammed his hand on the floor while shaking. Even a novice like me knows this: this poem-like thing is small talk, like when companies negotiate, asking “How have things been lately?” If they won’t even listen to that, the situation is extremely bad. It’s definitely better to give up and run, but the two present decided to try and continue.

[123] As I should have mentioned, this kind of work often relies heavily on brute force. The first proposal offered was basically, “Take grandpa, but please spare the other humans.” The “take” here is also a bit nuanced, meaning they ask the yokai exterminators to be forgiven and allowed to leave, and for the yokai to hold off until they’re gone, killing grandpa in a way that looks like an accident rather than such a blatant curse. Basically, “Do as you please, just don’t make it obvious.” After saying that, the candle in the center of the room went out. As long as the candle is lit, it’s a sign they’re still willing to negotiate, but if it goes out, it’s really bad. You have no idea what might happen next.

[124] Then, grandpa started thrashing about, letting out horrible screams. Moreover, a nasty presence filled the room. Specifically, it felt like dozens of people were crammed into the small room, even though only the Kyohan, Johan, and grandpa should have been there. Left with no choice, the Kyohan and Johan decided to forcibly disengage using brute force. The Johan took a pre-prepared straw doll with grandpa’s name written on it, stuck the needle used to prick grandpa’s finger into it, poured dog’s blood over grandpa, and dragged him out of the room. During this, the Kyohan beat the instrument furiously and recited a poem that served as a sending-off chant.

[125] Sorry, gotta run an errand, I’ll be back later.

• [126] Waiting for you!
• [127] >>120 > At night, the Kyohan and Johan pour urine all over each other. > > This is one of the weird parts of yokai extermination. Shinto priests purify themselves > but we have to do the opposite and get dirty. Don’t know why (lol) ↓ > The job is originally more like a civil court, negotiating and settling things with yokai. As a resident of the occult forums, here’s my amateur speculation. Maybe it’s about aligning your position with the yokai? Making it visually obvious, not just relying on human feelings. The negotiation content is surprisingly logical, which is interesting (though, of course, it’s different from the perspective of the possessed human). >>1 Don’t worry about the writing. The content is fascinating, and I’m enjoying it. Looking forward to the rest.
• [133] Is it even clear if they are humanoid or beast-like? Something I saw once when I woke up in the middle of the night, but I have no idea what it was—a tangible, white, distorted spiral-like thing. Only saw it once, and nothing happened afterwards. Sleep paralysis just brings auditory hallucinations, no real harm. Probably just the common state where the body is asleep but the mind is awake.
• [134] Curious about the continuation.

[136] I’m back. Gonna take a bath now, will write after that.

• [137] Welcome back! Looking forward to it.
• [140] >>133 I don’t think that was anything bad. It’s the kind of thing spiritually sensitive people sometimes see.

[141] Well, anyway, the Kyohan and Johan managed to protect grandpa and hold out until morning. When morning came, they made grandpa drink ginger water again, this time surrounding him with a shimenawa (sacred rope) soaked in saltwater. Exhausted from the ordeal, grandpa slept soundly within the enclosure. Truthfully, protecting someone like this can be quite simple, but it’s not a fundamental solution, and the rope has to be kept constantly wet, or it’s useless. The reason they didn’t do this from the start is due to karma, or cause and effect; originally, grandpa was the one at fault. They wanted to let the weasel (yokai?) bully him a bit, then plead at night, “Look, you’ve tormented him this much already, please forgive him.” But the other party’s attitude was terrible, giving them no time for that. While grandpa slept, the Kyohan, Johan, grandpa’s grandma, the village chief, and others held a strategy meeting.

[142] For now, the opponent was confirmed to be a weasel yokai, undoubtedly an Itachi Nyudo. The suffix “Nyudo” (入道) is common and is a kind of honorific, like “-san”. “Nyudo” means “one who has entered the path (Dogyo),” and “Dogyo” (道行) can be thought of as years of training, or the spirit put into training. When refusing a job, one might sometimes say, “This is beyond my Dogyo.” Anyway, this Itachi Nyudo wasn’t necessarily a super-powerful weasel itself. Maybe it was something else entirely, but it was very close friends with the weasels. Perhaps on the day grandpa burned them, it was Kannazuki, and they were all gathered having fun when grandpa committed arson and wiped them out.

[143] From the weasels’ perspective, they hadn’t done anything wrong and were suddenly killed, so naturally, they’d be furious. Negotiation was impossible, and probably even cursing grandpa to death wouldn’t satisfy them. Maybe the whole village could be annihilated, or something like that. Everyone was stumped about what to do. Then, the Johan suggested, “According to grandpa’s story, he met that mean old hunter that day. Let’s ask him if he knows anything.” But when they called the hunter over and asked, he insisted, “I didn’t climb the mountain the day before.”

[144] At that, the Johan had a realization. “It seems something else is involved in this matter. Maybe we can find a clue to the solution from that direction.” So, they woke grandpa up and asked him various things like, “Have you had any other recent encounters with animals?” or “Has anything strange happened?” but nothing came to mind. Finally, he remembered the story about rescuing the cat.

[145] Someone give me a cute cat picture.

• [146] >>145 What’s this all of a sudden (lol).
• [147] >>145 What’s going on (lol).

[149] A little introduction about cats here. Well, maybe you guys like Bakemonogatari or Neko Musume, but probably the most famous cat mystery is the saying “Cats have nine lives.” And that’s where cat-related yokai get tricky. Unlike other yokai, once they attach themselves to you, they can be very persistent. Though, they don’t usually try to actively engage with humans much. Anyway, after much thought, the Kyohan and Johan decided to erect a Chomeihai (長命牌, longevity tablet/plaque) for the cat.

[150] Basically, they decided to enshrine the cat as a deity. Then, if the cat was truly involved, it would think, “Huh? I’m being worshipped as a god? Why?” and should come to investigate. They decided to try negotiating with the cat then. Well, I don’t really understand the Feng Shui aspects, so I’ll skip that part. Anyway, they set up the plaque for the cat, arranged stones and wood, turning grandma’s house into a sort of makeshift shrine. By the time they finished, the sun was setting again, and it felt like the final showdown.

[152] Irrelevant, but people really make threads like this, huh? When night came, they repeated the previous night’s procedures, but this time, grandpa was properly protected inside the rope circle. When the eastern candle went out, the rope started drying out incredibly fast, so they kept dousing it with saltwater. The surroundings became pitch black, but the room felt filled with the breathing of over a dozen entities, and the air grew heavy and tense. Just as they thought, “We’re in danger too if this continues,” grandpa suddenly sat up. His eyes seemed to glow strangely in the pitch-black room.

[153] You might understand this a bit here, but protections like this only work when the opposing side has malicious intent. Actually, most yokai harm people innocently, without awareness, so these kinds of defenses often don’t work. Seeing this, the Kyohan and Johan thought, “Yes! Here it comes!” They moved the candle to the center of the room and relit it. The flame flickered violently, threatening to go out any second, but it didn’t. Whether due to the light or something else, the shadows of many people seemed to appear in the room.

[154] At that point, the Kyohan stopped chanting the poem. Furthermore, the Johan removed all the ropes around grandpa, and the two of them quickly left the room. Then, they told the grandma, “If grandpa is still alive tomorrow morning, that’s a relief for now. But he probably shouldn’t leave this village much anymore. Never go near the forest again. Enshrine the cat’s Chomeihai in the house, and every night, place a little food and plenty of water before it. Make grandpa drink that water the next day,” and gave many other instructions before hastily leaving the village during the night.

• [155] So they have their own kind of logic, huh?

[156] Personally, I thought those two were pretty smart. If grandpa had died after all that, they probably couldn’t have done anything more, and maybe they would have become the next targets. So, escaping while the attention was still focused around grandpa was the right move. Yokai, except for famous ones, tend to avoid getting close to the Kanto region, so they might be safe if they went that far. Though, it was dangerous with the air raids during the war. And that night, the candle in grandpa’s room stayed lit, apparently flickering out just as dawn broke.

[157] Well, that’s pretty much my grandpa’s story. Next comes the story of his grandson, me. As for what happened after, the war ended around the time grandpa entered junior high. His parents died in air raids or something, so grandpa ended up staying at his grandma’s house. Nobody knows what exactly happened in that room that night. Maybe the yokai were having a sports day (lol). Anyway, his grandma was apparently quite wealthy, and the house was large, so he grew up there. Because of the weasel incident, he had trouble finding a wife, but he married a woman from the village quite late in life and had a child. Then, the year after the child was born, he died in a landslide. That child grew up and became my father. Well, I’m tired today and want to sleep early, so maybe I can stop here for now?

• [158] >>157 Thanks for your hard work. Looking forward to tomorrow.
• [160] Thank you for your hard work. Looking forward to it, but please prioritize yourself and take it easy. Good night.
• [162] What was the cat picture about in the end?
• [179] Caught up. This is interesting. I wonder if humans would lose easily if they fought head-on like in manga.

[203] Finished tidying up, so I have some free time to write. This is about the first yokai-related incident I experienced, probably the most dangerous one, from when I was in junior high. My grandpa died in a landslide, but his wife, my grandma, survived. By that time, grandpa’s grandma had also died from illness quite a while ago, so my grandma raised my dad all by herself. The small village settlement merged with other villages and gradually developed into a small town. Still the boonies, though. My father grew up there normally. My grandma honestly didn’t believe much in superstitions. That’s probably why she could marry my grandpa, who was said to be cursed. So, she neglected worshipping the cat for a while. But every time she did, my father would get terribly sick, so she started strictly observing the rules.

[205] I have absolutely no spiritual sensitivity, but my father seemed to have a little. When he was little, he apparently often drew pictures of pitch-black, shadow-like figures. When grandma asked him, “What’s this?” he always answered, “There are lots of them outside the window.” Hearing that, grandma always thought, “Ah, the weasels still haven’t given up on revenge.” Partly because of that, my father was a very withdrawn and quiet person. Basically, bad at communication. He wasn’t very active, matured early, and knew about grandma’s hardships. So, he always faithfully followed what grandma told him and never even thought of going near the forest.

• [206] Oh, good evening!
• [208] Oh, you’re here!

[209] Perhaps because of that, my father grew up healthy. After graduating from the local high school, he got a job in the Kanto region. Of course, he moved the cat’s shrine-like thing with him. There, he fell in love, got married, and then had me. However, my mother, seeing my father perform mysterious rituals every day, worried he might be involved in some religion, but my father was stubborn and refused to stop. A few years later, I was born.

Kamidana: A small altar set up within Japanese homes. A shelf for enshrining Shinto deities, especially the household guardian deity (Ujigami) or talismans (ofuda) from revered shrines.

[210] Three years after I was born, my younger sister arrived. Then, every year during Obon (a Buddhist festival honoring ancestors), we were supposed to return to my father’s hometown, that town. Following my father’s instructions, I performed something like a ritual every day. I mean, I’d been doing it since I was little, it was a habit, more like, “Wait, other people don’t do this?” Since it was a small town in the countryside, almost all the families knew each other, so during these visits, kids from different houses often played together. However, when everyone went bug catching in the mountains or playing in the river, my sister and I were always stopped by grandma and father, told, “Don’t go.” Seeing kids our age having fun doing those things made me really want to join.

[211] Well, we also had my mother’s family home, so we didn’t go back there every single year. The incident happened when I was in my second year of junior high and my sister was in sixth grade, during a visit to that town. The neighborhood bully-type kid decided we should sneak out at night and do a test of courage at the nearby graveyard. Even at that age, my father had strictly forbidden me from walking around at night, so I was quite drawn to the idea. After some persuasion from friends, I ended up agreeing to go. My sister overheard the plan and said she wanted to go too.

• 212 bump.

[213] My sister and I decided to sneak out after our parents and grandma went to sleep. As we headed for the entrance, suddenly, the cat’s Chomeihai, which was displayed on the shrine-like shelf, fell onto the tatami mat with a loud crash. I was in a hurry then and didn’t pay much attention. Why would it make such a loud noise falling on tatami? Now it seems a bit strange. Maybe it was trying to warn us. Could have just been blown by the wind, but it feels too coincidental. However, at that moment, my sister and I quickly put the Chomeihai back, relieved that our parents and grandma hadn’t woken up from the noise.

Tatami: Traditional Japanese flooring mats. Made with a core of rice straw (wara) covered with a woven rush grass (igusa) surface. They have a distinct texture and smell.

• [214] Continuation soon?

[215] >>214 Sorry, was just thinking about my sister for a bit. From there, all the kids met up and headed to the graveyard. There were about five or six of us. The graveyard wasn’t that big, and the test of courage was simple. At the very back of the graveyard, there was a single, very old-looking grave with no name inscribed. Pre-placed colored chopsticks were there as markers, and we had to go one by one and retrieve one. My turn was third from the start, and my sister’s was the second to last. When my turn came, I went, got the marker without any issue, and came back. I have surprisingly zero spiritual sensitivity, so I didn’t feel or see anything. Then, it was my sister’s turn. She headed towards the graveyard alone.

• [216] A bad omen.

[217] And then, something strange happened. We waited quite a while, but my sister didn’t come back at all. It would have been great if T-san Born in a Temple (internet meme reference) showed up then, but unfortunately, he must have been busy. Left with no choice, her older brother (me) and the bully decided to go check. We went into the graveyard, and there she was, around the middle. My sister was acting strangely. She was standing near a tree in the graveyard, facing the tree and muttering something.

[223] The bully and I called out to my sister, but she didn’t respond. We got scared too, so we approached her and turned her towards us. She was still muttering something and trembling slightly. We didn’t know what to do, but decided to take her back to the others for the time being. When the others saw her condition, they got worried too and tried talking to her, but she remained unresponsive. We decided to call off the test of courage. Since the whole thing was a secret from the adults and we didn’t want to get scolded, we decided to sneak back home quietly, naively thinking, “She’ll probably be fine by morning.” I took my sister’s hand and led her home, guiding her to her bed. Luckily, she followed when I gently pulled her hand, so it wasn’t too difficult. After putting her to bed, I was scared too, but afraid of getting scolded if I told the adults, so I just left her and went to sleep myself. Now, I think I understand her state back then a bit. She was probably “Gou’d” (嚣) by a yokai.

[224] “Gou” (嚣), or sometimes written more complexly as “嚻”, what is it? Apparently, it’s how ancient people represented the cry of a yokai using Chinese characters. Nowadays, it carries a deeper meaning, like being startled by a yokai and having a part of your soul taken away. Whether it’s true or not, humans supposedly have Seven Souls and Eight Spirits (Shichikon Happaku), and this state is when a part of that is taken. There are various ways it can be taken, and the countermeasures differ.

[225] Sorry. Getting sleepy again. I thought I slept a lot during the day, but the more I sleep, the sleepier I get. Want to reset my body clock, so I’m signing off here. Will continue when I have time again.

• [227] >>225 Good night. Also, I can’t see the character inside the 「」, can you tell me the reading?
• [230] >>227 The kanji in the quotes is this: 嚣. The one mentioned as “more complexly 嚻” is this: 嚻.
• [236] Is it okay to use kanji like that in names? Seems like it could bring curses or protection… So, was the cat an ally or an enemy? Was the mean old man the first time (when the cat was let go) just the mean old man, and the second time (potato incident) the cat disguised as the old man?
• [238] >>230 Ah, thank you. Couldn’t read either of them, much appreciated.

[240] >>236 I don’t really know about that either. It’s just a story I heard from my grandma, so I don’t even know if it’s true.

[241] Continuing from yesterday. Anyway, I left my sister and got into my futon. My sister and I slept in the same room, with our futons laid out side-by-side on the tatami. Of course, I was worried about her and really scared, so I couldn’t sleep well. After dozing off for a while, I heard a strange noise next to me. It was coming from my sister’s side. I turned my head slightly towards her and saw she was sitting up. At first, I couldn’t tell what she was doing, but staring intently, I realized she was munching on her own hair. Her hair reached her shoulders, and she was tearing it out herself and forcing it into her mouth, as if trying to choke herself with it.

• [242] Scary…

[243] I wanted to scream. But my throat felt completely blocked, and no sound came out. It wasn’t sleep paralysis or anything, probably just extreme shock. I stared fixedly at my sister from there, and after a while, thinking, “Okay, gotta do something,” I quickly turned on the light. Looking at my sister then, I saw blood trickling from parts of her scalp where she’d forcefully pulled out her hair. Her futon was covered in her hair, but mixed in with it was a lot of short hair that didn’t seem to be hers. This time, I screamed for real and went to wake up my parents and grandma.

[247] A lot happened between then and morning. Some scary things, and I was so confused I don’t remember much clearly. My parents and grandma woke up, somehow managed to restrain my sister by force, and tied her up with rope when she kept struggling. Then they questioned me, called the other kids’ houses, etc. They kept asking me, “Are you okay? Do you feel sick anywhere?” When I answered, “I’m fine,” my mother took me to another room, put me in a futon, and told me, “Just sleep for now.”

[248] When I woke up the next morning, my sister seemed much calmer. But she apparently had a very high fever, and when I went to check on her once, she seemed to be suffering badly in her sleep. Grandma called me over and told me the story about my grandpa then. I finally understood why we had been doing those ritual-like things all this time. Then she told me, “Don’t leave the house,” and I spent the whole time in the TV room playing Pokemon. I’m from the Gold/Silver generation, but Pokemon are kind of like Shikigami, aren’t they (lol)? Around noon, grandma’s acquaintances? I’m not sure, but adults from other families we often played with during Obon and stuff gathered at our house. Some were quite elderly. The adults put my sister in a car and took her somewhere.

[249] Random reminder, but everyone, make sure you vote in elections. Don’t forget. Well, they probably took her to a large hospital or somewhere around there. Grandma and I were tasked with staying home. During that time, the room where my sister and I slept became practically a forbidden room; neither grandma nor I tried to enter it. Even when night came, the adults didn’t return. Grandma and I became very anxious, but we didn’t feel like leaving the house to walk to another home. The nearest house was a 10-minute walk, but we didn’t want to go outside and walk the dark roads. Then, we started hearing a scratching sound from behind the fusuma (sliding door) of my sister’s room.

[250] At first, grandma and I were scared, so we pretended not to hear it and didn’t try to check. The sound got progressively worse, and eventually, we started hearing something like voices from inside the room. Like whispering, couldn’t make out the content. We kept ignoring it, but while we were eating dinner, CRACK, the Kamidana shelf that was set up fell over. We rushed to set it right, but the Chomeihai enshrining the cat had cracked.

• [251] Watching.

[252] That was the last straw for grandma and me. We called a friendly neighbor guy who lived nearby to come over. He checked my sister’s room but said there was nothing there. Grandma and I stayed awake until dawn. Around then, my mother called. My sister’s condition had suddenly worsened at the hospital, and she had died. The cause of death was acute pneumonia.

[253] Sorry, hungry, gonna grab some food.

• [255] Huh? She died?

[256] >>255 Yeah. There should be a spoiler near the beginning of this thread… Eating fried rice, wait a sec (lol).

• [257] >>256 Oh, right. Didn’t notice.

[258] I’m back. My parents looked utterly exhausted when they returned from the hospital. Anyway, at that point, I succumbed to sleep deprivation from staying up all night and decided to sleep. But I woke up once in the middle of it to get water and heard the adults discussing funeral arrangements. Then I went back to my room, slept, and woke up the next morning. When I woke up, my body felt strangely heavy, and I was covered in sticky, unpleasant sweat. So, I decided to take a shower, left my room, and headed for the bathroom. I ran into my mother, and the moment she saw my face, she let out a loud scream.

• [259] Welcome back.

[260] She showed me my face in the mirror. Strange red dots had appeared all over my face, looking disgusting. They spread from my face down to my neck. It didn’t hurt or itch, but I just felt incredibly lethargic. I took my temperature, but I didn’t have a fever. I was sent back to my room and ordered to sleep. Then, the adults started discussing things again next door, and after a while, it turned into something like an argument. I was only half-conscious and don’t remember the specifics, but basically, it was about what to do with me. I fell asleep like that but had a strangely vivid and bizarre dream. In the dream, I was standing in front of the refrigerator. In the gap between the fridge and the wall, a human face was half-embedded, screeching at me in a high-pitched voice, “Go away, go away!” But I was extremely thirsty and wanted to get juice from the fridge, so I ignored it and opened the fridge. Inside was a woman’s torso. How should I describe it? Like those mannequins in supermarkets, maybe? Head, feet, and hands missing, just the torso from shoulders to upper thighs? The female body was positioned in the fridge with its genitals thrust towards me. I felt strangely aroused and instinctively took off my pants…

[261] Well, you can imagine the rest. When I woke up, it was night. My lower body felt sticky and wet, which was gross. Thinking, “Ah, did I mess up?” I turned on the light and checked the futon. There was a bit of the usual white liquid, but mixed in with it, there was a large splash of blood.

[262] The red dot things? I checked my body and found they had spread down below my stomach. When I showed the adults, including what was on the futon, my mother hugged me tightly, crying, “It’s okay, it’s okay.” After that, my mother made me some food – chawanmushi (savory egg custard) and okayu (rice porridge), let me eat a little shaved ice, and I played Pokemon for a bit. Then, late at night, our doorbell rang. A middle-aged man came into my room. That was the first time I met my master (sensei).

• [263] Cheering you on.

[264] This seems like a good stopping point for today. Sorry for not making much progress each time. Writing about this part is pretty tough emotionally. Anyway, let’s take a break from that and talk about Shikigami and stuff for a bit.

[265] Like I said near the beginning, I don’t think anyone can actually use Shikigami now. It’s hard to express, and there are parts I don’t fully understand myself, but this is what my master told me. Why can’t they be used? Because it’s likely impossible for humans living in modern Japan. Remember the talk about “Nyudo” and “Dogyo”? You can think of “Dogyo” literally as “walking the path.” Basically, it’s about actually walking the path, experiencing things firsthand, understanding the world, realizing things that can’t be explained in words, and eventually reaching Nyudo. However, the biggest obstacle to achieving Nyudo is, believe it or not, written language.

[266] Well, spoken language too, maybe? Sorry this is so abstract, but take the kanji “一” (ichi, one). It represents “one,” and when you see it, you think, “Ah, one.” But the actual concept of “one” cannot be fully captured by the character “一”. There’s “one item” (ikko), “one sheet” (ichimai), and so on. But once we learn the character “一,” we bind our understanding with the word “one,” hindering our ability to truly comprehend the concept of “ichi.” Apparently, people who sought ancient powers often avoided studying writing from a young age.

• [268] There was a famous Onmyoji on TV talking about Shikigami and stuff. Was that fake?

[269] That’s why animals can achieve Nyudo relatively easily. They lack language and writing, so their perspectives aren’t bound, making it easier for them to accumulate Dogyo. Of course, you can also view this from the perspective that language and writing help bind concepts for better control. But at least from the viewpoint of accumulating Dogyo, humans are at a significant disadvantage compared to other creatures. This is why methods for these kinds of mystical training aren’t often recorded in books. Writing them down in books binds the perspective on the training methods, ultimately making the training impossible. You know how even the same text can have multiple interpretations? Because of this, oral tradition is fundamental, but Japan lost much of that due to the war. In modern Japanese society, people probably rely too much on text and documents when trying to use these things, and their “perspective” becomes narrowed, making it impossible.

[270] >>268 I don’t know. It’s complicated. My master thinks it’s impossible, but maybe there are geniuses who can transcend that and understand. The world is vast. Sorry for talking about difficult stuff despite only finishing junior high. It’s really hard for me when studying with my master. The presence or absence of written language makes a huge difference in the speed of understanding.

[271] P.S.: This is about the West, but some serious practitioners in the old days would blind themselves and deafen themselves for training. Maybe you really need to go that far to see certain things.

• [272] >>271 You can achieve it synthetically. Like having your eyes’ souls taken or possessed by yokai or vengeful spirits. If you try to see with your eyes, you get confused and controlled by another’s consciousness. To escape, you need to see something else entirely.

[273] Okay, I’m going to bed for today. Sorry for the complicated talk right at the end. Good night.

• [274] That was really interesting. Good night.
• [275] Thanks for your hard work. It was fun. Good night.

[278] >>272 How about that? Seems complicated in various ways. Speaking of spirit-taming, many clients who come to us don’t distinguish between yokai and ghosts (rei), so sometimes we get inquiries outside our specialty. Here’s a short story about a woman who once came to my master.

• [279] I think there was something called Mugaryoku (power of selflessness) in Mikkyo (Esoteric Buddhism) training. You need to achieve a state of selflessness, untethered by anything, before you can use Mikkyo techniques.