This year for #ayokaiaday we are looking at the bizarre occurrences which took place at the Ino residence in Miyoshi, Hiroshima, during July of 1749. These occurrences all revolve around a young boy named Ino Heitaro. His story is collected in Ino mononoke roku, a collection of scrolls, books, and legends which collectively form the narrative of a supernatural phenomenon that took place 270 years ago.
On the six day, the gigantic head of an old woman had taken up residence in Heitaro’s woodshed. There was no body attached to it; just a massive head that filled up the whole shed and blocked the doorway.
When Heitaro opened up the door, it glared at him. Most people would probably have screamed and run away at this. Not Heitaro. He took his the smaller of his two swords and stuck it right into her forehead. It slid in effortlessly. The giant head didn’t even wince.
By the next morning, the giant head had vanished. However, his sword was still floating in mid air, right where he had stuck it in her forehead. As he looked at it, it fell to the ground with a clang.
Now THAT would be creepy! Not the head, but finding the sword like that.
I had a thought about yesterday; do you know what a pickling stone actually looks like? They are usually shaped into a disk , sized to fit the pickling tub. In the very old days, they would be considered heirlooms past down the family. I don’t think it would be like the crude stone you show in the picture. Just my opinion.
Again Fascinating! Did I say CREEPY??
You can buy nice, smooth tsukemono ishi, but they’re not all fancy like that by any means. As long as the stone gets the job done, any stone will do. It’s not strange at all to see gnarly looking stones used for pickling weights. (Ultimately, though, I am basing the illustrations off of a few different scrolls. They all depict the stone monster as having a rough body like the one in yesterday’s illustration, which is why I went with one that looks like that.)
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