Tonight’s story features an onryō, the most terrifying of Japanese ghosts. Fans of yokai folklore might even think this story sounds somewhat familiar. There’s a clear connection to one of Japan’s most famous ghost tales, Sarayashiki. Everything from the ghost’s name (Kiku), to the setting (Himeji castle; mentioned later on in the story), to the absolutely cruel treatment of the serving girl, culminating in throwing her down a hole to her death (or a well). Despite the many similarities, this story is different enough that it still feels like a fresh version and not just a retelling.
There are a few parts of this story that were hard to translate, because they breezed over things that begged for more explanation. One part is the various types of torture that Kiku had to endure. The story lists water torture, the torture of the iron bars, the wooden horse, and the torture of the old tree without describing what those are. So just to quickly go over them:
- Water torture includes several unpleasant things, from splashing her with cold water, to holding her head underwater, to wrapping cloth around her face and pouring water over her (i.e. waterboarding).
- The torture of the iron bars involves binding a person’s hands and legs with heavy iron bars and then adding weight to crush them, or twisting them. It’s pretty gruesome.
- The wooden horse involves straddling someone on top of a pointed wooden device and weight their limbs down and letting gravity work its horrors. Yuck.
- And the torture of the old tree is hanging someone upside-down from a tree. From this position you can either beat them like a piñata or allow gravity to make the blood pool in their head and eventually kill them. Choices!
- Lastly, dripping soy sauce into the open wounds is pretty self explanatory. I’m not sure whether the boiling part or the salt in the wounds part would hurt more, but it is exceptionally cruel.
No wonder the girl becomes an onryō!
My favorite part of this story, though, is easy to miss. The appearance of the elderly servant at the end of the story, who orders the younger footmen to pay the girl’s cab fare. At first I wondered why one of the high ranking servants, basically the majordomo, would tell the doormen to pay double the fee for some random, unexpected woman. But the key is in his age: this man is old enough that he has served four generations of Shuri’s family. That is to say, he has witnessed every single member of Shuri’s family for four generations fall pray to Kiku. He knows what’s up, he knows the curse, and he knows there’s nothing that can be done to stop her. So he just tells them to pay the fare, and he alone knows what is coming next. Chilling!
So with that in mind, enjoy this creepy tale!
The Ghost of Kiku, Maidservant of Kumamoto Shuri
Kumamoto Shuri was an exceedingly wicked and cruel man. When he was serving at the castle, he became furious when he discovered a pin in his food, and he called his maidservant Kiku to him.
“Who ordered you to do such a thing? Tell me the truth. If you don’t tell me I will beat it out of you!”
Kiku was astonished. She said, “Oh my, I’ve made a terrible mistake. Earlier, I was sewing a kimono and I tucked the needle into my hair. It must have fallen out and into your food. I did not intend for such a thing to happen. And I was not ordered by anyone to do it. It was a simple mistake, so please forgive me.”
To which Shuri replied, “So you want to argue? Then I shall torture you.”
First he used water torture. Second was the torture of the iron bars. Third was the wooden horse. Fourth was the torture of the old tree. Fifth, he cut open her back and poured boiling soy sauce into the wounds.
However, all Kiku said was, “There’s nothing more that I can say except what I already told you. Please, just fire me!”
To which Shuri replied, “I see I have been too lenient in my punishments as you will not confess.”
He ordered the peasants to bring two or three thousand snakes, then he dug a hole and put Kiku in it, and had the snakes released into the hole.
Kiku told the other servants, “It seems I will not survive this. Please, at least call my mother and let me say goodbye to her.” They pitied her, and called Kiku’s mother and arranged for them to meet.
Upon seeing Kiku’s condition, her mother looked up at the heavens and fell to the ground, and cried out, “In order to serve the samurai we have been prepared for a lot, but to this kind of torture as a source of amusement?! When you die, come back as an onryō and take revenge for this! Never forget it!”
Kiku replied, “Be at ease. I will bear this grudge not just against Shuri’s entire family, but against seven generations of his family! If you don’t believe me, plant sesame seeds in front of the place where I die. They will sprout within three days. Consider this as proof. Now I am free. Goodbye.”
And with that, she bit off her tongue and died.
Kiku’s mother was anxious, and so she planted sesame seeds as instructed. As promised, they sprouted within three days. And sure enough, on the third day, Kiku appeared to Shuri and declared her grudge, listing all of the ways he had wronged her. Then she said, “I’ll be back,” and left.
After that, Shuri began to babble incoherently, spouting confessions of all the evil things he did and acting like a madman. On the seventh day, he died. After that, Shuri began to haunt his descendants to death.
Shuri the 4th served under Matsudaira Tadaaki at Himeji in Harima Province. Kiku’s ghost appeared before a packhorse driver on a road about 8 km away and said, “I am traveling to Shuri’s estate and would like to borrow a horse.”
The horse driver assumed she was just an ordinary person and refused, saying, “It is almost night, and the way home will be long.”
“I will pay extra,” said Kiku. She offered him 160 mon – double the normal price of 80 mon.
When they arrived at Shuri’s estate, Kiku got off the horse and went inside, and the horse driver asked the servants for payment.
“What are you talking about? You didn’t have anybody on your horse!” said the servants.
The horse driver replied, “Just now I brought a lady here. You have to pay her fare!”
As they argued, a voice came out of nowhere. It was Shuri’s elder servant, ordering them to pay the horse driver: “Kiku has come back. Pay the 160 mon fare.”
After that, Shuri suddenly became ill and, possessed by Kiku, began to babble about the various ways in which she had been wronged by his ancestor. On the seventh day he died.
For four generations, they tried various prayers and exorcisms, but none were effective; each time that a successor was named, Kiku came and killed him.