Tonight’s story is rather creepy, for more than one reason. The obvious reason is the creepy ikiryō smiling at Jindayū’s wife Oichi. Yikes! But the other reason is this hazing ritual described in the story.
The term “hazing” is the closest way I could translate this strange tradition/ritual that I only learned about after reading this story. The tradition is called “uwanari uchi” and it means “beating the second wife.” This custom went on from the Heian period through the early Edo period, and it occurred when a husband divorced his first wife and married another. The former wife would send notice to the house of the new wife, and then she would come over and beat her up. The notice would say something like “Prepare yourself accordingly; we shall arrive on such-and-such date to carry out the beating.” Then, on the appointed day, a group of attendants, guards, maidservants, etc. would arrive at the new wife’s residence armed with bamboo swords, burst in through the kitchen, and start beating people, breaking items, damaging property, and so on.
That alone is pretty terrifying, but made even worse when the one doing the beating is a spirit who can curse you with a touch!
The Hazing of Matsuzakaya Jindayū’s Wife
In the Nakadachiuri area of Kyōto’s Muromachi lived a rich widow. She had no children, so she had adopted her younger sister’s daughter and raised her. The child grew into a woman of beautiful features, and men from all over fell in love with her.
In that neighborhood lived a man named Matsuzakaya Jindayū. His wife was a deeply jealous woman, and whenever Jindayū went out she had someone follow him. Jindayū found this so bothersome that he divorced her. After that, he called for the widow’s daughter, and before long she became pregnant. When she was staying in the maternity house, on the seventh night after her child was born, she heard the door to the maternity house slide open and shut twice. The wife, whose name was Oichi, was puzzled by this and went to see. There stood a woman of eighteen or nineteen years, wearing a white kimono with a white obi, her hair loose and disheveled, with thin eyebrows. The woman seemed to be grinning at Oichi, but it was most certainly a hate-filled glare.
Oichi was startled. She screamed and fainted. The others were alarmed and called out to her, trying to wake her, and she gradually came to her senses.
Thirty days passed and the woman again came to Oichi’s bedside and said, “That day we met for the first time. Truly you are a despicable person, and I have come to express my resentment.”
Then she struck Oichi on the back hard and disappeared. From that moment Oichi fell ill, and she eventually passed away. This was a manifestation of the first wife’s jealousy.
