Tonight’s story is another tale about a hitodama. This one comes to us (by way of Negishi) from Hino Yoshū (a nickname of Hino Sukemochi), a samurai of the Hino clan and governor of Iyo Province—who was an eyewitness to this phenomenon. Yoshū is an alternative name of Iyo Province, and since he was governor there, this is where his nickname comes from.

The rowhouse mentioned in the story is a nagaya. These were really interesting compounds that were common in cities during the Edo period, and were somewhat similar to a modern apartment building. Each nagaya had several families living in it, as well as facilities like a shared toilet. The entrance to these compounds would have a gate where everyone’s name was posted (a precursor to today’s hyōsatsu), so you knew who lived there, and the gate would be locked at night for safety and to keep out strangers. They were not luxurious—in fact, the one-room homes were supplied without doors, and when you moved in one of the pieces of furniture that you brought with you would be a front door! There is a really great walk-through model in the Fukagawa Edo Museum in Tokyo (one of my absolute favorite museums) that recreates a section of old Edo and gives you a pretty good feeling of what it must have been like to live in one of these neighborhood complexes.

An Eyewitness Account of a Hitodama Manifestation

When Hino Yoshū was still a young man, a retainer in his household was suffering from a long-term illness and seemed unlikely to recover. Because this retainer had worked closely by Hino’s side and served him directly, Hino even went out to his rowhouse to check on his wellbeing.

One day, Hino went out riding. After dark, he summoned another retainer to accompany him to check in on his ailing retainer on his way back. At the gate of the sick retainer’s rowhouse they discovered a flame, slightly larger than a cigarette butt and resembling the wick of a candle.

“It is not good to have an open flame here. Let us stamp it out,” said Hino. However, as they watched, the flame began to rise and fall about one or two shaku (about 30 to 60 cm) at a time. Before long, it had climbed up to the eaves of the rowhouse and had grown to the size of a teacup.

They felt their hairs stand on end, so they hurried back inside. Sure enough, the retainer died that very night, according to Yoshū.