April 10, 2018 • 35 mins
First things first: You may think Kentucky Fried Chicken is popular in the States, but we've got nothing on Japan. Join the guys as they delve into a story involving baseball, fried chicken, superstition, curses and drunken revelry in today's episode on the Hanshin Tigers and the infamous Curse of the Colonel.
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Speaker 1 (00:24):
Tiger, tiger burning bright in the forest of the night,
what immortal hand or I could frame thy fearful symmetry?
That is an excerpt of a poem called The Tiger
by William Blake. Hi. I'm Ben, Ben, it is I Noel,
and I have a query to pose to you. What
does this poem snippet have to do with today's episode?
(00:48):
I am so glad you asked, Noel. H Oh, before
we go any further, let's have a big hand. Uh,
everybody listening, just go ahead and clap by yourself for
our super producer, Casey Pegrum. It's okay if you don't
want to clap, yeah, you know, just you can snap.
Just give him props mentally, props in such a way
as you feel moved to provide. But Ben, yes, props.
(01:10):
Aside Um, we're talking about tigers today. We are in
a way. We are in a way. We are talking
about the Haunsien Tigers, which is a sports team. We're
also talking about urban legends. Were also talking about a
somewhat romanticized view of the American South, which you know,
(01:33):
you and I both love a big old accent. And uh,
we're talking about Japan and we're talking about a cursonal. Yeah,
the curse of the colonel. And that's not just any colonel.
That is the standard bearer of greasy chicken legs the
world over. As it turns out, Colonel uh Sanders. Does
(01:54):
he have a proper name, Yes, Colonel Harland David Sanders
born in eighteen nine. I think you mean halland David
sounds h Do you mean Colonel halland David Julip Sandals.
Don't you try to out southern me? Bembolan? Oh, I
could chew this act. You know, day a sweet. People
(02:16):
will tune out, people will not have it. We want
to hear, by the way, your best uh Southern accent impression.
If you record yourself, write us a letter and include that.
We'd love to hear it. Absolutely. But yeah, so we
that we were mashing No, this is a mash up episode.
This is a ridiculous history of the mash up episode
wherein we mashed together quite a few themes. You mentioned curses,
(02:39):
we're talking about chicken, we're talking about the South, we're
talking about Japan. Where do we start. Let's start in
nineteen five. How about that. It was a very good year.
It was a very good year, especially for the Hansen Tigers.
They're a baseball team in Japan. You see. They went
on to win the Japan Championship Series, which is the
equivalent of the World Series in Major League Baseball, and
(03:03):
the fans went crazy. And I know, maybe correct me
if I'm wrong then, but I feel like there's sort
of a stereotype out there, the Japanese being very reserved people. Um,
they know how to keep it together and not get
carried away. Shall we say? But this is a great
example of of of a of a stereotype buster, and
that these Japanese sports fans got quite carried away. And
(03:26):
there was alcohol involved to right, Ben, Yes, yes, this
is another episode where we find a group of people
uh misbehaving, perhaps in part due to alcohol, perhaps just
due to passions running high sports fever. Yes, yes, these
drunken revelers took to a bridge in Osaka, the Abisubashi,
(03:49):
Uh we should bridge. We should also note that Noel
and I are not native Japanese speakers. Is true, a
fact that will become increasingly apparent if it has not
already been clear from the jump. I'll throw my hat
into the mispronunciation ring um and saying that the eb
Subashi Bridge is a bridge overlooking the Doton Bori River,
(04:12):
which is notoriously polluted. I'm not sure today if that's
still the case, but back not a very clean body
of water. But that aside, these drunken revelers dove in
kind of or jumped in off the bridge. I'm trying
to picture. Yeah, how how far a jump are we
talking here? Then they jumped. It was a safe enough distance.
(04:33):
It wasn't like jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Don't
do it for kicks, by the way, because you will
break your legs and easily. This was not going to
be a lethal jump. Still, you're not supposed to do it.
Still you're dangerous. It's very much hold my beer situation
is what we would call it today. But they were
jumping in a pattern because the crowd was screaming out
(04:59):
the name of the players on the Tigers, and every
time they yelled the name of one of the players,
someone who looked like that player or was perceived to
look like the player. How do you think this idea
came to the forefront? I just still missed the five
man like, how did they just think of the level
of sophistication. This game must have you know, how did
(05:20):
this happen organically? Yeah, We're not anywhere near this level
of revelry. No, and this is a very specific form
of revelry, almost kind of a ritual that they just
invented out of whole cloth. I'm guessing I've not seen
evidence of this type of thing anywhere else. But yeah,
like you're saying, so every time they I'm guessing the
they were hearing the announcement from the stadium or was
it on a televised broadcast. It was after the games,
(05:43):
so so it sounds like it was people in the crowd.
So the crowd would yell out, you know, third Baseman
Casey Pegram, and every like whoa. And then somebody just
like I look kind of like third Basement Casey Pegram.
They it's my turn to jump off the bridge. So
you had to kind of like take it upon yourself
to go forth when that name was called, would hope so,
(06:03):
because the alternative is that someone else points at a
random person in the crowd and says, hey, he looks
like third Basement Casey Pegram, and then they grab him
and throw him off the bridge. But it appeared to
be um all in good fun until they called the
name of first baseman Randy Bass. Wait, man, that doesn't
(06:25):
sound like a Japanese name. What gives? I'm so glad
you asked, because you and I did a little bit
of research based on that name. It turns out Randy
Bass was an American on the team. Interesting. How did
he find himself playing for a Japanese team? Uh? He
had spent six seasons in Major League Baseball with five
(06:47):
different teams, and then his contract expired, so he expanded
his horizons and they made him an offer he could
not refuse, I imagine, and then he decided to take
up his glove, his mit. He was a baseman, take
up a mit, I guess for the Tigers. He committed
to the Tigers. And we're committing to the bit. Yes, yes,
(07:09):
we really are. But yeah, so here's the issue right immediately,
if if they're going for this, uh, this gag or
this bit that they're committing to, which they were committing
quite hard of having to look like the player in
question whose name is being called. That sort of threw
a wrench into the works there when they called Mr
Bass's name, because you know, there was nobody in the crowd.
I'm guessing from the story at least it seems to
(07:31):
be the case that looked like a big six foot
something American first baseman. And this was a snag for sure,
because you see, when Randy joined Japanese baseball, he became
one of the most powerful hitters in the history of
the game in that country. So with him on their side,
(07:54):
the Tigers shot through the championship. This guy was a
big deal. He was crucial to the game. Yes, so
of course, in this very specific, ritualized revelry, he needed
to be represented, right, someone needed to be thrown off
the bridge in his honor or to jump themselves. Yeah, um,
so what what? What? What is it? What is a
(08:15):
drunken pack of sports fans to do? Ben? I propose
that before we follow the rest of the story, we
bring in an outside factor, a tangent, if you will,
I love it, A tangy, crispy, crunchy tangent. How many
herbs and spices does this tangent contain? Is it eleven?
(08:36):
It's a secret. It is a secret. The number may
not be a secret, but the specificity, yes, spice wise
is one of those things where they probably have two
executives that carry half of the secret each and they
never let them be on the same plane. Like Coca Cola. Yeah,
we're talking about Kentucky Fried Chicken, by the way, We're
talking about Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC as it is
(08:57):
known today, the iconic and white bucket, the vaguely creepy
plantation owner. I feel like the representation got creepy now
big time. You know, they had Darryl Hammond, they had
Norm McDonald do commercials. I think KFC advertising is sort
of going down that same path that Burger King did
years ago with their super creepy king with the you know,
(09:20):
expressionless face kind of looks like a serial killer mask
kind of. Um. The KFC is doing that too with
the colonel. They're sort of doubling down on his creepy
factor because it's it's it's just like, you know, it works,
I guess for like a memorable weird commercial as opposed
to back in the day, where I think it was
sort of like, um, I feel like they shied away
from it, even getting rid of Kentucky in the name.
(09:41):
KFC kind of replaced it because I think they were
shying away from that image, right, because it was a
little problematic. Yeah, like the Learning Channel became TLC when
they said, what are people actually learning on this thing? Right?
That's a little shade, But yes, so KFC. There's probably
one in a town near you if you live in
the United States, right somewhere. It turns out KFC is
(10:04):
phenomenally extraordinarily popular in Japan. The first KFC opened in
nineteen seventy in Japan, and shortly after it opened, the
guy who was the manager of this, Takeishi Okawara, woke
up at midnight and he had a dream that he
(10:26):
had to write down and make into reality. He said,
let's sell a party barrel. A party barrel, you say,
every Christmas? Yes, you can read this. You can read
the full story of this in a great article by
the BBC called Why Japan Celebrates Christmas with KFC by
Eric Barton. Here's the rub Every Christmas and estimated three
(10:49):
point six million Japanese families treat themselves to Kentucky Fried
Chicken for Christmas. It's true, and we're gonna get into
more of these amazing Japanese is phonetic uh kind of
pronunciations for things. I'm just a huge fan of these,
so they created that this became kind of a local
tradition for this original KFC joint. But then the company
(11:11):
realized this was a super smart move to sell Kentucky
Fried Chicken in Japan, So they created this marketing plan
and they called it Kurisamassu niwa Kentucky or Kentucky for Christmas.
I just love kurisa masu. That's fantastic. And these are
spelled phonetically, yes, exactly, um And the idea being that
(11:35):
it's creating a new tradition out of nothing, because even
though there are quite a large number of Christians in Japan,
Christmas is not a nationally celebrated holiday and there's really
no national tradition around it. So these folks at KFC
kind of saw a niche and they filled the crap
out of it, didn't They been, Yes, yes, there was
(11:56):
absolutely no tradition, somewhat of a void a niche, as
you said, Noel, And they they morphed it into more
than just a single bucket of chicken. It didn't include
just the breast and thighs. Now they came with these, uh,
they came with Christmas cakes. They included wine, they had
(12:18):
sides you could You could get the entry box for
around thirty seven hundred yen that's about thirty two bucks,
up to the premium one, which is about hundred yen.
And according to KFC, these Christmas packages alone make up
(12:38):
about a third of the chains yearly sales in Japan,
saying it's phenomenal and you have to like reserve your
package weeks in advance or risk having to stand in
massive lines to get this um. And you know it's interesting.
In this article, they actually talked to a local Atlanta chef. Yes,
I know the guy, Kevin Gillespie. Kevin Gillespie. I've never
(12:59):
been to any of his shawns, but I looked him
up and he seems like really tasty stuff. What's one
of his spots called Revival, that's like a really hot
brunch place, right, Yeah. Yeah, he's a James Beard Award
winning chef and they consulted him for this BBC article
and he had a couple of good quotes. He said,
if you brought a bucket of fried chicken to Christmas dinner, honestly,
(13:19):
I'd be mad at you. Um. And this is interesting
because this is a very American perspective, specifically surrounding Christmas,
because it's all about family, it's all about homemade, uh
comfort food. But in Japan, since there's no official holiday
a k A. Time off work, surrounding Christmas probably about
(13:40):
the best you can do to reserve that KFC party barrel. Right,
And this is not you know, this isn't too crazy
because there's a huge tradition of eating Chinese food from
Christmas here in these states. Right. For example, within the
Jewish community, especially in New York, this came up a
lot during our Chinese Food episode about Chop Suey Houses
(14:01):
in New York. It became a huge tradition for Jewish
families to have a Chinese dinner out on Christmas. Also
because not a lot of other stuff is open. True,
So we do see an analog here. And you may
be asking yourself, uh, Bennels super producer Casey Peckrum, why
(14:21):
why did you guys just start telling me about this granted,
fascinating story of chicken in Japan. We are going somewhere
with this, folks, we promise back to Randy Bass, Okay,
so we're gonna join, We're gonna rejoin our original story
already in progress. It's all coming together, all coming together.
(14:42):
So Randy Bass's name is called Um. These drunken tigers
fans are looking around. They're looking for someone. They don't
see anybody that even remotely resembles this hulking American man
um any living any living person but nearby. This is
not something you see typically in the States, or at
least I have not. Oh that's a good point. Yes,
outside of Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC joints in Japan,
(15:03):
you're gonna find a kind of, I think a little
bit maccabre statue of Colonel Sanders himself leering at the
passers by, daring them to accept the challenge of chicken,
exactly the chicken challenge. And they saw one of those nearby.
It was it was as though it were written in
the stars. They saw one of these nearby, and they goes,
(15:25):
that guy kind of looks vaguely American. And in Randy's defense,
he does not look like Colonel Sanders at this time, right,
there is a little profiling going. He's just also American.
Um did not have a little, uh little little Colonel Beard.
In fact, in the article from How Stuff Works, Ridiculous History,
the Curse of the Colonel. There's a fantastic side by
(15:45):
side comparison. They did both have mustaches, though um not.
You know, Randy's was not pure white and did not
have the accompanying little pointed goatee nor the little what
do you call that a cravat. We have a little
kind of a bow tie thing around. String tie, string
tie exactly. But yeah, so they they uprooted this thing, right,
They just ripped it out of the ground, and then
(16:08):
they carried it to the bridge and they threw it
into the river, and everybody presumably with yeah, and then
I'm guessing there was a current and it just got
carried away, because if these folks were hanging out in
the river themselves and not just up to their necks
in water, I don't think the statue would have sunk
right away. It probably got carried away in the current
(16:28):
of the river downstream and then they lost it. It did. Yeah,
it did apparently go under quickly. That might be due
to current. It's also it's got to be due to
the weight of the statue as well. Probably weighed more
than a person. You think, so I would have I
would ticket sure it just being hollow I don't think
they would have been able to rip it out of
the ground unless it was just kind of a hollow,
plastic shell. That's a good point. You know what, we
(16:51):
need to take an extra credit segment, go to Japan,
get some chicken and investigate. I don't think that's in
the budget, Ben, but we we can talk to management
about it. We'll see. Let's write to the Tigers, because
we're telling a story that they feel needs to be told.
You see, after they threw the statue in and everyone
went yeay, Tigers forever world champions decades and decades went by,
(17:17):
and to date they have never won a championship again.
And the Tigers fans will tell you that this is
not simply a matter of being outplayed or having bad
luck on the field. No, they believe there's something supernatural
at work. They believe there is a curse. Yes, um
(17:38):
and as so what they referred to as I only
saw this printed one place, but it definitely translates correctly
as Kanaru sanda su no no roy or the curse
of Colonel Sanders. Yes, the curse of Colonel Sanders. I
saw that as well. They they believe that by committing
(17:58):
this disrespect will act the entity the the non corporeal
Colonel Sanders in the sky, the demigod of chicken all
Chicken fried has uh has decreed that they will be
punished for this disrespect. And you know, you have to
wonder how much of this is just a joke, right,
(18:19):
and how much people really believe it? Oh well, I mean,
well it falls in line with some other pretty serious
superstitions that the that exists in Japanese culture, which we'll
get to it a little bit. And sports are sports
themselves are very rich soil for superstitions. But after such
a strong showing, I mean, you know, the Colonel definitely
(18:39):
brought down the hammer on them. The Tigers, they just
barely won anything at all. Their best finish was third
in eight six and they finished last a whopping eight times, right,
so it was exceptionally bad. Not just not winning, no, no,
it was it was demoralize. The fans were utterly humiliated,
(19:02):
and they concocted I guess among themselves. How does something
like this spread just by word of mouth? These people
in the fan community, their message boards, what are we talking?
These people are great at improv man, How did they
figure out this ritual so quickly, and then how did
they say? Oh, okay, well, here's the explanation. It also
reminds me one of those things where it's like, I
know what you did last summer kind of scenario where
(19:24):
you and a close group of friends commit a horrible
atrocity and then you are punished for it later and
then you have to figure out how to make it right.
I hope someone feels like they saw the Colonel exactly.
Can't you picture this though? Is this? This should be
a movie and they should This should be a kind
of ring Goo or like the Grudge kind of movie
based around uh conor us Sandy Sue. No, no, that
(19:46):
could be the name of the movie. Yeah, and then
we'll just translate to the Curse of the Colonel for
the American audience. Because they banded together to make this right. Yes,
they said, just like we would imagine a Colonel sand
esque figure. They said, Wilson, justice shall not stand and
into what they You know, they didn't say it with
(20:07):
this othern accent. You don't know, or they did. Maybe
they did. Maybe they were cosplaying as well. So, uh,
they went to search for the statue. They went to
the bottom of the river and attempted to recover it,
and in two thousand and nine they found a piece
of it. I actually read two band that in one
(20:28):
of these attempts, a twenty four year old fan named
Masaya Shita Baba actually drowned. M I read that as well. Yeah, So,
I mean this was no joke. They were they were
this was not a lark. They were out to break
this curse, right, and as you were saying, then they
did find some success. Yeah, and in a way, in
(20:50):
a very strange way, know, this death lead to the
discovery because after the death, the community announced plans to
build a new bridge that would make it more difficult
to jump into the river from and then they began
constructing this in two thousand and four. But while they
(21:11):
were constructing a walkway in two thousand nine related to
this new bridge, that's where they found the They didn't
find all of the statue ites like the torso in
the head and the arms, but not the hands. There
was no mistaking that rictus grin of our pal Colonel Sanders,
even with the decay, that was definitely him. So you know,
(21:33):
they were reasonably overjoyed and decided they needed to find
some of the other pieces. Yes, because what if I
love this horror movie that you just pitched to me.
What if they haven't appeased the angry spirit of the
statue until they assemble it all. You know, they find
the hands, they find the glasses. Uh. Some fans were
(21:54):
worried that until the statue was made whole again, the
Tigers would never win another series. And you know, superstition
and sports in general are super common, even right here
in the States. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you
might be referring to another famous curse, my friend, one
that affects Boston Red Sox fans. The Curse of the Bambino. Yes, yes,
(22:19):
the Curse of the Vambino, where the Red Sox fans
believe that their team was cursed for almost a century
eighty years for trading away legendary player Babe Ruth. Yeah,
they probably just you know, Babe Ruth was really good
and they would have done better if they'd had him.
I but I love them. I love the high dramatic
(22:39):
steaks from a storytelling perspective of a curse. I feel
like I have never encountered a curse. Uh, nor have
I laid a curse upon someone because I'm you know,
I'm actually a really kind person. But I would love
to just be involved in like a curse type situation,
like solving a curse. Would you cur like someone who
(23:01):
really had it coming? Maybe some maybe one of an enemy,
I guess so, but I don't really have enemies really. Yeah,
that's cool and I don't either. I wish you all
could see. No slight eye roll there, but yeah, I
would like to solve a curse, and a lot of
sports fans, of course, would like to do the same.
(23:24):
We had an interesting quotation here and observation from a
sports columnist named Dick Harmon for writing for The Desert News,
who described athletes and superstition this way. Athletes, says Mr Harmon,
by their very nature tend to be superstitious, especially when
it comes to preparing for events. I've seen players wear
(23:44):
the same socks beneath their actual game socks, listen to
the same song or music, eat the same food, hit
the bathroom at the same time before going out on
the court or field. I don't think this is hatched
out of fear, but of comfort, not of jinxing themselves,
but of setting their mine straight. Agreed, Yeah, ritual to me,
is all about getting in kind of a zen state,
(24:06):
you know, where you feel in control of your surroundings
just by virtue of doing something the same way. I
personally am a creature of habit I typically get the
same things to eat at restaurants, and uh, you know,
take the same routes home, even if there's a quicker
route that my map is telling me, I'll typically go
the way that I'm super comfortable with. And to me,
that's a way of kind of doing all I can
(24:28):
in the little way that I can to control my
environment and my chaotic life. Right the vast incomprehensible universe
that cares not which way this great world spins, we
must exercise some control over our existence. Uh. With podcasting,
for instance, you know, I've been doing this a while.
I've got rituals, and we as a cohort collectively a
(24:52):
house of works. A lot of our podcasters have their
own rituals. Chuck used to do a thing, remember with
his cheeks. I didn't know about that one. Now I know.
Robert Lamb has a little squishy dinosaur that he brings
in when the podcasts. Robert Lamb from stuff to blow
your mind, and I personally have been wearing the same
pair of me and he's the entire time we've been podcasting. Yeah,
(25:13):
and I respect you for that. You know, I think
you've you've gone past the area of diminishing returns to
you were cleaning up now, you know. I do watch
them occasionally, I've I've heard that, Yeah, I've heard. I
can't remember why I heard that or how it came
up in conversation, but I do remember hearing that. You're
a very attentive listener, Ben, Thank you, Thank you, And likewise,
(25:34):
my friend, we thought this was fascinating because it's still
in play. Like the Tigers fans will tell you. Did
their fortunes turn around? Though, Ben, that's the that's the
kicker here. Well, we do know we can't predict what
will happen by the end of none can, but we
(25:54):
do know that things weren't completely bleak and dire for
the Tigers, and act we had some good news in
the early two thousand's, that's right. They they returned to
the Japan Series after eighteen years away, and they had
the best record in the Central League. And many of
these KFC outlets as sort of a precaution, I guess
(26:17):
in the area and Kobe and Osaka, they personally uprooted
their Colonel Sanders statues and moved them inside until the
series was over, you know, to guard them against any
potential desecration by over zealous Tigers fans. This is one
of my favorite parts of the story. Now, though, let's
say that you are in uh Let's say that you
(26:39):
are in the area and you want to eat at
this iconic KFC. You can't because it's closed. But let's
say you travel to the KFC headquarters in Yokohama. There,
if you have permission from KFC management, or if you're
a v I P Special guest or you are an
(27:01):
honored employee, you may be allowed to see the rescued Colonel.
And they found most of his parts, right, they found
a lot of them, But you can't. It's not viewable
by the public. That's what's strange to me. Like you can,
you can go in and see the origin of the curse,
but only if you have special permission. Well, I propose
(27:23):
that we pitch our Curse of the Colonel horror movie
too KFC Japan and they could sponsor and it could
just be like a really elaborate commercial for KFC and
maybe we can actually get some some of those chicken
dollars to to make this thing really hit. Also, also,
here's what we'll sell them on it. Well, I'm telling
(27:43):
you it'll be cross brand promotion if they make special
meals that are related to the tigers or to the curse. Yes,
you know with ghost pepper chicken just off the top
of the dome. Why not? Why not? You know what
(28:04):
I've got to say, Man, thank you for this one.
I've really enjoyed today's episode. I did too. And we're
gonna wrap up just with a couple of of of
interesting Japanese superstitions because we mentioned it earlier in the
show that this is a thing and they all have
these amazing names. Um. So, for example, one of them
is it's apparently considered bad luck to cut your nails
at night, and this tradition or superstition is known as
(28:27):
yoru ntsume wakite wak nine um. And apparently this is
tied to the fact that in the olden days, um
there were no lights at night due to lack of electricity,
and people believed that evil spirits would come around to
your home at night, and that when you cut your nails,
(28:48):
because they imbue cutting tools of any kind with a
lot of um power. And that when you cut your nails,
you're creating a sort of a window between worlds. This
comes up time and time again a lot of these superstitions,
and that if you do it at night, you're opening
that window, and one of these evil spirits or accur
you could exit the nether world through that or possess you.
(29:14):
There's there's also the one that happens if a funeral
hearst drives past, you have to hide your thumbs in
a fist. And that's because the word for thumb translates
to parent fingers. So it's symbolically hiding your parents from death.
And if you don't, similar to the way, there's the
old superstition, step on a crack like your mom's back.
(29:35):
This is uh. This is one where you hide your
parents symbolically from death, and if you don't do it,
your parents will die, it's right. And this one is
known as raca yusha kara. Oh yeah, you be will
kakusu um. And then there's one that I think you'll
like ben where you shouldn't whistle at night. Yes, yes, yes,
you shouldn't whistle at night. You're no fui subecky day night.
(29:58):
And this one is more tied to a fun actional thing,
right like like not necessarily supernatural, although it may there
may be some crossover. Yeah, So back in the day
in Japan, whistling was a sign used by burglars and
other ne'er do wells, uh the other good old fashioned
nocturnal scumbags to communicate with each other. So whistling is
(30:19):
associated with intruders, thieves. It's sort of like that urban
legend of like flashing your brights or something and how
that's a sign for gangs or something, or like putting
on your shoes in the power lines or I don't know,
I'm reaching here. There are a lot of unlucky numbers too,
which is fascinating, especially we're we're uh did we ever
talk about this off air? I think there are a
(30:40):
lot of buildings that don't have a fourth floor, Is
that correct? I don't know about that for sure, but
I know in the States there's no thirteenth floor, right, yes, yeah, yeah,
I know that four is an unlucky number because the
word for for ship closely resembles the word for death.
I got you. So, what's a let's what's a good one?
What's an up one? Like a silly one? Yeah, I
(31:00):
don't know. I mean it's silly on the on the surface,
but then it's also kind of morbid. Um. You know,
you're apparently when it's bad weather, when there's lightning and thunder, um,
you are supposed to hide your children's midsections belly buttons specifically. Yeah. Yeah,
that checks out as a as a former meteorologist. And
that's because the god of thunder, ry Jin supposedly would
(31:24):
eat children's entire abdomens or their their midsections. And he
also had a little running buddy named ry Jew, who
would nest himself supposedly in the belly buttons of children
while they sleep, and this could lead to these kids
being struck by lightning. That's right, because ry Gin, in
order to jostle his little familiar, I guess from this
(31:47):
little nest, would shoot him with a bolt of lightning. Right, naturally, right,
this checks out, And then I assume eat the midsection,
So do take care in storms. But as you know,
we are all about self empowerment, not just for ourselves
but for you dear listeners. So you might be asking, Hey,
this curse thing sounds cool. How can I get in
(32:08):
on this? How can I make a wish or make
a curse. We'd like to introduce you to ohyakudo myri. Yeah,
there's a ceremony even called ushi no kuku myri, where
when you visit a shrine during a particular hour, sort
of the Japanese equivalent of the witching hour I'm guessing,
called the hour of the Ox, which is between one
(32:29):
and three am. Um, you can start your very own curse, right, Yes.
All you'll need to do is visit during the hour
of the Ox, bring a straw doll with you, representing
the person who will receive the curse, and use a
long nail to nail the doll to the shrines holy tree.
(32:51):
That's for cursey. That's not for a wish. If you're
trying to wish someone's success, don't don't do that. But
there's a kicker ben because if you are nest making
the curse, then that curse will visit itself on you tenfold.
I added the tenfold part. But you know it doesn't
sound good. No, no, it doesn't. So this these shrines
(33:11):
are powerful symbolically. Maybe we should end on how you
make a wish. So we talked about making a curse,
but we also mentioned making a wish. So to make
a wish in a shrine, you must walk from a
shrines gate to its altar or from the gate to
a main hall one hundred times while praying for your
wish to come true. If you want to increase your odds,
(33:34):
walk barefoot. A little life pro tip there, little life hack. Alternatively,
you can visit the shrine and make one prayer for
your wish to come true each day for one hundred days.
That's the long game. This is only scratching the surface
of some of the fascinating Japanese superstitions we found, and
and granted there are a lot of fascinating US or
(33:55):
Western superstitions as well, But at this point we do
not have a curse associated with Colonel Sanders now. But
you know that could change. Yeah, you know the future.
The future stretches before us, vast and endless, and it's
beautiful possibilities. What are some of your favorite Japanese curses?
Can you think of any that could potentially be as
(34:17):
outrageous and absurd as the Curse of the Colonel. We'd
like to know. You can write to us at Ridiculous
and how Stuff Works dot com. You can hit us
up on social media where we are Ridiculous History on Facebook, Instagram,
and I believe Twitter. And thank you so much for
journeying with us as we stumbled through Japanese phrases. I
feel like we should also thank Casey for this. As always, Casey,
(34:39):
don't go change it. You're amazing. Thanks for being on
the show. He keeps us honest and I didn't. I
didn't notice him wincing super hard during any of those pronunciations. Um,
but sometimes it's hard to I think it might have
been a baseball related wins rather than cases into sports connunciation.
Well maybe not American baseball fair enough anyway. Also, thank
(34:59):
you to Alex Williams for composing our soundtrack YEP, and
most importantly, thank you to you for listening to the show. Um.
We hope you'll join us for our next episode where
we get kind of grisly with it. Yes, we are
exploring gold in one of its most dangerous applications. What
will it be? Tune in to find out in the
(35:22):
meantime on a personal request. Do you guys have any
great chicken recipes or you will want to just send
us pictures of chicken. Please do it now.
Tiger, tiger burning bright in the forest of the night,
what immortal hand or I could frame thy fearful symmetry?
That is an excerpt of a poem called The Tiger
by William Blake. Hi. I'm Ben, Ben, it is I Noel,
and I have a query to pose to you. What
does this poem snippet have to do with today's episode?
(00:48):
I am so glad you asked, Noel. H Oh, before
we go any further, let's have a big hand. Uh,
everybody listening, just go ahead and clap by yourself for
our super producer, Casey Pegrum. It's okay if you don't
want to clap, yeah, you know, just you can snap.
Just give him props mentally, props in such a way
as you feel moved to provide. But Ben, yes, props.
(01:10):
Aside Um, we're talking about tigers today. We are in
a way. We are in a way. We are talking
about the Haunsien Tigers, which is a sports team. We're
also talking about urban legends. Were also talking about a
somewhat romanticized view of the American South, which you know,
(01:33):
you and I both love a big old accent. And uh,
we're talking about Japan and we're talking about a cursonal. Yeah,
the curse of the colonel. And that's not just any colonel.
That is the standard bearer of greasy chicken legs the
world over. As it turns out, Colonel uh Sanders. Does
(01:54):
he have a proper name, Yes, Colonel Harland David Sanders
born in eighteen nine. I think you mean halland David
sounds h Do you mean Colonel halland David Julip Sandals.
Don't you try to out southern me? Bembolan? Oh, I
could chew this act. You know, day a sweet. People
(02:16):
will tune out, people will not have it. We want
to hear, by the way, your best uh Southern accent impression.
If you record yourself, write us a letter and include that.
We'd love to hear it. Absolutely. But yeah, so we
that we were mashing No, this is a mash up episode.
This is a ridiculous history of the mash up episode
wherein we mashed together quite a few themes. You mentioned curses,
(02:39):
we're talking about chicken, we're talking about the South, we're
talking about Japan. Where do we start. Let's start in
nineteen five. How about that. It was a very good year.
It was a very good year, especially for the Hansen Tigers.
They're a baseball team in Japan. You see. They went
on to win the Japan Championship Series, which is the
equivalent of the World Series in Major League Baseball, and
(03:03):
the fans went crazy. And I know, maybe correct me
if I'm wrong then, but I feel like there's sort
of a stereotype out there, the Japanese being very reserved people. Um,
they know how to keep it together and not get
carried away. Shall we say? But this is a great
example of of of a of a stereotype buster, and
that these Japanese sports fans got quite carried away. And
(03:26):
there was alcohol involved to right, Ben, Yes, yes, this
is another episode where we find a group of people
uh misbehaving, perhaps in part due to alcohol, perhaps just
due to passions running high sports fever. Yes, yes, these
drunken revelers took to a bridge in Osaka, the Abisubashi,
(03:49):
Uh we should bridge. We should also note that Noel
and I are not native Japanese speakers. Is true, a
fact that will become increasingly apparent if it has not
already been clear from the jump. I'll throw my hat
into the mispronunciation ring um and saying that the eb
Subashi Bridge is a bridge overlooking the Doton Bori River,
(04:12):
which is notoriously polluted. I'm not sure today if that's
still the case, but back not a very clean body
of water. But that aside, these drunken revelers dove in
kind of or jumped in off the bridge. I'm trying
to picture. Yeah, how how far a jump are we
talking here? Then they jumped. It was a safe enough distance.
(04:33):
It wasn't like jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Don't
do it for kicks, by the way, because you will
break your legs and easily. This was not going to
be a lethal jump. Still, you're not supposed to do it.
Still you're dangerous. It's very much hold my beer situation
is what we would call it today. But they were
jumping in a pattern because the crowd was screaming out
(04:59):
the name of the players on the Tigers, and every
time they yelled the name of one of the players,
someone who looked like that player or was perceived to
look like the player. How do you think this idea
came to the forefront? I just still missed the five
man like, how did they just think of the level
of sophistication. This game must have you know, how did
(05:20):
this happen organically? Yeah, We're not anywhere near this level
of revelry. No, and this is a very specific form
of revelry, almost kind of a ritual that they just
invented out of whole cloth. I'm guessing I've not seen
evidence of this type of thing anywhere else. But yeah,
like you're saying, so every time they I'm guessing the
they were hearing the announcement from the stadium or was
it on a televised broadcast. It was after the games,
(05:43):
so so it sounds like it was people in the crowd.
So the crowd would yell out, you know, third Baseman
Casey Pegram, and every like whoa. And then somebody just
like I look kind of like third Basement Casey Pegram.
They it's my turn to jump off the bridge. So
you had to kind of like take it upon yourself
to go forth when that name was called, would hope so,
(06:03):
because the alternative is that someone else points at a
random person in the crowd and says, hey, he looks
like third Basement Casey Pegram, and then they grab him
and throw him off the bridge. But it appeared to
be um all in good fun until they called the
name of first baseman Randy Bass. Wait, man, that doesn't
(06:25):
sound like a Japanese name. What gives? I'm so glad
you asked, because you and I did a little bit
of research based on that name. It turns out Randy
Bass was an American on the team. Interesting. How did
he find himself playing for a Japanese team? Uh? He
had spent six seasons in Major League Baseball with five
(06:47):
different teams, and then his contract expired, so he expanded
his horizons and they made him an offer he could
not refuse, I imagine, and then he decided to take
up his glove, his mit. He was a baseman, take
up a mit, I guess for the Tigers. He committed
to the Tigers. And we're committing to the bit. Yes, yes,
(07:09):
we really are. But yeah, so here's the issue right immediately,
if if they're going for this, uh, this gag or
this bit that they're committing to, which they were committing
quite hard of having to look like the player in
question whose name is being called. That sort of threw
a wrench into the works there when they called Mr
Bass's name, because you know, there was nobody in the crowd.
I'm guessing from the story at least it seems to
(07:31):
be the case that looked like a big six foot
something American first baseman. And this was a snag for sure,
because you see, when Randy joined Japanese baseball, he became
one of the most powerful hitters in the history of
the game in that country. So with him on their side,
(07:54):
the Tigers shot through the championship. This guy was a
big deal. He was crucial to the game. Yes, so
of course, in this very specific, ritualized revelry, he needed
to be represented, right, someone needed to be thrown off
the bridge in his honor or to jump themselves. Yeah, um,
so what what? What? What is it? What is a
(08:15):
drunken pack of sports fans to do? Ben? I propose
that before we follow the rest of the story, we
bring in an outside factor, a tangent, if you will,
I love it, A tangy, crispy, crunchy tangent. How many
herbs and spices does this tangent contain? Is it eleven?
(08:36):
It's a secret. It is a secret. The number may
not be a secret, but the specificity, yes, spice wise
is one of those things where they probably have two
executives that carry half of the secret each and they
never let them be on the same plane. Like Coca Cola. Yeah,
we're talking about Kentucky Fried Chicken, by the way, We're
talking about Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC as it is
(08:57):
known today, the iconic and white bucket, the vaguely creepy
plantation owner. I feel like the representation got creepy now
big time. You know, they had Darryl Hammond, they had
Norm McDonald do commercials. I think KFC advertising is sort
of going down that same path that Burger King did
years ago with their super creepy king with the you know,
(09:20):
expressionless face kind of looks like a serial killer mask
kind of. Um. The KFC is doing that too with
the colonel. They're sort of doubling down on his creepy
factor because it's it's it's just like, you know, it works,
I guess for like a memorable weird commercial as opposed
to back in the day, where I think it was
sort of like, um, I feel like they shied away
from it, even getting rid of Kentucky in the name.
(09:41):
KFC kind of replaced it because I think they were
shying away from that image, right, because it was a
little problematic. Yeah, like the Learning Channel became TLC when
they said, what are people actually learning on this thing? Right?
That's a little shade, But yes, so KFC. There's probably
one in a town near you if you live in
the United States, right somewhere. It turns out KFC is
(10:04):
phenomenally extraordinarily popular in Japan. The first KFC opened in
nineteen seventy in Japan, and shortly after it opened, the
guy who was the manager of this, Takeishi Okawara, woke
up at midnight and he had a dream that he
(10:26):
had to write down and make into reality. He said,
let's sell a party barrel. A party barrel, you say,
every Christmas? Yes, you can read this. You can read
the full story of this in a great article by
the BBC called Why Japan Celebrates Christmas with KFC by
Eric Barton. Here's the rub Every Christmas and estimated three
(10:49):
point six million Japanese families treat themselves to Kentucky Fried
Chicken for Christmas. It's true, and we're gonna get into
more of these amazing Japanese is phonetic uh kind of
pronunciations for things. I'm just a huge fan of these,
so they created that this became kind of a local
tradition for this original KFC joint. But then the company
(11:11):
realized this was a super smart move to sell Kentucky
Fried Chicken in Japan, So they created this marketing plan
and they called it Kurisamassu niwa Kentucky or Kentucky for Christmas.
I just love kurisa masu. That's fantastic. And these are
spelled phonetically, yes, exactly, um And the idea being that
(11:35):
it's creating a new tradition out of nothing, because even
though there are quite a large number of Christians in Japan,
Christmas is not a nationally celebrated holiday and there's really
no national tradition around it. So these folks at KFC
kind of saw a niche and they filled the crap
out of it, didn't They been, Yes, yes, there was
(11:56):
absolutely no tradition, somewhat of a void a niche, as
you said, Noel, And they they morphed it into more
than just a single bucket of chicken. It didn't include
just the breast and thighs. Now they came with these, uh,
they came with Christmas cakes. They included wine, they had
(12:18):
sides you could You could get the entry box for
around thirty seven hundred yen that's about thirty two bucks,
up to the premium one, which is about hundred yen.
And according to KFC, these Christmas packages alone make up
(12:38):
about a third of the chains yearly sales in Japan,
saying it's phenomenal and you have to like reserve your
package weeks in advance or risk having to stand in
massive lines to get this um. And you know it's interesting.
In this article, they actually talked to a local Atlanta chef. Yes,
I know the guy, Kevin Gillespie. Kevin Gillespie. I've never
(12:59):
been to any of his shawns, but I looked him
up and he seems like really tasty stuff. What's one
of his spots called Revival, that's like a really hot
brunch place, right, Yeah. Yeah, he's a James Beard Award
winning chef and they consulted him for this BBC article
and he had a couple of good quotes. He said,
if you brought a bucket of fried chicken to Christmas dinner, honestly,
(13:19):
I'd be mad at you. Um. And this is interesting
because this is a very American perspective, specifically surrounding Christmas,
because it's all about family, it's all about homemade, uh
comfort food. But in Japan, since there's no official holiday
a k A. Time off work, surrounding Christmas probably about
(13:40):
the best you can do to reserve that KFC party barrel. Right,
And this is not you know, this isn't too crazy
because there's a huge tradition of eating Chinese food from
Christmas here in these states. Right. For example, within the
Jewish community, especially in New York, this came up a
lot during our Chinese Food episode about Chop Suey Houses
(14:01):
in New York. It became a huge tradition for Jewish
families to have a Chinese dinner out on Christmas. Also
because not a lot of other stuff is open. True,
So we do see an analog here. And you may
be asking yourself, uh, Bennels super producer Casey Peckrum, why
(14:21):
why did you guys just start telling me about this granted,
fascinating story of chicken in Japan. We are going somewhere
with this, folks, we promise back to Randy Bass, Okay,
so we're gonna join, We're gonna rejoin our original story
already in progress. It's all coming together, all coming together.
(14:42):
So Randy Bass's name is called Um. These drunken tigers
fans are looking around. They're looking for someone. They don't
see anybody that even remotely resembles this hulking American man
um any living any living person but nearby. This is
not something you see typically in the States, or at
least I have not. Oh that's a good point. Yes,
outside of Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC joints in Japan,
(15:03):
you're gonna find a kind of, I think a little
bit maccabre statue of Colonel Sanders himself leering at the
passers by, daring them to accept the challenge of chicken,
exactly the chicken challenge. And they saw one of those nearby.
It was it was as though it were written in
the stars. They saw one of these nearby, and they goes,
(15:25):
that guy kind of looks vaguely American. And in Randy's defense,
he does not look like Colonel Sanders at this time, right,
there is a little profiling going. He's just also American.
Um did not have a little, uh little little Colonel Beard.
In fact, in the article from How Stuff Works, Ridiculous History,
the Curse of the Colonel. There's a fantastic side by
(15:45):
side comparison. They did both have mustaches, though um not.
You know, Randy's was not pure white and did not
have the accompanying little pointed goatee nor the little what
do you call that a cravat. We have a little
kind of a bow tie thing around. String tie, string
tie exactly. But yeah, so they they uprooted this thing, right,
They just ripped it out of the ground, and then
(16:08):
they carried it to the bridge and they threw it
into the river, and everybody presumably with yeah, and then
I'm guessing there was a current and it just got
carried away, because if these folks were hanging out in
the river themselves and not just up to their necks
in water, I don't think the statue would have sunk
right away. It probably got carried away in the current
(16:28):
of the river downstream and then they lost it. It did. Yeah,
it did apparently go under quickly. That might be due
to current. It's also it's got to be due to
the weight of the statue as well. Probably weighed more
than a person. You think, so I would have I
would ticket sure it just being hollow I don't think
they would have been able to rip it out of
the ground unless it was just kind of a hollow,
plastic shell. That's a good point. You know what, we
(16:51):
need to take an extra credit segment, go to Japan,
get some chicken and investigate. I don't think that's in
the budget, Ben, but we we can talk to management
about it. We'll see. Let's write to the Tigers, because
we're telling a story that they feel needs to be told.
You see, after they threw the statue in and everyone
went yeay, Tigers forever world champions decades and decades went by,
(17:17):
and to date they have never won a championship again.
And the Tigers fans will tell you that this is
not simply a matter of being outplayed or having bad
luck on the field. No, they believe there's something supernatural
at work. They believe there is a curse. Yes, um
(17:38):
and as so what they referred to as I only
saw this printed one place, but it definitely translates correctly
as Kanaru sanda su no no roy or the curse
of Colonel Sanders. Yes, the curse of Colonel Sanders. I
saw that as well. They they believe that by committing
(17:58):
this disrespect will act the entity the the non corporeal
Colonel Sanders in the sky, the demigod of chicken all
Chicken fried has uh has decreed that they will be
punished for this disrespect. And you know, you have to
wonder how much of this is just a joke, right,
(18:19):
and how much people really believe it? Oh well, I mean,
well it falls in line with some other pretty serious
superstitions that the that exists in Japanese culture, which we'll
get to it a little bit. And sports are sports
themselves are very rich soil for superstitions. But after such
a strong showing, I mean, you know, the Colonel definitely
(18:39):
brought down the hammer on them. The Tigers, they just
barely won anything at all. Their best finish was third
in eight six and they finished last a whopping eight times, right,
so it was exceptionally bad. Not just not winning, no, no,
it was it was demoralize. The fans were utterly humiliated,
(19:02):
and they concocted I guess among themselves. How does something
like this spread just by word of mouth? These people
in the fan community, their message boards, what are we talking?
These people are great at improv man, How did they
figure out this ritual so quickly, and then how did
they say? Oh, okay, well, here's the explanation. It also
reminds me one of those things where it's like, I
know what you did last summer kind of scenario where
(19:24):
you and a close group of friends commit a horrible
atrocity and then you are punished for it later and
then you have to figure out how to make it right.
I hope someone feels like they saw the Colonel exactly.
Can't you picture this though? Is this? This should be
a movie and they should This should be a kind
of ring Goo or like the Grudge kind of movie
based around uh conor us Sandy Sue. No, no, that
(19:46):
could be the name of the movie. Yeah, and then
we'll just translate to the Curse of the Colonel for
the American audience. Because they banded together to make this right. Yes,
they said, just like we would imagine a Colonel sand
esque figure. They said, Wilson, justice shall not stand and
into what they You know, they didn't say it with
(20:07):
this othern accent. You don't know, or they did. Maybe
they did. Maybe they were cosplaying as well. So, uh,
they went to search for the statue. They went to
the bottom of the river and attempted to recover it,
and in two thousand and nine they found a piece
of it. I actually read two band that in one
(20:28):
of these attempts, a twenty four year old fan named
Masaya Shita Baba actually drowned. M I read that as well. Yeah, So,
I mean this was no joke. They were they were
this was not a lark. They were out to break
this curse, right, and as you were saying, then they
did find some success. Yeah, and in a way, in
(20:50):
a very strange way, know, this death lead to the
discovery because after the death, the community announced plans to
build a new bridge that would make it more difficult
to jump into the river from and then they began
constructing this in two thousand and four. But while they
(21:11):
were constructing a walkway in two thousand nine related to
this new bridge, that's where they found the They didn't
find all of the statue ites like the torso in
the head and the arms, but not the hands. There
was no mistaking that rictus grin of our pal Colonel Sanders,
even with the decay, that was definitely him. So you know,
(21:33):
they were reasonably overjoyed and decided they needed to find
some of the other pieces. Yes, because what if I
love this horror movie that you just pitched to me.
What if they haven't appeased the angry spirit of the
statue until they assemble it all. You know, they find
the hands, they find the glasses. Uh. Some fans were
(21:54):
worried that until the statue was made whole again, the
Tigers would never win another series. And you know, superstition
and sports in general are super common, even right here
in the States. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you
might be referring to another famous curse, my friend, one
that affects Boston Red Sox fans. The Curse of the Bambino. Yes, yes,
(22:19):
the Curse of the Vambino, where the Red Sox fans
believe that their team was cursed for almost a century
eighty years for trading away legendary player Babe Ruth. Yeah,
they probably just you know, Babe Ruth was really good
and they would have done better if they'd had him.
I but I love them. I love the high dramatic
(22:39):
steaks from a storytelling perspective of a curse. I feel
like I have never encountered a curse. Uh, nor have
I laid a curse upon someone because I'm you know,
I'm actually a really kind person. But I would love
to just be involved in like a curse type situation,
like solving a curse. Would you cur like someone who
(23:01):
really had it coming? Maybe some maybe one of an enemy,
I guess so, but I don't really have enemies really. Yeah,
that's cool and I don't either. I wish you all
could see. No slight eye roll there, but yeah, I
would like to solve a curse, and a lot of
sports fans, of course, would like to do the same.
(23:24):
We had an interesting quotation here and observation from a
sports columnist named Dick Harmon for writing for The Desert News,
who described athletes and superstition this way. Athletes, says Mr Harmon,
by their very nature tend to be superstitious, especially when
it comes to preparing for events. I've seen players wear
(23:44):
the same socks beneath their actual game socks, listen to
the same song or music, eat the same food, hit
the bathroom at the same time before going out on
the court or field. I don't think this is hatched
out of fear, but of comfort, not of jinxing themselves,
but of setting their mine straight. Agreed, Yeah, ritual to me,
is all about getting in kind of a zen state,
(24:06):
you know, where you feel in control of your surroundings
just by virtue of doing something the same way. I
personally am a creature of habit I typically get the
same things to eat at restaurants, and uh, you know,
take the same routes home, even if there's a quicker
route that my map is telling me, I'll typically go
the way that I'm super comfortable with. And to me,
that's a way of kind of doing all I can
(24:28):
in the little way that I can to control my
environment and my chaotic life. Right the vast incomprehensible universe
that cares not which way this great world spins, we
must exercise some control over our existence. Uh. With podcasting,
for instance, you know, I've been doing this a while.
I've got rituals, and we as a cohort collectively a
(24:52):
house of works. A lot of our podcasters have their
own rituals. Chuck used to do a thing, remember with
his cheeks. I didn't know about that one. Now I know.
Robert Lamb has a little squishy dinosaur that he brings
in when the podcasts. Robert Lamb from stuff to blow
your mind, and I personally have been wearing the same
pair of me and he's the entire time we've been podcasting. Yeah,
(25:13):
and I respect you for that. You know, I think
you've you've gone past the area of diminishing returns to
you were cleaning up now, you know. I do watch
them occasionally, I've I've heard that, Yeah, I've heard. I
can't remember why I heard that or how it came
up in conversation, but I do remember hearing that. You're
a very attentive listener, Ben, Thank you, Thank you, And likewise,
(25:34):
my friend, we thought this was fascinating because it's still
in play. Like the Tigers fans will tell you. Did
their fortunes turn around? Though, Ben, that's the that's the
kicker here. Well, we do know we can't predict what
will happen by the end of none can, but we
(25:54):
do know that things weren't completely bleak and dire for
the Tigers, and act we had some good news in
the early two thousand's, that's right. They they returned to
the Japan Series after eighteen years away, and they had
the best record in the Central League. And many of
these KFC outlets as sort of a precaution, I guess
(26:17):
in the area and Kobe and Osaka, they personally uprooted
their Colonel Sanders statues and moved them inside until the
series was over, you know, to guard them against any
potential desecration by over zealous Tigers fans. This is one
of my favorite parts of the story. Now, though, let's
say that you are in uh Let's say that you
(26:39):
are in the area and you want to eat at
this iconic KFC. You can't because it's closed. But let's
say you travel to the KFC headquarters in Yokohama. There,
if you have permission from KFC management, or if you're
a v I P Special guest or you are an
(27:01):
honored employee, you may be allowed to see the rescued Colonel.
And they found most of his parts, right, they found
a lot of them, But you can't. It's not viewable
by the public. That's what's strange to me. Like you can,
you can go in and see the origin of the curse,
but only if you have special permission. Well, I propose
(27:23):
that we pitch our Curse of the Colonel horror movie
too KFC Japan and they could sponsor and it could
just be like a really elaborate commercial for KFC and
maybe we can actually get some some of those chicken
dollars to to make this thing really hit. Also, also,
here's what we'll sell them on it. Well, I'm telling
(27:43):
you it'll be cross brand promotion if they make special
meals that are related to the tigers or to the curse. Yes,
you know with ghost pepper chicken just off the top
of the dome. Why not? Why not? You know what
(28:04):
I've got to say, Man, thank you for this one.
I've really enjoyed today's episode. I did too. And we're
gonna wrap up just with a couple of of of
interesting Japanese superstitions because we mentioned it earlier in the
show that this is a thing and they all have
these amazing names. Um. So, for example, one of them
is it's apparently considered bad luck to cut your nails
at night, and this tradition or superstition is known as
(28:27):
yoru ntsume wakite wak nine um. And apparently this is
tied to the fact that in the olden days, um
there were no lights at night due to lack of electricity,
and people believed that evil spirits would come around to
your home at night, and that when you cut your nails,
(28:48):
because they imbue cutting tools of any kind with a
lot of um power. And that when you cut your nails,
you're creating a sort of a window between worlds. This
comes up time and time again a lot of these superstitions,
and that if you do it at night, you're opening
that window, and one of these evil spirits or accur
you could exit the nether world through that or possess you.
(29:14):
There's there's also the one that happens if a funeral
hearst drives past, you have to hide your thumbs in
a fist. And that's because the word for thumb translates
to parent fingers. So it's symbolically hiding your parents from death.
And if you don't, similar to the way, there's the
old superstition, step on a crack like your mom's back.
(29:35):
This is uh. This is one where you hide your
parents symbolically from death, and if you don't do it,
your parents will die, it's right. And this one is
known as raca yusha kara. Oh yeah, you be will
kakusu um. And then there's one that I think you'll
like ben where you shouldn't whistle at night. Yes, yes, yes,
you shouldn't whistle at night. You're no fui subecky day night.
(29:58):
And this one is more tied to a fun actional thing,
right like like not necessarily supernatural, although it may there
may be some crossover. Yeah, So back in the day
in Japan, whistling was a sign used by burglars and
other ne'er do wells, uh the other good old fashioned
nocturnal scumbags to communicate with each other. So whistling is
(30:19):
associated with intruders, thieves. It's sort of like that urban
legend of like flashing your brights or something and how
that's a sign for gangs or something, or like putting
on your shoes in the power lines or I don't know,
I'm reaching here. There are a lot of unlucky numbers too,
which is fascinating, especially we're we're uh did we ever
talk about this off air? I think there are a
(30:40):
lot of buildings that don't have a fourth floor, Is
that correct? I don't know about that for sure, but
I know in the States there's no thirteenth floor, right, yes, yeah, yeah,
I know that four is an unlucky number because the
word for for ship closely resembles the word for death.
I got you. So, what's a let's what's a good one?
What's an up one? Like a silly one? Yeah, I
(31:00):
don't know. I mean it's silly on the on the surface,
but then it's also kind of morbid. Um. You know,
you're apparently when it's bad weather, when there's lightning and thunder, um,
you are supposed to hide your children's midsections belly buttons specifically. Yeah. Yeah,
that checks out as a as a former meteorologist. And
that's because the god of thunder, ry Jin supposedly would
(31:24):
eat children's entire abdomens or their their midsections. And he
also had a little running buddy named ry Jew, who
would nest himself supposedly in the belly buttons of children
while they sleep, and this could lead to these kids
being struck by lightning. That's right, because ry Gin, in
order to jostle his little familiar, I guess from this
(31:47):
little nest, would shoot him with a bolt of lightning. Right, naturally, right,
this checks out, And then I assume eat the midsection,
So do take care in storms. But as you know,
we are all about self empowerment, not just for ourselves
but for you dear listeners. So you might be asking, Hey,
this curse thing sounds cool. How can I get in
(32:08):
on this? How can I make a wish or make
a curse. We'd like to introduce you to ohyakudo myri. Yeah,
there's a ceremony even called ushi no kuku myri, where
when you visit a shrine during a particular hour, sort
of the Japanese equivalent of the witching hour I'm guessing,
called the hour of the Ox, which is between one
(32:29):
and three am. Um, you can start your very own curse, right, Yes.
All you'll need to do is visit during the hour
of the Ox, bring a straw doll with you, representing
the person who will receive the curse, and use a
long nail to nail the doll to the shrines holy tree.
(32:51):
That's for cursey. That's not for a wish. If you're
trying to wish someone's success, don't don't do that. But
there's a kicker ben because if you are nest making
the curse, then that curse will visit itself on you tenfold.
I added the tenfold part. But you know it doesn't
sound good. No, no, it doesn't. So this these shrines
(33:11):
are powerful symbolically. Maybe we should end on how you
make a wish. So we talked about making a curse,
but we also mentioned making a wish. So to make
a wish in a shrine, you must walk from a
shrines gate to its altar or from the gate to
a main hall one hundred times while praying for your
wish to come true. If you want to increase your odds,
(33:34):
walk barefoot. A little life pro tip there, little life hack. Alternatively,
you can visit the shrine and make one prayer for
your wish to come true each day for one hundred days.
That's the long game. This is only scratching the surface
of some of the fascinating Japanese superstitions we found, and
and granted there are a lot of fascinating US or
(33:55):
Western superstitions as well, But at this point we do
not have a curse associated with Colonel Sanders now. But
you know that could change. Yeah, you know the future.
The future stretches before us, vast and endless, and it's
beautiful possibilities. What are some of your favorite Japanese curses?
Can you think of any that could potentially be as
(34:17):
outrageous and absurd as the Curse of the Colonel. We'd
like to know. You can write to us at Ridiculous
and how Stuff Works dot com. You can hit us
up on social media where we are Ridiculous History on Facebook, Instagram,
and I believe Twitter. And thank you so much for
journeying with us as we stumbled through Japanese phrases. I
feel like we should also thank Casey for this. As always, Casey,
(34:39):
don't go change it. You're amazing. Thanks for being on
the show. He keeps us honest and I didn't. I
didn't notice him wincing super hard during any of those pronunciations. Um,
but sometimes it's hard to I think it might have
been a baseball related wins rather than cases into sports connunciation.
Well maybe not American baseball fair enough anyway. Also, thank
(34:59):
you to Alex Williams for composing our soundtrack YEP, and
most importantly, thank you to you for listening to the show. Um.
We hope you'll join us for our next episode where
we get kind of grisly with it. Yes, we are
exploring gold in one of its most dangerous applications. What
will it be? Tune in to find out in the
(35:22):
meantime on a personal request. Do you guys have any
great chicken recipes or you will want to just send
us pictures of chicken. Please do it now.
Ridiculous History News
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Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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