September 18, 2024 • 9 mins
The Killing Stone looms large in Japanese folklore, so when it split in half in March 2022, people were worried it would bring devastating effects in its wake. Except... they really didn't.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff, Josh heir Chuck here,
let's get it up all the way to Japan.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
That's right. We're going to Japan to talk about a
very famous rock in Japan that split in two in
twenty twenty two. And there was a tweet that kind
of got big that featured a picture of that broken
rock that said, and this is translated from Japanese, I
came alone to the Killing Stone where the legend of
(00:31):
the nine tailed Fox remains. If it's a manga, it's
a pattern that the seal is broken and it's possessed
by the nine tailed Fox. And I feel like I've
seen something that shouldn't be seen. Let's go, let's talk
about this famous rock.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Okay. So yeah, This person who tweeted that was a
tourist in Togichi Prefecture in Japan, and she was visiting
this very famous giant rock that supposedly was the dead
form of the fox spirit Tomamo no Mai, and supposedly
(01:07):
Tomamo no Maai had been trapped for centuries in this
rock that people like the tweeter would go visit. The
thing is, when the tweeter went to visit it this
rock had been split in two, and that meant possibly
that Tomamo no Mai had.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Escaped, right, And the idea was that Tomama no Mai
was trapped in this stone called the Shesho siki. Is
that right?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Uh? Sessho sessho seki, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Which is killing stone. And here's the thing is the
Internet kind of got it wrong if you look at
the original lore of the story. Uh, Tomamo no Mai
was actually the stone and not trapped in the stone. Sure,
so let's talk about this, okay, further so doing setups right.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Tommo no Mai was a very famous spirit of nine
tailed fox spirit in Japanese folklore, and she showed up
in a number of different myths and tales in Japanese folklore.
But there's one in particular that concerns the story, and
it involved the Emperor Toba, the seventy fourth Japanese Emperor,
(02:19):
who was a very real person who lived from eleven
oh three to eleven fifty six CE, and during this reign, allegedly,
according to folklore, Tmomo Nomai, the fox spirit, showed up
disguised as a woman and said, I think you're gonna
like me, check me out.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
That's right. The idea was to just sort of preoccupy
and be which this emperor and then overthrow, overthrow the emperor.
What happened, as according to the lore once again, is
that the emperor was enthralled, sort of neglected his duties
and then fell very, very sick around the same time.
So a soothsayer came along and said, wait a minute,
(03:00):
I suspect that you Nomai are behind this whole thing.
And so she fled into you know, the land surrounding there,
basically it's Mountain Nasu, and the legend was that they
caught up to her, she was slain, and that her
body turned into the stone at that very spot, right.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So it's very significant that it was a group of
samurai who tracked her down and killed her, shot her
with an arrow because folklorists believe that this tale of
Tomamo Nomai enchanting the emperor and basically causing him to
stop paying attention to his duties is some sort of
allegory I guess for what's called the Hogan Rebellion, this
(03:47):
time when the emperor's rule gave way to rule by
the samurai, which lasted for centuries afterward. And so that
This was kind of a about that story. Maybe justified it,
I'm not sure, but the essential ingredients are that the
emperor was bewitched and helpless and had to be saved
(04:07):
by the samurai.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, and it was you know, there were a lot
of This is just one of many, many stories in
Japanese folklore wherein monsters would appear, a hero would rise
up to save somebody. It was usually metaphor for you know,
something politically that was going on, right, and maybe I
say we take a break.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I think I agree with you. Sure, all right, We'll
be right back, okay, Chuck. So where we left off,
(05:00):
Tamamonamayi has turned into a giant stone. And this stone
that people would go visit was something like six feet
tall and twenty five feet in diameter. It was no
small stone. It sounds like it was shaped kind of
like Slimer from Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, and I think that was circumference, by the way,
what did I say, diameter circumference?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Thanks, So people would go visit this and one of
the reasons why that this stone in particular came to
be identified as the Sessho Seki the killing Stone, is
because it really kind of stood out from its it's
the other stones in the area. You could just pick
it out and be like that looks cool. And then
the actual area itself on the mountain what was the
(05:47):
mountain's name, uh Namatsu Nasu mount Yes, mountain Nasu is
it's like a volcanic plane. There's active volcanoes in the area.
So there's like poison gas like spewing up out of
the earth around the stone. It's quite menacing in that sense,
especially if you know what the legend is and you're
(06:09):
looking at the stone as if it were the Killing Stone.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, so there are potentially some poisonous gases, sulfuric gases
that seep out of the ground in that area. While
it's nothing that would hurt a human, if you went
to this you know stone which really stands out and
looks weirdly out of place there and you found like
some dead squirrels laying around, it could lend itself to
(06:33):
the idea that either Josh was nearby no or that
an evil spirit could radiate death from that spot. And
this is a very very well known story. I don't
think we said that it was you know, it was
part of folklore and there are a lot of these stories,
but this seems to be one of the bigger ones,
and it's kind of like a universally known tale in Japan,
(06:56):
so it's a very very famous story. And so you know,
when this thing split, it was, you know, the Internet
goes a little hog wild for a short time talking
about whether or not the evil spirits will be unleashed
and whether or not this is all coming to fruition.
Apparently if you do like on the ground research and
(07:16):
talk to Japanese people, they're like, we don't really think that.
Of course we don't. This is the Internet being the Internet.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah. And in addition to that, over the years, initially
Tamamunamai was depicted as just nothing but evil, a corruptor
of men and usurper of male power. And then as
Japanese society kind of softened and progressed, progressed and it
(07:43):
stands on women, she actually evolved along with that, interestingly,
so that now today when she's used in like manga,
anime or something like that, she's usually kind of like
a proto feminist anti hero. Is how this article from
how Stuff Works put it, I think perfectly.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, totally, And you know, of course nothing happened because
this folklore. But I imagine it's still and apparently this is
a big thing in Japan to like go visit this
thing in the woods, right, yeah, yeah, And that seems
like a dumb down way of saying it, because we
(08:20):
visit plenty of great things in the woods as well,
but you know, smaller things like you know, this rock
in the middle of this national forest becomes like a
pretty pretty standard tourist attraction.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, And I didn't realize there was a term for
that kind of tourism, contents based tourism, where it's just
the one thing that you're going out of your way
to go see to a place you probably wouldn't have
otherwise gone, like the Giant Ball of yarn or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know. Yeah, well, except this is in a national park,
which I imagine is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Sure, I think it is too. I have nothing else
except I want to go on the record as correcting you.
I love the squirrels now, and I don't have years
and years and years I know.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, well, Chuck was kidding everybody. That means short stuff
is out.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff, Josh heir Chuck here,
let's get it up all the way to Japan.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
That's right. We're going to Japan to talk about a
very famous rock in Japan that split in two in
twenty twenty two. And there was a tweet that kind
of got big that featured a picture of that broken
rock that said, and this is translated from Japanese, I
came alone to the Killing Stone where the legend of
(00:31):
the nine tailed Fox remains. If it's a manga, it's
a pattern that the seal is broken and it's possessed
by the nine tailed Fox. And I feel like I've
seen something that shouldn't be seen. Let's go, let's talk
about this famous rock.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Okay. So yeah, This person who tweeted that was a
tourist in Togichi Prefecture in Japan, and she was visiting
this very famous giant rock that supposedly was the dead
form of the fox spirit Tomamo no Mai, and supposedly
(01:07):
Tomamo no Maai had been trapped for centuries in this
rock that people like the tweeter would go visit. The
thing is, when the tweeter went to visit it this
rock had been split in two, and that meant possibly
that Tomamo no Mai had.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Escaped, right, And the idea was that Tomama no Mai
was trapped in this stone called the Shesho siki. Is
that right?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Uh? Sessho sessho seki, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Which is killing stone. And here's the thing is the
Internet kind of got it wrong if you look at
the original lore of the story. Uh, Tomamo no Mai
was actually the stone and not trapped in the stone. Sure,
so let's talk about this, okay, further so doing setups right.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Tommo no Mai was a very famous spirit of nine
tailed fox spirit in Japanese folklore, and she showed up
in a number of different myths and tales in Japanese folklore.
But there's one in particular that concerns the story, and
it involved the Emperor Toba, the seventy fourth Japanese Emperor,
(02:19):
who was a very real person who lived from eleven
oh three to eleven fifty six CE, and during this reign, allegedly,
according to folklore, Tmomo Nomai, the fox spirit, showed up
disguised as a woman and said, I think you're gonna
like me, check me out.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
That's right. The idea was to just sort of preoccupy
and be which this emperor and then overthrow, overthrow the emperor.
What happened, as according to the lore once again, is
that the emperor was enthralled, sort of neglected his duties
and then fell very, very sick around the same time.
So a soothsayer came along and said, wait a minute,
(03:00):
I suspect that you Nomai are behind this whole thing.
And so she fled into you know, the land surrounding there,
basically it's Mountain Nasu, and the legend was that they
caught up to her, she was slain, and that her
body turned into the stone at that very spot, right.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So it's very significant that it was a group of
samurai who tracked her down and killed her, shot her
with an arrow because folklorists believe that this tale of
Tomamo Nomai enchanting the emperor and basically causing him to
stop paying attention to his duties is some sort of
allegory I guess for what's called the Hogan Rebellion, this
(03:47):
time when the emperor's rule gave way to rule by
the samurai, which lasted for centuries afterward. And so that
This was kind of a about that story. Maybe justified it,
I'm not sure, but the essential ingredients are that the
emperor was bewitched and helpless and had to be saved
(04:07):
by the samurai.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, and it was you know, there were a lot
of This is just one of many, many stories in
Japanese folklore wherein monsters would appear, a hero would rise
up to save somebody. It was usually metaphor for you know,
something politically that was going on, right, and maybe I
say we take a break.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I think I agree with you. Sure, all right, We'll
be right back, okay, Chuck. So where we left off,
(05:00):
Tamamonamayi has turned into a giant stone. And this stone
that people would go visit was something like six feet
tall and twenty five feet in diameter. It was no
small stone. It sounds like it was shaped kind of
like Slimer from Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, and I think that was circumference, by the way,
what did I say, diameter circumference?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Thanks, So people would go visit this and one of
the reasons why that this stone in particular came to
be identified as the Sessho Seki the killing Stone, is
because it really kind of stood out from its it's
the other stones in the area. You could just pick
it out and be like that looks cool. And then
the actual area itself on the mountain what was the
(05:47):
mountain's name, uh Namatsu Nasu mount Yes, mountain Nasu is
it's like a volcanic plane. There's active volcanoes in the area.
So there's like poison gas like spewing up out of
the earth around the stone. It's quite menacing in that sense,
especially if you know what the legend is and you're
(06:09):
looking at the stone as if it were the Killing Stone.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, so there are potentially some poisonous gases, sulfuric gases
that seep out of the ground in that area. While
it's nothing that would hurt a human, if you went
to this you know stone which really stands out and
looks weirdly out of place there and you found like
some dead squirrels laying around, it could lend itself to
(06:33):
the idea that either Josh was nearby no or that
an evil spirit could radiate death from that spot. And
this is a very very well known story. I don't
think we said that it was you know, it was
part of folklore and there are a lot of these stories,
but this seems to be one of the bigger ones,
and it's kind of like a universally known tale in Japan,
(06:56):
so it's a very very famous story. And so you know,
when this thing split, it was, you know, the Internet
goes a little hog wild for a short time talking
about whether or not the evil spirits will be unleashed
and whether or not this is all coming to fruition.
Apparently if you do like on the ground research and
(07:16):
talk to Japanese people, they're like, we don't really think that.
Of course we don't. This is the Internet being the Internet.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah. And in addition to that, over the years, initially
Tamamunamai was depicted as just nothing but evil, a corruptor
of men and usurper of male power. And then as
Japanese society kind of softened and progressed, progressed and it
(07:43):
stands on women, she actually evolved along with that, interestingly,
so that now today when she's used in like manga,
anime or something like that, she's usually kind of like
a proto feminist anti hero. Is how this article from
how Stuff Works put it, I think perfectly.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, totally, And you know, of course nothing happened because
this folklore. But I imagine it's still and apparently this is
a big thing in Japan to like go visit this
thing in the woods, right, yeah, yeah, And that seems
like a dumb down way of saying it, because we
(08:20):
visit plenty of great things in the woods as well,
but you know, smaller things like you know, this rock
in the middle of this national forest becomes like a
pretty pretty standard tourist attraction.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, And I didn't realize there was a term for
that kind of tourism, contents based tourism, where it's just
the one thing that you're going out of your way
to go see to a place you probably wouldn't have
otherwise gone, like the Giant Ball of yarn or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know. Yeah, well, except this is in a national park,
which I imagine is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Sure, I think it is too. I have nothing else
except I want to go on the record as correcting you.
I love the squirrels now, and I don't have years
and years and years I know.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, well, Chuck was kidding everybody. That means short stuff
is out.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Josh Clark
Chuck Bryant
Show Links
Order Our BookStoreSYSK ArmyAboutRSSPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
3. Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.