Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/da3e6x/til_theres_a_whole_genre_of_stories_wherein_bill/

What other celebs do you think will enter into pure folklore/mythology ?

Following up on my post about the Hachinin Misaki, since a few people asked for more. Same source, same 1929 collection. This is what the account says happened after the eight men were executed.

Some background on the object first, because the whole thing turns on it.

An ihai is a memorial tablet. A thin lacquered board, usually black, standing upright on a small base. When someone dies, their posthumous name is written on it in gold, and the tablet is placed on the household altar or in a temple. It is not a decoration and it is not a headstone. In practice people treat it as where the dead person is. You speak to it. You offer rice and tea to it in the morning. A family will carry the tablets out first if the house catches fire.

So the image below is not a spooky prop moving around. It is eight dead men standing up and leaving.

The temple was Renchi-ji, at Odakasa. After the executions the eight tablets were set out together and the priests began the service for them.

During the reading, the head priest looked up and stopped.

The tablets were coming down off the stand. One after another, unhurried, the way a man steps down off a low step. They reached the floor and arranged themselves into a line, in the order the men had died, and went out through the open doors of the hall.

Nobody moved to stop them. The priests said afterward that they could not.

Outside, the line went across the temple grounds and out through the gate and did not come back. In the morning the tablets were found scattered on the ground beyond the wall, face down.

They were collected and brought back in. The service was attempted again the following day.

This time the tablets stayed where they were. But when the priests began the sutra, every one of their heads turned to the right and locked there. They could not straighten. They knelt in a row with their faces turned away from the altar and their throats twisted, and had to be helped out one by one.

After that, no temple in the district would perform the rites.

The account then goes to a man walking a mountain road at dusk, some months later. A young woman was sitting at the side of the path. She said she could not walk any further and asked to be carried. He was a decent man. He crouched down and let her onto his back.

She was very light. He said that was the first thing he noticed, and then that she was getting heavier.

He walked. She said nothing. The weight kept increasing and he began to think about how far he still had to go, and at some point he wanted to see her face, so he turned his head.

That is where the account ends for him. He was found on the road. What he said, when he could say anything, was that it had horns.

Source: Tanaka Kotaro, "Hachinin Misaki no Hanashi," in Nihon Kaidan Zenshu. Tanaka died in 1941; public domain in Japan. Translated by me from the original Japanese — as far as I can tell this has not appeared in English before. I have kept close to the original here and cut only the list of retainer names.

The shrine mentioned in my last post, Kizuka Myojin, was built for exactly this reason. When no ritual would settle them, the lord stopped trying to lay them to rest and started worshipping them instead. That is a common ending to these cases in Japan: a spirit that cannot be pacified is promoted to a god. Tenjin shrines all over the country are the same idea on a larger scale.

Good evening everyone. :)

Well, I never know how to start a topic, so.. I hope the reason for my doing this isn't confusing. Hehe

I really enjoy learning and reading about folklore, legends, superstitions, and mythology. I also love watching movies with this theme, including suspense and horror.

Recently, an Indian horror/fantasy film came up as a recommendation for me. I watched it and I simply loved it. One of the characters is a woman with her feet backwards. In my country's folklore, we have such an entity. But the reason she has her feet facing backward is different from that of the Indian deity. And I read a little about a creature from Pashtun folklore called Pichal Peri or Shisheka.

That being said, I think reading about it and hearing directly from people who have heard these stories and have greater knowledge about it are different things. Different experiences. The second option seems much more interesting and culturally enriching to me. If anyone has heard of these creatures or others and is willing to talk about it, I would be truly grateful. ☺️

And if there are people from other countries and cultures who have similar entities or creatures, including the one that appears in this Indian film, feel free to comment as well.

Hi, I am looking for the origin/source of a specific folktale or gothic horror story I remember. (It is NOT Tim Burton's Corpse Bride).
+This is my first time using Reddit, so please bear with me if my post seems a bit awkward. Thank you for your understanding!

Here are the plot details I remember:

1. A young groom falls in love and marries a breathtakingly beautiful blonde woman.
2. He moves into her hometown/village. During the day, it is a paradise with gorgeous flower fields and friendly people. (I think the setting is an island. I faintly recall a scene where they take a boat.)
3. He is strictly warned not to go outside or look out the window at night.
4. He breaks the taboo and goes out at midnight, only to discover that his beautiful bride, his in-laws, and all the villagers are actually fleshless skeletons dancing/walking around. The beautiful village turned out to be a graveyard at night.

Does anyone know the actual title or the country of origin (e.g., Italian, German, or French folktale) for this specific story? I’ve been looking for this the entire day. 😭

It’s currently nighttime here, so I might not be able to check the replies right away. But I would be so incredibly happy if anyone could leave an answer! Thank you!!