HAUNTED HIMEJI;

                 A castle city of mysterious intrigue

                                                                     by William M. Balsamo

     Surrounded by a chain of rolling hills and with a view to the sea, Himeji  today give every appearance of being a peaceful, bucolically serene, quiet city with its majestic castle as its crowning claim to fame. The castle dominates the city’s skyline and sits proudly perched on a hill in the center of town.

      Designated a world heritage site in 1993, it draws many tourists to its ramparts and dajons from all over the world. The sizable grounds which surround the castle

include museums, parks, a small zoo and a moat which is home to swans and carp. On quiet Sundays and holidays the castle complex serves as a refuge for those who wish to escape the noise of the city and the confines of the home.

    This pastoral, bucolic image of idyllic calm and beauty is deceiving, because in the shadows which fall at night Himeji is also haunted.

    When I first became a resident of the city I was seduced by its quiet charm of the city and was not aware of the many ghost legends which are part of its long history and rooted in her ancient folklore. I walked her cobbled streets teeming with the sounds of daily life, explored her neighborhoods and played tourist to the many historical attractions. It was only gradually when I spoke with local residents that I became aware of a darker side of the city which emerged from its long, bitter history and slowly and mysteriously the ghost stories which are part of its legacy began to emerge.

    The first story concerns the castle itself.

                                                      The Story of O-kiku Ido

     This story is well-known by every volunteer tour guide and every tourist is given an account of its details. In kabuki plays or in Japanese paintings, traditional Japanese women ghosts are depicted as having long straight hair and no legs. They wear white kimonos typical dress for a funeral, and appear from under the weeping willow trees along the moats.

     When you go through the main gate of Himeji castle, you will find a well which has a famous ghost story related to the kabuki play, Banshu Sara Yashiki.

It was in the Muromachi Period (1335 - 1573) and the over-turning of people who held power characterized this period.

     One day, a pretty servant named O-kiku overheard the plot of a cunning retainer, Tetsuzan Aoyama, to kill the feudal lord of Himeji. She informed the loyal retainer, Motonobu Kinugasa, about the intrigue.

     Tetsuzan Aoyama failed in his attempt on his lord’s life and soon after he began to hate O-kiku. In order to have her punished he accused her unjustly of breaking one of the ten antique china plates of great value and cruelly tortured her to death. It is said that he had her body tossed down into the well. Since then a horrible voice can be heard counting dishes on a hot summer night, ichi-mai (one), ni-mai (two), san-mai,(three), yon-mai,(four)….up to nine, never to ten. Even today people who wander at night around the castle grounds can hear strange sounds coming from the well.

                                                             Spirits of the Dead and a Carpenter

     Another ghost story concerning the castle dates to modern times. About 40 years ago sometime after the Pacific war Himeji Castle was restored. This was from 1956 to 1964. It took eight years for the restoration to be completed. The chief master carpenter was Michio Wada, who mainly built and repaired shrines and temples.

     Soon after he started the project, he began to be distressed by unusual phenomena which occurred so often on the construction site. Being disturbed by these events he finally decided to seek the help of a Buddhist monk. So one day he visited an ascetic in Aboshi to ask for some advice. The ascetic cried out the instant he stepped inside the training room.

     “Don’t enter this room, because you bring a lot of terrible misfortune!”  The monk noticed that it was the spirits of the dead that followed him.

     Michio was a very sensitive man and often had felt premonitions of mysterious things before, however, he had never experienced more unusual phenomena than those at Himeji castle. He said, “They follow me day and night, even to the outside of the castle.”  When he entered the entrance of the main keep, hundreds of flashes and gleams of spirits like burning embers rushed for him and surrounded him. He thought that they might be the spirits of the dead killed by the accidents during the castle’s construction or of those who were murdered to maintain the secrets of this castle or perhaps even those lost who lost their lives when the city was under siege during the Pacific War.

     Michio was so scared and began to think that they might plot to kill him or that there might be a staged accident to kill him. He asked the restoration Work Office to hold a Shinto rite to exorcize the evil spirits, however, they laughed off his request as ridiculous.

     Even though they never fail to perform the ceremony in the construction of Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines, they thought the castle was free from religious

concern. Finally, he made up his mind to perform the exorcism by himself. He built a small hut to live in the castle ground and went up to the sixth floor of the main keep every night to chant sutras or mantras. He used every possible powerful text he could imagine to cast off the spirits of the dead.

     One evening around 11:30, a half hour before midnight, with only a small lamp in his hand, he went up to the top of the castle in complete darkness. He kept on walking around in front of the Osakabe shrine and devoted himself to chanting mantras. After three months, his exorcism at the risk of his life worked well, the number of the spirits who had tried to possess him was gradually decreasing. At last he could stop the rite at midnight after five months. At that moment, he said, he could acquire true confidence in his success of the Showa restoration of Himeji

Castle, for he was sure that the spirits were no longer wishing to cause him harm but had become his guardian.

                                   Teumasa Ikeda, Ghosts and His Agonies

     First of all, I have to briefly explain about the historical situation of the days when Himeji Castle was built by Terumasa Ikeda.

     Until late in the 16th century, Japan was torn by an incessant civil war for more than 100 years. About 200 small clans or more were fighting and overturning each other.

 And then a process of national unification was begun by a great general Nobunaga Oda, continued by his successor Hideyishi Toyotomi, and completed by Ieyasu Tokugawa, Both were Nobunaga’s retainers. After Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582, Hideyoshi established his authority over Japan. Terumasu Ikeda was first one of the most able vasals of Hideyoshi’s.  Hideyoshi loved him and arranged his marriage with the second daughtyer of Ieyasu. Hideyoshi did not leave an adult heir.

Hideyori, Hideyoshi’s only son, was six years old, when Hideyoshi died in 1598. A scramble for power followed soon after Hideyoshi’s death. Hideyori or Ieyasu, loyalty to his lord’s son or ambition under a new leader, it was one of the most difficult choices for him to make. He chose Ieyasu. The victor of the battle of Sekigahaya in 1600 was Ieyasu, and he opened the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603 in Edo, now Tokyo. He was a real politician. He sent Terumasu to Himeji to watch

Hideyori who was still in Osaka castle. Then he sent feudal lords in the western part of Japan who were waiting for the next opportunity for retaliation. Himeji was such an important place from a strategic point of view. 

     Those who had agonies in their mind could have seen ghosts in the darkness. After completing Himeji castle in 1609, he began to suffer from various kinds of unusual phenomena. Monsters and ghosts appeared and tortured him every night. Some said that he was mentally disturbed, and others said that he was killed by the evil spirits. In actuality, he died from a fit of apoplexy. 

     In some legendary stories of Himeji, frightening incidents centered around the person of Terumasu. One version has it that someone lit a lamp on the fifth floor every night. It was so weird that Terumasu ordered his men to go up to the fifth floor to see who was there. A young man volunteered to go and see with his own eyes. He went up to the top by himself only to find a young, beautiful lady in twelve layers of kimono lighting a lamp. And then Terumasu himself went up to the donjon.

     What he found there was his tea server, who suddenly turned into a huge fierce god and said, “I myself am the guardian of this castle. If you don’t worship me, I’ll take your life.” He was terrified and kept on begging its pardon. At the crack of dawn, he found himself in his own room and not on the fifth floor in the main keep.

                                                                 Musashi Miyamoto and the Monster

    One of the most famous expert swordsmen in Japan, Musasi Miyamoto (1584-1645) is said to have stayed in Himeji for a while when he was young before developing his two-sword style of fencing. Though he heard the rumor that a monster appeared in the main keep of Himeji castle, he wasn’t scared. One night he was ordered by Lord Kinoshita to slay the monster. He went up to the donjon only with a small lamp. It was when he went up to the third floor that fierce flames came down to him and the gigantic roar-like thunder was heard overhead. The instant he touched his sword to pull it out, silence settled down once more upon the floor.

     On the fourth floor the same things happened, however, he kept on going up to the top. He kept watch on the sixth floor till dawn. Suddenly there appeared to him a beautiful young lady who said, “I am a guardian deity of this castle, Osakabe. I’m pleased to see that you scared off the monster tonight. As a reward for your great courage, you shall have this treasure sword.” She faded away as the sun rose.

     Some say that the monster was the raccoon dog incarnate, and others say it was the fox.

     These stories are part of antiquity and folklore but the truth is that the city today is still haunted. In the still of the night ghostly shadows emerge from behind trees and turrets. Some of these ghosts are poltergeist friendly and playful; others are less so and best avoided. Below are several ghost tales which endure today and I relate them with serious conviction of their truth. 

                                                                         Haunted Souls on Mt. Keifuku

   The first concerns a hill near the castle known as Mount Keifuku. I came upon it quite by accident one afternoon as I was exploring the city. At the base of the hill there is a temple of the same name. It is not a very impressive temple and most tourists do not put it on a sightseeing itinerary. In front of the temple which is located on a side street there is a placard with the following inscription:

                                                                                      KEIFUKU TEMPLE

                                                       In 1749 Tadazumi Sakai, the lord of Himeji, ordered the temple

                                                       of Keifuku  to be moved here from Sakata-cho as a family temple.

                                                       In this precinct, there are the graves of princess Kiyo, the wife of

                                                       Tadanori, princess Kiso, the wife of Tadatomi and princess Enn,

                                                       the wife of Tadashige.

                                                       At Mt. Kefukuji there is also the grave of Akinori Matsudaira,

                                                       the Lord of Himeji as well as graves of the Himeji Warrior Clan.

    In front of the temple there is a twisted pine tree with its protective branches covering a stone bridge. Behind the temple to the left there is a cemetery with cluttered tombstones which wind and rain over the centuries have eroded and the characters of archaic kanji were almost unrecognizable. 

     Behind the cemetery there is a path which leads up the hill, so typical of ancient roads and paths which can be found all over Japan. The path is covered with gray granite stones and curls to the right beyond the cemetery and leads up to Mt. Keifuku.

     I climbed the path and soon found myself surrounded and enveloped by trees and the thick foliage of nature. The branches of the trees intertwined above my head. It was hard to conceive that I was not far from the center of town. The path narrowed and the granite pebbles gave way to dead leaves which served to cushion my footsteps. What amazed me most were the hundreds of tombstones which lay hidden in the forested mountainside. By inspecting the condition of the stones I noticed that many must have been laid here hundreds of years ago. The rain of centuries had worn the surface of the stones down smooth. Here lay the graves of the Himeji warrior clans. Many perhaps cut down in battle and service to their castle lord. Many people, perhaps in the springtime of their youth, have endured a violent death both untimely and unnatural. 

     As I proceeded to the top of Mt. Keifuku the trees became denser, the stone tombs more scattered and the road itself disappeared.  Some stones had been quarried from quite a distance. I could not imagine how they were brought up the steep incline of the mountain’s surface. It then became apparent to me that the entire mountain was, in fact, a cemetery.

     A clearing appeared in the foliage and to my right the city of Himeji could be seen below at the onset of dusk. I wondered why I had never found this hill before. Surely it was waiting to be discovered. I felt compelled to climb further to the top and take advantage of the lookout at the highest point.

     It was late afternoon and the sun had almost completed its descent into the western sky. There were yet another few minutes or so of daylight.  Suddenly I realized that the sun had set more quickly than I had expected and that I was alone. An eerie feeling crept over me as I sense the presence of someone behind me. I could hear movement in the tall grass behind me. I felt nervous and quickly turned around.

     Although it has been a hot day, a cold ghostly wind passed over me, a frigid wind, and an unwelcomed one. I was possessed by an ominous sense that I was not alone and I had trespassed upon some sacred ground.

    I nervously backtracked my footsteps and made my descent to the bottom of the hill as quickly as I could and out of the temple grounds and into the noisy calm of city life.

     Later I confided this incident to a long-term resident of Himeji, a man in his seventies who had a keen knowledge of the local stories which involved the city.

     “Oh, yes, the mountain is indeed haunted,” he told me with great seriousness. “You see, about thirty years ago they wanted to build some new homes at the foot of the mountain. When then began to dig a foundation for the homes they uncovered some bones from graves which dated back to the Edo period. They relocated the bones to the top of the mountain and some of those who were involved in the action encountered bizarre accidents and even death. The place is haunted, that’s for sure.”

     When I mentioned this account to yet another friend I was given a completely different account of the events.

     “Oh, yes,” she said, “the mountain is indeed haunted but not because of Edo period bones. No one in their right mind ever goes up there.” Her explanation had nothing to do with the deaths of the Himeji Warrior Clan or with the digging up of ancient bones. Rather it had to do with the burning of a love hotel which lay at the foot of the same mountain. It was located on the side away from the temple. It was a rather dingy hotel and one frequented by young people. Several love suicides had been recorded at the hotel and it had developed an ominous reputation.

    As the story goes, on a fateful evening a fire broke out at the hotel and killed almost all of the resident guests who became trapped inside and were unable to escape. When I pressed her on for more details, she only said that after the fire the spirits of the dead were often seen on the mountain behind the hotel. The souls one encounters at the top of Mount Keifuku are the sleepless dead of doomed lovers and not those of warrior soldiers.

          As unconvincing as this may seem, Keifuku Mountain even today has an eerie, isolated atmosphere. Almost no one climbs to the top anymore and those who do

relate stories of a sense of discomfort and unrest.

                                                                                         Hakuro-Bashi Bridge

    I have been told that there are numerous ghost stories about Himeji but there are only two more that I am aware of and neither concerns events at the castle.

    The first of these concerns a bridge which spans the Senba River in the western section of the city. Since it is located not far from the castle it is named after the “white heron.” Thus its name translated is “The White Heron bridge” The rumor has it that several years ago faces appeared beneath the bridge. They were easily recognizable but would soon disappear only to return at a later date. People came from all over the province to see the apparitions. Some saw faces; others imagined them, while others saw nothing at all.

    Trying to understand this phenomenon, some older residents of the area who survived the war claimed that the area where the apparitions allegedly occurred was heavily bombed during World War II.

     Himeji was a strategic link to Kobe and possessed a sizable port which was targeted for bombing by the Allied Forces. Besides the port there was also the Kawanishi Factory which produced airplane parts for the Japanese air force during the war. This factory was especially targeted by the Allied planes and the bombs which fell were often in residential areas.  When the planes came, many of the local civilians found refuge under the Hakuro Bashi Bridge.  The bridge is not a large one and could only shelter a few people at a time. Around the area of the Senba Bridge there was heavy bombing during the summer of 1945 and many civilians were reportedly killed.

     Several years after in the fifties the war some local residents began to see the faces appearing. Could it be that these spirits still roam the streets and seek refuge under the bridge? Perhaps they have not yet found peace.  

                                                             Nagoyama Tunnel

     A final haunting and perhaps the most bizarre involves a tunnel which was built under a cemetery. One of Himeji’s most famous tourist attractions, second only to the castle, is Nagoyama Cemetery.

    City planners seeking to build better roads and to link main streets with highways decided after the building of Nagoyama Cemetery to drill a tunnel through the base of the hill underneath the cemetery.  The plan was to cut distances between the southern and the northern parts of the city.

     Several years after the construction of the tunnel, passengers using the tunnel late at night were reported to have seen ghost images which guided them along the way. Some ghosts could be seen at the exits. The tunnel which ran beneath their graves had disturbed their eternal sleep. Or were their presence in the tunnel meant to guide the passengers safely through the night?