Dodomeki, "The Demon With 100 Eyes", An Urban Legend Yōkai From the Edo Period

金曜日
kinyoubi
Friday

金 means "gold".

Today's focus is very different from the other stories I've told so far, in that it is neither really a ghost nor a yōkai (unless you count the opinion of Mizuki Shigeru, which really, you should...).  This story doesn't really adhere to the usual Japanese ghost story, yōkai story, or folktale.  Instead, it follows the newer method of folk telling, much like the recent and popular mass hysteria surrounding this new "Urban Legend Yōkai", Kuchisake Onna.

While today's creature has had their legend told since long before, it wasn't until the Edo period that the story really worked itself into a frenzy.  As I've mentioned before, the court nobles and fine people of the old capital of Kyoto, suddenly forced to live in this new, unfamiliar, countrified place, were filled with fear about the strange things lurking in the city, and that's originally why they got together to have 100 Ghost Story Night.  However, this story was not the type shared at Ghost Story Night.  Like Kuchisake Onna, people wanted to share the supposedly true story of this monster, and how they know for a fact that it really happened to their friend's wife's brother's cousin's nephew.  They wanted to warn their friends of the mysterious and dangerous forces of this city that they lived in.

So let's get into this new breed of Urban Legend Yōkai, based on the number one thing everybody could agree was unavoidable in their city:  gold.

Jinmenju, "The Human-Faced Tree", A Yōkai with Strange Roots

木曜日
mokuyoubi
Thursday

木 means "tree".  So I'll tell you about one of the (many) tree yōkai.  And while it is a yōkai, it is a very odd one, even by yōkai standards, as its story makes no sense.  Also, it has to do with humans in its appearance, as well as the history of it.  This thing's history deals with a great many humans, and also gives some interesting insight into Japanese folktales, so that's why I've chosen it for today.

Funa-Yūrei, "Marine Spirits", Japanese Ghosts of the Sea

水曜日
suiyoubi
Wednesday

Today's story is about 水, water.  It's a ghost story, but since the ghosts are popularly known, it sort of identifies itself as a yōkai, with distinctive appearance and patterns.



It even has its own card in the Obake Karuta deck.

However, it has to do with humans, and it is a ghost story, after all, so I'll tell you the story, then tell you about some of its habits afterward.  By the way, the stories will be getting scarier and scarier from this entry.  (Though, I've always had an irrational fear of today's ghosts in particular...)

Yaoya Oshichi, "Greengrocer Oshichi", A Japanese Folktale

Back for Day Two of Japanese Ghost Story Week.  If you missed Monday's installment and want to know what this is all about, please click here.

火曜日
kayoubi
Tuesday

Today's tale has to do with 火, fire.

I've actually told a bit of this tale before, here in the Kagrra, and Yoshitoshi entry.  However, I mainly told the kabuki version, dealing with the theme, and there are a few variants and a great many different images of this story I'd like to share.  So it shouldn't be too bad.

Taketori Monogatari, "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", A Japanese Folktale

As it's Halloween, and mainly because I was ever-so-politely requested to do this instead (I really do get around to fulfilling requests... eventually), I'm going to ramp it up by doing a week of

! Japanese Ghost Stories !

I will post a different story every day this week, leading up to Halloween.  Yes, every day!  And I will try to keep each one relatively, or at least comparatively, short.  Each tale has been selected to pertain to each day of the week.  So when I'm done, you'll also know all of the days of the week in Japanese.  And I won't even dwell on it!

So what's today?

Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese Star of the American Silent Screen

I thought I'd take this entry to write about another person who is very influential to me. An actor whose life was so damn amazing that it's actually much more interesting than the movies he starred in, which is really saying something, as his movies are great.

I really won't get into the whole portrayal of Asians in American media, as it's a touchy subject and has been covered countless times before by writers much more educated on these things than I am. However, suffice it to say that there are a scant few Asian stars in Hollywood at all, and when they are in films, their nationalities are chosen at random, and they are limited to playing stereotypical parts like "the kung fu master", "the demure geisha", "the awkward math genius friend", or "the scary Japanese girl terrorizing Americans". When you see an Asian at all... often the parts are re-cast to star white actors. So it's hard to find a good role model, a leading man doing awesome things (non-martial-arts-related) who just happens to be Asian.

This sort of thing is not new. Back when movies were first getting really popular, silent films and then the subsequent "Golden Age" of Hollywood, quite a few films included an Asian character. And since this was the movie industry's first big chance to enrapture their audience with resplendent images of exotic Asian locales, they didn't simply move the picture to an American location and re-name everyone to make them American. Very few foreign or foreign-looking stars found success, however. Perhaps the most famous silent film star, and one of the only foreign men to attain romantic lead status, was Rudolph Valentino.



Yeah, that guy, the one with all the eye makeup. Women lusted after him, some even committing suicide when they got news of the actor's premature death, and his roles as a Spanish Matador or Arabian Sheik or the like coined the phrase "Latin Lover", first used to describe Valentino's appeal. Of course, the moral society of the time didn't like seeing foreign men taking away their white women, so often Valentino would have to play over and over again opposite the few Italian/Spanish/etc. actresses in the roster, or eventually sacrifice himself to return the girl to a man of the proper, ie, same, race, or, in a flourish of Shyamalanian proportions, reveal himself to actually be a white European in disguise... somehow.  Those "foreign" actresses I mentioned that he often had to star with were hired for the sole purpose of starring with him, a luxury afforded to one, maybe two other "foreign" stars.

The problem was that the studios wanted to make money, and with no real Asian actors having a big star name, a film full of nobodies, Asian or otherwise, wouldn't draw audiences. Also, during one of their psychological surveys that they so often conducted to predict trends and the biggest successes, audiences complained that they didn't like seeing white actors playing Asian with Asian actors doing stereotypical bit parts in the background, because it made the white actors' yellowface look extremely inauthentic and distracting. The studios' solution? Fine, just re-cast everybody with white actors!

So we ended up with big-name stars granting us little gems of thespian nuance like these:



(Mickey Rooney, Katharine Hepburn)

Oh,that's nice.

It's not as if this practice has gone away, but Asian-Americans are just such a minority, and today most major movies are still just star-vehicles for the big name to stand there looking hot and doing nothing, that it's really a battle of principle instead of a want to see Asian actors taking on roles that require acting talent. But I digress.

I'd like to introduce you all to a Hollywood star from Japan who not only played the romantic lead, but did so with such sheer talent and complete disregard for "what was expected of him", that he became one of the top draws of Hollywood cinema.

Sessue Hayakawa: Hollywood's Asian Superstar That You've Never Heard Of

Isshi's Passing

I'm sure everyone has heard the news, and I'm very sorry about it.

Isshi is a very big influence on me, as you know, and will forever remain as the inspiration to my calling of spreading and preserving Japanese culture.  He was an extremely talented person and a very intelligent, interesting, creative, and artistic musician and performer.  He has always remained constant in his beliefs and eager happiness to share with everyone his poetry, voice, and knowledge about Japan. 

I still wish to continue his message, and owe him very much through his music which has helped me through some extremely dark times in my life.  I will always consider him a dear friend.

I have not updated recently because I was working on an entry on him, in fact, but that will have to wait; I don't think now is the right time.  But I will keep writing about him.  I will work even harder to continue spreading his message and his memory through all that I write.  That message, his life, and his talent should be remembered, and I give all credit to my aspiring occupation of "folklorist" to the all the brilliant and hard work that he shared with the world.

It has been said before, by another Japanese writer of great prestige and exquisite talent, that,

"A silent death is an endless word."

It is always there, waiting to be spoken, and will remain forever.  Isshi himself has often stressed that his spirit is encapsulated in his lyrics and his songs.  Please continue to listen, please continue to keep him alive, because he will always remain where the melody is heard. 

The Supreme Essence of Neo-Japanesque, the truth behind words and spirits, the wholeness of Isshi and Kagrra, and Japan remain rooted firmly like the sakura trees.  While the cherry blossoms bloom for only a short time, and we look at them in awe and reverence, feeling some mixture of envy and thanks for the beautiful and violent way they have burst into bloom, so too do they violently strip themselves from the trees and scatter in the wind.  Beauty and life fade, but the sakura choose to fall on their own, flying around us like butterflies returning home, the image of which has become an ideal for the Japanese life, an eternal symbol of Japanese culture. 

The world Isshi flies through must look glorious.

He will never fade away and he will be missed sorely.

私の生きてきた鬼の街はとても寂しくて、

果てない痛みから遠く遠く遠く逃げたくて、、、。

I'll see you again in the next life.

ええ、一志様。 次に会うのは、境なき世です。