๐ LEGEND ยท EXP. Nยบ3657
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Okiku and the Nine Plates
Okiku and the Nine Plates is a legend from Hyลgo, JP โ a folk story passed down over generations. This file collects its origins, its meaning and how it has been retold.
Where does the legend of Okiku and the Nine Plates come from?
- Location
- Hyลgo, JP
- Kind of legend
- Ghost story
- Coordinates
- 34.839, 134.694
- Testimonies
- 0
- Last updated
LOCATION
What is the legend of Okiku and the Nine Plates?
The legend is set in the late sixteenth century at Himeji Castle, where a young servant named Okiku is said to have worked under a samurai retainer, Aoyama Tessan. According to the story, Aoyama wanted Okiku for himself, and when she rejected him he hid one of ten heirloom plates in her keeping, then accused her of losing it. Okiku searched and counted the plates again and again, always reaching nine, unable to explain the missing tenth. Versions differ on what happened next: some say Aoyama threw her into the castle well in anger, others that grief and fear drove her to jump. Folklore holds that from that night on, her ghost climbed from the well each evening, counting slowly to nine before letting out a piercing cry where the tenth plate should have been. The well, still shown to visitors inside Himeji Castle as 'Okiku's Well,' is presented as the place where her counting was once heard. The tale spread nationwide through kabuki and rakugo theater under the title Banchล Sarayashiki, with local variants moving the setting to Edo. No record confirms Okiku's existence; the counting ghost endures purely as one of Japan's best-known ghost stories.
๐ Source: Enigma Atlas
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