Sessho Seki Rock
The splitting of a Sessho Seki Rock that “kills whoever touches it” terrifies believers in myths by releasing an “evil demon”.
Japan – A number of myth-believers panicked after they found a volcanic rock known as the “Killing Stone”, split in two, in Japan on Monday, March 8.
The “Sessho Seki Rock”, which legend says contains a “devil spirit” trapped inside, split and killed anyone who touched it, causing an uproar on social media.
According to legends, the volcanic rock called the “Killing Stone”, officially known as Sessho-seki, contains the transformed corpse of Tamomo-No-Mae, also known as Nine-Tailed Fox. A beautiful woman was part of a secret plot orchestrated by a feudal warlord to kill Emperor Toba, who reigned from 1107-1123.
Legend says that her true identity was a vicious nine-tailed fox, whose soul lurked in a large piece of lava, located in an area of Tochigi Prefecture, near Tokyo, famous for its sulfur hot springs.
And the separation of the stone into two approximately equal parts, which is believed to have occurred during the past few days, has caused terror among superstitious Internet users, because according to legends, the stone constantly emits a poisonous gas, hence the belief that it kills whoever touches it.
The Sessho Seki Rock is located in the northern mountainous region of Tochigi, near Tokyo, which is a tourist attraction.
Some expressed alarm about the stone splitting, after eyewitnesses published pictures of the broken “killing stone”, and others speculated that the demonic spirit of “Tamamu no Mai” had been revived after nearly 1,000 years, wreaking havoc again.
“I feel like I saw something that shouldn’t be seen,” a visitor to the popular tourist spot said on Twitter, whose post has racked up more than 170,000 likes.
Others commented: “Here, I thought 2022 couldn’t get any worse. Now the angry Japanese spirit is freed from the killing stone.”
One joked, “I think the devil will look around in 2022 and want to go back to the rock for another thousand years.”
Local reports indicate that the Sessho Seki Rock has already begun to fracture two years ago. This allows rainwater to seep into the interior causing damage and weakening of its structure.
Tamamo No Mae
Stories of Tamamo-no-Mae being a legendary fox spirit appear during the Muromachi period as otogizōshi (prose narratives), and were also mentioned by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. Edo period folklore then conflated the legend with similar foreign stories about fox spirits corrupting rulers, causing chaos in their territories.
In the story told by Hokusai, formed in the Edo period, the nine-tailed fox first appeared in China and possessed Daji, a concubine of the Shang dynasty’s last ruler King Zhou. She enchanted the king and brought on a reign of terror that led to a rebellion that ended the Shang dynasty.
The fox spirit fled to Magadha of Tianzhu (ancient India) and became Lady Kayō, concubine of the crown prince Banzoku ( based on Indian tales of Kalmashapada the man-eater), causing him to cut off the heads of a thousand men. It was then defeated again, and fled the country. Around 780 BC the same fox, returned to China, was said to have possessed Bao Si, a concubine of the Zhou dynasty King You. It was again chased away by human military forces
Sessho Seki Rock Pic
Officials are now studying what to do with the remains of the rocks and may try to recover them, since according to the Shimotsuke Shimbun newspaper, local and national government officials will meet to discuss the fate of the stone. The newspaper quoted a tourism official in Nassau as saying that he would like to see the “Tamamu no Mai” stone restored to its original form.
