Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: The Killing Stone

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

The Killing Stone looms large in Japanese folklore, so when it split in half in March 2022, people were worried it would bring devastating effects in its wake. Except... they really didn't.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Gianna Predenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadston. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahary-Pore.

If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. Josh here, Chuck here. Let's giddy up all the way to Japan. That's right. We're going to Japan to talk about a very famous rock in Japan that split into in 2022. And there was a tweet that kind of got big that featured a picture of that broken rock that said, and this is translated from Japanese, I came alone to the killing stone where the legend of the nine-tailed fox remains. If it's a manga, it's a pattern that the seal is broken and it's possessed by the nine-tailed

fox and I feel like I've seen something that shouldn't be seen. Let's go. Let's talk about this famous rock. Okay. So, yeah, this person who tweeted that was a tourist in Togichi Prefecture in Japan, and she was visiting this very famous giant rock that supposedly was the dead form of the fox spirit Tamamo-no-Mai. And supposedly Tamamo-no-Mai had been trapped for centuries

in this rock that people like the tweeter would go visit. The thing is, when the tweeter went to visit it, this rock had been split in two, and that meant possibly that Tamamo-Nomai had escaped. Right, and the idea was that Tamamo-Nomai was trapped in this stone called the Shesho-Seki, is that right? Seshho. Seshho-Seki? Mm-hmm Sesho. Sesho Seki?

Mm-hmm. All right. Very nice. Which is killing stone. Yep. And here's the thing is the internet kind of got it wrong. If you look at the original lore of the story, Tamamo No Ma'i was actually the stone and not trapped in the stone.

Sure. So let's talk about this. Okay. You need further. So Tamamo. I about this. Okay. Even further. So, Tamamo. I'm just keep doing setups. Right. Tamamo No Ma'i was a very famous spirit, nine-tailed fox spirit in Japanese folklore.

And she showed up in a number of different myths and tales in Japanese folklore. But there's one in particular that concerns this story, and it involved the emperor Toba, the 74th Japanese emperor, who is a very real person who lived from 1103 to 1156 CE. And during this reign, allegedly, according to folklore, Tamamo-no-Mai, the fox spirit showed up, disguised as a woman and said,

I think you're going to like me. Check me out. That's right. The idea was to just sort of preoccupy and bewitch this emperor and then overthrow the emperor. What happened, according to Laura once again, is that the emperor was enthralled, sort of neglected his duties and then fell very, very sick around the same time. So a soothsayer came along and said, wait a minute, I suspect that you, Tamama No Ma'i, are behind this whole thing. And so she fled into the land surrounding there.

Basically it's Mount Nasu. And the legend was that they caught up to her, she was slain, and that her body turned into the stone at that very spot. Right. So, it's very significant that it was a group of samurai who tracked her down and killed her, shot her with an arrow, because folklorists believe that this tale of Tamamo-Noma'i enchanting the emperor and basically causing him to stop paying attention to his duties is some sort of allegory, I guess, for what's called the Hogen Rebellion,

this time when the emperor's rule gave way to rule by the samurai, which lasted for centuries afterward. And so that this was kind of about that story, maybe justified it, I'm not sure. But the essential ingredients are that the emperor was bewitched and helpless and had to be saved by the samurai. Yeah. And it was, you know, there were a lot of this is just one of many, many stories in Japanese folklore, wherein monsters would appear, a hero would rise up to save somebody, it was, you know, there were a lot of, this is just one of many, many stories in Japanese folklore wherein monsters would appear, a hero would rise up to save somebody. It was usually a metaphor for, you know,

something politically that was going on. Right. And maybe I say we take a break? I think I agree with you, sure. All right, we'll be right back. I'm Carrie Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.

I know I'll go down to history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really in here them boys. I just come here to play basketball every single day and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black.

I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture.

Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, The talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Hey, I'm Gianna Predenti. And I'm Jeme Jackson-Gadston. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?

Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies.

Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it, like, you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay Chuck, so where we left off, Tamamo-Nama'i has turned into a giant stone. This stone that people would go visit was something like 6 feet tall and 25 feet in

diameter. Uh, it was no small stone. It sounds like it was shaped kind of like Slimer from Ghostbusters. Yeah. And I think that was circumference by the way. What did I say? Diameter. Circumference.

Thanks. Um, so people would go visit this and one of the reasons why that this stone in particular came to be identified as the Seshoseki, the killing stone, is because it really kind of stood out from its other stones in the area. You could just pick it out and be like, that looks cool. And then the actual area itself on the mountain, what was the mountain's name? Numatsu?

Nasu. on the mountain, what was the mountain's name? Nmatsu? Natsu. Yes, Mount Nasu. It's like a volcanic plain. There's active volcanoes in the area, so there's like poison gas spewing up out of the earth around the stone. It's quite menacing in that sense, especially if you know what the legend is

and you're looking at the stone as if it were the killing stone. Yeah, so there are potentially some poisonous gases, sulfuric gases that seep out of the ground in that area. While it's nothing that would hurt a human, if you went to this stone, which really stands out and looks weirdly out of place there, and you found some dead squirrels laying

around, it could lend itself to the idea that either Josh was nearby, or that an evil spirit could radiate death from that spot. And this is a very, very well-known story. I don't think we said that it was, you know, it was part of folklore and there are a lot of these stories, but this seems to be one of the bigger ones. And it's kind of like a universally known tale in Japan. So, it's a very, very famous story. And so, you know, when this thing split, it was, you know, the internet goes a little

hog wild for a short time talking about whether or not the evil spirits will be unleashed and whether or not this is all coming to fruition, apparently if you do like on the ground research and talk to Japanese people they're like, we don't really think that, of course we don't, this is the internet being the internet. Yeah, and in addition to that, over the years, initially Tamamo-Namae was depicted as just nothing but evil, a corruptor of men and usurper of male power. And then as Japanese society kind of softened and progressed in its stance on women, she actually evolved along with that, interestingly, so that now today, when she's used in like manga or anime or something like that, she's usually kind of like

a proto-feminist anti-hero, is how this article from How Stuff Works put it, I think, perfectly. Yeah, totally, and you know, of course nothing happened because it's folklore, but I imagine it's still, and apparently this is a big thing in Japan to like go visit this thing in the woods, right? Yeah. Yeah.

That seems like a dumbed down way of saying it because we visit plenty of great things in the woods as well. But you know, smaller things like this rock in the middle of this national forest becomes like a pretty standard tourist attraction. Yeah, and I didn't realize there was a term for that kind of tourism, content space tourism, where it's just the one thing that you're going out of your way to go see to a place you probably wouldn't have otherwise gone, like the giant ball of yarn or something like that, you know? Yeah. Well, except this isn't a national park, which I imagine is beautiful. Sure. I think it is too.

I have nothing else except, I want to go on the record as correcting you, I love the squirrels now, and I have for years and years and years. I know, I'm just kidding. Okay. Well, Chuck was kidding everybody. That means short stuff is out.

["I Heart Radio Theme"] Stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, My Heart Radio, that.