九尾の狐の伝説が残る、殺生石にひとりでやってきました。
縄でぐるっと巻かれた真ん中の大きな岩がそれ…
のはずなのですが、なんと岩は真っ二つに割れて、縄も外れていました。
漫画だったらまさに封印が解かれて九尾の狐に取り憑かれるパターンで、見てはいけないものを見てしまった気がします。 pic.twitter.com/wwkb0lGOM9
— Lillian (@Lily0727K) March 5, 2022
When word gets out that something called the “Killing Stone” has broken in half, it can't be a good sign. And it's an even worse omen when one discovers that this Killing Stone is believed to hold the spirit of a demonic fox. Unfortunately, the news is true and Japan's Sessho-seki, also known as the Killing Stone, has split.
Located near a hot spring in Nasu, Japan, Sessho-seki is a stone set into volcanic mountains. Viewable only from a distance due to toxic sulfur fumes, a legend states that the stone has been used to trap a vengeful spirit of Tamamo-no-Mae. The story states that Tamamo-no-Mae was a nine-tailed fox disguising herself as a beautiful woman in order to kill Emperor Toba (1107 – 1123) and take his throne. Once the fox was killed by a warrior named Miura-no-sake, its body became Sessho-seki. It was believed that it was the fox who began emitting a poison that killed anyone who approached the stone.
The spirit continued to haunt the area until a Buddhist priest named Genno stopped to rest near the stone. Bothered by the spirit, he performed a ritual that trapped the demon inside Sessho-seki. However, if one believes the legend, the fox might have broken loose.
Local officials have confirmed that a small crack has been forming over the years and now it's actually split in half. Images posted on Twitter clearly show a large chunk of the rock lying on the ground. So beware, there's a nine-tailed fox spirit on the loose.
Sessho-seki, or the Killing Stone, is said to hold the spirit of Tamamo-no-Mae.
Tamamo-no-Mae woodblock print from “New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts” series (1889-1892) (Photo: Yoshitoshi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
She was a nine-tailed fox disguised as a beautiful woman that tried to kill the emperor.
Fleeing fox spirit as Lady Kayō depicted in Hokusai's “Sangoku Yōko-den” (Photo: Katsushika Hokusai, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
After being killed, the legend states that the demon-haunted Sessho-seki— until it was trapped inside.
Sessho-seki in 2016. (Photo: ウィキ太郎 Wiki Taro, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
h/t: [IFL Science!, Spoon & Tamago]
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