So there’s a trope in old Japanese stories where a high-ranking noblewoman has an affair
with a Buddhist priest.
One such famous story is the scandal of Empress Shotoku and the priest Dokyo.
Here’s a quick appetizer for you before we get to our main story because there’s
one crazy part in it.
After the priest Dokyo cured Empress Shotoku of an illness, she kept him close as an adviser
and helped him climb to the top of the government.
Dokyo was even eyeing the Emperor’s seat.
Some accused Empress Shotoku and Dokyo of being lovers, which would’ve been improper
because Empresses could not marry.
Some of the accusations were ridiculous, especially this one that I love.
They said Shotoku was a lustful woman but was cursed with lady parts that were quite
wide, quite big.
She was so cavernous that Dokyo couldn’t satisfy her, and Dokyo supposedly had a large
manhood himself.
So one day Shotoku felt a bit feisty and shoved a potato up there to satisfy herself.
It broke inside her, and that killed her.
What??
I don’t get it either.
See I bring you guys the best stories.
Alright, but the main course of today’s Yokai Storytime is the tale of Empress Somedono
and the Priest.
Long ago, when Emperor Seiwa (清和) sat on the throne, the Japanese court suffered
a crisis.
The emperor’s mother, who was called Empress Somedono (染殿后), fell ill and was haunted
by an evil spirit.
The Empress was prone to being possessed by spirits, you see.
The emperor called in priest after priest to exorcise the evil spirit, but they were
all useless.
One day, the emperor heard of this famous priest named Shinzei (信西) who lived in
a mountain temple.
This priest had trained in magical rituals for years, and he lived in the mountains so
he’s gotta be powerful right?
His powers allowed him to float a bowl in the air to bring him food and water.
The emperor immediately sent a messenger to retrieve the priest, which is weird because
how would a floating bowl help the empress?
In front of the court, Shinzei the priest did a prayer.
In the middle of the ritual, one of Empress Somedono’s ladies-in-waiting started acting
all crazy.
She ran around crying while everyone stared with wide eyes.
The guards tied her up and beat her, which caused a fox to jump out of her clothing.
Foxes were known to play tricks on people.
The ritual had revealed this fox who had been haunting the Empress.
The guards then tied up the fox too, it was their favorite thing to do.
Shinzei used his spells to make the fox think hard about its life and stop hurting people,
and it did.
Soon after, Empress Somedono’s illness disappeared.
People were so happy that they invited Shinzei to stay and enjoy the Imperial palace for
a while.
And he definitely enjoyed it because one day, a wind blew a curtain to the Empress’ room
and he caught a glimpse of her in her underclothing.
Now this was a time when seeing an inner sleeve was hot, so you can imagine the fire that
ignited within Shinzei’s loins, even for a Buddhist priest.
After a few days, the thirst got real bad and Shinzei crept into her room as she was
sleeping.
The Empress cried out but he forced himself on her.
Her ladies-in-waiting saw what was happening and ran to get help.
They found the court doctor in the halls and he rushed to the Empress’ room.
The doctor caught Shinzei just as he was leaving the scene, and brought him to the emperor.
Emperor Seiwa threw a fit, then threw Shinzei in prison.
But even in prison the priest would not repent.
“I may become a demon when I die,” he said.
“But while that woman is alive, I will satisfy my desires with her.”
Hearing of this, the emperor kicked Shinzei out of the capital and back into the mountains.
The priest was hopeless.
He couldn’t forget about the Empress, but knew that he had no way of visiting her in
this life.
And so he decided to become a demon.
That escalated quickly.
The priest starved himself for 12 days, deleted his internet history, and died, then arose
as a terrifying tengu (天狗), a yokai with great powers.
He appeared in Empress Somedono’s room, causing her servants to flee.
Shinzei the tengu, with his new powers, controlled the Empress’ mind, making her fall in love
with him.
They lay together that day.
When the tengu finally left that evening, the servants came back in to help but the
Empress just asked, “Oh, did something unusual happen?”
From then on, Shinzei visited her room everyday and the Empress seemed to welcome him.
Remember that doctor that caught Shinzei from earlier?
The tengu declared that he would get his revenge on that doctor.
The doctor died soon after, possibly from fear or from tengu.
A few of the doctor’s sons went crazy and they died too.
Everyone in the court was sad at what was happening and pitied the Empress, especially
her son the emperor.
The emperor invited priests from all over to pray and drive the evil monster away.
Surprisingly, it worked.
The demon did not return the next day, nor the next.
And after about 3 months of no tengu, the emperor was happy to hear that his mother’s
mind was starting to recover.
So he paid her a visit, along with many other government officials.
When the emperor saw his mother back to normal, tears fell from his eyes.
The Empress was moved.
At that moment, freaking Shinzei appeared out of nowhere and the Empress’ mind reverted
back.
She welcomed the monster into her arms.
They engaged in the most depraved acts without shyness, right in front of all the officials
and the emperor.
They all watched in horror.
The tengu was so powerful that no one dared stop it.
Emperor Seiwa returned to his palace, morose, lamenting at what had happened to his mother.
The moral of this story, as told by the old tale weavers, was that a noblewoman should
stay away from relationships with priests, or it would end in calamity.
So one interesting thing about this story.
The emperor in the story is Emperor Seiwa, who actually existed.
This story may have been used by Seiwa’s enemies to hurt him.
Seiwa and his half-brother had a struggle for succession.
Seiwa ultimately won and became emperor.
This story may have been used to question whether Emperor Seiwa had royal blood.
Now he can’t be the illegitimate son of Empress Somedono and Shinzei because that’s
not how birthing works.
Seiwa was already born at the time.
But the gossip was that the Empress was vulnerable to being possessed by spirits or demons.
If she was possessed in the past and gave birth to Emperor Seiwa because of it, that
would bring into question Seiwa’s lineage, his royal blood.
His father could’ve been a demon or something.
This has even more implications because Emperor Seiwa is the godfather of the Seiwa Genji,
the line of the Minamoto clan that would defeat the Taira in the Genpei War.
His descendants would establish the Kamakura shogunate and the Ashikaga shogunate.
And Tokugawa Ieyasu would claim descent from that same line and establish the Tokugawa
shogunate.
It would’ve meant they all descended from an illegitimate emperor.
So did Empress Somedono have affairs with demons?
Well, some know, and some dono.
Just kidding, we know that demonic possessions are just stories, or fun bedtime activities,
but they didn’t know that.
It might have been convincing back then.
Alright time for today’s quiz question.
What was the name of the emperor who died by drowning in the Battle of Dan-no-ura?
Answer in the comments.
Winner gets one of these.
In 24 hours, I’ll choose a winner from the correct answers
using a super secret random process. Good luck!
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Alright, I love you and spread the knowledge.