A husband and wife were walking in the woods when they found a baby on the ground.
Being staunch opponents of leaving babies on the ground, they took in the child and
raised her as their own.
As the child grew up, they realized that she was special.
She had a sharp wit and read books like a pro.
She was so good that she was allowed to read poetry in front of the Emperor.
He immediately took a liking to her and made her a servant in his court, because that’s
what emperors do when they like you, they make you their servant.
Her name was Tamamo no Mae (玉藻の前).
She grew up to be a smart and beautiful maiden, able to charm anyone.
The entire court adored her, mothers compared their kids to her.
When the scholars in court tested her knowledge, she could answer all their questions.
The Emperor was entranced and spent all his free time with Tamamo no Mae.
Finally the old dog made her his consort.
They were inseparable.
It was sweet, but soon trouble appeared in paradise.
The Emperor fell ill.
He became sicker and sicker, and the doctors were stumped.
It became so bad that the Emperor could no longer get out of bed.
The strange thing was, his beloved consort didn’t seem all that sad.
In fact, she didn’t seem worried at all.
Since the doctors were useless, the court took the next logical step, they brought in
a famous sorcerer.
The sorcerer performed a sorcerous ritual to diagnose the problem.
After the ritual, the sorcerer declared that the Emperor was cursed by a bad spirit, they
needed to pray the curse away.
So the court summoned priests from across the land to pray at the palace, but the Emperor
continued to waste away.
The court then pleaded with the sorcerer to figure out the problem.
He agreed, and performed a super sorcerous ritual, with twice the sorcery this time.
When he finished, he made a shocking declaration.
The culprit was none other than the Emperor’s dear consort, Tamamo no Mae.
She was killing him through magic!
The Emperor and everyone else refused to believe this.
How could someone so beautiful be so evil, they asked with wisdom.
After executing the biggest eye-roll in the world, the sorcerer proposed a test.
He would perform a powerful holy ritual and make Tamamo no Mae participate.
An evil spirit would not be able to take part in such a holy ritual.
Tamamo no Mae tried to get out of it, but the court convinced her to participate.
At first, it was going well, she didn’t burst into evil maiden blood flames or anything.
But then something curious happened.
A tail popped out of her behind.
“That’s weird,” people thought.
And then another tail appeared, and another, until finally the adorable young lady morphed
into an adorably evil nine-tailed fox.
It turned out, the fox was sucking the life, the LIFE, out of the Emperor.
Caught red-pawed, the foxy lady jumped out the window and took off.
The Emperor was heartbroken, so he ordered two warriors to set out with an army to murder
Tamamo no Mae.
The warriors had a pretty hard time with it, she kept outsmarting them and escaping.
But one day they finally pierced her neck with an arrow, killing her.
When she died, her spirit entered a boulder.
It became known as Sessho-seki (殺生石), or The Killing Stone, because it killed anyone
who touched it..
Much later, a nice monk came to The Killing Stone.
He had heard of her, but wanted to hear her side of the story.
And so Tamamo no Mae poured her heart out to the monk.
“My dear monk, when my adoptive parents found me in the woods, I was already cursed
to be a nine-tailed fox.
It was likely why my previous parents abandoned me.
I loved my new parents and they loved me.
But one day, my father was framed for treason and exiled by the court.
It led to his death.
Crushed by grief and thoughts of vengeance, I gave in to the fox within.
The things I’ve done, the people I’ve killed.
I regret it terribly.
Please, merciful monk, unbind me from this stone and let my spirit enter the heavens.”
The monk was moved by her story and granted her wish.
He released her spirit into the sky.
Tamamo no Mae is one of the most famous figures in Japanese mythology.
She shows up in plays, books, movies, everywhere.
Being a nine-tailed fox, she is super powerful, and is known for being a power-hungry trickster.
She’s on the list of the Three Most Evil Yokai of Japan.
Yokai are basically monsters, spirits, or demons.
There are many different stories involving Tamamo no Mae.
They usually involve her seducing the ruler of some kingdom and making them do terrible
things, often resulting in the downfall of their kingdoms.
She supposedly did this to two Chinese dynasties.
The reason she’s on the Three Most Evil Yokai list is this.
The Emperor that she seduced was Emperor Toba, who ruled during the Heian Period.
He had already retired by the time Tamamo no Mae was killed.
Soon after she died, the retired emperor also died.
Not only that, his son, the reigning emperor at the time, died as well.
It is said that Tamamo no Mae was responsible for these deaths.
Her revenge caused a succession dispute that eventually led to the momentous Genpei War,
a war that forever shattered the power of the emperor and ushered in the era of the
shogun in Japan.
Hey y’all, I’ll have some more Japanese folktales for you in the coming weeks.
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