What would you do if you could summon a skeleton to drink your enemies’ blood?
Today on Folktales for Dummies, I bring you the story of a faithful
daughter who continues her father’s egotistical quest for fame and glory.
Some historians call Taira no Masakado the first samurai.
He rebelled against the Japanese imperial court and tried to create his own state ruled by warriors.
It was going well until he got his head chopped off, and then things went downhill, like his head.
When you execute a rebel, it’s polite to kill his children too, so they don’t become burdened
with having to avenge their father.
Masakado had a son and a daughter who escaped the killing and went into hiding.
They stayed low for years, never even made a post on Horse Twitter.
One day, the daughter decided that enough time had passed, and she should seek revenge.
But how was she supposed to fight against the imperial government? There was only one thing to do.
At night, she snuck into her local shrine and performed a ritual,
asking the gods to help in her noble quest for vengeance.
The next night, she did the same thing. She did this for 21 nights.
Finally, on the 21st night, the ritual worked and the fierce patron god of the shrine filled the room.
“Please I beg you to grant me the power to defeat my enemies and avenge my father!” She shouted.
“Uh sure,” the god said.
“Oh,” she said.
The god filled her with magical powers and gave her a new name:
Takiyasha-hime 滝夜叉姫, which means “Waterfall Demon Princess.”
“Why waterfall?” she asked.
“I like waterfalls. Look, do you want the powers or not?”
“Yes, I do.”
There’s another version of the story where her brother ran into a dude
in the mountains. The dude claimed to be the heir to their father Masakado,
and gave the brother a scroll all about frog magic.
The brother brought it home to his sister, who read it and trained to become
a frog magic user.
She also changed her name to Takiyasha-hime.
The brother and sister returned to their hometown and slid into the
Horse Twitter DMs of fighting men who were still loyal to their father,
asking them to join the cause.
But why only have men when you can have monsters?
Takiyasha-hime used her new powers to summon an army
of supernatural creatures and skeletons to bolster their forces.
Rumor spread through the halls of the imperial court that another rebellion was brewing,
so they sent a guy named Mitsukuni 郎光圀 to see if anything was going on.
Turned out many things were going on.
Mitsukuni put on his best army and traveled to where Takiyasha-hime was living.
When he got there, he felt a little suspicious, but couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
After walking past the army of monsters training for war, he entered the residence.
Inside, servants welcomed him and gave him food and drink,
and a beautiful courtesan sat next to him.
She seemed to be enamored with him, but she came on a little too strong,
which made him even more suspicious.
“A confident woman? This makes no sense.” He thought.
So during the conversation, he starts talking about the rebel Masakado,
and the gruesome way in which he died.
Of course, the woman was Takiyasha-hime, Masakado’s daughter.
Hearing her father’s death described in such detail was too much for her, and she broke down and cried,
ruining her scheme.
Takiyasha-hime ran away,
only to later return with her demonic army.
To make extra sure, she performed a ritual while standing on land
that used to be a battlefield from her father’s rebellion.
The bones of dead soldiers arose from the ground and combined into a giant monstrous skeleton.
She had summoned a creature from Japanese folklore called a gashadokuro がしゃどくろ.
These are usually found in places with a lot of dead bodies, like battlefields,
mass graves, and Will Smith’s basement. Don’t let his extraordinary charm fool you.
Soldiers often died in battle without proper funerals.
Same with people who starved during famines.
Sometimes, the anger and suffering they felt as they died lived on and coalesced,
merging their bones into a huge skeleton with a hatred for the living.
When the gashadokuro sees you, it will crush you or bite off your head and guzzle your blood.
It can also turn invisible, so you won’t see it coming.
Well, it does make this bone rattling sound as it moves, so you may get some warning,
but it doesn’t always make that sound.
This giant skeleton can’t be killed at all.
You can only wait until it uses up all of its negative energy and falls apart.
These creatures are more rare nowadays because we have less wars and famines,
but you still have hope, look at the middle east.
The Waterfall Demon Princess took her army, her brother, Skelly-chan,
and a giant toad that she freaking rode, and slammed them into Mitsukune’s army.
A great battle ensued, and in the end...
Takiyasha-hime died,
and her rebellion died, just like her father’s rebellion years before.
But her story lives on,
a story about a brave and loyal daughter who tried her best to avenge her father’s death.
So how did Takiyasha-hime lose when she had a giant skeleton?
Well, skeletons don’t do well in battle, they have no skin in the game.
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Okay, time for today’s quiz question.
Which Studio Ghibli movie is about being abducted by the gods?
Answer in the comments.
I’ll choose a winner from among the correct answers tomorrow.
Winner gets one of these. Good luck!
Alright, I love you, and spread the knowledge!