By Megan Marples, CNN
An evil fox spirit is a giant after escaping from its rock criminal, at least, if you’re in Japanese mythology.
A Sessho-seki, or “stone that kills,” discovered split in two this month in Nikko National Park, about 160 kilometers north of Tokyo.
No one knows precisely what caused the stone to break, but the bloodless winter months possibly contributed to the cracking, said Nick Kapur, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
Each winter, water may have seeped into the crack, frozen and then spread, he said. However, many are recommendations in the myth, he added.
There are several versions of the legend, but Tamamo-no-Mae, a nine-tailed fox spirit, was believed to have remained trapped in the rock for nearly 900 years.
All the stories revolve around the retired emperor Toba, who lived in Japan between 1107 and 1123.
Tamamo-no-Mae is known for her shape-shifting abilities, so she became a charming woman and caught the emperor’s attention, Kapur said.
As she was brought closer to the emperor, he became seriously ill, Kapur said. A court astrologer used divination to determine that Tamamo-no-Mae was the culprit, he said.
Once her plan was thwarted, she fled into the wilderness, changing shape to remain hidden, she said. However, the samurai chased her despite everything, she stayed with the fox spirit, Kapur said.
When one of the warriors shot him with an arrow, his physical form died, so his brain turned to stone, he said.
Legend has it that if you touch the stone, you will die, hence the fatal stone, Kapur said.
There’s no evidence of the stone’s supernatural abilities, but its unique location would possibly have given rise to the rumors, said Yoshiko Okuyama, a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
The stone is found near several volcanoes, so the fuel released occasionally could have killed animals or humans over the years, he said.
The rock has a prominent tourist site and its popularity has skyrocketed, but it has nothing to do with the fame of the spirit, Okuyama said.
The fox spirit has appeared quite a bit in the fashionable Japanese media, as a villain turned hero, he said.
“The most recent manga and anime adaptations don’t need to paint women in a misogynistic way,” Okuyama said.
In older Japanese myths, stories focused on evil female spirits to undermine men’s strength, Kapur said.
After the stone cracked, other people were quick to give their opinion on the timing of the break.
Many took the occasion as an omen, given the pandemic and the war between Ukraine and Russia, Kapur said.
Others felt it boded well, she had been released to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin and oppose the war in Ukraine, she said.
“If you’re in the mood to take this in a negative way, you definitely can, but if you need to take credit in a positive way, that fox spirit will help us when needed,” Kapur said.
El-CNN-Wire™