The Roving Ronin Report

This story is a version of the Ogre of Rashomon as the story is named in Yei Theodora Ozaki’s Japanese Fairy Tales. I however refer to the titular creature as a demon based on the Japanese word “oni” which is demon/devil. Rashomon is a gate that once stood in Kyoto that lapsed into disrepair and became a place of ill repute. According to legend a demon took up residence there and snatched up passer-bys. Eventually it bit off more than it could chew when it tried to grab a samurai. The photos were taken by me of the temple gate of Zojo-ji Temple in Tokyo, a shot of a float from the Nebuta festival of Aomori showing a samurai fighting a demon (Raiko and Shuten-doji), and a depiction of the story on a float at the Neputa Festival in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. The other images are 19th Century woodblock (ukiyoe) prints.

REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING - TELL GHOST STORIES In Old Japan, the summertime was the time for ghost stories. Japanese summers tend to be hot and humid and ghost stories were a form of old fashion all natural air conditioning designed to induce cold shivers on hot summer nights. Cold sweats, icy fingers down the spine, and blood turned to ice in the veins by chilling stories of the supernatural were just the thing for the sweltering nights. Given our problems with Global Warming and Global Recession, perhaps by turning off our air conditioners and telling ghost stories we might be able to to ease the burden of both. I've decided to help revive that tradition by telling a few traditional Japanese ghost stories. So switch off your air conditioning, turn up the volume, and let your mind be filled with the ghostly specters and bizarre happenings while cold fingers play along your spine. 100 Ghost Story Game and the Temple Ghost In old Japan to combat the heat and the oppressive humidity, Jap...