Ancient Japanese ‘killing stone’ said to contain an evil demon splits apart sending superstitious believers into a state of panic
- The stone is located in the mountainous region of Tochigi, north of Tokyo, Japan
- According to mythology, it contains the transformed corpse of Tamamo-no-Mae
- Her true identity was said to be an evil nine-tailed fox embedded into the stone
- The stone split in two parts and was discovered by tourists over the weekend
An ancient Japanese ‘killing stone’ which is said to contain an evil demon that will kill anyone who comes into contact with it has split in two, sending superstitious believers into a state of panic.
The stone is located in the mountainous region of Tochigi, north of Tokyo, where visitors were given a shock over the weekend when they found it separated into two roughly similar sized parts, reports the Guardian.
According to mythology, the famous piece of volcanic rock, called the Sessho-seki, contains the transformed corpse of Tamamo-no-Mae, a beautiful woman whose true identity was said to have been an evil nine-tailed fox.
Legend has it Tamamo-no-Mae was part of a plot to kill Emperor Toba who ruled Japan from 1107 to 1123.
The spirit was then said to have been embedded into the stone where it would kill anyone who came into contact with it.
An ancient Japanese ‘killing stone’ said to contain an evil demon that will kill anyone who comes into contact with it has split in two, sending superstitious believers into a state of panic
The stone is located in the mountainous region of Tochigi, north of Tokyo, and said to contain the transformed corpse of Tamamo-no-Mae, a beautiful woman whose true identity was said to have been an evil nine-tailed fox
It has been said that the rock was destroyed many years ago and a Buddhist monk exorcised the spirit from it before scattering it across Japan.
However, many Japanese people said it was always located on the slopes of Mount Nasu and that its evil spirit may have been resurrected, releasing a poisonous gas, after it was found split in two by tourists over the weekend.
‘I feel like I’ve seen something that shouldn’t be seen’, said one tourist who tweeted about the discovery on Saturday.
Another feared the release of an evil demon was just the latest horror of 2022, while one user joked that the spirit would want to spend another millennium stuck inside the rock after looking at the current state of the world.
Local media reported that the stone is likely to have split in half after rainwater seeped into cracks which first appeared several years ago, causing it to break.
The stone is something of a tourist attraction in Tochigi, where the leader of a local volunteer guide group said its split was a ‘shame’
Masaharu Sugawara, who leads a local volunteer guide group, told Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun the split was a ‘shame’ because it was a popular tourist attraction for the area.
However, he agreed that rainwater was the likely cause of the split.
The Shimotsuke Shimbun newspaper reported that local and national government officials will decide what happens to the stone now, with one official saying he would like it returned to its original form.