Obon is a Buddhist word which Urabon (Festival of the dead) is shortened to, and which is a Buddhist festival to recognize the spirits of the dead. It’s believed that “the kettle of iron in hell is opened” on this day. I don’t know why it’s on the specific day but it must be for the spirits of the dead in hell. The spirits which went to heaven must not need it because they are happy up there and have no lingering regret, I think. As for Bon Odori (bon dance festival), it is said that it was originally created from a scene where the spirits of the dead that escaped from their drudgery in hell were dancing with joy. That is, the Bon Odori (bon dance festival) is a festival which is for the spirits from hell… It's creepy, isn’t it? I wonder, who has seen the dance of the spirits of the dead from hell?
Have you done the test of courage or Kaidan (Ghost Stories) telling before? I guess you’ve done it once, such as going to the gravesite or shrine and so on in a middle of the night with a torch or candle to see how brave you are…It’s scary to walk in the dark…Well, are there ghosts? People usually get afraid of the dark. I wonder if it’s because they are scared of the ghosts. There was an experiment and as a result of weighing a dead body, it was found to be a little lighter than when being alive. So, one suggested that each spirit has a weight based on that result. The other even suggested that our body is only a container which contains our spirit.
Is it true??? However we call our body 肉体nikutai. If we look closely the word (Chinese character), we can see that there is a “人 (human)” inside the word of “内 (in)”. It shows that there is a human inside of our body. It may indicate the spirit.
The “霊 (spirit)” is also called “ヒhi”. The reason that we call humans “ヒト hito” is that “hi” stands for “spirit” and “to” stands for “stopping”. So hito means stopping our spirits from going out.
For example, when we are really surprised at something, we say “魂消るtamageru (to be very surprised)” As the word “魂消る” is composed with 魂 (spirit) and消る (disappear), I guess it expresses that people couldn’t stop their spirits going out of their body because they get so surprised. I guess that it’s true as people could die from shock … So as for the thing that is believed even if our body has gone, the spirit still exist, it isn't necessarily just a lie.
Also in some regions, they have the 精霊馬 (Shouryouma) which looks like a horse or cow, and is made from an eggplant and cucumber with chopsticks stuck in as their legs. Cucumbers represent a horse with hope that the spirits can come back home fast. Eggplants are used to represent the cows, and symbolizes the hope that the spirits can return to the spirit world as slow as possible. Also there is another wish for the cow which represents to bring many souvenirs to the spiritual world. I guess that all these traditional customs are based on the belief that the spirits of the dead exist.
One said the following. Japan (日本) is a country of 日(spiritual) and本 (base)…So he said that when looking at the shape of national land, Shikoku island looks like Australia, Kyusyu island looks like Africa, Hokkaido looks like North America and the main island looks like Eurasia. He concluded that because Japan represents the shape of the world, it could prosper….Just to add more info, he said that Seto Inland Sea represents the Mediterranean, and Boso Peninsula represents the Korean Peninsula. That having been said, it certainly does seem to be right. Also he mentions that what happens in this country is what is going to happen in the world sometime soon.
Well, do you believe all of these which includes the story about spirits?....
Well…….anyway Japan is a wonderland.
