Official

Cooling down without a simple warm-up before suddenly entering the story of sudden spinning up.
In the first place, how do youkai be treated in Japan and how is it popular in modern times?

Going back to the times, you can see depictions of youkai and monsters in Chronicles of Japan, The Tale of Genji, and picture scrolls.
However, it is said that it was the Edo period that the ghost, the demon, the god who was said to have been integrated and enjoyed with the name "Youkai"! The voice of my heart, "I thought it was before!" ）
In addition, there are many youkai who are famous but still have no names.

On the other hand, this year, due to the epidemic of COVID-19 infection, I often saw the Edo period Yokai "Amabie" as a prayer for the eradication of the plague.

Selected as an enlightenment icon of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, commercialized, turned into sweets, appeared in dramas, and was very active with the top 10 buzzword award!
Youkai tend to have a terrible image that appears in a haunted house, but thanks to Amabie, I was able to know that it is not necessarily a monster that harms humans.

With such a background in mind, I would like to look at the mysterious stories that remain throughout Chuo-ku one by one.

First of all, from Temmacho, where the prison and execution site were located!

A man sitting in the play in Temmacho suddenly disappeared while playing with a friend. The next day, when a friend visited the house to inform him of this monster, the man's wife said, "My husband has returned this morning." But when my wife goes to the second floor, there is no man. "When I got home, my husband said, 'You'll get married again if I died," and as soon as my wife cut out the story that her husband had stopped, I heard a loud noise on the second floor, where no one should have said, 'Dos!' (1796, "Earbukuro, Makino 4)

The daughter of Kiselya and Masuya in Otemmacho could not read and write without writing, but suddenly wrote the six-character name of `` Minami Mu Amida Buddha '' and claimed to be Yuten, a 100-year-old monk who was known for evil spirits. . However, when he asked her daughter, it was the raccoon who had turned into Yuten. The daughter, who returned to her honesty, did not remember writing her name. (1820, Rabbit Garden Novel)

If you tell the youkai that you can't get from the raccoon's work and horror, this is still just the beginning.

Next is the ghost story that remains in Minami Hatchobori.

One day, a poor god appeared while Kiyoji, a fishing boat shop, was fishing kiss. He says he will keep his kissing from entering the house with "Seiji Tsurifune". Overhanging the house that had been suffering from the plague in the same tenement house cured the disease, and Kiyoji was crowded with people seeking plague suppression. Too much noise, magistrate's office took the book of the investigation. (1790, "Half-day quiet story")

As the deity says, I think there is something similar to the episode of Amabie that the house with the tag of "Seiji Tsurifune" was protected from the plague.
Is there a person's affection for the poor?
But it can be seen how the people of the time were suffering from the plague that they were so fussed to magistrate's office for the investigation.
If you would like to know a little more details, please refer to the National Diet Library "Reference Collaboration Database".

One day, an unknown old woman appears at Jinbei's house in Hatchobori, and beckonizes with a view to Jinbei. When the servant kicked out the old woman, Jinbei suddenly fell down and died. (In 1677, "New Book Collection")

From dusk to midnight, a fine bride procession passed through the gate of the Honda family residence in Hatchobori, but later turned out to be a fox marriage. I didn't even know that there was such an event in the Honda family. (1753, "Edo Dust Picking")

In each case, the development of the start and turn is fast, and it is a mysterious story that makes you want to say, "Wait a minute!", But I understand that the mysterious thing that happened in the Edo period was regarded as the work of youkai.

At the end of the cultural year, something like a three-meter-sized fireball was witnessed from northeast to southwest. It is said that the people of the ship crossing the armored hand looked at it. Eventually, the shoji was torn in the southwest houses, and there was a big impact that the door rattling. In Hachioji far away, something like a large stone fell from the sky. (Cultural Year "Saru Monshu")

In modern times, the possibility of meteorites is the first place to be suspected, but the fact that it is like a fireball is a tasteful place like Edo.

Next, we will deliver even more terrible ghost stories from the Yaesu, Nihonbashi, Nihonbashi, and Nihonbashi Ningyocho areas!

In Okemachi, there was a family of a man named Okeya, an Atsushi family. One day, when I was distributing cold well water to people at the storefront, a young girl came and said that my stomach hurts. The daughter who recovered after recuperating at Okeya was a hard worker, so Okeya liked her daughter and decided to marry her son. On the night of the congratulatory day, Okeya's wife dreamed. My son came out and said, "My grandfather, who was a hunter in the past, took the lives of many beasts and was chasing him. Originally, the father was supposed to receive the reward, but because of the good deeds, the demon cannot give evil. So instead, I'll be eaten by the demon tonight." When the worrisome Okeya couple looked into the newlywed floor, the bones and limbs of their son's head were scattered beside her daughter, who had turned into a demon. ("The Hyaku Monogatari" Makinosan)

Revenge play by youkai across generations... How scary!
It makes you want to live cleanly and correctly so that you don't fit your eyes like this.
(* (Nihonbashi) Okemachi is near the current Yaesu 2-chome.)

A man who was serving as a samurai servant in Azabu suddenly said, "I want to have time." The situation was strange without revealing the reason, so on the day, another servant followed the man's trace, and suddenly disappeared in Nihonbashi. Three years later, a man sent a letter saying, "I'm living safely but I can't return," and was told that Tengu was hidden. (4-5 years of culture "Half-day quiet story")

There seems to be no mention of the time zone, but there is also a market, and I am surprised to suddenly disappear in Nihonbashi, where there was some traffic.

When repairing the Hazaemon play in a playhouse burned in a fire four years ago, he cut down a pine beside Sugiyama Daimyojin in Hodogaya and turned it into a beam, but the play was not included. Because it was sacred tree, rumors stood that it was a curse, and while praying on stage, the beam suddenly broke and fell. In fact, three years ago, the granddaughter of the man who felled this pine was in agony. The man said he would repair Daimyojin Sugiyama, and was told that he had to curse because he had left him alone. (May 3, 1816, "Rabbit Garden Novel")

There was a woman crouching at the base of Jizo Bridge over the Ryukan River. When the townspeople called out, the woman who looked back was frightened. ("Edo Folktale Story")

(For details on the ruins of the Ryukan River, see "Maniac Town Walking-Drawing a culvert (Ryukangawa Edition)".)

After a female entertainer called the mansion finished singing, he stayed at the mansion, asking a disgusted family member for a storm. Then at midnight, a large woman in a red hakama slept by an old woman sleeping next to an entertainer. This girl was a youkai who lived in this mansion, and therefore decided not to stay at the mansion. ("Koshi Night Story")

The mansion that appeared here is the Makino family residence located at the side of the shipping bridge, and was said to be a famous monster residence.
Every time I visit the inhabitants of the ward Tangible Cultural Property "Shipping Bridge Main Pillar", I seem to remember this ghost story.

Finally, there are two ghost stories about fishing from Tsukuda!

The first is a mysterious story about the fairy fish and iris fish that appear in the tradition of the Edo period.
It is said that the roots of irises became fish, and it was reported that they appeared in Edo in 1824 (1824).
However, the figure is not recorded in the record, and details are unknown.
Because we know that there is a root, it is presumed to look like a white and thin white fish.
Ieyasu Tokugawa liked white fish, so the right to fish is strictly stipulated, and it is said that somebody who worked on it may have caught and ate the white fish as a monster fish.

It's interesting that some people may have obtained using the tradition of youkai.
Let's also check out Tangible Cultural Property's "White Fish Offer Box", which has been featured in the Chuo-ku Tourism Test!

The second is a ghost story that is said to be related to the Osaki Nami Inari Daimyojin.

He captured and killed a fox falling from a fox fisherman who possessed foxes, but worshiped it in a shrine as Ozaki Daimyojin. This is because the fox was thought to be the "Osaki fox" who came with the black ship. "Osaki fox" is a fox that is kept by a person and obeys the order. At that time, cholera, which was popular, was said to have been the work of the Osaki fox, so it is said that it was worshiped because of fear of curses. (Around 1858, "Rest Karo Shigella Expense Overview")

This is an interesting example that reflects the historical nature in the ghost story.
Youkai can also be said to have been created by invisible fear.

So far, I've introduced the ghost story of Chuo-ku, how was it?
I've covered in articles about Hatchobori Seven Wonders, Rei Kishijima Seven Wonders, Oiwa (Oiwa Inari Tamiya Shrine), and otter, but I was surprised that such a variety of ghost stories still remained in Chuo-ku!
The more I knew such a ghost story, the deeper it was, and I was even more interested in the values that lived among the people of the Edo period.
Both youkai and COVID-19 infection are connected in terms of (invisible) fear.
I'm afraid correctly, and I want to take good measures during the year-end and New Year holidays.

[References]
Zenyoji Susumu Edo Humanities Study Group "Edo Yokaizumaki as seen in the picture-1237 species of a different world that the people of Edo fear and loved (accompany the novel of the period)" (Kosaido, 2015)
Eddie Cube "The Great Story of Edo with Old Maps-Mysterious Sampocho" (Futabasha, 2014)