Lucid Dreams and Saturn Skies The Life and Writing of Andrew Kincaid

Tag Archives: Japan

Koro Syndrome–The Disorder of Fatal Genital Shrinkage. (Yes, You Read That Right)

September 27, 2012 2:11 pm / 6 Comments /

…I could say so many things right now. Just…read on. It’ll make more sense in a minute, haha

The other day, I came across an article about something stupid Rush Limbaugh said.  Apparently, an Italian study found that penis length has decreased by 10% in the last fifty years.  The study, sensibly enough, stated that things like smoking, stress, pollution, and weight gain were responsible for the discrepancy.  Of course, Limbaugh being Limbaugh, he couldn’t accept such an explanation.  Instead he blames ‘feminazis’ (better known by sane people as ‘feminists’) for the shrinkage.

Rush Limbaugh’s statements have little to do with this article–they were so stupid I couldn’t help but share.  However, the very real shrinkage cited in the study and its attendant anxiety is very relevant. Those, and of course the link at the bottom of the article.  As long time readers know, I find the often baffling world of culture bound syndromes fascinating.  Well, anxiety about genital size can result in a culturally bound syndrome called Koro Syndrome.

The disorder is typically confined to Southeast Asia, specifically Japan, China, and India.  The word ‘koro’ is the Malay word for turtle, and it is often used as a euphemism for penises.  Koro Syndrome is a disorder characterized by the delusional belief that a man’s genitals are retracting into his body, and that when it fully retracts he will die.  No, I am not making this up.  This is a very real psychological disorder that has been documented for thousands of years of China, and that is recognized by the psychiatric community.

Outbreaks of Koro can result in mass penis panics (never thought I’d be typing those particular words in sequence) where hundreds or possibly thousands of men become convinced that their penises are disappearing.  Many go to extremes to halt the progress of the retraction.  I read an account of one man who kept his little man tied to a string suspended from his ceiling every night for fifteen years before finally seeking psychiatric treatment.  Some have (very devoted) friends or family members hold their member for them to keep it from disappearing (again, not making this up).  Men have even died trying to prevent penis retraction.  I’ll leave exactly how that happens to your imagination.

So, what the heck is going on?  What could possibly make thousands of men think they’re George Costanza after a dip in the pool?  Nobody really knows for certain.  Likely as not it’s a variety of factors, like lack of proper sexual education, cultural factors, and in isolated cases mental illness.  While Koro is mostly isolated to Southeast Asia, isolated cases have cropped up in the West as knowledge of the disorder has spread.  In the West, however, it is limited to those who are mentally ill, whereas otherwise healthy men in China, Japan, and India can be afflicted with the disorder.  Typically psychiatric medications can help sufferers see through the fog of delusion.  While it might seem a ridiculous notion, Koro Syndrome brings very real suffering to many people.  It is just one more example of how the human brain can go strangely and ridiculously off the rails.

Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Our Weird World, Weird Science / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Guest Post From JapanPowered–The Gashadokuro

August 4, 2012 4:30 pm / Leave a Comment /

A painting depicting a GashadokuroMy brother runs a Japanese pop culture blog called JapanPowered.  I’ve begun doing semi-weekly guest posts there about Japanese pop culture, which I will now share with you!  Without further ado, here is my post about the strange story of Japan’s giant skeletons, the Gashadokuro.

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Japan is home to some very strange spirits, to say the least.  Not long ago I did a post about an odd breed of spirit that exclusively haunt Japan’s bathrooms.  Last night I was poking around, looking for more Japanese ghouls and goblins when I came across the Gashadokuro (also known as the Odokuro).

Read more here…

Posted in: Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Guest Post From JapanPowered: Japanese Bathroom Ghosts

July 20, 2012 5:46 pm / 3 Comments /

An illustration of a Noppero-Bo

Now and then I post on my brother’s blog about Japanese pop culture.  I decided every few Fridays or so that I will find some odd thing about Japanese folklore and urban legends (it’d be hard to find something not odd from that place!) and write it up as a guest post, which I would reblog here to share with you guys, my regular readers.  Without further ado, here is all you could ever want to know about Japanese bathroom ghosts:

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Japan is a weird, weird place.  Anyone who is casually acquainted with Japanese pop culture knows that.  But things get even stranger when you delve into the world of their folklore and urban legends.  Japanese legend features a stable of ghosts, goblins, monsters, and various other bugaboos that puts the Pokemon roster to shame.  Among the strangest that I’ve come across are Japan’s bathroom ghosts.  So far as I can see there are six of them, and they are as follows…

Read More Here…

Posted in: Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , ,

The Yurei: Japan’s Lost Souls

May 19, 2012 2:20 pm / 7 Comments /
Yurei are Japanese ghosts, derived from Shinto folkloric tradition.

The Ghost of Oyuki, an image depicting a traditional Yurei.

Several months ago, I did a post about Aokigahara, Japan’s suicide capital and a purportedly haunted forest.  It is widely believed that the forest is haunted by Yurei, which are essentially Japan’s version of ghosts.  These differ from the traditional Western style ghosts.  On our side of the ocean, ghosts are ephemeral things that can only interact with the physical world with great difficulty.  They knock and creak and moan, but they’re generally harmless; in fact, they’re usually little more than annoying, at least according to the lore.  Their goal is usually to attempt some sort of communication with the living, in order to fulfill some sort of unfinished business, after which they can pass on to the other side.  Some are more malevolent, intending to scare folks away from their haunts or just to generally be pains in the butt.  In general, they’re said to be tied to our world by strong emotions, often negative.

Yurei, on the other hand, are entirely different beasts.  There are some similarities, of course: both are tied to the world by strong emotions, and both seek to interact with humans.  Other than that though, there are few similarities.  For one, Yurei are often depicted the same way: they’re women dressed in white with long black hair.  Yurei are predominately believed to be women, because the Japanese believe that women experience deeper, stronger emotions than men and thus are more likely to become Yurei.

The differences don’t end there, but in order to understand the Yurei fully we must understand traditional Japanese beliefs about the afterlife.  Shinto doesn’t have heaven or hell the same way the West does.  When a person dies, their soul leaves the body and enters a kind of purgatory.  When the proper funeral rites are performed, the soul can go to the ancestors and thus become a protective spirit.  However, if the proper rites are not performed, or if the person dies by suicide or murder, their soul may become a Yurei.

That isn’t too different from the Western conception of ghosts, nor the conception of ghosts the world over.  There is a prevalent belief the world over that if people are not laid to rest properly they will somehow haunt the living.  Yurei, however, are more corporeal than their Western counterparts.  They are not see through, although in their traditional depiction they are shown hovering over the ground, with only their hands and face visible.  Yurei also, possibly due to their corporeal nature, have no problem interacting with the physical world, much to their victim’s dismay.

You see, Yurei can be incredibly dangerous.  They are said to seek vengeance against those who wronged them in life, and little can be done to stop them.  The Yurei will only disappear when their desire for vengeance is sated, either by the Yurei itself or by its family members.  In some cases, the Yurei may haunt a lover until its passion is fulfilled (not sure what that means, but to me that sounds pretty ominous).  Sometimes a Shinto or Buddhist priest may be able to exorcise the Yurei, but more often than not the spirits are unstoppable until they fulfill their desires.

It should be noted that not all Yurei are malevolent.  Yurei are tied to the Earth by strong emotions, but they do not necessarily have to be negative.  Some Yurei are motherly figures, who come back to watch over their children.  Others might return to keep a business appointment or some other sort of obligation.  While they might be frightening to people who happen to bump into them, these types of Yurei are largely harmless.

The worst kind of Yurei become a curse.  Their desire for vengeance is so strong that even destroying the original object of their fury cannot sate it.  They will destroy anyone who enters their territory–Yurei are typically, but not always, bound to a specific site–and will do so until exorcised or otherwise removed, a dicey proposition at best.

American has come to know Yurei in recent years through movies.  The Grudge, The Ring, and Silent Hill all feature Yurei style ghosts.  While these depictions aren’t always accurate in terms of the traditional folklore, they’ve definitely made waves in American horror.  Like it or not, it seems the Yurei are here to stay in American horror.

Have you seen The Grudge, The Ring, or Silent Hill?  What do you think of the Yurei or ghosts in general (keep it civil, please)?


Posted in: Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Philosophy of a Knife (2008)

March 19, 2012 8:55 pm / 5 Comments /
Philosophy of a Knife is a shock film by Andrey Iskanov, chronicling the atrocities of Unit 731 during WW2.

“God Created Heaven. Man Created Hell.”

Last night, I did something that I don’t normally do.  I watched what is purported by some to be among the most shocking horror movies ever made.  Now, as I said, I don’t normally try those kind of movies.  Don’t get me wrong, I like horror and I won’t shy away from a horror movie that shows blood and brutality, only so long as the blood, brutality, and breasts aren’t the sole focus of the film.  There has to be at least something resembling a story and likable characters for me to get into a movie – the three B’s of torture-porn are secondary to me.

…I should explain what I mean when I say “torture-porn”.  No, I’m not talking about actual pornography.  Torture-porn is a sub-genre of horror that focuses almost exclusively on gore and violence – the more over the top, the better.  Examples of the genre that general audiences might be familiar with are Saw and Hostel.  I suppose you could also call the genre “shock”, as the entire point is to shock and appall the audience.

Philosophy of a Knife is just such a movie, although the director (Andrey Iskanov) tries to pass it off as a documentary.  The movie is meant to shine a spotlight on the atrocities committed by Unit 731, a unit of the Japanese army that researched biological and chemical weapons technology among other things during the Second World War.  Unit 731 committed atrocities in their pursuit of knowledge, such as infecting prisoners of war with bubonic plague or other pathogens and using live prisoners to test the limits of human physical endurance under conditions of extreme heat, cold, or pressure.  Some people suffered vivisection, which is essentially an autopsy performed while the victim was alive. These crimes aren’t well known for a variety of reasons, not the least of which because they were perpetrated against Russians, Chinese, and Koreans, and because they were overshadowed by the sheer scale of Nazi atrocities.

This is a story that needs to be told – what was done to the victims of Unit 731 was awful, and those who did it need to be held accountable, by history at least if not the courts.  However, Philosophy of a Knife takes a subject worthy of an extensive documentary treatment and exploits it to make what amounted to a crappy, low budget torture-porn flick.

Philosophy of a Knife is a 4 hour long movie, divided into two parts, that alternates supposed archive footage including stills and film reels with recreations of the horrors perpetrated against prisoners.  The movie was shot in grainy black and white.  It’s poorly edited, and it spends long (really long!) minutes showing snow fall, exterior shots, and people marching or walking down hallways.  The music and sound effects are meant to be industrial and to add an air of menace to the movie.  They don’t.  They’re grating.  The movie feels like a cross between a Nine Inch Nails video and a David Lynch film.

And the acting…oy the acting!  I’ve seen people show more distress standing in line at Wal-Mart than these people did supposedly walking to their executions!  Seriously.  These folks were stoic as monks as they walked to their inevitable and incredibly painful deaths.

Oh and about the actors.  Apparently, Andrey Iskanov believed that the Japanese only performed their experiments on Russian supermodels because those were the only people he hired.  In the interest of history, I’d like to point out that most of the victims were Korean and Chinese, with a smattering of other nationalities thrown in, including American POWS.  Approximately 580,000 people were murdered in the gruesome experiments the unit carried out, some in the actual facilities and others during field tests of biological and chemical weapons.

And now to the most disgusting part of this film – the recreations.  These were meant to show in gruesome detail the experiments that the Japanese staff conducted on prisoners.  Now, I can’t comment on later parts of the film because I only made it an hour into this turd, but the section I saw had a few scenes of the torture.

Shiro Ishii, commander of Unit 731

Ishii, architect of death. He was the commander of Unit 731.

How do I not sound like a monster here?  The scenes didn’t have an effect on me.  At all.  Mind you, I may be hardened from watching and reading a lot of horror, but I still cringe at movies like Saw, Se7en, and some zombie movies.  I’m not an ice man, and I’m certainly not jaded.  The scenes in Philosophy of a Knife were almost laughable because the special effects were so lousy, especially for a movie made in 2008.  If there was supposed to be some sort of great emotional gut punch from the recreations, it was lost on me.

The recreations weren’t disgusting (only) because of their content, but because of what they were meant to exploit – the very real suffering that real people experienced at the hands of the Japanese over sixty years ago.  Most disgusting of all, the movie was dedicated both to the victims and their executioners.  Andrey Iskanov should be ashamed of himself for exploiting a subject that should be given a serious documentary treatment by making it a movie that attempts to be both a schlocky gore flick and an art film, while failing miserably at both.  Judging by the pretension oozing from this movie, I doubt shame is an emotion this guy is capable of feeling.  Do yourself a favor and ignore this turd.

For more information about Unit 731 than you’d learn in the film, check out Wikipedia. 


Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bizarre Buddhism–Sokushinbutsu: The Mummy Monks

October 28, 2011 6:15 pm / 2 Comments /
Sokushinbutsu were the result of a sect of Japanese buddhists - the Shugendo - who believed they could achieve living Buddhahood by an elaborate process of self mummification. The sect is now outlawed in Japan.

One of the Sokushinbutsu

How far would you go for your beliefs?  If your faith called for it, would you give up your life?  What if, to get to heaven, you were called upon to take your OWN life?

Sound bizarre? To a sect of Buddhists called Shugendo it certainly wasn’t.  These monks and nuns are known now as the Sokushinbutsu, and are considered “living” buddhas (seems odd to call them living, but whatever).  They went through a long, painful process in order to preserve their bodies and achieve Buddhahood and the state of Nirvana.  To put it in Western terms, they mummified themselves alive in order to go to Heaven.

You might be thinking right now about the Egyptian mummification process, and wondering how in the heck someone could do something like that to themselves (the why might be understandable…after all, eternal peace and happiness is a pretty powerful motivator, although I should add that the Buddhist idea of ‘heaven’ is a lot different than what we think of here in America.)

The mummification process in this instance is a lot different than that practiced by the Egyptians.  Fundamentally different, in fact, because the Sokushinbutsu literally attempted to mummify themselves alive, while the Egyptians did their process post-mortem and, obviously, to another person.

A mummified monk - a Sokushinbutsu

One of the “living” Buddhas. He’s looking pretty spry for his age…

So how was this self-mummification achieved?  The first step of the process lasted 1000 days.  During this time, the aspiring Sokushinbutsu would eat a special diet of nuts and seeds while participating in a rigorous exercise routine in order to strip fat from their body.  In the second step of the process, the monk would only eat bark and roots for 1000 days.  Also during this time, they would consume a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, a sap normally used to make lacquer for bowls.  This tea caused vomiting and diarrhea, which resulted in rapid weight loss. Most importantly though, compounds in the sap made the body poisonous to maggots, which is obviously a good thing if you’re trying to keep the little critters from eating your corpse.

Once the second phase was done, the emaciated and sickly monk would enter a tomb crafted to be barely bigger than his body.  He would assume the lotus posture, which he would not move from for the rest of his life.  He would be sealed into the tomb, his only contact with the outside world a small air tube and a bell.  Every day for the rest of his life, he would ring the bell to let those outside know he was still alive.

When the bell stopped ringing, those attending the monk through his self mummification process would seal up the tomb completely and leave it sealed for another 1000 days.  Once the 1000 days were past, they would open up the tomb and see if the would be Sokushinbutsu had achieved his aim of self mummification.  Most times, they would open the tomb and find a rotted corpse.  A few times though, the process worked and the corpse was fairly well preserved (although not quite as well as Egyptian mummies and not near as well as bog mummies.)

A skeletal mummy

This guy looks a little worse for wear. Not sure if he is considered a Sokushinbutsu or not…

Those who tried and failed this bizarre and painful process were respected for their devotion, but those who became Sokushinbutsu were immediately venerated as a ‘living’ Buddha and put on display for all to see.

Thankfully, this bizarre practice has not survived the test of time.  The process was outlawed in 1879 in Japan, and for good measure now any kind of assisted suicide, including suicides for religious reasons, are now illegal.

I feel obligated to point out the obvious here.  This was NOT what the Buddha intended, and I seriously doubt he would approve had he lived long enough to see this process take place.  As I’ve said before, the Buddha tried the whole “extreme self denial to achieve Enlightenment” thing and it didn’t work out too well for him.  Luckily he stopped it before he died of starvation or sickness.

No, what the Shugendo sect did was not in keeping with the Buddhist philosophy as it was meant to be practiced. It was one of those extreme sects – every religion/philosophy has them – and they don’t really reflect the views of the wider community well at all.

That being said, right or wrong, this is a part of history.  The Sokushinbutsu show just how far people will go in pursuit of a belief, misguided or otherwise, and serve as a shining example of just how bizarre Buddhism can be.


Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aokigahara: Forest of the Yurei

June 17, 2011 10:47 am / 5 Comments /
Aokigahara is a forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji. It also the site of dozens of suicides each year.

A noose hanging in Aokigahara; unfortunately, this is a common sight.

Aokigahara lies at the foot of holy Mount Fuji in Japan. Also known as the Sea of Trees, it is a dense, dark forest, a place that has long been the focus of myth and legend. It is said that great deposits of iron lay underneath the Earth there, and that they play havoc with wayward traveler’s compasses. The forest itself is dense and unearthly quiet, like a tomb.  Both the natural magnetic fields and the claustrophobic feel of the area serve to confound those unfortunate enough to find themselves lost within its depths.  That is, of course, unless one intends to become lost within the depths.

Aokigahara is a wonder of nature and a place of pristine beauty, despite its unnatural feel. That being said, beauty is not what has made the Sea of Trees as famous (or rather, infamous) as it has become.

No, it is most famous as a forest where people come to die–a suicide forest.

In the past sixty years or so, nearly five hundred people have gone to Aokigahara to end it all. Locals say they can tell the difference among a tourist, a care taker, and those who have come to the forest to die – not surprising, since they’ve had sixty years of practice.

A sign set up by the Japanese government that begs those considering suicide to reconsider what they are about to do.

It reads: Life is a gift you were given by your parents. Please think about them, the rest of your family, and any children you have. You don’t have to suffer by yourself, please give us a call (the Fuji Yoshida police counseling service) and talk to us.

Some try to attribute the trend to the novel Nami no To. In the novel, two lovers go to the forest to kill themselves–the Japanese version of  Romeo and Juliet. While some believe the novel may have spurred the trend, it doesn’t seem likely that a novel was the sole causal factor. After all, suicide and death have always been associated with the Sea of Trees. Maybe it is the dark, quiet forest that calls to the sad and the lonely, a terrible Siren. Maybe the thought of dying on the slopes of holy Mount Fuji brings some measure of comfort to those who feel their life no longer has meaning. Then again, it could really be the novel; after all some bodies are found with a copy of Nami no To tucked amongst their last earthly belongings.

I don’t know. I think the only answers lie with the ghosts haunting Aokigahara, and last I heard they weren’t saying much.

Oh I didn’t mention the ghosts? The forest has long been associated with ghosts. One type of ghost in particular: the Yurei. These are the restless dead, spirits who have been torn from life unnaturally. They howl their suffering to the winds.  But maybe that’s simply the winds whistling through the stillness in the Sea of Trees, being mistaken for ghostly moans by frightened and superstitious travelers.

In any case, the Japanese take the idea of Yurei very, very seriously. Yearly sweeps are made of the forest looking for suicide victims. Beyond these, the members of the forestry service go about their daily duties, but keeping a watchful eye out for bodies. Now and then they find one. Many times they’re hanging from low branches, decomposed and gnawed by wild things. They cut the poor soul down and take the body back to the station, to a special room built for the dead. A room with two beds.

See, the Japanese believe that if the body were left in the room alone, the Yurei will scream its agony all through the night. Worse still, the body of the dead will rise up and enter the regular sleeping quarters. To prevent this, someone must share the room with the body.

You read that right. Some poor sap gets to spend the night in a room with a rotten corpse.

Strange bedfellows indeed!

Dear reader, as you fall to sleep tonight, please keep the poor Yurei of Aokigahara in your thoughts and prayers. It is sad indeed that people can become so disillusioned with life that they would choose to end it all. In the darkness. Alone.

Oh, and pay no attention to the wailing outside your window.

I’m certain it’s only the wind.


Posted in: Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World, Weird Travel / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Onibaba

May 14, 2011 6:47 pm / Leave a Comment /

Onibaba is a classic Japanese horror movie.  It’s set in the 14th century, during the time of the warring states when Japan was torn apart by civil war.  It follows two women, a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law who eke out …

Posted in: Monsters & Mythology, Movie Reviews, Our Weird World, Reviews / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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