Subject
Hitobashira 人柱
The human pillar. A living person — or a symbolic substitute — buried beneath the foundation of a bridge, a castle wall, a dam or an embankment, so that the structure would stand. No surviving law or official order is known to require it, yet the legend recurs across widely separated places. That a legend was written down is not proof that the event took place.
Notes
- The Human Pillar A life buried beneath a bridge so the bridge will stand. What the records support, and what they only remember.
- Where the Human Pillars Are Said to Be In 1925 bones turned up under the palace and the papers called it a human pillar. A folklorist replied by listing every place with the story, and who told it.
Volume
Japanese Horror Folktales Collection
HITOBASHIRA
Tales of the Human Pillar
Fifteen Japanese legends of human pillars, living sacrifice, and the ground that remembers.
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