Subject
Tatari 祟り
Usually translated as curse, though the translation is late. In Japan’s oldest chronicles tatari is something a god does: a pestilence empties half the houses of a country, and the record does not look for a poisoner or a sin — it asks which god is doing this, and what that god wants.
Notes
- The Emperor Who Became a Demon Emperor Sutoku, the onryō of Sanuki: a curse recorded in court diaries and temple records.
- Masakado's Head in the Financial District A tenth-century rebel's head was exposed in Kyoto. The mound said to hold it stands among Tokyo's banks, kept by a society with a renovation schedule.
- The Scholar They Made a God Sugawara no Michizane is the deity students pray to before examinations. What the court enshrined first was not his learning but his anger.
Volume
Japanese Horror Folktales Collection
TATARI
Tales of Japan's Vengeful Gods
Twenty-one Japanese tales of tatari — the anger that outlives a life: gods who declare a plague their own will, and dead men whose grievance a state was forced to answer.
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