Shimokita Peninsula

Editing a chapter of my last fic, set in Aomori, I found in my notes stuff about the Shimokita
Peninsula, since I planned to mention it in the sequel.

I remembered the name reading some of the latest posts and The Fall of Aizu article, in the main website, and that this place was the location for the POW camps after the Aizu fall, an consequently, Saitou remained there too.
There is something I found VERY interesting in the place (and which I plan to use with a RK character prone to see one ghost around him), which (I hope) might interest PMK writers: Osore-zan (Fear Mountain).
The creepy environment helped to develop the belief that this is a place where the dead can be contacted with certain easiness. There is a Temple dedicated to this, and blind women dedicated to contact the departed souls (on behalf of a small fee) Also, it's one of the three main gathering places for shamans in Japan. Somehow, I can see PMK Saitou having a picninc day here... or a very busy schedule attending departed souls with messages to deliver...

Here is some info on the place if someone is interested...



Osore-san
Osorezan, on the Shimokita peninsula of eastern Aomori Prefecture, is one of Japan's most prominent sainokawara (banks of the underworld river Sai), a sulphurous landscape believed to hover between the world of the living and the world of the dead.This mountain scared people so much that its name became the Japanese word for �dread�. It�s a desolate, hellish place that smells of sulfur and has attractions like �The Lake of Blood�.

Though the temple was founded in the ninth century, Osore-zan was already revered in ancient folk religion as a place where dead souls gather, and it's easy to see why - the desolate volcanic landscape, with its yellow- and red-stained soil, multicolored pools and bubbling, malodorous streams, makes for a truly unearthly scene. The temple also receives a steady trickle of non-spectral visitors, but during the summer festival (July 20-24) people arrive in force to contact their ancestors or the recently deceased through the mediation of itako, usually blind, elderly women who turn a profitable trade. During the open season (May-Oct) six buses a day run up to the temple from Mutsu (35min; �750); note that the last bus leaves Osore-zan at 4.45pm.

From Mutsu, the road to Osorezan-Bodaiji winds through pine forests, past a succession of stone monuments and a spring where it's customary to stop for a sip of purifying water. At the top you emerge by a large lake beside which a small humped bridge represents the journey souls make between this world and the next; it's said that those who led an evil life will find it impossible to cross over. After a quick look round the temple, take any path leading over the hummock towards the lake's barren foreshore. The little heaps of stones all around are said to be the work of children who died before their parents. They have to wait here, building stupas, which demons gleefully knock over during the night - most people add a pebble or two in passing. Jizo, the guardian deity of children and the bodhisattva charged with leading people to the Buddhist Western Paradise, also comes along to scare away the demons, though it seems with less success. Sad little statues, touchingly wrapped in
towels and bibs, add an even more melancholy note to the scene. Many have offerings piled in front of them: bunches of flowers, furry toys - faded and rain-sodden at the end of summer - and plastic windmills whispering to each other in the wind.





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Editing a chapter of my last fic, set in Aomori, I found in my notes stuff about the Shimokita
Peninsula, since I planned to mention it in the sequel.

I remembered the name reading some of the latest posts and The Fall of Aizu article, in the main website, and that this place was the location for the POW camps after the Aizu fall, an consequently, Saitou remained there too.
There is something I found VERY interesting in the place (and which I plan to use with a RK character prone to see one ghost around him), which (I hope) might interest PMK writers: Osore-zan (Fear Mountain).
The creepy environment helped to develop the belief that this is a place where the dead can be contacted with certain easiness. There is a Temple dedicated to this, and blind women dedicated to contact the departed souls (on behalf of a small fee) Also, it's one of the three main gathering places for shamans in Japan. Somehow, I can see PMK Saitou having a picninc day here... or a very busy schedule attending departed souls with messages to deliver...

Here is some info on the place if someone is interested...



Osore-san
Osorezan, on the Shimokita peninsula of eastern Aomori Prefecture, is one of Japan's most prominent sainokawara (banks of the underworld river Sai), a sulphurous landscape believed to hover between the world of the living and the world of the dead.This mountain scared people so much that its name became the Japanese word for �dread�. It�s a desolate, hellish place that smells of sulfur and has attractions like �The Lake of Blood�.

Though the temple was founded in the ninth century, Osore-zan was already revered in ancient folk religion as a place where dead souls gather, and it's easy to see why - the desolate volcanic landscape, with its yellow- and red-stained soil, multicolored pools and bubbling, malodorous streams, makes for a truly unearthly scene. The temple also receives a steady trickle of non-spectral visitors, but during the summer festival (July 20-24) people arrive in force to contact their ancestors or the recently deceased through the mediation of itako, usually blind, elderly women who turn a profitable trade. During the open season (May-Oct) six buses a day run up to the temple from Mutsu (35min; �750); note that the last bus leaves Osore-zan at 4.45pm.

From Mutsu, the road to Osorezan-Bodaiji winds through pine forests, past a succession of stone monuments and a spring where it's customary to stop for a sip of purifying water. At the top you emerge by a large lake beside which a small humped bridge represents the journey souls make between this world and the next; it's said that those who led an evil life will find it impossible to cross over. After a quick look round the temple, take any path leading over the hummock towards the lake's barren foreshore. The little heaps of stones all around are said to be the work of children who died before their parents. They have to wait here, building stupas, which demons gleefully knock over during the night - most people add a pebble or two in passing. Jizo, the guardian deity of children and the bodhisattva charged with leading people to the Buddhist Western Paradise, also comes along to scare away the demons, though it seems with less success. Sad little statues, touchingly wrapped in
towels and bibs, add an even more melancholy note to the scene. Many have offerings piled in front of them: bunches of flowers, furry toys - faded and rain-sodden at the end of summer - and plastic windmills whispering to each other in the wind.





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