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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.

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Speaker 3: My name is Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick,

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Speaker 3: and we're back with part two of our series on Yurukiara,

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Speaker 3: the lovable wobbly mascot characters of Japan. Now, if you

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Speaker 3: haven't heard part one yet, you should go back and

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Speaker 3: listen to that episode first. In that one, we talked

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Speaker 3: about the origins of the Urukira concept. Rob shared some

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Speaker 3: of his experiences with these characters on a recent trip

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Speaker 3: to Japan, and we talked about a couple of our

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Speaker 3: favorite examples, including the Kuma Moto mascot, a real megastar

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Speaker 3: called Kuma Man, which looks like a bear but apparently

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Speaker 3: is not a bear. You'll listen to the episode you'll understand,

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Speaker 3: and then the more obscure park associated mascot Hako Geo.

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Speaker 3: And we're back today to talk about some more.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Okay, So my last selection was more emotional

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Speaker 2: than I guess substantially interesting to everybody. But this next

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Speaker 2: one I think is even more fascinating because it does

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Speaker 2: include ties into mythology and architecture. So this is one

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Speaker 2: that I definitely got to observe in the wild. So

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Speaker 2: me and my family were big Studio Ghibli fans. Of course,

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Speaker 2: we made our way to visit Ghibli Park during our

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Speaker 2: trip to Japan, so we spent two nights in Nagoya

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Speaker 2: to do so, and while traveling on the Nagoya Municipal Subway,

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Speaker 2: we frequently encountered helpful signs that featured its mascot, its

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Speaker 2: official mascot, Hatchi Hatchi is well, I would say to

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Speaker 2: the uninformed guidjin I Hatshi is a humanoid uniform Nagoya

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Speaker 2: City subway employee, but his head is a golden fish

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Speaker 2: with a human cartoon face, complete with fins on the

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Speaker 2: side and an upward cresting tail on the back of

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Speaker 2: the head.

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Speaker 3: So when you say he has a fish head, you

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Speaker 3: were not saying his head is the head of a fish.

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Speaker 3: You're saying his head is an entire fish.

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Speaker 2: Right, But like, you know, kind of like a flat

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Speaker 2: face fish with like a cartoon human nose. So there's

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Speaker 2: there's something interesting going on here. But at the very least,

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Speaker 2: you can say a subway employee with a fish for

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Speaker 2: a head.

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Speaker 3: A human bodied subway employee with a fish for a head,

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Speaker 3: but the fish for a head has a human face.

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Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, so already I'm on board, right, I mean,

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Speaker 2: he's cute, he's a bit weird. He's shown up and

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Speaker 2: given me helpful advice. You know. He often brings him

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Speaker 2: attention to important signage or in particular the glass. It's

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Speaker 2: like kind of like glass pane doors in between subway cars.

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Speaker 2: I found that they had stickers on there. I guess

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Speaker 2: to keep people from bonking into them if they were

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Speaker 2: you know too, if they were free of smudges and

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Speaker 2: so forth.

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Speaker 3: As someone who has more than once in my life

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Speaker 3: walks straight into a glass door, I appreciate that.

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Speaker 2: But this is where things get even cooler. So it's

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Speaker 2: not merely a fish that is serving as his head.

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Speaker 2: Hatschi has a shachi hoko or shachi for a head.

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Speaker 2: So what is this? Well, in Japanese mythology, this is

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Speaker 2: a fearsome sea monster, often described as a great fish

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Speaker 2: with either the head of a tiger or of a dragon.

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Speaker 2: It's also sometimes compared to a dolphin or an orca,

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Speaker 2: and shachi actually apparently means orca in Japanese. Now, the

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Speaker 2: origins of this mythical creature ex seemingly extend back through

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Speaker 2: Chinese and Vedic influences, namely connecting to the chai Win

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Speaker 2: and the Makara in those different mythologies, both creatures that

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Speaker 2: were often used as rooftop guardian sculptures, so comparable in

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Speaker 2: some ways to like a gargoyle in the West. Okay,

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Speaker 2: though some sources still when talking about the shatshi, go

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Speaker 2: with more of a literal. This was modeled after a

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Speaker 2: killer whale, but, as we often discussed in The show Man,

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Speaker 2: are generally born of like multiple reference points, there can

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Speaker 2: be a lot of different things going on when a

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Speaker 2: monaster has created wholesale or when it you know, makes

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Speaker 2: the journey from one culture into another, and then add

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Speaker 2: you know, one hundred two hundred years or more on

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Speaker 2: top of that, uh huh. So the sashi joko, this

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Speaker 2: golden fish with upturned tail is frequently found as a

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Speaker 2: traditional Japanese architectural flourish, so great golden fish upward tail,

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Speaker 2: generally gleaming gold in appearance, and traditionally employed as a

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Speaker 2: means of supernatural fire prevention. Because the mythical fish here

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Speaker 2: was said to hold water in its belly and it

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Speaker 2: could control the rain, So you know, you can think

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Speaker 2: of this as an invocation of a protective spirit while

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Speaker 2: you're doing other things as well, of course, to try

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Speaker 2: and keep fires from getting out of hand and burning

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Speaker 2: down buildings or districts.

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Speaker 3: Almost like a symbolic sprinkler system.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but why on the subway, you might ask. Well,

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Speaker 2: the main reason is because Nagoya's historic Nigoya Castle, originally

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Speaker 2: built in sixteen ten, partially destroyed in nineteen forty five,

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Speaker 2: and sort of continually restored since nineteen fifty seven, prominently

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Speaker 2: features a golden sachi on the roof, and I included

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Speaker 2: a picture of one here for you, Joe and everyone

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Speaker 2: out there. You can look these up as well. The

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Speaker 2: English for this word is shachi.

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Speaker 3: Oh okay, So am I understanding this image correctly? If

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Speaker 3: I'm looking at it right. The fish's face is not

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Speaker 3: facing out from the roof, It's turned inward along the roofline,

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Speaker 3: and the fish is sort of waving its tail out

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Speaker 3: toward the rest of the world.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, Yes, and pretty much I think all the

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Speaker 2: times that I saw it utilized while I was over

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Speaker 2: there and just looking around at various pictures, that seems

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Speaker 2: to be the standard.

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Speaker 3: Interesting, I guess when I imagine artistic conventions of representing

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Speaker 3: like an animal or a creature on the outside of

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Speaker 3: a building, I would always have thought of it as

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Speaker 3: having the face facing out, But there's no reason it

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Speaker 3: has to be that way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And the front half of the creature is very impressive.

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Speaker 2: Again in these statues, it's very much of like a

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Speaker 2: dragonoid sort of head, you know, even again see the

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Speaker 2: tiger associations. And also you can sort of see roughly, okay,

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Speaker 2: I can imagine an orca or dolphin standing in for

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Speaker 2: this creature. Now on top of that, you know, I

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Speaker 2: guess we can also acknowledge that subway fires are certainly

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Speaker 2: always a possibility. So I imagine you could also make a

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Speaker 2: case for employing a mythological creature associated with fire prevention

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Speaker 2: against subway fires or maybe more generally, against unwanted safety

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Speaker 2: related scenarios in general. You know, like it's employed on

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Speaker 2: buildings as a protective spirit to help protect against like

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Speaker 2: sort of worst case scenarios. And likewise, in the subway,

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Speaker 2: our friend here than the mascot hot sheet, is here

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Speaker 2: to help.

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Speaker 3: Just looking at this fellow, I cannot help but feel assured.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's very lovable. I highly recommend if you're interested

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Speaker 2: looking at it's generally spelled h Atchii in English, or

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Speaker 2: just look for Nagoya Municipal Subway mascot and you'll find him.

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Speaker 3: Okay, you're ready to talk about my next selection?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, here you got a very interesting choice. Is

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Speaker 2: not one that was that I was familiar with?

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Speaker 3: Well, so, I think the most interesting thing about the

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Speaker 3: uukiara I'm about to talk about is that it is

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Speaker 3: the only one I'm aware of. There may be others

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Speaker 3: that have escaped to my attention. That is a successful

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Speaker 3: usurper king so I mentioned in the last episode coming

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Speaker 3: across a mascot who was said to be a big

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Speaker 3: fan of heavy metal music, which it seems incongruous with

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Speaker 3: the vibe of most of these mascots. Like, what soft

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Speaker 3: toddling character of this kind could be a metal head?

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Speaker 3: The answer is it's Funasi, the unofficial mascot of Funabashi Chiba. Now,

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Speaker 3: you might wonder, unofficial, how does a city end up

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Speaker 3: with an unofficial mascot? So I was reading about in

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Speaker 3: a couple of blog posts, one on a Kawhi culture

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Speaker 3: site called you May Twins and also on the Mondo

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Speaker 3: Mascots blog, Rob, I think you name dropped this one

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Speaker 3: in the last episode in you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great resource, especially if you just want

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Speaker 2: to overload on images of various mascots and eventually like

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Speaker 2: learn what they represent. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And so the short story is that in the year

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Speaker 3: twenty thirteen, Funabashi City decided to get in on the

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Speaker 3: mascot hype and created its own official character. This character

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Speaker 3: was called Funeimon, who was widely considered by locals to

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Speaker 3: be excruciatingly bland and boring. Rob, I will let you

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Speaker 3: judge for yourself. Here I've included a picture. This is

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Speaker 3: a Funeimon on the right. He is described in most

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Speaker 3: of the sources I could find as an Edo period

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Speaker 3: salaryman or Edo period merchant. He's wearing typical clothing for

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Speaker 3: the period and glasses. And I have to agree it

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Speaker 3: is It is not a thrilling design. It's also not

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Speaker 3: even super cute. It's just like an adult guy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it just looks like somebody's dad. Who's you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm pretty cool dad. But as a mascot for the city,

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Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So, in Rebellion against this uninspiring official mascot the

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Speaker 3: people of Funabashi City elevated I think a pre existing character.

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Speaker 3: This character is a hyperactive sentient pair named Funasi who

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Speaker 3: was born in a pair orchard and loves headbanging to

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Speaker 3: Ozzy Osbourne. Funasi seems to have an appetite for extreme

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Speaker 3: experiences and thrill seeking, and also allegedly sustained an injury

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Speaker 3: while participating in a luchador exhibition in Mexico in twenty sixteen. Now,

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Speaker 3: for whoever's writing this character's sort of backstory, As we

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Speaker 3: mentioned in the last episode, a lot of these mascot

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Speaker 3: characters have more extensive personal histories and backstory reason sort

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Speaker 3: of storylines then you might expect. You know, we talked

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Speaker 3: last time about the ones that were falling in love

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Speaker 3: with each other and all that stuff. We uh, But

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Speaker 3: but so this one really likes getting into extreme experiences

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Speaker 3: and you know, the loud headbanging and all that. And

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Speaker 3: I wonder if that is in fact a reaction to

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Speaker 3: the fact that this character filled the void of a

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Speaker 3: character who was perceived to be too boring.

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Speaker 2: Hmmm, yeah, I can see that being the case. Maybe

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Speaker 2: combine that with some of this sort of attention seeking,

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Speaker 2: arguably at times out of control enthusiasm for for these

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Speaker 2: various mascots. You know, I was reading about about one

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Speaker 2: the other day. In fact, it was the one that

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Speaker 2: was prominently featured on John Oliver. How that particular mascot

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Speaker 2: kind of got into a little bit of trouble based

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Speaker 2: on just sort of being a little bit too aggressive

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Speaker 2: and a bit too extreme and it stunts.

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Speaker 3: Wait, sure that's not the same one, is it that

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Speaker 3: it was different fun Oh?

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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, yeah, different one. But I'm saying it seems

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Speaker 2: like there's there is a line somewhere in there where

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Speaker 2: you could go too far. But I guess Funasi's doing

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Speaker 2: it right. I looked up Funasi and wrestling to see, okay,

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Speaker 2: well what is he doing? Where has he been engaging

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Speaker 2: with like Lucha Libre or whatever? And I couldn't find

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Speaker 2: many immediate answers, but I did see some clips of

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Speaker 2: him being like thrown and flung around by some pretty

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Speaker 2: big name Japanese professional wrestlers, So you know, he's getting

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Speaker 2: out there. I mean, I don't think he's having official matches,

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Speaker 2: he's getting out there.

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Speaker 3: Carpe DM.

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Speaker 2: All right, The next one I want to cover Here

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Speaker 2: is terreb Tosin Aka Father Television, Akaido Prefecture. This guy,

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Speaker 2: I've included a picture of him before you here, Joe,

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Speaker 2: tell me what you get off of just an initial

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Speaker 2: look here at Terrebe Tosin. Say, what do you think

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Speaker 2: he is?

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Speaker 3: He is a red thing almost maybe like an upturned

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Speaker 3: flower pot for a head, a sort of slightly you know,

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Speaker 3: like a upside down flower pot with a little bit

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Speaker 3: of soft corners on it, with a face. The face

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Speaker 3: looks very jolly hit you know, a big, big smile

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Speaker 3: in the face. It has the best kind of mustache,

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Speaker 3: which is just four hairs, and then has a sort

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Speaker 3: of I don't know, a black spike reaching up from

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Speaker 3: the top of his head, which almost suggests a piece

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Speaker 3: of fruit, you know, like an apple has a stem.

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Speaker 3: Maybe it's a piece of fruit with a stem poking off.

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Speaker 3: And then oh, also so if his head and body

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Speaker 3: is an upturned clay flower flower pot, he has two

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Speaker 3: legs underneath that are right side up clay flower pots

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Speaker 3: of a smaller size, and then sort of a green

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Speaker 3: loin cloth. That that's what I get.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I looked at him and I instantly thought, like,

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Speaker 2: may the pepper like maybe he's a hot pepper or

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Speaker 2: other kind of a vegetable or fruit. I showed a

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Speaker 2: picture of him to my wife and she was like,

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Speaker 2: I think he's a traffic cone. Also I think a

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Speaker 2: valid guest.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's good.

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Speaker 2: But the reality here, and this makes sense once you

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Speaker 2: see the images side by side, is he's designed to

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Speaker 2: resemble the Supporo TV tower, and once once you see it,

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Speaker 2: you're like, okay, I can see it now with the

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Speaker 2: like he's very vaguely tower shaped. The tower in question

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Speaker 2: has this kind of like green band structure around the

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Speaker 2: lower portion of it that has been transformed into a

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Speaker 2: belt in his mascot form. And then that black apparatus

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Speaker 2: on the top of his head, well, that's those are

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Speaker 2: the upper extremes of the the television tower itself.

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Speaker 3: I see, yes now, So I like that.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's like a journey to for at least

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Speaker 2: for someone like me to figure out what he is.

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Speaker 2: But I was looking into it more, and I think

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Speaker 2: part of the appeal of this guy is that his

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Speaker 2: name in Japanese also has there's like a pun involved here,

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Speaker 2: like mister television tower, which does not translate all that well.

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Speaker 2: But I was instantly amused as well, because someone's for

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Speaker 2: me ideas of TV as this kind of like stand

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Speaker 2: in parent or teacher, you know, father television. And it

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Speaker 2: also reminds me of that old Simpson's line from Treehouse

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Speaker 2: of Horror Television teacher mother, secret lover.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, are you kids hugging the TV?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean it's father television. He just has the

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Speaker 2: best of intentions for us. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I like this one. He seems sage and redolent with pleasure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's not a lot to him, I admit,

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Speaker 2: But it's another example of what they can be born on.

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Speaker 2: They can be born of local landmarks, you know, architecturalal

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Speaker 2: touches and so forth. But the next one I want

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Speaker 2: to mention is interesting because it seems to be very

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Speaker 2: mission orient like this is a yurikiyara that was dreamt up,

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Speaker 2: that was designed in order to fulfill a particular objective

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Speaker 2: in reaching the masses and conveying some very important safety ideas.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I'm intrigued, who is it?

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Speaker 2: All right? This one is Sukimi moriy So this is

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Speaker 2: another one. I'm fairly certain that I got to see

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Speaker 2: this one in the wild, because we were in Osaka.

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Speaker 2: That's where this one is utilized. Osaka is a really

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Speaker 2: fun city, though, but we had a little harder time

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Speaker 2: navigating ourselves on the public transportation, so I wasn't as

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Speaker 2: on the ball about like getting pictures and chronicling him.

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Speaker 2: But basically, this is a large, slightly scary, purple and

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Speaker 2: pink creature with a single glowing eye with a yellow pupil,

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Speaker 2: and he lives in the gap in the subway stations.

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Speaker 3: Oh my lord, rob, I was trying to think, what

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Speaker 3: does he reminded me of? And he looks like a

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Speaker 3: purple version of the monsters from the Green Slime.

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Speaker 2: He really does. Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a sense of

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Speaker 2: the Green Slime to him. If we were to see

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Speaker 2: him animated, I bet he would have some very Miyazaki

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Speaker 2: esque elements. He kind of reminds me of cat Bus

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Speaker 2: a few times, but like a darkness cat bus. And

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Speaker 2: so his mission here is. And there are a lot

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Speaker 2: of I think objectively cute signs warning people of all ages,

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Speaker 2: but especially children, about the dangers of closing doors and

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Speaker 2: the gap on Japanese trains and subways, So Gaijen may

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Speaker 2: be more used to you know, mere mind the gap

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Speaker 2: and watch for the closing doors announcements, but Japanese subway

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Speaker 2: and train systems are generally more proactive on this. Oftentimes

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Speaker 2: there are automatic gates in front of the gap that

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Speaker 2: help you know, that help make sure that people are

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Speaker 2: not getting too close, And then you have initiatives like this,

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Speaker 2: And yeah, I love him because Sukima Morey isn't just

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Speaker 2: a cute lax fellow to make you feel chill about

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Speaker 2: public transportation. He is very cute, but he could also

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Speaker 2: be mistaken for one of the darker Pokemon. Perhaps you

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Speaker 2: know some of the ghost types. But again, his whole

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Speaker 2: deal is about reminding you of the dangers of the gap,

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Speaker 2: so he needs to be a little bit scary, even

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Speaker 2: if he is not malicious. Like, I want to be clear,

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Speaker 2: Sukima Moury is not here to grab your children and

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Speaker 2: pull them into the gap.

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Speaker 3: I gotta say, it looks like that in some of

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Speaker 3: the pictures you've supplied below, Like he's peeking out below

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Speaker 3: the train with his like fingers ready as a child

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Speaker 3: is wandering by. It looks like he's going to snatch

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Speaker 3: the child.

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Speaker 2: Right. This has led to some comparisons in the West

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Speaker 2: to Pennywise, the dancing clown, you know, the lurking and

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Speaker 2: the sewer to pull children down. That is not what

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Speaker 2: Sukima Moury is about. Okay, he is here. He's friendly,

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Speaker 2: but he is scary because he is scaring you away

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Speaker 2: from the dangerous part of the train, or one of

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Speaker 2: the dangerous parts, because again, remember he is a creature

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Speaker 2: of the gap. His name quite literally means the gap,

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Speaker 2: get go. And he was created by j R. West Railways,

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Speaker 2: again largely a serve as a reminder for children and

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Speaker 2: adults and parents, kind of a nursery bogie, you know,

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Speaker 2: to scare kids away from the danger zone. And this

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Speaker 2: was in response to apparently troubling stats at the time

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Speaker 2: about gap related accidents with kids. So you know, there

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Speaker 2: was a real reason to roll out this mascot. It

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Speaker 2: wasn't just a situation where wouldn't it be cool if

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Speaker 2: we had a cute mascot. This again seemed to have

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Speaker 2: been a very mission first scenario.

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Speaker 3: We need a Jenny Green Teeth of the subways exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. He's also really down on cell phone use on

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Speaker 2: the train and on the move, especially among parents who

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Speaker 2: should be helping their kids navigate that gap, and you know,

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Speaker 2: not get a footstuck or anything. We're told that he

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Speaker 2: does love to dance, and I love this detail. He

336
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Speaker 2: sleeps amone the many lost things in the gap, so

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00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 2: there are various images of him like sleeping around like

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Speaker 2: lost shoes and lost cell phones and so forth, like

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00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:12,560
Speaker 2: sort of sleeping in the junk down there, his own

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Speaker 2: treasure trove. He loves declaires, So you know, you do

341
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Speaker 2: have some just sort of like neutral information about him,

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Speaker 2: and we can we can relate to that.

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Speaker 3: I guess, huh, is that like a thing people drop

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Speaker 3: a Claire's through the gap? I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I mean maybe one person dropped in a Claire and

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Speaker 2: he was like, this is good. I'm a fan. Now

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Speaker 2: I wait other Eclaires to be dropped into the gap.

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Speaker 2: So again, it would be unfair to Classifyzukimamori as a

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Speaker 2: malevolent force, but he's at least adjacent to dangerous realities

350
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Speaker 2: and as such, you know, he reminds me a bit

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Speaker 2: of past discussions of things like Jenny Green Teeth and indeed,

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Speaker 2: like the Kappa, you know, a superstitious supernatural monster to

353
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Speaker 2: warn people away from water related dangers, and in this case,

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Speaker 2: it's it's subway oriented.

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Speaker 3: Yes, but though as soon as I said Jenny green

356
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Speaker 3: Teeth a few moments ago, I did realize, no, that's

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00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,680
Speaker 3: still not quite right, because Jenny green Teeth does want

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Speaker 3: to snatch the children and Sukima Mouri does not.

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00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:10,760
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, The the energy here seems to be

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Speaker 2: to amuse, to entertain, but also to be a little

361
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Speaker 2: bit scary, because he is a scary but cute creature

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00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,440
Speaker 2: that comes from a place that you should be moral,

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00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,600
Speaker 2: weirre of and you should have a little more uncertainty about,

364
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,320
Speaker 2: because it is like a dangerous in between zone when

365
00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:29,879
Speaker 2: boarding the train. So look him up. This one's There

366
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,119
Speaker 2: are a lot of interesting posters and images of this

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00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:36,720
Speaker 2: guy and some interesting reactions to him. But he's doing

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Speaker 2: good work, so I applaud him.

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Speaker 3: So say we all.

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Speaker 2: All right, Now this brings us to some more cultural

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Speaker 2: connections that we can make about our euro Kiara. So

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Speaker 2: most cultures have their various mythological and folkloric creatures. Obviously

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Speaker 2: we talk about a lot of them on the show.

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Speaker 2: We're always trying to drag him in from different parts

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Speaker 2: of the world, and it is, but it is often

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Speaker 2: observed that Japanese culture offers a particularly powerful trifecta of

377
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:07,560
Speaker 2: cultural influences that may help us understand some of the

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00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:11,240
Speaker 2: energy underlying the appeal of their mascots, of their hero

379
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,880
Speaker 2: ki era. You know, why are they such a big

380
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 2: deal compared to other parts of the world that also

381
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:20,880
Speaker 2: have cute, you know, imaginary beings that may be invoked

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Speaker 2: in various ad campaigns and public awareness and typical mascot

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Speaker 2: work and so forth. And on one hand, there is

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Speaker 2: certainly and this is you know, sit in a lot

385
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:33,200
Speaker 2: a lot of sources we're looking at. There is the

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Speaker 2: polytheistic nature of Japan's Shinto religion and the presence of

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Speaker 2: supernatural kami in all things in Shintoism. So this absolutely

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Speaker 2: can't be overlooked. You know. It's it's a traditional worldview

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00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:52,119
Speaker 2: in which there are multiple supernatural agents of power that

390
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,320
Speaker 2: can reside in pretty much anything that's very sort of

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00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:59,040
Speaker 2: like fast and loose. There's a lot more to Shintoism

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Speaker 2: than that, but basically, like in terms of like the

393
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,639
Speaker 2: key points we might reference in understanding something as far

394
00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:12,160
Speaker 2: far more simple as Japanese mascots. Essentially, you can look

395
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 2: at that Shintoism as one possible leg of understanding them culturally. Now,

396
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 2: I think we do have to also be careful here

397
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,199
Speaker 2: not to other the situation too much, because while there

398
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:24,960
Speaker 2: does seem to be a uniquely Japanese emphasis in play here,

399
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,679
Speaker 2: we can of course point to the coexistence of various mythic, folkloric,

400
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:32,840
Speaker 2: and otherwise at least supernatural adjacent beings in various cultures,

401
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:36,040
Speaker 2: regardless of the dominant religion or religions in that culture,

402
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:40,760
Speaker 2: and beings from outside traditions have a way of working

403
00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,119
Speaker 2: their way into even those religions, at least into the periphery. Okay,

404
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:47,639
Speaker 2: So there's Shintoism, and then, as we we've already referred

405
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,359
Speaker 2: to several examples of this, but they're also the yokai,

406
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:53,280
Speaker 2: which we've discussed in greater detail on the show before,

407
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 2: a catch all for various monsters, supernatural phenomenon and ghosts.

408
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 2: Though yuri, which are more in line with the haunting

409
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,480
Speaker 2: ghosts of Western tradition, are kind of their own separate category.

410
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 2: Yokai ghosts are kind of they're more in line with

411
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,879
Speaker 2: this idea of kami and that they're they're everywhere, and

412
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 2: they might be just completely neutral to humans, or they

413
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 2: might be a little bit mischievous. It just depends. So

414
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,359
Speaker 2: you know, we've talked about them before. They occur in

415
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,840
Speaker 2: various places throughout one's daily life, according to the traditions,

416
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 2: often associated with things such as bathrooms, restaurant, kitchens, alleys,

417
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,679
Speaker 2: and so forth. And there's a very strong case to

418
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,199
Speaker 2: be made that the Pokemon as well owe a lot

419
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:38,920
Speaker 2: of their popularity to these traditions. And various Pokemon are

420
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:42,880
Speaker 2: directly based on yokai, and some yokai and some Pokemon

421
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 2: are also uukiara, so you know, it's all kind of interconnected.

422
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 2: I should also know that we've discussed sukumogami on the

423
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 2: show before, household objects that are thought to become animant

424
00:23:56,560 --> 00:24:00,639
Speaker 2: through age and Japanese traditions. There seems to be this

425
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 2: slide towards personification, which of course ties into the very

426
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 2: basic human tendency to identify human like qualities and animals, plants,

427
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 2: and various inanimate or even non corporeal things. I think

428
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,800
Speaker 2: sometimes examples like this from another culture just give us

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00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 2: the distance to recognize the larger global phenomena. Uh huh. Also,

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Speaker 2: kind I'm going to present as kind of like the

431
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 2: third leg of the tripod here potentially to understand eurokiara

432
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 2: as and this also ties into just sort of cuteness

433
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 2: in general in kawai. But as Eddie yl Chang points

434
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 2: out in the twenty eighteen article, let the Eurokiara do

435
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:41,439
Speaker 2: the job, there's also this long standing popularity of small

436
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 2: things in Japanese culture, particularly the small sculpture art form

437
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:50,959
Speaker 2: of netsuki, combined with long standing appreciation for animal forms

438
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:52,159
Speaker 2: and cute things in general.

439
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,280
Speaker 3: All Right, so you've got this sort of pyramid of

440
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 3: different influences that could be feeding into the EUROQR phenomena.

441
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:04,480
Speaker 3: On one hand, the traditional Shinto beliefs about the spirits

442
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:08,600
Speaker 3: or entities all throughout nature. On the other hand, you've

443
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 3: got the sort of yokai, the various sort of like

444
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 3: monsters or beings that we've talked about on the show.

445
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 3: And then also this tradition of making these cute small

446
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 3: sculptures like netsuki. Specifically regarding the one leg of the

447
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,199
Speaker 3: tripod here of yokai, I wanted to come back to

448
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 3: something from an essay that I mentioned in part one.

449
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,120
Speaker 3: So and the last time I talked about the essay

450
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 3: about Kumaman the bear or not Bear Yurukyara of the

451
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 3: Kumamoto Prefecture. This essay was called Kumaman, Japan's surprisingly cheeky mascot.

452
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 3: That was in a book called Introducing Japanese Popular Culture

453
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 3: three from Rutledge, edited by Elisa Friedman. The essay was

454
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 3: by Deborah j Ochi, and this part that I'm about

455
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 3: to mention was in the context of a paragraph talking

456
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 3: about how urukia are sometimes deployed by authorities after large,

457
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:21,119
Speaker 3: frightening public events. One big example is the March twenty

458
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 3: eleven earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear incident at Fukushima, after

459
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 3: which Ochi says that the number of mascots in Japan increased,

460
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,439
Speaker 3: as did the perception of their healing power for the people.

461
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 3: And I've also read that the figure of Kumaman specifically

462
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 3: was widely used to comfort the public after the devastating

463
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen Kumamoto earthquakes. So there's a sense that part

464
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,439
Speaker 3: of the role, part of the cultural role of these

465
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 3: like these sort of cute, positive informal characters, is that

466
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:59,199
Speaker 3: they help people feel better after a tragic event. On

467
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 3: the topic of linking kumaman to pre existing yokai, here's

468
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 3: the quote I wanted to discuss Ochi writes quote. During

469
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:11,800
Speaker 3: the COVID nineteen pandemic, yurukiara were again mobilized across the

470
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 3: linguistic landscape, appearing on public notices and backdrops for televised

471
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 3: official announcements. Kumaman occasionally appeared along with his Kumamoto ancestor Amabi,

472
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 3: a folkloric yokai spirit associated with pandemic relief who was

473
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,880
Speaker 3: also widely used. So I had to learn more about

474
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,720
Speaker 3: this Amabi, and I did so by consulting the Book

475
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 3: of Yokai by the folklorist Michael Dylan Foster. I've talked

476
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 3: about this book before on the show. He is a

477
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 3: scholar currently affiliated with UC Davis, and the section on

478
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 3: the Amabi, I think it's from the expanded recent edition

479
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:54,119
Speaker 3: of the book. So, according to Foster, the earliest image

480
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 3: we have of this yokai is printed on a kawaraban

481
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:04,480
Speaker 3: broadsheet from the year eighteen forty six. Now, kooraban means

482
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,640
Speaker 3: tile block printing, and it was a type of media

483
00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 3: similar to a newspaper or a tabloid, considered very ephemeral,

484
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 3: so printed roughly on cheap paper, with the idea that

485
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:21,159
Speaker 3: it would be read once and then tossed away, and

486
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,959
Speaker 3: it was used in the Edo period for reporting major

487
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 3: news events and for reporting official announcements, but also on scandals, rumors,

488
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 3: and gossip, including things of a supernatural character. So you

489
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 3: might read about the effects of a recent typhoon, you

490
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 3: might read about the siege of a castle or a

491
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 3: murder in the city. But also you might read about

492
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 3: a ghost woman who turned into a giant spider.

493
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 2: Why not, I mean, it's basically just an extension of

494
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 2: your your rumor mill and your gossip columns, right, I

495
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 2: don't want to know what the ghost women are up

496
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 2: to around town.

497
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 3: Yes, So there is a particular eighteen forty six Korabon

498
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 3: prison deserved in the library of Kyoto University that includes

499
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 3: both a narrative and an illustration about a Kumamoto official's

500
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 3: encounter with a spirit from the ocean. So the text

501
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:16,840
Speaker 3: reads as follows in translation, every night, something brightly lit

502
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 3: would appear in the sea of he Go, and that's

503
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 3: off of a present day Kumamoto Prefecture. When a local

504
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 3: official went out to take a look, something like what

505
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 3: is in the picture here appeared and said, I live

506
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 3: in the sea and am called Amabi. For the next

507
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:38,360
Speaker 3: six years, there will be abundant harvests throughout the provinces,

508
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 3: but disease will spread. So make haste to copy an

509
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 3: image of me and show it to the people. So

510
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 3: saying it returned back into the sea. And Rob, I've

511
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,880
Speaker 3: included here a photograph of this broadsheet, including the illustration.

512
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 3: So this is the first representation of the Amabi and

513
00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 3: the text that showed up next to it. Now, I

514
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 3: was thinking, man, the face really reminds me of something,

515
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 3: but I was not able to figure out what it was.

516
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 3: Robin the notes you figured out what it was it

517
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:13,440
Speaker 3: was reminding me of. But the Amabi is a three

518
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 3: legged Avian mermaid. So it's got a bird's beak, a

519
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 3: diamond diamond shaped eyes, though we can usually only see

520
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 3: one of its eyes because its head is turned in profile.

521
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 3: It's got long hair reaching down to her feet, and

522
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:31,520
Speaker 3: of which there are three by the way. She has

523
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 3: three feet, three toes on each foot, and a body

524
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 3: covered in shingled rounded scales like a fish. But I

525
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 3: was trying to think, what does the face remind me of?

526
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,480
Speaker 3: And you got it exactly what is it?

527
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 2: Oh? Man? I thought it was just me. But I

528
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 2: look at this creature and monstrous aspects of the creature aside,

529
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 2: I get strong Kathy vite Kathy from your caemical newspaper

530
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 2: cartoon section.

531
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,320
Speaker 3: Yes, it's Kathy. It's the combination of like the hair

532
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 3: and something about the eye.

533
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:05,320
Speaker 2: It's yeah, like Kathy has like her eyes are depicted

534
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 2: like so close to each other they're touching. And then yeah,

535
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 2: the long hair and sort of the general shape of

536
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:14,360
Speaker 2: Kathy is also present in this creature from the sea.

537
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 3: So the Amabi in this illustration is not fearsome, I

538
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,720
Speaker 3: will say it. Instead, it looks strange, and I think

539
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 3: it is supposed to look strange, but it's closer to

540
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 3: cute than scary. Yes, I would agree, but again the

541
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 3: details of the narrative. So off the coast of what

542
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:34,800
Speaker 3: is now Kumamoto, people would see a bright light in

543
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 3: the darkness at night. An official goes out there to

544
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:39,040
Speaker 3: figure out what it is. I guess he goes out

545
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 3: in a boat, though it doesn't say how he investigated.

546
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 3: I'm assuming I'm picturing a boat trip sees this three

547
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 3: legged avan mermaid with a beak. It says, I live

548
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 3: in the sea. I'm called a mobbi. You're gonna have

549
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 3: six years of good harvests, but you are also going

550
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 3: to have an epidemic of deadly disease. Share my picture

551
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 3: with people and the implicate that I read into it here,

552
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 3: and I think what it is meant is that sharing

553
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 3: the image will prevent the disease from spreading. And then

554
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 3: finally the yokai goes back underneath the waves. Now, Foster

555
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 3: writes that this is the first written record we have

556
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 3: of belief in the Amabi, but there is a very

557
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 3: similar being that slightly precedes it, called the Amabiko or

558
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 3: sometimes Amahiko, which appears in at least eleven documents from

559
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 3: the eighteen forties through the eighteen eighties, and Foster cites

560
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 3: a folklore scholar named Yumoto Koichi who argues that these

561
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:40,040
Speaker 3: are actually the same creature and that Amabi is simply

562
00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 3: a transcription error of the word amabiko that caught on

563
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 3: and then got copied done the line. So possibly the same,

564
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 3: possibly different, but in either case they're very similar creatures.

565
00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 3: What's the deal with the amabiko? Some are said to

566
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 3: rise out of the sea, others appear in the mountains,

567
00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 3: but they tend to give similar predictions and warnings to

568
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,360
Speaker 3: what we heard in the first story. For example, there's

569
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 3: an eighteen forty four story of an amabiko that appears

570
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 3: in the Bay of Echigo and says disease is gonna

571
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 3: spread and seven out of ten people in Japan are

572
00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 3: going to die. But if you look at a picture

573
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 3: of me, you will be spared. And then rob I've

574
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 3: attached a picture of what the amabiko looks like in

575
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 3: this eighteen forty four document. Different kind of look more

576
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 3: like a three legged black octopus dolphin.

577
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 2: Yes, I think that's an accurate description. Yeah, totally different characters. Still,

578
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say hmm, I wouldn't say fearsome, but I

579
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:38,120
Speaker 2: get a far more more of a I get far

580
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 2: more of a neutral vibe off of this guy. I

581
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 2: don't know for sure if he leans more benevolent or benevolent. Yeah, different,

582
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 2: different sort of creature, but definitely three legs. You know.

583
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 2: The sort of snout is still there, so I can

584
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 2: see I can see the lineage between these two designs.

585
00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:00,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, ambiguous, Yeah.

586
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 2: But I mean by according to the story, clearly wants

587
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 2: to help or wants to exploit an upcoming disaster or

588
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 2: fear of disaster into getting people to look at pictures

589
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 2: of him.

590
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,520
Speaker 3: Right, So a pattern emerges between these stories. There will

591
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 3: be an epidemic, many will die, but if you see

592
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 3: a picture of me, you will live. So spread this

593
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 3: illustration far and wide. And it's funny because this reminds

594
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 3: me of stuff in the modern era, like those email

595
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,880
Speaker 3: forwards you would get in the early two thousands that

596
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:29,960
Speaker 3: are like, you know, you will see a ghost in

597
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 3: the mirror and die three days from now unless you

598
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 3: send this email to ten of your friends.

599
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, because as far as I'm understanding, there's nothing really

600
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:42,239
Speaker 2: informational in this image. It's not like study this, you know,

601
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,799
Speaker 2: it's not like various big pieces of religious art, you know,

602
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,360
Speaker 2: particularly I'm thinking like Tibetan Buddhism where or also you

603
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:51,320
Speaker 2: see the examples of this in Buddhism in Japan, where

604
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 2: like a very complex piece has a number of messages

605
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 2: to convey to you about, say, how to reach meditative

606
00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,560
Speaker 2: states and so forth. This is just a picture of

607
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:02,839
Speaker 2: their very simple drawing of a strange creature. And it's

608
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,360
Speaker 2: just it's more like, know that I exist, see what

609
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:07,720
Speaker 2: I look like, and that will give you an advantage

610
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 2: against disease.

611
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,440
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't think there's a lesson in how it looks.

612
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 3: I think it's just apotropeic magic. It's like seeing me

613
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:18,360
Speaker 3: gives you magical protection against the disease that's coming.

614
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 2: And you know that's this good news for the viewer. Right,

615
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 2: It's like, what do I have to do to give

616
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:25,919
Speaker 2: this retection? Look at a picture I'm in. Yeah, don't

617
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 2: even have to read anything. It's easy to do. But also,

618
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 2: if you want to help your friends, you better make

619
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 2: a copy of this picture or buy another copy of

620
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,399
Speaker 2: the broadsheet and show it to them. So it has

621
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 2: great mimetic power because it includes its own intrinsic motivation

622
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 2: to spread the meme. Interesting now, according to.

623
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 3: Foster, the amabi and the Amabiko are not even the

624
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 3: only yokai that give these types of warnings and offer

625
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 3: protection through replication and spreading of the image. He also

626
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 3: cites a creature called the kudabe, which does pretty much

627
00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 3: the same thing. There's the Jingjahime, which has the body

628
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 3: of a fish and the head of a woman, but

629
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 3: with two horns. She predicts both seven years of plenty,

630
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 3: but also the spread of a deadly disease, a named

631
00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 3: disease in this case called koori, and if you draw

632
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 3: her picture and share it with everyone you know, they

633
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:18,399
Speaker 3: will be spared. There's another one called the hime Uo,

634
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 3: which is said in an Edo based tale to have

635
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 3: emerged off the coast of the island of Hirado. And

636
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 3: interesting detail here, Foster writes, quote Hirado might have been

637
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:32,520
Speaker 3: selected as the location for the hime Uo because it

638
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:36,719
Speaker 3: was a distant, marginal location and also a region historically

639
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:40,440
Speaker 3: associated with foreign ships and traders, and thus a gateway

640
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,320
Speaker 3: for both prosperity and potential disease.

641
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:44,600
Speaker 2: There you go.

642
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 3: So it's interesting that in the Edo period there are

643
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:51,320
Speaker 3: lots of yokai with the power of prophecy. They're predicting

644
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 3: the future, often predicting disease, epidemics and plague, often predicting

645
00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 3: bounty or both at the same time. And the image

646
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:04,600
Speaker 3: of this creature can provide apotropaic immunity to anyone who

647
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:06,880
Speaker 3: lays eyes on it, So you better copy it quickly

648
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,480
Speaker 3: and show it to everyone you know. And these are

649
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:13,960
Speaker 3: categorized by some scholars such as Eumoto Koichi as yoginju

650
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 3: or prophecy beasts, and Foster talks about the many different

651
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 3: kinds of motivations somebody might have to spread a story

652
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 3: like this. On one hand, it could just be a

653
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 3: desire to excite and entertain the reader, you know, it's

654
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:31,080
Speaker 3: kind of like an interesting, entertaining story. In some cases,

655
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 3: it could be a simple desire to sell broad sheets.

656
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:37,480
Speaker 3: In some cases, it could be a genuine desire to

657
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:40,360
Speaker 3: give people the hope of protection in the face of frightening,

658
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 3: uncontrollable forces like infectious disease.

659
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great point, and it ties into what

660
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 2: we've been talking about too. Like a golden fish on

661
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 2: your roof is not going to actually protect you against fire,

662
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:52,919
Speaker 2: but it gives you that sense of hope. It gives

663
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 2: you like this additional layer on top of knowledge of

664
00:37:57,239 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 2: preparation or statistics and so forth. Yeah, and you know,

665
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 2: I can see how that would apply to our Eurokiara

666
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:06,360
Speaker 2: as well. You know, here's one of these cute creatures

667
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 2: giving me information, giving me helpful advice. But there is

668
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:13,400
Speaker 2: an optimism to it. There's a hope intrinsic in the

669
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:16,440
Speaker 2: design of the creature that is giving me this information.

670
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:19,560
Speaker 3: Exactly right, and that in fact brings us back to

671
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:25,480
Speaker 3: the Amabi's appearance during the COVID pandemic. So before twenty twenty,

672
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:30,120
Speaker 3: the amabi was a relatively obscure okai foster it says,

673
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:31,840
Speaker 3: you know, it probably would have only been known to

674
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 3: like certain types of historians or you know, like real

675
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:39,280
Speaker 3: hobbyists or obsessives, though it did appear in some work

676
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 3: by the manga artist Mazuki Shigeru in the nineteen eighties.

677
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:47,800
Speaker 3: But after news of COVID nineteen first began to spread

678
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:51,920
Speaker 3: in early twenty twenty, the image of the amabi surged

679
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,359
Speaker 3: in popularity on the Internet. Foster mentions several posts on

680
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 3: Twitter from February and even one at the end of

681
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:03,759
Speaker 3: January twenty twenty that included renderings of the amabi communicated

682
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 3: the lore that we've just talked about, and I think

683
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 3: jokingly encouraged the proliferation of its image as a protective

684
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 3: measure against infection. And while it's pretty clear to me

685
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:17,840
Speaker 3: that most of these posts had a spirit of irony

686
00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:19,879
Speaker 3: about them, like the use of the amabi was sort

687
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:23,920
Speaker 3: of meant as kidding, the amabi really caught on as

688
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 3: a symbol of defense and vigilance against the virus both

689
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 3: virtually and in physical media and consumer culture. So there

690
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 3: was like a viral Twitter hashtag called Amabi Challenge where

691
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 3: people posted alongside they posted the hashtag along with like

692
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:46,840
Speaker 3: images of homemade renderings of the merd bird, and the

693
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,560
Speaker 3: Amabi imagery was also used on all kinds of products,

694
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 3: from like keychains, t shirts, tote bags, to rice crackers

695
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 3: and beer. There were actual invocations of the Amabi in

696
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:02,880
Speaker 3: public religious rituals and prayer, and then eventually the Japanese

697
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:06,839
Speaker 3: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officially produced an Amabi

698
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:11,680
Speaker 3: logo warning people that they could spread COVID nineteen without

699
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 3: realizing it and advising people to take measures to limit exposure.

700
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 2: Ah, and you included this this this poster art for

701
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,759
Speaker 2: me here in our outline, and I believe I did,

702
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:24,680
Speaker 2: in fact see this during my travels in Japan. So

703
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 2: either they're still putting them up, or there's still you know,

704
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 2: there's still some out there that haven't been digging down,

705
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 2: or people keep putting them up. Yeah, because again that's

706
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,000
Speaker 2: kind of the that's what you're encouraged to do with

707
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 2: the Amabi.

708
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think it's interesting connecting this back to

709
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 3: the urukiara we were talking about, because both the Amabi

710
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:48,799
Speaker 3: and kumaman were in some cases used in top down

711
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 3: public health messaging and in bottom up cultural processing of

712
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 3: events during the COVID pandemic. And I wonder if this

713
00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 3: tells us anything about the broader role filled by urukiara

714
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,960
Speaker 3: and how that relates to this yokai. I want to

715
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 3: read a passage from Foster here. Foster writes, quote the

716
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:12,200
Speaker 3: Amabi's sudden rise exemplifies the eloquent adaptability of yokai, with

717
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 3: perfect ease and no contradiction. The Amabi straddles life and

718
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:20,640
Speaker 3: death concerns like COVID nineteen and lighthearted fun t shirts

719
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 3: and beer, vernacular creativity, individuals circulating their own versions and

720
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:31,799
Speaker 3: institutional promotion a government icon, heartfelt belief in religious ceremonies,

721
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 3: and rampant commodification in charms and key chains. So he

722
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 3: notes that this kind of goes along with the fact

723
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:44,400
Speaker 3: that beliefs about yokai seem to thrive in the context

724
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 3: of uncertainty, as like a way of coping with mysterious

725
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:51,879
Speaker 3: threats and questions that can't be answered or can't yet

726
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,799
Speaker 3: be answered. I think we can all recall those like

727
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,040
Speaker 3: early months of the pandemic when there was just like

728
00:41:57,160 --> 00:41:59,879
Speaker 3: so much uncertainty and we just didn't you know, there's

729
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,760
Speaker 3: just like so much not knowing what to do, and

730
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:08,240
Speaker 3: so the beliefs of this kind sort of provide people

731
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:11,800
Speaker 3: a sense of control in some way. And while the

732
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:17,040
Speaker 3: traditional apotropaic use of the amabi image may have been

733
00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:21,399
Speaker 3: interpreted as like literally efficacious in protecting against disease back

734
00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:24,040
Speaker 3: in the day, the way I'm reading it is that

735
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:26,320
Speaker 3: I think the majority of the use in the early

736
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:30,680
Speaker 3: months of twenty twenty was more playful and symbolic. Not

737
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 3: that most people sharing it thought that it would literally

738
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:38,000
Speaker 3: mechanistically prevent the virus from entering and infecting their tissues,

739
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:42,839
Speaker 3: but that it actually would do something, because of course,

740
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,560
Speaker 3: on one hand, would provide a type of psychological comfort

741
00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:49,560
Speaker 3: and that feeling of control over an uncontrollable situation, but

742
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:54,680
Speaker 3: also that by spreading the image of the okai you

743
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 3: were increasing front of mind public consciousness of the virus,

744
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,000
Speaker 3: which meant people would be more likely to take actual

745
00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:05,920
Speaker 3: direct steps to limit contagion. And it strikes me that

746
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 3: apart from messaging about the pandemic, you're a kiara like

747
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:13,479
Speaker 3: kumaman have a similar dual function. There's like, on one hand

748
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:16,279
Speaker 3: you have emotional comfort, and then on the other hand

749
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:20,640
Speaker 3: you have information consciousness, and that could mean either spreading

750
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 3: information directly, like telling you something you don't know, or

751
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:27,880
Speaker 3: increasing the salience of information you already have, making you

752
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:29,239
Speaker 3: think about what you do know.

753
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's enough to if you wanted to

754
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:34,919
Speaker 2: go all ancient astronauts on this, you could say that

755
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,719
Speaker 2: Amabe was an actual visitor from space and or the

756
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 2: ocean did realize that that information is one of the

757
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:49,120
Speaker 2: key tools you can use against pandemics, and was like, hey,

758
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:52,239
Speaker 2: start spreading images of me in response to illness. It's

759
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:53,879
Speaker 2: not going to really pay off right away, but there

760
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 2: will come a time where this could make some small difference.

761
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:00,839
Speaker 2: But anyway, obviously I love this idea that you know,

762
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 2: these various euroka ara much like these older forms. You

763
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:09,120
Speaker 2: know that again they have the information, they also have

764
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:13,040
Speaker 2: this emotional comfort like you've been discussing that brings with it,

765
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:15,800
Speaker 2: you know, sort of cuteness and hope all sort of

766
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 2: tied together in a package. And I wish there was

767
00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 2: more of this in the world, you know, because aside

768
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 2: from messaging aim directly at children, I feel like so

769
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 2: much of the more serious messaging out there, at least

770
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 2: in the US, is it's just purely fear based, or

771
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 2: at least that's how it often feels to me. You know,

772
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,040
Speaker 2: sometimes there's this layer of hope to it, or an

773
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,839
Speaker 2: image of like a smiling adult where it's like, oh,

774
00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:40,759
Speaker 2: this is what happiness looks like, this is what this

775
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 2: is what protection looks like, or so forth, or you know,

776
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:46,720
Speaker 2: the hope is wrapped up in the purchase of something

777
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:49,399
Speaker 2: that's going to protect you from the scary thing. And

778
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 2: I don't know, I would rather live in a culture

779
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,440
Speaker 2: of cuteness and hope than a culture of fear. I

780
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:57,759
Speaker 2: feel like we could overall, we could all push things

781
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 2: a little more towards hope and cuteness from just the

782
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 2: pure fear. I mean, the fear is always going to

783
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:05,480
Speaker 2: be there. The cuteness and the hope doesn't erase that fear.

784
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:08,320
Speaker 2: But you know, if it makes it feel a little

785
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,719
Speaker 2: like if your experience going to the subway is is

786
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,440
Speaker 2: less like, don't you dare get near the gap because

787
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 2: you'll be torn in half, you know, less shake hands

788
00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 2: with danger and more Urukiara. Sorry, it's a bit of

789
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:21,319
Speaker 2: a rant there.

790
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, there's a difference between taking proper precautions and

791
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:28,760
Speaker 3: wallowing in fear.

792
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:32,719
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and realizing that that kind of messaging, that

793
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:36,640
Speaker 2: sort of leveling of the message can apply to everybody

794
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:38,400
Speaker 2: and not just children, you know, and you can do

795
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:41,320
Speaker 2: it in a way that's also not you know, sugarcoating anything.

796
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:43,000
Speaker 2: Or maybe you are sugarcoating it a little bit, but

797
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,640
Speaker 2: they're still medicine in the middle. Yeah, all right, we're

798
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:48,359
Speaker 2: gonna go ahead and close out this episode, but we'd

799
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 2: love to hear from everyone out there. What are your

800
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:55,879
Speaker 2: experiences with Urukiara, with the lax mascots, what are your

801
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 2: favorites right in because we'd love to hear from you.

802
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:01,000
Speaker 2: Just a reminder, This Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

803
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:03,800
Speaker 2: primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on

804
00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:07,600
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805
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:10,799
Speaker 2: On Fridays we do Weird House Cinema. You can get

806
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:13,520
Speaker 2: all of this any Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed.

807
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:17,400
Speaker 3: Huge, thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

808
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:19,319
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

809
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:21,840
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

810
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:23,920
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello.

811
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:26,600
Speaker 3: You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

812
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:34,960
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813
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:38,000
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814
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:40,880
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815
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:57,600
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816
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