Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Japan is known for many things, Samurai and beautiful castles,
Speaker 1: cherry blossoms, and Mount Fuji. It's a very distinctive nation
Speaker 1: that has stayed that way in part due to a
Speaker 1: roughly two hundred year isolationist period which kept outsiders outside
Speaker 1: and the Japanese in. Nowadays, that isolationist streak is long past,
Speaker 1: and Japan is a commercial powerhouse for their massive corporations
Speaker 1: that exports all kinds of goods all over the world.
Speaker 1: Look around you right now and you'll probably see an
Speaker 1: electronic device, car, camera, or other piece of machinery manufactured
Speaker 1: in Japan. But any nation is an amalgamation of its
Speaker 1: past and its present, and the intersection of Japan's history
Speaker 1: and the modern world can be very curious. Such is
Speaker 1: the case at Okunaking Cemetery on Mont Koya in southern
Speaker 1: central Japan. Mount Koya is a temple settlement said to
Speaker 1: have been founded in eight nineteen by Kobodashi, an ancient
Speaker 1: Buddhist monk. Some refer to him as the Eastern Leonardo
Speaker 1: da Vinci due to his many contributions across a variety
Speaker 1: of disciplines, including calligraphy, poetry, and philosophy, and he is
Speaker 1: also the founder of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, which is a
Speaker 1: Buddhist sect wherein the monks orally pass on instruction through
Speaker 1: the generations using a variety of nature based wisdom. They
Speaker 1: compare a clouded mind to the different phases of the moon,
Speaker 1: for example. Many Buddhists there are also vegetarians and do
Speaker 1: not believe in the taking of life. Kobodashi was so
Speaker 1: renowned that when he passed away, he was sealed in
Speaker 1: a tomb instead of cremated. This was so that he
Speaker 1: could continue to meditate on what is best for humanity.
Speaker 1: The monks on Mount Koya still bring him two meals
Speaker 1: each day. They believe his tomb isn't a tomb at all,
Speaker 1: but a meditation chamber. As the centuries passed, the temple
Speaker 1: settlement experienced many ups and downs, especially in the isolationist
Speaker 1: period that I mentioned earlier. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, showguns,
Speaker 1: who were threatened by the popularity of Buddhism, occasionally attacked
Speaker 1: the place or put several restrictions on the temple. Even so,
Speaker 1: they respected and even feared the legend of Kobo Dashi,
Speaker 1: so much so that in sixteen forty three, Tokugawa ie Mitsu,
Speaker 1: the third Tokugawa Shogun, had a shrine built on Mount
Speaker 1: Koya to honor his father and grandfather. If this place
Speaker 1: was holy, he said, he wanted their spirits to have
Speaker 1: a home there, and surprisingly, that very ancient attitude has
Speaker 1: persisted to this day with curious results. If ancient Japan
Speaker 1: was all about the loyalty and honor of samurai clans,
Speaker 1: modern Japan is all about the loyalty and honor of corporations,
Speaker 1: and some of those corporations revere Kobodashi and Mount Koya
Speaker 1: just as much as their ancestors did. Okanoyan Cemetery has
Speaker 1: thousands of graves, many belonging to that samurai era that
Speaker 1: I just mentioned, but they are now joined by graves
Speaker 1: belonging to modern corporations. Including Panasonic Cannon and shin Maiwa
Speaker 1: an aircraft company. The graves are dedicated to their deceased
Speaker 1: employees and feature unusual markers. You see. While most gravestones
Speaker 1: at Okanoyan are in the shape of a pagoda, the
Speaker 1: more recent corporate ones can take any form. Shin Maiwa
Speaker 1: has a large stone rocket ship as part of its
Speaker 1: grave site. But the most unique memorial in the cemetery
Speaker 1: probably belongs to the japan Pest Control Association. In nineteen
Speaker 1: six eight, they erected a memorial on Mount Koya to
Speaker 1: the thousands of termites they've killed as part of their work.
Speaker 1: Remember I told you that the Buddhists are vegetarian and
Speaker 1: don't believe in the taking of life, and that makes
Speaker 1: being a Buddhist exterminator very difficult. With this memorial, the
Speaker 1: Japanese Pest Control Association expressed regret that their existence was
Speaker 1: incompatible with the existence of termites. It's a humorous coda
Speaker 1: to a long history, but it also shows how much
Speaker 1: the modern world is still very much informed by the past.
Speaker 1: Mount Koya has existed for over a thousand years, but
Speaker 1: humans have only changed so much. They may have traded
Speaker 1: in their swords for smartphones, but they still feel sadness, guilt,
Speaker 1: and a desire to honor the dead. So the next
Speaker 1: time you swat a bug in your house, the least
Speaker 1: you can do is light a candle for the life
Speaker 1: you just took. Or if that sounds silly, you can
Speaker 1: just wait for Kobo Dashi to finally wake up and
Speaker 1: lead us all into enlightenment. Eleanor Bull had not paid
Speaker 1: any mind to the four gentlemen staying in her house.
Speaker 1: Tenants came and went freely, and as long as they
Speaker 1: paid for their food and lodging, they got no trouble
Speaker 1: from her. All day long, the three men had drank,
Speaker 1: eaten and spoken among themselves. Ingram, Nicholas, Roberts, and kitt
Speaker 1: were their names, but there were men like them at
Speaker 1: every tavern across London. However, on May thirtieth of fifteen
Speaker 1: ninety three, Eleanor Bull's place at Deptford bore witness to
Speaker 1: one of the era's most infamous tavern brawls. These four men,
Speaker 1: having just had a meal, retired to a private room.
Speaker 1: Not long after, raised voices came from within. Then whatever
Speaker 1: argument the men were having became aggressive, commotion followed shouts,
Speaker 1: chairs overturned, and violent exclamations. When the dust settled, one
Speaker 1: of the four men lay dead upon the floor, a
Speaker 1: dagger through his head. It was the one that the
Speaker 1: others had referred to as Kit. He was twenty nine
Speaker 1: years old. According to his companions. They had argued over
Speaker 1: the bill. Kit, who was hot headed by nature and
Speaker 1: possibly drunk, had grabbed the dagger from Ingram's belt and
Speaker 1: attacked him. Although Kit had managed to stab Ingram twice
Speaker 1: in the head, the wounds were shallow and Ingram was
Speaker 1: able to fight back and gain the upper hand. An
Speaker 1: investigation began almost immediately because Kit wasn't a nobody. He
Speaker 1: was Christopher Marlowe, a talented poet and author of seven plays.
Speaker 1: These included Edward the Second, The Massacre at Paris, and
Speaker 1: Doctor Faustus, all of which would remain popular long after
Speaker 1: his death. William Shakespeare would include references to Marlowe in
Speaker 1: his own work, a sign of respect from one legendary
Speaker 1: playwright to another. The man who killed marlow Ingram Freser,
Speaker 1: was pardoned on June first. The other two men spoke
Speaker 1: up for him, all agreeing that Marlowe had been the
Speaker 1: aggressor and that the killing was self defense. But ever
Speaker 1: since that day, rumors have persisted that this was more
Speaker 1: than just an argument gone wrong, because Kit Marlowe was
Speaker 1: an enigmatic man whose life seemed full of danger and mystery.
Speaker 1: He'd long been a lifelong rebel, someone who got into
Speaker 1: fights regularly and defied authority. As a matter of course,
Speaker 1: writings by others from the time condemned him for being
Speaker 1: an atheist, a dangerous allegation at the time. Throughout Marlow's
Speaker 1: short life, he was arrested multiple times for charges that
Speaker 1: included counterfeiting money and heresy, but surprisingly none of these
Speaker 1: arrests ever stuck and honestly seemed as if someone was
Speaker 1: in a high position of authority wanting to protect him,
Speaker 1: and this would be more or less confirmed by historians
Speaker 1: centuries after his death. You see, while he'd been writing
Speaker 1: his first plays as a student, Marlowe had communicated regularly
Speaker 1: with Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council, seemingly as a spy or
Speaker 1: counterspy for the British government. A letter from the Council
Speaker 1: to his university referred to him as employed on matters
Speaker 1: touching the benefit of his country. It's an intriguing idea,
Speaker 1: and helped out by the fact that the men who
Speaker 1: witnessed Marlow's death were not random people. Ingram Freiser, Nicholas Scares,
Speaker 1: and Robert Polly all had suspicious reputations. Nicholas and Ingram
Speaker 1: were both conmen, and Robert Polly had been imprisoned in
Speaker 1: the Tower of London five years earlier for his role
Speaker 1: in the Babbington Plot, a failed plan to assassinate Elizabeth
Speaker 1: and replace her with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scott's.
Speaker 1: Now to be fair men of ill repute were not
Speaker 1: strangers in Marlow's life. However, their political affiliations and criminal
Speaker 1: histories cast doubt on their testimony against him. We may
Speaker 1: never know why these gentlemen were all in the same
Speaker 1: tavern on May thirtieth, if it was an arranged murder.
Speaker 1: Scholars have proposed a number of theories, with suspects including
Speaker 1: Sir Walter Riley, various powerful critics of Marlowe's plays, or
Speaker 1: even Queen Elizabeth herself. Had Marlow outlived his usefulness, had
Speaker 1: he seduced the wrong man and provoked a deadly response,
Speaker 1: had anti Christian themes in his work put a target
Speaker 1: on his back? Or are we all just jumping at shadows?
Speaker 1: After all, when you have to invent a motive for
Speaker 1: a theory to work, you're writing fiction rather than searching
Speaker 1: for the truth. One thing we know for sure, though,
Speaker 1: this famous poet died as he lived, providing drama, entertainment,
Speaker 1: and intrigue to us all living a life as adventurous
Speaker 1: as any character in a play. To quote his doctor Faustus,
Speaker 1: he that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.