The Ghost Story Of Yotsu-Ya
Welcome my friends… Sit beside me as I turn the pages of the Kojiki, the book of traditions, to a tragic story of infidelity and blood reaped by the sword of a samurai. A tale of haunting which led to Yomi-tsu-kuni, the ‘Land of Darkness’, and the kingdom of the dead. Let your mind be carried to the Land of the Rising Sun as I spell out the mystical story of “The Ghost Story of Yotsu-ya”…
Many moons ago, during the reign of the great Emperor of the Eastern Peaks, lived Yotsu-ya, a cruel and tyrannical samurai warrior. Bushido, the way of the warrior, endowed his middling supple stature with sinewy muscles and knotted flesh. His features were hard and cruel, born out the code of his hereditary warrior class.
Yotsu-ya was fierce in battle and equally fierce in his loyalty to the reigning Mikado. He lorded over the administrative area of Nikko in the heartland of the island of Honshu in the Imperial Empire. Yotsu-ya ruled with a heavy-handed despotic regime that was a terrible burden to its citizens. Taxes were high and those failing to meet its due were punished till the soul of the body left the offender.
High walls surrounded the villages in his domain, not too defend them against brigands, but to achieve order in his rule over the populace. The warrior’s character was such that it displayed itself in wicked deeds by his cruel soul. Judgment at the hand of Yotsu-ya ended with slash of a finely honed samurai sword, and the gory head of the offender impaled on spikes atop the walls.
It was told by rumored tongues that at a certain day, upon entering his palace of ‘Six Moons and Six Suns’ after a short and arduous service for the emperor, he heard of a nefarious deed of unfaithfulness; it