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Learn about the history and folklore of Japan! Occasionally funny.

27/04/2024

Damn tourists 😂

28/02/2024

Did you know that has an indigenous population? The Ainu. They have a culture you can't find anywhere else in the world. Women wear face tattoos, and villages keep a certain dangerous animal as pet.

24/01/2024

Alcohol is an important part of Japanese culture, even enjoyed by yōkai. Here are some alcohol-crazy yōkai you’ve never heard of, including a belly dancer with a surprise beneath her kimono:

Amazake babā 甘酒婆, or amazake hag. On snowy nights, she knocks on your door to ask for amazake 🍶, a sweet sake drink. Answer no, and she will make you sick and possibly die. Answer yes, and she would do the same. So try not to answer the door.

Shōjō 猩々 are water spirits that live near water. They spend all day drinking. They brew a magical wine that tests your morals. If you’re a good person, it’ll taste like a party in your mouth. If you’re bad, it’ll taste like a party in your ass. Real evil people might die.

A kawauso 獺 is a river otter 🦦 that loves alcohol and will transform into a child to hit up a liquor store for some sake. But if the store owner asks it a hard question like “Who are you?”, it will get all flustered and start talking gibberish, ruining its disguise.

Haradashi 腹出し means belly flasher. It appears to those who are lonely and drinking by themselves. It cheers you up by drinking with you and doing a belly dance. It’s a unique dance because on its belly is a big goofy face.

12/01/2024

The snowman ☃️ is not the only snow sculpture in this art print.

This was drawn in the 1950s and shows kids having fun in the snow, a small reminder that history is not just about battles and big events. Most of the time, people went about their daily lives.

Japanese kids back then made snowmen too. But if you look at the little girl in the foreground, she’s showing her mother a cute snow bunny that she made.

07/01/2024

Can you guess what these kitsune (foxes 🦊) are doing? The two in the middle are putting reeds on their heads. On the left they’re wearing human clothes, some with faces as beautiful as a naked mole rat.

They’re practicing shapeshifting. Kitsune shapeshift by putting a reed 🌿, leaf 🍃, or skull 💀 on their heads. Apparently it takes some practice because the ones on the left ain’t fooling anyone but my cousin.

Hey I have a thing going on that ends in one week (Jan 13). Go to linfamy.com to see the cute charms and stickers (of kitsune too!) you can get if you join my Patreon during this time ;)

01/01/2024

🎉🎉 Happy New Year! 🎉🎉

This traditional Japanese New Year dish started more than 1000 years ago, in the Heian Period (794 - 1185).

It’s called osechi-ryōri 御節料理, and it’s actually a bunch of different dishes put in boxes. Each food has its own meaning for the new year.

Here are some of the foods (the images are in the same order):

1. Datemaki 伊達巻. A sweet rolled omelette made with eggs mixed with shrimp paste or fish, along with mirin and sugar. Datemaki is great for students. The rolled shape looks like a scroll, so it’s supposed to boost your wisdom and learning for the year.

2. Kuro-mame 黒豆. Black soybeans simmered in soy sauce and sugar. Mame can also mean hardworking, so it helps you become productive in the coming year.

3. Kōhaku namasu 紅白なます. Carrot and daikon cut into little strips and pickled in sweetened vinegar. Red and white is a lucky color combo because the red protects against evil spirits and the white means purity.

4. Kazunoko 数の子. Herring roe. Kazu means “number” and ko means “children.” Also, it’s a bunch of fish eggs. Hence, it’s supposed to bring many children for you this year. So you might want to avoid it.

5. Ozōni お雑煮. A soup of mochi. The soup flavoring and ingredients vary, like people in the Kansai area flavor it with miso, and those in eastern Japan use dashi. Mochi is pronounced the same way as “to hold” and it’s sticky, so it allows you to hold onto good luck.

29/12/2023

Ever wanted to insult people without receiving a fist in reply? Of course you have 😜.

Every year on the 3rd Sunday of December, the polite citizens of Kasama City in Ibaraki Prefecture transform into bullies. It’s a festival called Akutai Matsuri 悪態まつり, or Abusive Language Festival.

It all starts in front of the Iitsuna Shrine, where 13 priests set off on a hike up Mount Atago. They wear white robes and black hats, representing tengu 👺.

Tengu are powerful yōkai that live in the mountains and have embarrassingly long noses. It’s probably the reason they hide in mountains in the first place.

As the priests walk, crowds gather to yell insults at them. Some crowd favorites are “Osoi zo!” (You’re so slow!), “Hayaku agare yo, kono yaro!” (Climb faster you bastards!), and “Bakayaro!🤬” (Du***ss!). Tourists have also been known to yell insults in their own languages.

The priests stop at 16 small shrines to pray and offer charms for health and protection. After patiently waiting for the prayer to finish, people push and shove like mad to steal those charms. Hands off my health and protection, Uncle!

If you are impatient and try to grab the charms before the prayers have finished, the priests will deliver swift justice by smacking you with a bamboo rod.

What in the world started this festival? Well, locals say it began 300 years ago in the Edo Period (1603 - 1868).

Some say it was a way to vent their problems at government officials, like a suggestion box without a box. Others say it was to scare off evil and give people an outlet for their daily frustrations.

The festival ends at the Atago Shrine, where the priests all don tengu masks and throw snacks and rice cakes into the crowd, like feeding time at a zoo of bullies, then everyone yells “Bakayaro!🤬” three times. Everyone leaves a little happier, if slightly hoarse.

Oh I have a thing going on that ends Jan 13! Go to linfamy.com to see the cute charms and stickers you can get if you join my Patreon during this time ;)

26/12/2023

How to see a top courtesan in Edo Japan.

Sometimes after a long day at work, you just want to go home and have dinner with the family, then sneak off to see a pr******te. But in Japan’s Edo Period (1603 - 1868), seeing a courtesan was not so easy.

Let me lead you down a first date with a lady of the pleasure district, from the restaurant to the bedroom, and further beyond. You had to make an appointment months ahead for the most popular ladies.

A client didn’t meet at the brothel, but at a place called an ageya 揚屋. It was like a luxury love hotel.

To even step foot in the door, a man needed a recommendation from a respected teahouse. They only accepted quality guests, the quality here being money.

When the time came, the courtesan walked stylishly with her crew from the brothel to the ageya. When she entered, she greeted the client by totally ignoring him and sitting at a faraway spot.

It was the beginning of the meeting ritual. Every little action had more meaning than your relationship.

The man was supposed to buy some entertainment like a geisha to play music, even buy food and drinks for the courtesan’s crew. It was his chance to show that he was generous and worthy of a night under her kimono.

The mistress of the ageya began the drinking ritual. She gave the courtesan a cup of sake to drink, then gave it to the client.

The courtesan *could* refuse it, rejecting the man, but she almost never did. In front of everyone? Would’ve been devastating for the guy. And ain’t no working girl ever made money by not working.

These women had to give the illusion that they could reject anyone. Just another day at the or***ce.

After, the couple retired to a room. Ageya rooms were luxurious and had fancy things like a garden or a pond. Perfect for couples to lie down and enjoy the view while listening to the sweet sounds of their neighbors having s*x.

A conversation and a few poems later, the couple, yes, got under the sheets so she could drift right off to sleep. No self-respecting courtesan gave it up on the first date.

Only on the third visit would she let him go all the way, after which he would become her regular client.

08/12/2023

Walk with me down the wild world of Japanese Buddhist death rituals, where hardcore monks and nuns controlled the fate of the people…by dying. It’s hard to believe a person could do some of these, but these cases are well-documented.

First off, Buddhism is anti-su***de, but monks found a way to make it okay in a famous story about the Buddha in one of his past lives…

While on a hike he saw a starving tiger and her cubs. Compassion filled his heart and clouded his brain, and he jumped from a ledge to his death, giving the tiger and cubs a nice meal. Buddha’s death here wasn’t just a su***de, but a sacrifice, and sacrifices were juust fine.

Why were these rituals considered sacrifices? Because people believed that if you saw someone go to a Buddhist Pure Land paradise, you were also more likely to do so.

It was huge pressure on the monk or nun, because during the ritual their thoughts had to be focused on the buddha Amida and not on the horror that was happening to their bodies.

One ritual was jumping off cliffs. If a monk thought happy Buddhist thoughts on the way down, he landed straight into the Buddhist Pure Land paradise. If not, he landed on land.

Another was starvation. It’s horrible, I’ve skipped dinner a few times.

Another popular one was a deeply personal act that a monk only did in front of a few of his closest crowds. It was totally public. Drowning was brutal. Imagine trying to think calm Buddhist thoughts while breathing water.

Some monks preferred a less wet ritual, so they went on a one-way boat ride to the legendary Mt Fudaraku, a paradise of the bodhisattva Kannon. They didn’t steer, just left the navigation to Kannon. Sadly, Kannon often thought her paradise lay at the bottom of the sea.

This next one is sometimes still done today. Today, burning yourself is usually done to protest or bring awareness to a problem. Back then, it was done to save people. These monks who could stay calm during self-immolation deserve to enter paradise imo.

With everyone’s fate riding on their deaths, you gotta ask how voluntary these rituals were. One story tells of a priest who tried to drown himself, but panicked and ran back. The crowd was not pleased, and decided to help him reach paradise with rocks.

That was a fictional story, but I assume similar incidents must have happened.

05/12/2023

The Yayoi came to the islands long ago, and changed everything! Who were they, and why were they so important?

28/11/2023

History of Japan 3: The Jomon.
Japan’s early hunter-gatherers, the Jomon, had a unique culture and were one of the first peoples to create pottery.

24/11/2023

Happy Thanksgiving, you as****es 🦃❤️

Did you know Japan has a Thanksgiving too? And it has been around for more than a thousand years. It's called Labor Thanksgiving Day, or Kinrō Kansha no Hi 勤労感謝の日.

Unlike Thanksgiving in the US (and a few other insignificant countries like Canada) which lands on different dates depending on the year, Japan's Labor Thanksgiving is always on November 23.

Long ago in the 600s AD, Japan's imperial court started celebrating a harvest festival called Niiname-sai 新嘗祭. Every year during this ceremony, the emperor would dedicate the year's harvest to the gods, and was the first to taste the rice from the harvest.

This lasted until the occupation of Japan after World War II, when the people in charge led by the US decided they weren’t a fan of any national holiday that even smelled like Shinto. It reminded them of wartime Japan, and no one likes to be reminded of that, least of all the Japanese.

So the Japanese government got rid of Niiname-sai, and created a whole new holiday called Labor Thanksgiving Day that happened to wake up and find itself being celebrated on the same date as the old holiday.

It’s a holiday to honor labor and give thanks to loved ones. Today, young students give cards or gifts to workers like police officers and firefighters. Families get together to eat and enjoy each other’s company.

The traditional Niiname-sai ceremony is still done by Japan’s Imperial House on November 23.

21/11/2023

History of Japan 2: The First Japanese

There were several major migrations to the Japanese islands that we know of, but which one did the ancestors of the modern Japanese come from? An interesting story that involves shovel teeth and ear wax.

Q: What would you do with a pet BEAR like the Ainu had?

16/11/2023

History of Japan 1: Shinto Creation Myth

How Japan was created, according to ancient Shinto myths. A story of godly secks and zombie wives in the underworld.

The tale is written in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the oldest surviving texts in Japan. It’s not just a fun story, all Japanese emperors are said to descend from the sun goddess Amaterasu ☀️. This is why they have legitimacy as emperors, and why they’ll never take a DNA test.

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Did you know that #japan has an indigenous population? The Ainu. They have a culture you can't find anywhere else in the world. Women wear face tattoos, and villages keep a certain dangerous animal as pet. #ainu #historyofjapan #japanesehistory #linfamy

The Yayoi Arrive...and Change EVERYTHING

The Yayoi came to the #Japanese islands long ago, and changed everything! Who were they, and why were they so important?

The Jomon, a 10,000 Year Old Culture

History of Japan 3: The Jomon. Japan’s early hunter-gatherers, the Jomon, had a unique culture and were one of the first peoples to create pottery.

Who Were the First Japanese?

History of Japan 2: The First Japanese There were several major migrations to the Japanese islands that we know of, but which one did the ancestors of the modern Japanese come from? An interesting story that involves shovel teeth and ear wax. Q: What would you do with a pet BEAR like the Ainu had?

Shinto Creation Myth

History of Japan 1: Shinto Creation Myth How Japan was created, according to ancient Shinto myths. A story of godly secks and zombie wives in the underworld. The tale is written in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the oldest surviving texts in Japan. It’s not just a fun story, all Japanese emperors are said to descend from the sun goddess Amaterasu ☀️. This is why they have legitimacy as emperors, and why they’ll never take a DNA test.

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