• Pha Taem National Park
• Khao Luang National Park
• Phra Si Ratana Temple (Wat Yai)
• Mu Ko Surin National Park
• Tha Pom Khlong Song Nam
• Phitsanulok-Lom Sak Route (Highway No. 12)
• Erawan National Park

A ‘killing stone’ broke in Japan. It had long been associated with a Japanese legend in which an evil fox spirit haunts a “killing stone,” or sessho-seki in Japanese, making it deadly to humans. Intact, the rock was about 6 feet tall and 26 feet in circumference, according to a guide at the park. This month, a volcanic rock split in two in Nikko National Park, about 100 miles north of Tokyo. With so much going wrong in the world, should we now also worry about a nine-tailed fox demoness that may be loose in a forest in Japan? Is a demon on the loose? In that telling, after a Zen monk splits the rock into several pieces and coaxes out the fox, she promises never to harm humans again. Some people have speculated that the fracture set the fox loose to cause further harm. Others have focused on a variation of the legend that ends on a happier note. The answer depends partly on your reading of ancient Japanese mythology.

Vacations In Buachet

Social media has plenty of theories about what the fracturing of the stone means for ordinary mortals. “There’s a kind of millenarian sense in the air, an apocalyptic feeling, with the coronavirus and this war in Ukraine,” he said in an interview. Heightened interest in the fractured stone may be a sign of our times, said Nick Kapur, a professor of Japanese history at Rutgers University who wrote a popular Twitter thread about it in early March. ” asked a recent article in The Asahi Shimbun, an influential newspaper. So does the Japanese news media. Scholars say it first appeared in written texts in the 15th century. The nine-tailed fox legend is set in the 12th century at the royal court in Kyoto, Japan’s imperial capital. “People are feeling like, ‘Ah, why is all this stuff happening now? “Is this an advance warning of a disaster or a good omen?

In the basic version, a retired emperor, Toba, an actual historical figure, is enchanted by a beautiful and intelligent visitor, Tamamo no Mae. In real life, Toba’s death set off a succession crisis that led to an era of samurai fighting and military rule. She says it will kill any human, bird or beast that does. In another version of the legend one that appeared in ancient plays. “In all likelihood, the story of Tamamo no Mae sprang from the real world of palace politics,” scholar Janet Goff wrote in a 1997 essay about foxes in Japanese culture. When Toba falls mortally ill, a royal astrologer discovers that the visitor is an evil fox in disguise. She flees into the wilderness, and warriors dispatched by the palace shoot her with arrows, transforming her into a poisonous rock. Illustrated scrolls a Zen monk is walking past the stone when a woman warns him not to go near it.

The woman admits that she is the spirit of the stone and disappears inside it. After the monk strikes and breaks the stone with a staff, she reappears, promises never to harm humans again, sight seeings at Cha-Am and disappears for good. “There’s a hint of evil still there, but she’s kind of an antihero, maybe,” he said. But when the nine-tailed fox has appeared in modern Japanese cultural products including anime, manga and even video games she tends to be portrayed more favourably. Park rangers had been photographing cracks in the stone for years, and local officials said the final rupture was caused by toxic gas and rainwater seepage. For centuries, the telling of the fox legend echoed a misogynistic trope of Japanese mythology in which female characters were held responsible for the downfall of dynasties, Kapur said. The stone that broke apart in Nikko National Park sat in a forest dotted with sulfurous hot springs.