Dating back to 1333, Himeji Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s considered the pinnacle of traditional Japanese architecture. But no great palace is without its ghosts.

Inside the Himeji Castle complex is a large water well surrounded by stone pillars. This well is supposedly home to the ghost of Okiku, a beautiful servant girl who turned into one of the yūrei after her brutal death. In particular, Okiku is an onryō, a vengeful spirit of a person who died with a grudge. Like other onryō, she wears a white kimono, and her long black hair hangs disheveled over her shoulders. Her legend is widespread: the story of Okiku and the Well is regarded as one of the Three Great Yūrei (San O-Yūrei) in Japanese folklore. Okiku’s story has been adapted to bunraku and kabuki theatre, manga, and even illustrated by Katsushika Hokusai, the artist behind the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa.

In life, Okiku worked as a dishwasher at Himeji Castle. She soon caught the eye of a samurai named Aoyama, who also resided in the castle as one of her master’s retainers. Aoyama made several attempts to flirt with her, but she rejected his advances repeatedly. Burned by unrequited love, Aoyama decided to trick Okiku instead.

Aoyama found a set of 10 expensive plates in Himeji Castle and hid one of them. He called for Okiku and told her that one of his master’s priceless plates was missing. Okiku was terrified, as losing such an expensive dish meant that she could be executed. She frantically counted the dishes over and over again, but each time, the count would always end at nine.

Aoyama told Okiku that he would help her and tell her master that Okiku was not the one who lost the dish if she would consent to be his mistress. Even though she faced death if she was caught, she still refused him. Furious, Aoyama ordered his servants to beat Okiku with a wooden sword, tie her up, and suspend her over the castle well. Aoyama then tortured her by repeatedly dunking her into the well, beating her himself, and demanding that she become his mistress. Once more, she refused, and Aoyama struck her with his sword and dropped her body into the well.

It wasn’t long before Okiku’s ghost was spotted.

Every night, Okiku would rise from the well and enter the castle to search for the missing dish. She would count the plates just as she did the night Aoyama killed her, but upon counting the ninth plate, she would let out a shriek that could be heard throughout the entire castle. She tormented Aoyama by doing this, never allowing him to sleep. Others in the castle fell ill if they heard part of her counting, and anyone who heard her count all the way to nine died shortly afterwards. After finishing her count and failing to find the tenth plate, Okiku would return to the well, only to repeat the process again the next night.

According to some legends, the story ends there, and Okiku remains an onryō to this day. However, in other versions of the story, the lord of the castle decided that something had to be done about her ghost after many of his samurai died. He summoned a monk from a nearby temple to exorcise her. The monk waited for her counting to begin. When she reached the ninth plate, he shouted “Ten!”. Convinced that the tenth plate had finally been found, Okiku’s soul could finally rest, and her onryō vanished on the spot.

Kaylee Fowler