Japan's Three Great Ghost Stories" (Nihon san dai Kaidan 日本三大怪談) PART TWO: Okiku.

OKIKU: THE DISH MANOR AT BANCHO

There are many versions of Okiku's story, the second Japan's Great Ghost Story. The protagonist is always Okiku お菊, a beautiful and poor girl, working as a dishwasher at Banchō in Edo (Tokyo's old name), who dies unjustly and comes back to haunt the living. This ghost story is referred as "The dish Mansion at Banchō" (Banchō Sarayashiki 番町皿屋敷) or, more simply, as "The dish mansion" (Sarayashiki 皿屋敷)

Long ago, there was a beautiful woman named Okiku who worked as a dishwasher for a rich master with a manor in Tokyo. Okiku was so beautiful that she caught the eye of one of her master’s samurai, Aoyama. However, Aoyama was a selfish man with no regret and with a big ego. He tried many times to seduce Okiku, but each time she rejected his advances. 

Aoyama decided then to trick Okiku into becoming his lover. In the manor his master kept a set of ten very precious dishes. Aoyama took one of the them, hid it and then called for Okiku. He told her one of his master’s precious dishes was missing, and accused her of stealing it. Okiku rushed to count the dishes: she was extremely scared since losing one of her master’s expensive dishes was a crime punished by death.
She counted the dishes, “one… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine…” She recounted them again and again, but the dishes were only nine. Okiku could not lie about the dish and apologised to Aoyama, saying that the tenth dish was lost.

Aoyama smiled: his plan seemed to have worked. However, when he told Okiku that he would forget her mistake, if she would become his mistress, she once again refused him. The samurai became furious. He ordered his servants to beat and torture Okiku. Afterwards, she was tied up and suspended over the castle well. Aoyama demanded one last time that Okiku become his mistress but she refused again. So Aoyama killed her violently with his sword and her body fell into the well. 


Since then, night after night, Okiku’s ghost is seen wandering the manor, counting the dishes. After counting the ninth plate, she would shout.

Her screams tormented Aoyama for the rest of his life, while many of those who heard Okiku’s counting became very sick and died. .