Jason Weiser· Host0:00

This week on Myths and Legends, we're back in Japan with a story of a cold and lonely forest temple, and how you should maybe turn down that date that wants to take you to a lonely forest temple, especially if your date's idea of a good time is dancing and decapitation. The creature this time is a monster with backwards feet whose poisoning urine isn't even the most noteworthy thing about him. [upbeat music] This is Myths and Legends, episode 423, The Illusionists. This is a podcast where we tell stories from mythology and folklore. Some are incredibly popular tales you might think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories that might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen. Today we're back in Japanese folklore with, uh, something of a legend kind of. Uh, the story is set in the years following the Meiji Restoration. Real quickly, for hundreds of years, Japan, during what we now call the Edo period, was under sort of a feudal military dictatorship, where the shogun, the commander-in-chief, r- ruled a patchwork of something resembling lords, AKA daimyo, while the emperor was largely ceremonial. This all changed after America showed up in the 1850s and exposed the dangers of things continuing as they were. My understanding of the period is that powerful people who wanted change so Japan didn't fall prey to the colonial powers