Hell Teacher Nube 37

There are some superstitions that people won't admit to unless they exist...and by then it may be too late. When Katsuya discovers a mysterious ritual, he may be caught in a turmoil too horrifying for even Nube to cope with...

#37: The Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor

89.
Katsuya: I can’t sleep.
Katsuya: Shall I take a walk…
SFX: KACCHIN KOCCHIN
SFX: KO—N KO—N KO—N
Katsuya: What’s that sound?
SFX: KO—N KO—N KO—N KO—N
SFX: PITA

90.-91.
“Being”: DO~~NOT~~LOOK~~~~

92.
Katsuya: UWAAA
SFX: TATATA
Katsuya: I was surprised, already.
Katsuya: Its face was smeared in deep-red. It was the person called the famous “Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor”.
(TN: There will be a couple matters regarding the “ushi-no-koku” part explained in the next page or so, so I’ll be explaining the “shrine visitor” part here: the word Katsuya uses in Japanese is “mairi”, which is a change in the verb “mairu”. That is usually used as a humbled version of “to come” or “to go”, but also has a meaning upon usage for “to visit a shrine” or “to summon”/”to call. The full name of this “curse” is “Ushi-no-Koku Mairi”, but I translated the “Shrine Visitor” part in order to allow for better understanding of its meaning.)
Hiroshi: Eh, ushi?

93.
Hiroshi: What was it: a discount campaign for a gyuudon shop?
(TN: Obviously, “ushi” has a meaning for “cow”, but there is a slight confusion by Hiroshi here: while Katsuya makes specific mention of “ushi no koku” (which we’ll explain in a moment) and it uses a kanji for “ushi” that also stands for “cow”, Hiroshi thinks it is tied to the usual kanji (or meaning) for “ushi”/”cow”, thus leading to him thinking of it tied to gyuudon. [a snack food with beef on top of rice])
SFX: GAKU
Nube: This is one curse method from long ago.
Katsuya: A curse?
Nube: Ushi-no-Koku…in other words, around 2 in the morning: it is a curse model where you place a strand of head hair of a hated opposite within a straw doll, strike it with a nail and curse them to death. There is in the Kaname Youkyoku where those who are within formality wear one-tooth geta, hang a mirror on their chest, paint their face red, place a Kaname (a three-legged stand where you place pots or kettles on) inverted on their head and stand up a small pine torch….
(TN: We’ve got a lot to cover here so I need to get this listed appropriately:
1. “Ushi-no-Koku” is based on the concept of time brought over from China where time is based on the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac, with each “sign” encompassing two hours and approximately being during the “middle moment” of the time. The time generally seen as “Ushi-no-Koku” or “The Time of the Ox/Cow” is generally any period between 1AM and 3AM, with the actual “Ushi-no-Koku” occurring at 2AM. Another note: whenever “ushi-no-koku” is referred to, “ushi” uses the older style of the kanji as opposed to the one used in modern Japanese, even though both have the same meaning of “cow”.
2. One-tooth geta or “one-clog geta”, also known as “tengu-geta” are a style of geta (wooden Japanese footwear) with one tooth in the very center of the structure. Though part of traditional culture, they are seen as practically impossible to walk with.
3. “Kaname” were explained appropriately above, but also have a reading of “Kannawa”, which is exactly the same thing.
4. Though “taimatsu” has a direct meaning of a “torch”, the means by which Nube mentions it here is in conjunction to the shrine visitor, whose torch is the traditional version in Japan made of pine.
5. “Youkyoku” is a style of music used within Noh drama usually in reference to classical text of Buddhist sutra, composed in groups of five and seven syllables. Usually their performance gives off a supernatural/celestial feeling to those who hear them.)
Hiroshi: Does it really place a curse on them!? (Entered by the cow’s bear cub…?)
(TN: Hiroshi is screwing up language again: instead of saying “ushi-no-koku”, he now says “ushi-no-kokuma”; while he’s still using the modern “ushi” in kanji [which, like the classical “ushi”, still is “cow”], he mispronounces “koku” with “kokuma”, which is Japanese for “bear cub”)
Nube: It can’t be! Curses aren’t things that can be easily placed by an amateur. (HAHAHA…)
Miki: Katsuya…you’re going to die.
Katsuya: Eh?

94.
Miki: If the Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor is seen by a person, the person who sees them will be cursed if they don’t kill it. Therefore, you, being that person, are going to be killed.~~~
Katsuya: Re…really?
SFX: BOKA
Nube: Miki’s saying too much again…it will be fine! It hasn’t obtained hair of your head, thus you won’t be cursed.
Nube: Really, that being done by you…
Kyouko: It’s because she gets delight scaring nearby people.
Katsuya: Hair of my head…?
Katsuya: Damn…MY HAT…!!

“Visitor”: Kukuku…kukuku
SFX: ZU--…
“Visitor”: That brat…if I use this, then I will be able to curse him…

95.
Katsuya: The Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor…well, the curse is a superstition but.
Katsuya: Even so…that face like a demon painted deep-red…! (to himself) It’s scorched to my eyelids and won’t go away…
SFX: KO—N!
SFX: GABA!
Katsuya: GYA!?
Manami: Big brother!?

96.
Katsuya: GIEE
SFX: KO—N!
Manami: Big brother, what’s wrong?
SFX: JIWA
SFX: GAKO—N!
Katsuya: HIIIII!!
Nube: What is this…This without confusion is a real curse! There are people who would do this these days…
Hiroshi: However, well, it was good that it was just his hand!
Nube: No: even the places that the doll is struck have a procedure. First are the hands and feet. Next, the eyes and ears. Finally, the strike of the chest is on the 7th day; until then it hits various places.
Katsuya: That’s…so, next are my eyes?

97.
Nube: Its fine: I’ll certainly protect you.
Katsuya: I beg you to, Nube!!
Nube: Pardon me, please give me nattou.
Shop: Thank you—
Sign: ASAHI TOFU
Caption: Made with nattou straw.
(TN: The “nattou” referred here is the actual nattou plant where the soybeans for the Japanese delicacy are made of, thus the usage of the straw instead of the beans)
Hiroshi: I get it: with eye for an eye, we counterattack with straw doll for straw doll?
Nube: No, this is a katashiro.
(TN: A “katashiro”, which literally translates into “form substitute”, is a variety of “yorishiro” which are usually used to attract kami spirits or, in this version, the evil spirits that are connected to Katsuya’s problem)
SFX: BUCHI
Katsuya: Ow.
SFX: GUGU
Katsuya: Eh!? Hey, hey, stop putting in my head hair…
Nube: Its fine: if our enemy is attacking a straw doll, then we’ll catch the blow with a straw doll here. This will become Katsuya’s substitute and be the curse receiver.

98.
Hiroshi: A doll as a substitute? Can you do that?
Nube: Yes: dolls for this purpose have origin with dolls for the day of March 3rd.
(TN: Nube’s explanation actually has precedence: while many people usually know that March 3rd is “Hinamatsuri” [also commonly called “Girl’s Day”] where the daughter of the household displays their extravagant dolls of ancient Japanese style, the basis for the holiday was in the Heian period tradition of “hina-nagashi”, when people floated straw dolls on a ship down river to the sea, taking with the bad spirits that are collected by the straw dolls and hoping to provide them with good luck. This practice usually isn’t done anymore due to the complaint of fishermen catching these dolls when they finally reach the ocean)
Hiroshi: Hee…I hadn’t known that.
SFX: PISHAN
Hiroshi: What’s wrong, Nube?
Nube: No, I thought it was whatever person who had placed the curse.

99.
“Visitor”: It’s futile…(kukuku…kuku…) Futile…
Sign: NIGHT WATCH ROOM
TV: From tonight to tomorrow, the Kanto region will be an area of stormy rain…
Hiroshi: Hya—we’re in a storm—
Nube: It’s already late, please sleep.
Katsuya: With this katashiro, I’ll be relieved…haha…
Nube: But does it know: the true form of the “curse”…if this curse is being done without knowledge of something…there’ll be danger.
“Visitor”: Ku ku ku

100.
SFX: BUWA
“Visitor”: HO~~~HOHOHOHO!!
SFX: KO—N
Nube: …It’s come!
SFX: PISHI…
Katsuya: The katashiro…!
SFX: PISHI | GYAAA~~
Hiroshi: We’ve done it! The curse is going to the katashiro!
Nube: No…the power of the curse is too strong!!
SFX: KO—N

101.
SFX: PAN!
Nube: It has burst!!
SFX: DOKA
Katsuya: GYAAA
Nube: KATSUYA!!
Hiroshi: This is terrible: since there has come to not be a substitute, Katsuya has…
Katsuya: GUWA HII
Nube: No! The curse was too strong and the katashiro couldn’t endure it!
Nube: If it’s come to it, then we can only have appear the real form of the curse. BEING WHO TRANSPORTS THE CURSE, SHOW YOUR FORM!

102.
Spirit: GIIII!! (OOOOOOH OOOOOH)
SFX: GUSA GUSA
Hiroshi: The true form of the curse is…a youkai!?
Nube: No, that isn’t the thing that’s the curse. It’s the curse transporter; so to speak, the medium.
Nube: It is a spirit summoned from the realm of the dead by a spiritual medium with strong power during a period of shamanism magic was prosperous in ancient times. This is a summoning technique that is entrusts a curse to this spirit and transports it to the hated person of origin by the Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor; they don’t have a reason to reach their feelings to their partner directly.

103.
Nube: It ran off!!
Nube: It plans on returning to the place of the criminal.
Hiroshi: That’s in the direction of Kitayama Shrine!
Nube: Taming a spirit…it’s impossible if you don’t have a large amount of spiritual power! Does the criminal know that!? If it doesn’t know that…If they’re doing this though they don’t have satisfactory spiritual power…it’s too dangerous!!
“Visitor”: DIE~~DIE~~~HI~~~~HIHIHIHI!!
SFX: KON KON KON KON KON

104.
Nube: Stop!
Nube: Do you understand what you’re doing!? You criminal!
“Visitor”: A criminal!? My reputation is bad…I was just striking a nail into a straw doll. Is there a law that says I can’t strike nails into a doll!?
Nube: What?
“Visitor”: Kukuku…I obtained this mysterious power five years ago…at the time, there was this unpleasant woman at my workplace…when placed a curse on her with a straw doll half-jokingly…hihihi, SHE REALLY DIED!!
“Visitor”: It became a habit since then…people who are even a bit unpleasant are immediately cursed to be killed. Now that is my only pleasure…
SFX: NITA~~~
Nube: She’s warped! She kills people for enjoyment!?

105.
“Visitor”: RIGH~~T! MY MOOD IS REFRESHED WHEN MY CURSES REACHES AND A PERSON DIES! NOW GO, CURSE SPIRIT. SKEWER THEM!
Nube: Put that aside: that spirit isn’t a partner that can be managed in hands like yours!
“Visitor”: DIE! DIE! EVERYONE OTHER THAN ME, DIE!
SFX: KON KON KON
Nube: NAMU!!
SFX: BARI BARI BARI

106.
“Visitor”: GEHYAHYAHYAHYA!! THIS ONE AND THAT ONE WILL DIE—
SFX: KO—N KO—N KO—N
Katsuya: Hii—teacher—
Nube: It’ll be fine: the Kannon Sutra is bouncing back her attack!
Nube: WHAT!? THE SPIRIT’S BODY IS INFLATING WITH EACH BLOW!?
SFX: KO—N KO—N
Nube: RIGHT! IT’S BECAUSE I’M BOUNCING BACK THE SPIRIT’S ATTACK…
SFX: KO—N KO—N
Nube: THE FEELINGS OF THE CURSE BEING SENT BY HER ARE RAPIDLY BEING GATHERED WITHOUT BEING LET OUT…
Nube: Stop! If you continue further…it will counter-current!
“Visitor”: KE~~KEKEKE!
SFX: KO—N

107.
Sign: SEKIYA CONTRACTORS
Nube: …That fool!
Nube: The Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor is a battle spell used by ancient shrine maidens. It isn’t a thing that can be handled with superficial spiritual power!
Narrator: If you curse a person, there are two holes…a curse is a double-edge sword that can also destroy the person themselves.
Katsuya: Teacher…
Nube: Forget this. It was a bad dream.
Narrator: Nevertheless, people who do the Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor don’t abstain from it later…it may be quietly occurring at the shrine near your home tonight…

108.
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

27. Hitogata (Katashiro)

Dolls were originally created for shutting in evil spirits as a human substitute and to be exiled to the nether world. Dolls were representative objects, but this sort of manner and custom is called “Ekishinokuri” and has been inherited in various places even today. In particular, it is called many things like “Kashima-sama”, “Shouki-sama”, “Donji-sama”, etc. in the Touhoku region and is intimate with them as the town’s guardian deity.

Well then, dolls give birth to sympathetic magic, which fulfill a curse by a doll from a belief in human substitution. This is the “Ushi-no-Koku Shrine Visitor”. Long ago, one day was split twelve times, attaching 12 branch names of “Ne”, “Ushi”, “Tora”…by two-hours from 11PM. In brief: “Ushi-no-Koku” is the interval from 1AM to 3AM. They worshiped in the shrine at this time and strike dolls with in them the hair from the head of their hated party with nails into the sacred tree. By continuing this for seven days, the partner is cursed and killed.

Further, the raw materials for these dolls originally must have been a fresh item such as January pine needles, March peach blossoms or September chrysanthemum, but one day they came to be done with old rice straw. Even today, in shrines where this seems to be done in secret occasionally, there emerge scattered rusty spikes from within struck trees on campus. It’s an unfunny story.

(TN: A couple notes:
1. While I mentioned “katashiro” in the chapter, “hitogata” is another reading of “ningyou”, the Japanese word for “doll”. The literal translation is “human form”, which many dolls, particularly in this scenario, end up taking. While I could have called this “doll”, I went with “hitogata” for the title of the entry due to the usage of “hitogata” instead of “ningyou”.
2. “Ekishinokuri” is literally in Japanese “sending ekishin”, with “ekishin” meaning an “epidemic kami/god” in conjunction to Shinto beliefs.
3. Regarding the “dolls” in the various parts of Touhoku:
-“Kashima-sama”: the name of the effigy in Akita Prefecture
-“Shouki-sama”: the effigy in Naramachi
-“Donji-sama”: Couldn’t really find where it was located)

TN: Personal admission time: this chapter...was hell. As much as I admit to loving my research of the Japanese language and culture to figure out how it relates to the manga at hand, this one completely drove me bonkers. The main reason: the "Mairi" in the title! I admit I attempted really hard to make sure I got the correct interpretation in it being the "Shrine Visitor", but I had to change it several times and nearly just decided to translate the whole phenomenon into Japanese (which would make even less sense but I guess some would want to just call her "Ushi-no-Koku Mairi") because I couldn't make out what it was referring to: the curse itself or the person summoning the curse. It seemed like it was referring to the person herself, thus the usage of the "shrine visitor" translation, but for all I know the "mairi" could be in reference to "Call", as in the spirit summoned by the priestess wannabe that transported the curse. And if that wasn't bad enough, there were all these obscure Japanese factors, mostly in conjunction with this phenomenon not being Buddhist in origin but Shinto. While we know that there are a lot of folk deities in Japan, most of whom are tied to the Shinto religion, it does seem way less covered compared to the Buddhist ones in English, leading to way more research. (and that's not getting into some of the weird artifacts like the one-clog geta and the kaname...and of course, the whole phenomenon of "Ushi-no-Koku" and how Hiroshi just wants to destroy language just to screw up it's true meaning, even if there are two kanji that mean the same exact thing regarding "ushi") I think Nube is right with how he spoke at the end: let's just forget this ever happened and maybe...we'll forget about it and it will go away.

As for the chapter itself, it was just creepy. Seeing a woman (assumably the disgusting looking one in the flashback, not the cute one...but of course one could get confused) literally go insane and become obsessed in killing people by spiritual means just because she could probably is up there with "A" in humans who have just lost all sense of reasons and have become worse than the spirits themselves. While it was great that she finally did get her just desserts, the way she was finished off was a tad abrupt: yeah we did hear mention of the storm and one could imagine winds blowing and rain smashing during the confrontation with her, but to have her smashed by a sign out of nowhere leading to her head getting spiked through with her own nail just seemed to come out of nowhere. It either felt like karma...or like they wanted to just end the chapter as soon as possible with how creepy and complex it had gotten. You make the call. (oh and this chapter gives me one more major reminder: we don't have enough with Katsuya's sister...you'd expect Manami to take greater concern aside a couple panels with his curse and all but of course even Hiroshi was nearly forced to go to bed at one point...)