The Kaikidan Ekotoba is a mysterious handscroll that
profiles 33 legendary monsters and human oddities, mostly from the
Kyushu region of Japan (with several from overseas). The cartoonish
document, whose author is unknown, is believed to date from the mid-19th
century.
The above image tells a tale of a man with massive testicles
who reportedly made a living as a sideshow attraction at Mt. Satta, on
the old Tokaido Road near the city of Shizuoka. His scrotum is said to
have measured about a meter across.
Origami, obviously one of the coolest paper craft techniques,
was recently taken to another level by Japanese graphic designer and
origami expert Yosuke Hasegawa. Yosuke is representing a new art form
called “moneygami” by taking different money bills from all around the
world and folding them in the manner of origami, he has created
an incredible collection of world leaders donning various hats.
Here you can see Abe Lincoln and Gandhi with baseball caps,
Queen Elizabeth with turban and even Hussein with sombrero all made of a
single dollar bill. According to the artist, he wanted “to make people happy with spending money” and has even created a free Moneygami app that teaches how to make Kid Lincoln out of a five dollar bill.
A Japanese company is making it just a little easier for
humans to act like cats. But instead of offering nine lives, Japan’s
Neurowear has introduced a wearable cat tail that wags when a user’s
mood changes.
Called Shippo - Japanese for “tail”- the device debuted at
Saturday’s Tokyo Games Show and comes as the latest in a new line of
products that read users’ brain waves. Adding a new twist, Shippo uses a
headset, a clip-on heart monitor, and a neural smart phone app to read
the wearer’s brain waves and sense his or her mood. Once that fluffy
tail is wagging, the device tags the wearer’s mood to a location online,
which can be shared with other users.
As a company, Neurowear has released more than just cat
tails. The company has also released a line of wag-able cat ears which
also read human brain waves and wiggle with mood.
According to Japanese folklore, an ubume is the ghost of a
womam who has died in childbirth (birthing woman ghost). Appearing
disheveled or in a state of desperation while holding a swaddled infant,
the apparition will beg those who pass by to hold her baby, only to
then disappear. The infant will grow heavier and heavier in the arms of
the stranger, until when becoming impossible to hold, it is revealed to
be a heavy stone.
According to one legend, the warrior Urabe Suetake who was a
retainer and guardian king to the Lord Minamoto no Yorimitsu, was
traveling with a group of soldiers. One night he overheard his men
telling wild stories of an ubume that haunted an upcoming river. She
would appear to travelers who attempted to ford the river. Standing in
the rapids, she would beg them to help save her child, but upon
accepting the child, it would grow so heavy that the good samaritan
would sink below the waters and drown.
After hearing of the story, his men became too frightened to
cross the river the next day. Suetake chided his men for being
superstitious and crossed the river himself to prove it was safe. At
first the ubume didn’t appear, but on his return crossing, a woman with a
crying child did appear and begged Suetake to save her baby. Suetaki,
momentarily forgetting the old tale, took the bundled infant in his
arms. The child grew heavier and heavier, but Suetake was a strong
warrior, and he hefted the child across to safety. Upon arriving back at
the camp he opened the bundle and found it to be nothing more than wet
leaves in the rough shape of an infant.
