A story of how we encountered each other.

As a fan of Ayakashi, I would definitely like to encounter one at least once...although it would be scary.

In some cases, the soul is sucked out or the testicles are pulled out, but generally,Shivers...Or,Woahh!!(Shouting in the style of Mizuki Sensei) I guess some of the ayakashi were "surprised" in a way that wasn't their intention... (They were just standing here, and the human got startled and fell over!! - an unfounded accusation that is annoying to the youkai.)

I think it must have been about 15 years ago...about the year after Mizuki Shigeru Road was completed.

I have treasured Mizuki's illustrated encyclopedia of monsters since I was a child, so I really wanted to go and planned a trip with my husband.

I took my dog (Labrador) and slept in the car. After finishing work on Friday, I had dinner and a bath and headed out for a night drive on the Chugoku Expressway.

It was almost midnight, so there wasn't much traffic... After driving for just under three hours, there were few lights on the Chugoku Expressway, so we went to a rest area to wake ourselves up and take a toilet break. My husband went to the toilet.

"Dad, you're back."

When I saw my husband, I started talking to my dog in the back seat...

My lord, you suddenly fell over. ...If it were a manga, I would want to draw it in white text, like "Fall over!"

"Oh, Dad fell down..."

Luckily, I came back without any injuries.

"Suddenly my legs got tangled."

In response to these words,

"Shinrubbing...?"

I laughed as I set off in my car. I still had a flip phone at the time, but I casually searched for "sunekosuri" (snee-rubbing)...

Shin rubbing: Okayama Prefecture

So I gotZo... I thought. It was just before Hiruzen.

What the heck, real knee rubbing. Serious, real knee rubbing. Native knee rubbing...

It was a rather harsh welcome... Even if they welcomed us, if they came too close, people would fall over, we said, as we headed to Sakaiminato.

It's the first day of a three-day weekend! It's so quiet,

What is the point of attracting tourists? There are many shops in the shopping district that are closed on certain days (lol)

As a Kansai native, I couldn't help but want to point out that this was just business-like.

Thanks to that, I came across a very eerie scene...

The sky suddenly became cloudy!! A sudden downpour came... After the rain had passed.

 

Mizuki Shigeru Road was deserted, and black clouds were still swirling in the sky...

Wet ground and bronze statues.

It reminded me of the scary feeling of the ending of the black and white version of Kitaro (the Clang Clang song) that I watched at a friend's house when I was a child.

 

...I still remember this with fond fondness, and I think that this, following the shin rubbing, was a sign that everyone in Sakaiminato was welcoming me.

 

...The telephone booth on the way from Sakaiminato, crossing Tsuyama and heading towards Mimasaka, was also super scary, but I'll save that for another time.

 

[Sakuraya Mirage] I've loved yokai since I was a child.
During his university days studying Japanese art history, he encountered Yoshitoshi, Kyosai, and Inubou-bi-koroku. Wanting to quietly carry ayakashi with him in his daily life, he creates handmade yokai.