Case file · Apparition / miracle
Ee ja nai ka: amulets from the sky
In the summer of 1867, as the shogunate collapsed, reports of talismans falling from the sky near Toyohashi set off months of dancing crowds chanting 'ee ja nai ka' ('isn't it fine?').
1867 CE · 34.77, 137.39 · status: disputed
The account
The craze spread from Mikawa to Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka. Dancers in costume, some cross-dressed, burst into the houses of the rich and demanded food and drink.
The sceptical view
Some historians suspect anti-shogunate activists scattered amulets to cause unrest; the falls were never witnessed in a way that rules out human hands.