Case file · High strangeness
The possession of Kiku by Kasane's ghost
In 1672 a girl named Kiku in Hanyū village (now Jōsō, Ibaraki) began speaking as Kasane, a woman her father had murdered decades earlier; the monk Yūten exorcised her.
1672 CE · 36.02, 139.98 · status: account
The account
A 1690 booklet, 'Shiryō gedatsu monogatari kikigaki', recorded the case in detail from witnesses. It became the source for the kabuki and rakugo stories of Kasane-ga-fuchi.
The sceptical view
Modern readers see family trauma and village pressure; the account also promoted the power of the Pure Land monk Yūten.