Case file · Folklore / legend
Osorezan, the mountain of the dead
Tradition says the monk Ennin founded a temple in 862 at Osorezan, a volcanic caldera in Aomori long held to be the entrance to the afterlife.
862 CE · 41.33, 141.09 · status: legend
The account
Sulphur vents, barren rock and a blue acid lake make a landscape of hells and a 'shore of paradise'. Each July blind female mediums, the itako, gather at the temple festival and speak in the voices of the dead (kuchiyose) for visitors.
The sceptical view
The number of itako has fallen to a handful; anthropologists describe kuchiyose as a ritual of mourning rather than verified contact with the dead.