Tenjin

There is something fascinating in 諸星大二郎 Morohoshi Daijirō's style; his is a truly original, unique way to write mystery / horror stories that tap into the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, and other sources of the mythology of Japan. Thanks to Morohoshi, the Japanese deities and demons appear to play a role similar to H.P.Lovecraft's Great Old Ones:

“a loose pantheon of ancient, powerful deities from space who once ruled the Earth and who have since fallen into a deathlike sleep,“

waiting to regain access to our reality...

In particular, I am very fond of his Yōkai Hunter (妖怪ハンター), the manga series whose main character is Professor Hieda Reijiro (稗田礼二郎).

One of the best episodes of Yōkai Hunter is called “Tenjin” and is part of The Field Notes of Hieda Reijiro (妖怪ハンター　稗田礼二郎のフィールド・ノートより), also known as The Advent of the Heavenly Grandson.

I will not be a spoiler and tell you much about “Tenjin”; but there are two children songs in it that play a key role. This is one of them:

Leave now Leave now Once you have paid your respects to this shrine Leave by the way you came

I have paid my respects to the shrine but as I was leaving a ghost came out

What did you buy from the shrine? Sushi sweet dumplings and rice cakes Give me the sushi and I will let you pass It is a gift for my father You cannot have it Give me the sweet dumplings and I will let you pass It is a gift for my mother You cannot have it Give me the stolen child and I will let you pass You can have her back

Did not I tell you? Going in is easy But it is scary to leave

And this is the second one, which shares a few verses of the first one:

Pass on through, pass on through Where does this narrow pathway lead? It is the pathway to Tenjin Shrine Will you let me pass through? You may not pass unless you have business here I am here to celebrate this child's seventh birthday And to dedicate this talisman Going in is easy, but it is scary to leave Even though it may be scary Pass on through, pass on through

The above two songs[^1] were fed into my Grundgstalter and resulted in the music that you can hear here. Quite the pandemonium, right?

[^1]: Actually at the end I also added the following lines, which can also be found in the Tenjin episode:

Who's got a demon behind them? Me? No. Who's got a demon behind them? Me? No. Who's got a demon behind them? Me? YES!