Hello! I was the anon that sent the Japanese towns used in myths! Sorry about not clarifying. My story takes place in modern times (like today modern), sort of like a rick riordan world so to speak. I'm searching for towns in the warring states period where there were a lot of fortifications and all in all great defense against opposing forces.
the same anon that asked about the japanese castles. I found my city! You don’t have to answer anymore!
Thank you for letting us know (we really do appreciate it!), but we figured that other people might be interested in this sort of thing, so we decided to go ahead and answer it anyway :)
OK, so as we said before there are quite a few castles that have their own supernatural folklore in Japan.
The most famous example is probably Himeji Castle in Hyōgo Prefecture. It’s one of the best surviving examples of feudal Japanese architecture and the foundation dates back to 1333. It was rebuilt and remodeled multiple times after until it became the sprawling complex it is now.It’s got a couples stories attached to it but the most supernatural one is Banshū Sarayashiki, in which a beautiful servant named Okiku refused the advances of her employer, the samurai Aoyama Tessan. To try to force her hand, he hid one of a set of ten plates and accused her of losing it. She counted and recounted the plates until she finally gave up and and admitted she must be guilty. The samurai again asked her to be his lover and he would forgive her for losing such a valuable heirloom. She refused again and he was so angry he threw her down a well to her death.It’s said that she still haunts the grounds around the well, counting and recounting plates morosely.
Matsumoto castle in Nagano Prefecture also has a ghost story, although it's more of a goddess story. A guard was on his patrol when he was approached by a ghostly woman dressed as a miko (priestess) who told him that she was Nijuroku-yashin, the goddess of the 26th night of the month. She said that if the owner of the castle were to build a shrine for her including a bag containing 500 kilograms of cooked rice offered on the 26th day of every month, she would protect the castle so that it would prosper and never suffer fire or attack. She then levitated towards the highest tower of the castle and disappeared.
The lord of the castle decided it was worth the gamble and did as the goddess instructed. There is indeed a shrine in the ceiling of the top floor of the tower and it is true that the castle has survived in good condition to this day.
There is a darker story to go with this castle too. In the 1680's, during a series of farmers' riots staged in protest of massive taxes, the organizers of the unrest were arrested and of course executed. One of the farmers, Tada Kasuke, is said to have cursed the lords of the Matsumoto Domain at that time, the Mizuno family. Its believed that his curse is the cause of a run of bad luck that eventually led to the Mizuno family losing power in 1725.They later provided the funds for a shrine in honor of those killed during the Jokyo Uprising and it still stands on the grounds of the castle today.
More gruesome than that is the story associated with Maruoka castle in Fukui Prefecture. During it's construction in 1576, the stone wall would collapse every time it was built. It was decided that the only way to keep it up was to make a sacrifice and entomb a person within the wall. A widow named Oshizu agreed to become a hitobashira (human pillar), so long as the lord would make one of her sons a samurai. The lord, Shibata Katsutoyo, agreed and she was immediately buried alive in the central pillar of the castle. The sacrifice worked and the walls did not fall down. However, Katsutoyo did not keep his promise and in response, the castle moat would overflow every April. The locals believed it to be caused by Oshizu's anguish at being betrayed and built a shrine to appease her.
It doesn't have quite as intricate a story, but the remains of Nakagusuku Castle in Okinawa are said to be very haunted. It was built in the early 1400's by Gosamaru, a Ryukukan commander, to defend against attacks by Lord Amawari of Katsuren castle.The castle fell in 1458 and has since fallen into ruin.However, in the 1970's, a businessman decided to build a hotel directly next to the ruins. Local Buddhist monks warned against it, saying it would disturb multiple graves and sacred sites. Their warnings were ignored however, and construction started. However, the project was plagued by accidents and eventually the workers refused to continue. The unfinished remains of the hotel are still visible, slowly succumbing to the vegetation.
And now we’ve given ourselves a mild case of the spooks.
