This week, on Myths and Legends, we're back in Japan with a story of a cold and lonely forest temple

and how you should maybe turn down that date that wants to take you to a lonely forest temple,

especially if your date's idea of a good time is dancing and decapitation.

The creature this time is a monster with backwards feet,

whose poisoning urine isn't even the most noteworthy thing about him.

This is Myths and Legends, episode 423, The Illusionists.

This is a podcast where we tell stories from mythology and folklore.

Some are incredibly popular tales you might think you know, but with surprising origins.

Others are stories that might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen.

Today we are back in Japanese folklore, with something of a legend.

Kind of, the story set in the years following the Meiji Restoration.

Real quickly, for hundreds of years, Japan, during what we now call the Edo period,

was under sort of a feudal military dictatorship,

where the Shogun, the commander-in-chief,

ruled a patchwork of something resembling lords,

aka Daimyo, while the emperor was largely ceremonial.

This all changed after America showed up in the 1850s and exposed the dangers of things continuing as they were.

My understanding of the period is that powerful people who wanted change, so Japan didn't fall prey to the colonial powers of the world at the time, use the emperor to rally support, leading to a coup in 1867 when the pro-imperial leaders forced the shogun to surrender.

We've talked about how almost humorously broad and sweeping the powers of the samurai and those above them were during the eddo period.

I think like, I want to kill you, so therefore I kill you.

Well, the issue with changing things here is that the guys with the money and the weapons don't want things to change.

They were doing great.

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