A Burial At Sea

Back in the late 80s, my grandmother traveled all over the world when she use to work as a flight attendant. She would bring me and my three sisters all sorts of gifts from foreign countries and distant continents. Bizzare clothes, exotic food, wonderous toys; the kinds of things sheltered suburban kids would fawn over. However, out of all the presents our grandmother brought back, none were more valuable than her ghost stories.

Grandma always had a passion for myths about monsters and spectres, and a lot of that love rubbed off on the four of us when we were younger. She use to tell us all sorts of ghastly tales: tragic love stories, mysterious murders, bizarre encounters, horrific hauntings... She would tell dozens of them, but I couldn't recall any of them in great detail now. None except one.

One of them always stuck out in my mind for some reason, and Grandma told this story very often. It takes place in what is now Japan's Okinawa prefecture, a large island in an archipelago quite a distance away from the Japanese mainland. The story supposedly takes place around the year 1782 during the Great Tenmei Famine ...

An old woman and her two sons lived in a large coastal fishing village on the island of Okinawa. Like most of the men in the village: her both sons worked as fishermen, were married, and dutifully managed their own households along with their aging mother's. The oldest of the sons was a large, practical man named "Great First Son" or Daichi. Daichi had been married to his wife Sayoko for over 13 years, and worked hard with her to maintain the family's modest estates.

Daichi and Sayoko lived in a modest house closer to the woods that surrounded their village. The older son had built the house with his brother himself, and it was where their old mother now resided.

The youngest of the sons - a much gentler man named Daisuke - had only recently been married to his wife - a much younger maiden named Aiko - with whom he had been in a passionate love affair 2 years prior. Like his older brother, the second son worked hard to maintain his and his mother's estates. Though most of his time was spent caring for his young wife, who was frail and often sickly.

Daisuke had inherited his late father's house; a beautiful building near the shore with an inviting view of the ocean. Like his older brother's house: it was isolated from many of the other villager's homes, built at the base of a large hill which the rest of the small village sat on top of. It was in this house that Daisuke lived in comfortable solitude with his wife, away from the noise of their neighbors.

Having been raised in a fishing village, the brothers made a modest living as fishermen; both by fishing for their meals and by selling their wares to traders from the mainland. When the famine reached the island of Okinawa, it hit the small village hard. Crops withered and died as the weather became colder; and eventually, even the beasts began to die of starvation. The brothers' family became dependent on the fish that the two of them would bring in from the ocean to survive. While the men worked ten times as hard when they sailed out on their large fishing boat, the three women did as much as they could while they were away, journeying into the village woods and gathering edible plants and roots to help stave off their hunger.

However, as the weather began to worsen and grow colder and colder, the brother's mother became bedridden; sick with acute pneumonia. Two months into the famine, the old woman finally succumbed to her sickness and died. Daichi and Daisuke became despondent after her passing, unable to forgive themselves for failing in their responsibility...

After the tragedy, the two of them became completely absorbed by their work, sometimes going days without sleep. As they worked, the affairs of the brothers' two houses fell to Sayoko. When the brothers began to sail out for longer periods of time, Sayoko took over managing the brothers' households and preparing whatever meals that she could for her family. Sayoko was also given responsibility over the sickly Aiko, making sure that she remained healthy for as long as the famine continued.

With their husbands away as the two women spent more and more time together, they soon became fast friends. Sayoko enjoyed Aiko's company and did her best to accommodate the woman whenever she could. The younger woman - unhappy being stuck by herself in the lonely house - was grateful to have someone she could talk to and occasionally gossip with.

The fishermen continued to work tirelessly through the days and nights, leaving their wives at home. But soon the amount of fish near the coast began to grow slimmer and slimmer. They dreaded it, but the brothers knew that if their families were to continue to survive the famine; they would soon have to sail out into deeper, unknown waters.

The fishermen of the village rarely ventured far from the coast. They had never needed to sail so far out before, and to do so was almost unheard of. When the other villagers had learned of the brothers' plans they tried their best to dissuade them.

"It is unwise to sail so far into the sea." The fishermen warned.

"The waves are untamed and wild, the wind fickle and treacherous. Our modest boats aren't designed to weather the fierce storms that rage over the bottomless ocean, and legends tell of mysterious, dangerous creatures: malevolent gods and demons who dwell in the blackness of the abyss while preying on sailors and fisherfolk like ourselves. It is not a place for men to travel..."

But the brothers paid them no heed. They couldn't afford to. And despite their attempts to discourage the young men, the fisherfolk of the village knew that the brothers were right. They couldn't deny that the deeper and more treacherous waters would be the youths' best bet to find enough food to feed themselves.

The villagers also knew that if the famine lasted any longer: they would eventually be forced to sail further from the coast as well. For Daichi and his little brother, there was no other option. As unfavorable as their situation may have been, the brothers knew they had to chance it.

Every day afterward since making their decision, the two of them set out; making the intention to drift a little farther from the coast with each trip. Little by little they sailed away from the mainland - the yield of fish increasing as they drifted -until they finally made it out into the open ocean. With their troubles seemingly behind them, the brothers fished out in those dangerous waters for several days. Then, one evening while the two were out at sea, a violent storm ravaged the coast of Okinawa.

Many houses were severely damaged in the thunderstorm, and several fishing boats near the coast were viciously smashed against the shore. There was no sign of the Daichi's boat among the wreckages, but the brothers had not returned home. There was no sign of them the following day either, or the day after that.

Sayoko and her sister-in-law went about their business as if nothing was out of the ordinary since they had no real reason to believe that their husbands' boat had been sunk during the fierce tempest. But as time passed with no news of Daichi or his little brother, the two of them began to imagine the worst. Unsettling rumors began to spread through the village as well; sightings of what appeared to be a giant man rising from the surf far out in the open ocean when the storm was at its wildest: an Umi-Bozu... or "Sea Priest".

A mysterious monster, infamous for sinking ships lost in terrible storms.

Having heard the foreboding rumor herself, Aiko asked her companion whether or not she also had seen the Umi-Bozu that frightful night as well.

"I've heard it said that they dwell in the deepest parts of the ocean," Aiko recalled one quiet day. "And that they have entire mansions built underwater, with hundreds of servants that guard all of their valuable treasures."

"That's an interesting thought, isn't it? A deep-sea monster that builds mansions," Sayoko replied absently. "If such a thing actually exists, I think I'd like to see it one day."

Time passed, and the bodies of fishermen who were stranded out in the water during the downpour began to wash up on the desolate shore. It was a tragic day for many, but thankfully, among the bodies recovered none belonged to Sayoko's husband or his little brother. The relief was short-lived, however.

The hopeless days turned to weeks, and still, no news of the brothers reached their wives. Neither of their arrival, nor of their wreckage.

Many of the villagers concluded that the brothers had indeed been lost at sea. Some wondered what would become of the women and if they would last through the famine without them. Most could do very little to help.

Sayoko's own worries doubled, Aiko's health began to deteriorate sharply after her husband's dissapearance and she was getting worse as the famine progressed. Sayoko worked tirelessly to take care of the two of them, and rarely rested. The strain was immense and exhaustion battered her body, but the old wife persevered.

A little over a month had passed since the disappearance of the two fishermen. Through much hardship, some semblance of normalcy had returned to the lives of their wives; though the wounds of the tragedy were still deep.

Having recovered from the initial shock, Aiko started to return to her old self. Though she still wasn't healthy enough to keep her house's affairs, she was well enough to look after herself, which was a relief to Sayoko who was already stretched thin.

One morning, while Sayoko was helping around her young friend's house as she usually did, a stranger visited them holding a large wooden box.

It had been raining for hours earlier, and the humidity hung in the air like a mist. The stranger was a woman wearing brilliantly colored robes, embroidered in intricate floral patterns. She was completely soaked from head to toe, her sleek black hair clung to the delicate curves of her face and her beautiful robes seemed to hang on her thin body like a weighted yoke. Yet, she didn't seem to be bothered by any of it. When Aiko went out to greet the stranger, the soaked woman spoke directly and briskly, with a raspy voice. She told the young maiden that she had a package for her. Then, without another word, she handed the wooden box to the girl, turned around, and left the estate.

Sayoko had just finished boiling hot water for their paltry meal before she was interrupted by a piercing, bloodcurdling scream.

Rushing out of the house she arrived to see her stricken companion in panic, scrambling away from an opened wooden box with a severed head inside.

Sakuya looked away before getting a decent look at it, and rushed over to the younger maiden's side to try and calm her down. It was then that she heard the head begin to speak in what sounded like Daisuke's voice, the voice of her missing brother-in-law.

"Aiko...Aiko, you wound me. I went through so much trouble to make my way back here..." The voice wailed. "At least let me look at you again. Let me look at you once more, before I have to depart..."

Before the stricken girl had the opportunity to look back, Sayoko grabbed the wooden lid and quickly shut the box as tightly as she could. Once it was closed, she frantically rushed out of sight, the specter's groaning still audible even with the box so fastly sealed.

Sayoko found a place away from the house behind three large stones to stash the crate; and hurried back inside after placing several layers of tall, dry grass on top of it. The extra precautions did very little to deafen the low lamentations of Daisuke's ghost; and he moaned all through the night, keeping the women up until sunrise.

Aiko's condition worsened almost immediately afterward. Becoming bedridden with a horrible fever, she was rarely conscious and began to suffer longer bouts of delirium. Sayoko did what she could, but feared it wouldn't be enough.

Midway into the fourth month of the horrible famine, Sayoko began to notice another woman roaming around her own home near the forest, soaking wet from head to toe, dressed in beautifully embroidered robes and carrying a small wooden box.

She saw that same woman again four separate times that month, and each time she would run back to the young maiden's place and stay over there for the night as if nothing happened. Her host never asked why she seemed so shaken, even when she was lucid enough to do so.

This continued for another three days. On the eighth day, Sayoko saw the same, soaking woman roaming outside of her house as usual. This time, however, the stranger took notice of the maiden, but only stared back at her quietly.

She continued to gaze in silence for several minutes, before suddenly gesturing for the old wife to approach her. Overcome with dread, Sayoko held back tears of grief; and she fled once more.

The following night, the strange woman was nowhere to be seen. However, a familiar wooden box was left near the doorway, neatly packed and wrapped in an embroidered white cloth.

Since then, Sayoko rarely left her sister-in-law's house, and stayed with her. She never opened the box that was left there for her, and did her best to avoid the old house altogether. However, much to her dismay - as she later learned from Aiko - it didn't seem moving away would do her much good.

"The maidens from before...three of them visited while you were asleep... Do you know what it is that they wanted?"

Sayoko wrote it off as stress-induced delirium. She was less worried about the robed women as she was worried about the girl's seemingly worsening health. But as the famine continued so did the visions of mysterious maidens, and they became more and more frequent.

The hardships increased once the food had finally run out, going from scarce to nonexistent. The whole village suffered from the food shortage. Shortly, a few villagers began to die of starvation.

Aiko's sickness worsened into perpetual delirium, she was still bedridden, and Sayoko began to wonder if she would ever get better. Still, Sayoko continued to work and care for her sister-in-law to the point of neverending exhaustion.

As the spectral head of Daisuke began to rot, Sayoko took it upon herself to bury the head in the village's abandoned graveyard, but a had trouble mustering the courage to do so. The unbearable scent of rotting flesh compelled her to bury her fears after two miserable days, and one cold and windy night she finally made troubling the journey through town to bury it. She avoided the main village roads and kept to the forest paths, careful not to awaken any other villagers who might question what she was up to.

When she finally made her way up the hill, she used her hands to dig a small hole and hastily wrapped the head in the embroidered cloth that came with the box. Trying her best not to gaze at it for too long, she placed the decomposing head of her husband's brother in the small hole then hurriedly covered it up with the wet and muddy soil.

It was the worst kind of grave anyone could be buried in. Shallow, muddy, and without the company of family or the comfort of prayer. But it was all that the shaken woman could manage.

Stumbling back to the house, Sayoko began to hear an odd yet familiar sound: the rhythm of wet cloth slapping against stone. Nervously looking about her, Sayoko noticed a woman walking not far behind. A woman soaking wet from head to toe.

In the dark, it was hard to make out who she might have been, though as the woman got closer Sakuya recognized the woman's colorfully embroidered robes as that of the stranger who had visited Aiko's home only a few weeks ago.

With a panicked shout, Sayoko turned around and bolted down the road hoping to put some distance between her and the trailing specter.

After what seemed like hours of running, a heavy rain started to fall as Sayoko began to slow down from draining fatigue. Looking back to see whether or not she was still being followed, she breathed a sigh of relief once she realized she was by herself again, and trudged through the rain back to the estate.

She was shocked to see a small group of women waiting outside of the dilapidated house, making conversation with one another. They were all wearing colorful, decorated gowns - as if they were wealthy courtesans visiting from a distant castle on the mainland. They all looked very different from each other, but much like the woman from the lonely village road, they were soaking wet; from their long matted hair down to the dragging hems of their embroidered gowns.

The group took notice of Sayoko standing not far behind them very suddenly and gazed at her in a sort of morbid curiosity. Then without so much as a word, they walked off and disappeared.

Aiko had been asleep while the interlopers had been hovering about. Sakuya figured it would be better if she didn't burden the sick girl with it.

Soon enough, hunger finally did what exhaustion couldn't and Sayoko found herself unable to move from her bed. Aiko began to wander around the house somewhat aimlessly, her delirium distracting her from her own hunger.

Her wanderings disturbed the older maiden immensely. The only solace she could find was that the young woman had the energy to move about. But soon, late at night, she was hearing the footsteps of other people outside of the house, outside the very room she was sleeping in; along with the familiar, oppressive sound of dripping water.

Sayoko's fever continued to get worse and worse as the days passed. And every passing night she heard the steps get closer and closer. Before long, she could feel their eyes on her. Watching her as she lay there, exhausted and weak. Devouring her as she slept.

She could feel them watching from the other side of the small room's window. She could hear what sounded like whispers and listened intently in a delirious panic, waiting for the window to slide or rip open; and for the whispers to fill the room...

Despite her fatigue, Sayoko bolted upright once she heard one of the house doors slide open, and the fresh smell of the saltwater wafted through the house.

Scrambling through the disordered rooms Sayoko looked through the doorway to the open sea, where she saw her friend wading out into the ocean, in a daze.

Distressed, Sayoko dashed into the water after her, pulling on the girl's robes in order to bring her back to the shore. Aiko couldn't be reasoned with, and fought with the taller woman viciously; screaming and clawing at her like a wild animal.

Desperate to end the struggle and get out of the freezing water, Sakuya struck out with both hands and held tightly to the younger woman as she slipped and tumbled beneath the surf. But still, she continued to writhe and thrash about like a serpent.

So Sayoko held her... and held her...

Then, much to Sayoko's shock, there was nothing left for her to hold onto and she jumped back in fright. Watching with dread as the suddenly still body of the young girl began to slowly rise to the surface... before she was abruptly pulled downwards, and she disappeared beneath the waves.

Sayoko, feeling as watery hands seemed to grab at her and her dress turned and ran back towards the shore in a frenzied panic; feeling as the waters pulled at her and her trailing clothes. Once she had finally made it back onto land, the lady dragged herself back into the house on her forearms, cold, exhausted, and wracked by deep remorse.

Inside the house, she collapsed in the middle of the floor, too tired to move herself to her small bedroom.

The wind began to howl as another storm began to rage across the large island, and Sayoko wailed alongside it from where she lay in the empty house, her soaking clothes clinging to her body like a freezing brand.

And still, the women from the ocean continued to watch her in silence, paying no heed to the heavy rain or tearing winds as the thunder drowned out the sounds of anguished cries and lamentations. They watched until the unbearable storm had finally cleared and the sun rose over the tired shore the following day.

Watched until the violent waves had finally calmed, and the terrible sounds of sorrowful wailing could no longer be heard.