Holy Charms Fell From the Sky. So Japan Started Dancing.

[!NOTE] Historical File: Holy Charms Fell From the Sky. So Japan Started Dancing. Location: Japan | Era: Archival History | Format: Documentary & Narrative Record

The Untold Story

Holy charms were said to be falling from the sky. So Japan started dancing.

It was 1867, and the shogun’s government was crumbling. Nobody seemed to be in charge, and people were fed up.

Where charms landed, whole towns stopped work for days. Crowds went on pilgrimages, swapped gifts, and danced in wild costumes, cross-dressed, or wore nothing at all.

A British translator saw crowds dressed mostly in red, many with red lanterns on their heads, all chanting one refrain. It meant, roughly, who cares?

Priests were suspected of faking the showers, and some were caught in the act. It ended as the shogun fell. Charms from the sky, or from a priest’s hand? Tell me in the comments.

Historical Discussion

💭 The chant was “ee ja nai ka” - “isn’t it good?”, usually translated as “Who cares?” or “Why not?”. The British translator Ernest Satow also saw houses decorated with rice cakes in all colours, oranges, straw and flowers. Would you have joined in? There’s more of history’s strangest crowds coming - subscribe so you catch the next one.

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