Banchō Sarayashiki
Banchō Sarayashiki is one of Japan's three great ghost stories, telling the tragic tale of a maid named Okiku who drowned herself in a well after breaking a plate, and whose ghost was afterward heard counting plates in the well.
【Synopsis】
During the Edo period, a maid named Okiku accidentally broke one of her master's precious heirloom plates. There are various accounts of her death—some say she threw herself into the well, others say she was beaten to death by her master and thrown into the well.
Afterward, every night at midnight, Okiku's sorrowful voice would emerge from the old well, counting plates. When she reached the ninth, the voice would turn to a scream, and then she would start counting again from the beginning.
Residents claimed that on nights of the full moon, they could see the figure of a woman in white slowly rising from the well, holding plates and counting them one by one. Her face was filled with sorrow, with tears of blood streaming from her eyes.
【Regional Variations】
This story has multiple versions throughout Japan, with the most famous being the Banchō Sarayashiki in Edo's Banchō (present-day Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo) and the Banshū Sarayashiki in Himeji (present-day Himeji City, Hyōgo Prefecture). Even today, there are graves and wells dedicated to Okiku throughout Japan.