Shichinin-misaki (七人ミサキ): The Seven Figures Beneath the Cherry Tree

What is Shichinin-misaki?

In the woods near Sukumo, at the far south-western corner of Kōchi, stood an old cherry tree, taller than the others, with a sacred rope hung round its roots. At a time of political upheaval the women of a senior retainer’s household in the Uwajima domain fled across the mountains toward Tosa. However they disguised themselves, the guards at the border post knew them. Seven of the women were caught and put to death beneath the old tree.

After that, seven women in white began to appear there at night, vanishing and appearing again. The people of the district called them the Shichinin-misaki. Those who had seen them, and those who had only heard, gathered and held memorial rites, and went on holding them year after year. Perhaps the rites consoled the spirits. Since then, the old people say, no one has been possessed.

That is the tale as it is kept in Sukumo, and it is the one this page follows.

What does shichinin-misaki mean?

The name is written 七人ミサキ: shichinin, seven people, and misaki. A misaki, in the dialects of western Japan and above all in Kōchi, is a spirit of the dead who was not properly mourned — often someone who drowned or died by violence — and who lingers at the place of death and takes hold of the living who pass it. The seven misaki are a band of them. It is pronounced shee-CHEE-neen mee-SAH-kee.

Appearance

Seven women in white, appearing and vanishing at night beneath the tree. Our illustration shows them together in the mist; their faces and clothing are our own.

Behavior and abilities

• They appear where they died. Beneath the old cherry tree.
• They possess, until remembered. The tale implies the danger by saying it ended.

Remembered as a warning

Children who played near the spot in summer remember being told by their grandparents not to swim there, and not to stay until evening. The seven misaki, it seems, also did the work of keeping children away from the water.

Weaknesses and countermeasures

Remembrance. In this tale the yearly memorial rites are what brought the appearances, and the possessions, to an end.

Documented tale and other versions

Documented tale. As kept in Sukumo: women of an Uwajima retainer’s household, fleeing a political upheaval, are caught at the border and executed beneath an old cherry tree; seven figures in white appear there; memorial rites follow, and no one has been possessed since.

Other versions. Elsewhere in Kōchi the seven misaki have other origins — a warlord and his six retainers drowned, seven pilgrims lost at sea — and in many tellings the band always numbers seven because each new victim takes the place of one who can then move on. That replacement rule is not part of the Sukumo tale, which ends not with a curse that renews itself but with a community that kept remembering.