Gakkou no Kaiden:
The Yurie of the Well

Our next story dates back to the Taisho Period. Satoyama was first awarded the statues of a self-governing township in the Taisho Period. And the current school was built in the Taisho Period. Now when the school was first opened to the public the governor of Gifu Prefecture bestowed upon the new headmaster ten porcelain plates that were valued at a hundred yen a piece. The Headmaster then entrusted these ten porcelain plates to the newly elected president of the student council for safe keeping.

Now the president of the student council was a upperclassman who was known for being something of a bully, he came from a powerful landowning family that owned all the prime rice growing land and many of the other students rented their small holdings from this father who had once been chief of the village but was now the mayor. In fact, many of his extended family members filled very important positions in the village. Including his younger brother who was now chief of police.

Now attending the newly built Satoyama High School was a very beautiful farmer's daughter named Ichika Tamura. Now Ichika Tamura's father was a humble man, not a very rich man but wealthy enough to own a large plot of land just outside the village and when the rice was ready to harvest in the autumn he would often hire the beggars at the roadside to help harvest his rice and for their labor they were paid the generous wage of two yen a day.

Now the president of the student council was an upperclassman who was named Haru Oda. Who was cunning as he was handsome. Many of the female students at the school had crushes on him. And when Haru Oda asked the farmer's daughter Ichika Tamura to serve as secretary to the student council. Upon learning the news that Ichika Tamura was to be the new secretary to the student council many of her female classmates turned green with envy. The position was a paid one that came with a salary of ten yen a week, a tidy sum in those days.

At first Ichika Tamura was overcome with joy, the extra income meant she could help her family, she also dreamed of attending one of the many prestigious universities in the capital city of Tokyo once she graduated and the money she earned from being the secretary to the student council would help cover some some of the tuition.

But it soon became clear that Haru Oda had selected her on her looks alone and not on her own merit. For soon he started to flirt shamelessly with Ichika Tamura who rejected his advances. Haru Oda was not a man to be taken lightly and took Ichika's rejections of his advances as an insult to his honor. One day before she was to start work Haru took down one of the treasured plates and threw it down on the floor of the room it shattered into a thousand little shards. When Ichika showed up to work, Haru scolded her and blamed the breaking of the plate on her. Saying she would have to pay to have the plate replaced for face being expelled from school.

Now Ichika Tamura was easily agitated and started to count the plates over and over again. Starting at one and ending at ten. Till at last Haru at wits end and wishing for the bedlam to end, reached over and wrapped his strong fingers tightly around Ichika's throat and with a burning rage in his eyes he closed his hold till Ichika stopped moving. Once his rage had passed, Haru was overcome by horror as he looked upon the lifeless body of the young woman who was spread across the floor of the room. But using his wits he ordered some of his underlining, fellow council members he could control through his family connections to help him move the lifeless body.
Since it was late in the afternoon the hallways of the school were empty. So they carried the lifeless body down the empty hallway. They carried her down the hallway, through the front door to the old well that was located behind the school. Under Haru's watchful eye they heaved the body of Ichika into the well and it vanished into the darkness below. Once that was done, Haru turned his eyes toward the two underlings and then in a cruel, cold, emotionless tone of voice threaten to not only kill them but bring ruin to their families if they ever breathed a word of what happen to anybody in the village and beyond.

Shaken the core Haru's underlings took an oath then and their not to breathe a word of what they saw. And so using the power of his family he covered up the murder. Skillfully wielding the power of the student council he ordered the well that hid Ichika's body sealed and a new one constructed. And he thought the matter settled. Or so he had hoped.

One night, a fortnight after the murder had taken place, Haru was staying late to finish some very important business for the student council when he heard a sound coming from the courtyard. It sounded like somebody was counting, counting in a very slow manner. Haru wanted to return to his work. It was already late, the hour of the Ox by the old counting or two o' clock in the morning by the new western method of keeping time. And most of the villagers save the night watchmen should be in bed. A few might be stumbling out of the sake houses that dotted the lonely mountain roads, but what business did they have here at school? None whatsoever. Nevertheless, Haru found his curiosity piqued by the counting and so he started toward the courtyard.

Once he reached the courtyard he spied the old well through the fur and pine trees that still dotted the earthen yard. Those trees still stand to this day and are said to the Kami that guard the school from harm, mountain slides and floods. But returning to the story, through the trees, Haru spotted the well, and rising up from the well was the ghostly form of a woman. Her jet black hair hung down like strings on her shoulder, her face was white as flour and her eyes were burned brighter than any bonfire he had ever seen before. In a loud voice that pierced the cool night called out.

“ONE!” before moving on to “TWO!” Then before moving on to “THREE” and so on till it reached the number nine then the ghost would toss her head back and scream, the scream was so loud that Haru could fell his head starting to split in two. Frightened, Haru ran for his life. Once he came to his senses he decided that the vision was nothing more than a hallucination brought on from the stress of his job as student council president. Maybe he was coming down with a fever or a cold, anyway he was sure it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Anyway he refused to brighten and returned to work the next evening and once more the ghost appeared, counting, always pausing at nine and always screaming at the end. And so it went for weeks each night the ghost would appear and count, always counting and always pausing before screaming at the top of her phantom lungs. As the weeks dragged on, the effects of the ghost's nightly visits became apparent. Haru's sanity started to slip, he started to sleep less and less, he ate less and less. He gave up bathing and washing his hair, his eyes became sunk in and swollen. And then one day, the headmaster of the school found him in front of the well. He had committed Seppuku.

And while the ghost of Ichika Tamura had indeed claimed its revenge from beyond the grave, the death of Haru Oda by his own hands did not end the haunting. The haunting is carried on to this very day. Their still reports of the ghostly Ichika Tamura rising up from her watery grave and counting..

If you enjoyed this story, please join us next week as we hear a tale of dark magic in. “To Curse Someone Visit the Shrine at the Hour of the Ox” wow that is quite a long title! Anyway hope to see you then gentle readers!