An ancient rock said to have an evil demon locked inside has cracked open sending believers into a spiral of panic.
Japan’s so-called “killing stone” has split in two after supposedly locking away the evil spirit for almost 1,000 years.
A famous volcanic boulder, which has various superstitions and stories attached to it, has split into two in Japan, prompting local and national governments to call an emergency meeting, said reports.
The ‘Sessho-seki’, also known as the ‘killing stone’, is a massive boulder in the volcanic mountains of Nasu, an area in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It was found split in half on 5 March.
According to Japanese mythology, the stone is said to kill anyone who comes into contact with it as it contains the transformed corpse of Tamamo-no-Mae, a woman who was part of a secret plot that was hatched to kill Emperor Toba, who reigned from 1107-1123.
Legend also states that the rock is the transformed dead boy of Tamamo-no-Mae, whose real identity was a nine-tailed fox. She was killed by a warrior after which her corpse became Sessho-seki.
