Mystery Timeline｜1603–1867
The era when Toriyama Sekien's yokai paintings and ghost stories such as Yotsuya Kaidan flourished, and countless yokai were depicted in art and tales.
The theory that the Earth's interior is hollow, with a sun or another civilization underground. It is said to have begun with a hypothesis by the astronomer Halley in the 17th century. It is told together with rumors of entrances to the underworld at the poles and stories of subterranean people and UFOs.
A fraternal organization with members around the world, said to have its roots in medieval stonemasons' guilds. The first Grand Lodge was founded in London in 1717. Because it has kept its rituals private, conspiracy theories arose claiming it is a secret society controlling the world from behind the scenes.
A children's song for a game in which children circle a blindfolded "it," who must guess who is standing directly behind. Because of its cryptic words, many dark meanings have been suggested: the sorrow of a courtesan, a miscarriage, a prisoner, an execution, even a code for the hiding place of the Tokugawa treasure.
A children's song about an exchange between a parent and child walking the narrow path to a Tenjin shrine and the gatekeeper. Because it says going is fine but coming back is scary, many dark meanings have been suggested, such as abandoning children, human sacrifice and checkpoint inspections.
The phenomenon of seeing another self that looks exactly like you. The German word means "double walker." It is said that seeing your own doppelganger means your death is near, and there are accounts of sightings by Goethe and Akutagawa Ryunosuke.
A children's song for a game in which two teams take turns claiming children from the other side while singing. Because "ichi monme" was an old unit of money and weight, a dark theory says the song depicts child traders buying children cheaply.
A real secret society founded in Bavaria, Germany, in 1776 and dissolved only about ten years later. Even after its dissolution, conspiracy theories that it "survived and controls the world from behind the scenes" have been passed down, making it a byword for urban legends.
