Mystery Timeline｜1185–1602
Yokai and strange tales from the age of the samurai, alongside the mysterious books and legends of medieval Europe, from the Kamakura period to the Warring States era.
One of the largest medieval manuscripts in the world, made at a monastery in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) in the early 13th century. It weighs about 75 kg. Because it contains a large picture of the devil, it is called the "Devil's Bible," and a legend says a monk wrote it in one night with the devil's help.
A yokai said to be a cat that has lived so long that its tail has split in two. It appears in the Kamakura-period classic Essays in Idleness, and is described both as a wild beast of the mountains and as a pet cat that transforms.
The king of the fairies in European folklore. He appears as a dwarf king in a medieval French romance and became widely known as the fairy king in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
A yokai said to live in the mountains and fields, with no eyes or nose, only a big mouth. It is said to roll down slopes to attack people. It is also known as one of the old names of the tsuchinoko.
The mystical tradition of Judaism. It explains God and the creation of the world through diagrams such as the "Tree of Life" (Sephiroth), ten spheres connected by lines. It developed in medieval Spain and southern France and later influenced Western magic, the occult, numerology, and even anime and games.
The general name for European books of magic recording how to summon angels, demons and spirits and how to make amulets and magic circles. They spread from the Middle Ages to the early modern period as manuscripts and cheap printed books. Famous examples include the "Key of Solomon" and the "Lemegeton," and they became the model for the spellbooks of fantasy fiction.
Giant stone statues of human faces on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the South Pacific. About 900 exist, carved between around the 10th and 16th centuries. Thought to honor ancestors, how they were moved was long a mystery.
A serpent-like cryptid said to live in Lake Lagarfljot in eastern Iceland. It is recorded in 14th-century annals. In 2012, a video said to show it swimming in undulating waves across the lake was released, causing a worldwide sensation.
A monstrous bird that eerily cries "itsumade, itsumade" ("until when, until when"). The Taiheiki tells of one appearing over the palace in a year of epidemic and being shot down by a master archer. Toriyama Sekien named it "Itsumade" and drew it.
A linen cloth in the cathedral of Turin, Italy, said to have wrapped the body of Jesus Christ. The faint image of a man's whole body appears on it. A 1988 dating test placed it in the Middle Ages, but how the image was made remains a mystery.
A 15th-century manuscript filled with writing no one can read and strange illustrations of plants that do not exist and naked women. Discovered by the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, it remains undeciphered despite theories of a cipher, an artificial language or a hoax.
A legendary giant turtle said to live in Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam. Told of as the divine turtle to which a hero returned a sacred sword, it was confirmed to be one of the world's largest softshell turtles.
A guardian lion statue placed on roofs and gates and at village entrances in Okinawa to ward off evil. Its name comes from the Okinawan pronunciation of "shishi" (lion). Shisa are often set out in pairs, a male with an open mouth and a female with a closed mouth, and are believed to drive away misfortune.
Tools and objects that have acquired a spirit after many years and become yokai. Tools used for a hundred years are said to transform. They are depicted in the Muromachi-period Tsukumogami-ki and in "night parade of a hundred demons" scrolls.
A Noh mask showing the face of a woman turned into a demon by jealousy and resentment, with two horns and a wide, gaping mouth. It is used in plays such as Aoi no Ue, which depicts the living spirit of Lady Rokujo from The Tale of Genji.
A dish-mansion ghost story set at Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture. Okiku, a maid who discovered a plot against her lord, was framed when a treasured plate was hidden, and thrown into a well. "Okiku's Well" still remains at Himeji Castle, and the legend of the "Okiku bug" is also told.
The legend of a magical tea kettle at Morinji Temple in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, that never ran out of hot water however much was drawn from it. The monk who used it turned out to be a tanuki. It later spread as the folktale of a tanuki that turned into a tea kettle and walked a tightrope.
A beautiful female yokai in a white kimono who appears on snowy nights and freezes people with her icy breath. The version in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan is the most famous, and legends of her are told throughout Japan's snow country.
People believed to bring misfortune through magic. In 15th–17th-century Europe, many people were put on trial as witches for "making pacts with the devil," and tens of thousands were executed. The image of flying on a broomstick with a black cat spread through folklore and later stories.
A world map drawn in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral Piri Reis. It shows the coastline of South America, and its lower part was claimed to be "Antarctica before it was covered in ice." Most researchers think it shows the South American coastline bent to fit.
The elemental spirit of water among the four elemental spirits. Undines were said to gain a soul by marrying a human, and the idea spread as a tragic love story through Fouque's novel Undine. It also gave its name to the medical term "Ondine's curse."
The elemental spirit of fire among the four elemental spirits, depicted as a lizard living in fire. Since ancient times it has been believed to be "a creature that can live even in fire," and its name is also the English name of real amphibians.
The elemental spirit of wind (air) among the four elemental spirits, described by the 16th-century physician Paracelsus. Sylphs are said to be slender and beautiful, and the feminine form "sylphide" also became the subject of a ballet.
A Latin book of magic handed down in 16th-century England. It was owned by John Dee, a scholar who served Elizabeth I, who is recorded as having communicated with angels to decipher it. Long thought lost, copies were rediscovered in 1994.
The elemental spirit of earth among the four elemental spirits. Gnomes are little people said to move freely underground and guard minerals and treasure. They are also known from the ceramic "garden gnome" figures that originated in 19th-century Germany.
A small artificial human said to be created in a flask through alchemy. A book attributed to the 16th-century alchemist Paracelsus describes how to make one. It also appears in Goethe's Faust and has become a motif of many works.
A book of myths and history handed down among the K'iche' Maya of Guatemala in Central America. It records the creation of the world, how humans were made from maize, and the hero twins who fought the gods of the underworld in a ball game. It is considered the most important book preserving Maya mythology.
A 448-page manuscript written in an unknown script, held by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Its name comes from its former location, Rohonc (today Rechnitz, Austria). It has Christian and pagan illustrations, but its script remains undeciphered.
A collection of prophetic verses by Nostradamus, a 16th-century French physician and astrologer. In Japan it became a social phenomenon when the verse "In the year 1999, seventh month, from the sky will come a great King of Terror" was interpreted as a prophecy of humanity's destruction.
An imaginary continent covering much of the Southern Hemisphere on world maps of the 16th–18th centuries. Named after Magellan, it was shown not to exist by voyages such as Cook's.
A giant black dog with fiery eyes from the folklore of eastern England. A record survives of it appearing in churches and attacking people in 1577. It is the leading example of Britain's many "black dog" legends.
An artificial giant made of mud or clay in Jewish tradition. It moves by the power of sacred letters and obeys its maker. A famous story says that erasing the "e" from "emeth" (truth) on its forehead, leaving "meth" (death), turns it back to earth. The legend of Rabbi Loew of 16th-century Prague is especially famous.
If you display October 1582 in a smartphone calendar, the 4th is followed by the 15th, with ten days missing. The cause is the calendar reform (the Gregorian calendar) by Pope Gregory XIII, which really did skip ten days.
An alchemical picture scroll several meters long named after the 15th-century English alchemist George Ripley. It depicts the making of the philosopher's stone in symbolic pictures of dragons, birds and alchemists, with verses. About twenty copies from the 16th–17th centuries survive.
The queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Through a trick played by her husband, the fairy king Oberon, she falls in love with a craftsman whose head has been turned into a donkey's. A moon of Uranus is named after her.
A whale of the Arctic seas with a single long tusk. In medieval Europe its tusks were traded at high prices as the horns of the legendary unicorn. It is the real "unicorn of the sea."
A dog-spirit possession believed to cause illness and misfortune. Belief in it was strongest in Shikoku, Chugoku and Kyushu, and there was also a folk belief that it was attached to certain families for generations, which caused discrimination.
A curse ritual in which a person nails a straw doll to a tree at a shrine with long nails at the Hour of the Ox (around 2 a.m.) to curse someone they hate. It spread against the background of legends such as that of Hashihime of Uji. Today it can even be a crime.
A legendary substance of alchemy believed to turn metals such as lead into gold, and even to grant immortality when drunk. Many alchemists of medieval Europe sought to make it, and a legend says the Paris scribe Nicolas Flamel succeeded.
A household or mine spirit of German folklore. In houses kobolds helped with chores, while in mines they were said to lead miners astray. A troublesome ore named after them gave the element "cobalt" its name.
An ugly, mischievous little creature of European folklore. There are also friendly hobgoblins that live in houses. Through Tolkien's works, goblins became standard enemy characters in games.
An old word for the fairies of Europe. It comes from the Latin for "fate" and is the origin of the English "fairy." Sometimes, as with Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend, it refers to a woman with magical powers.
A dragon-like cryptid said to live in Lake Brosno in Tver Oblast, Russia. Legend says it swallowed Mongol soldiers in the Middle Ages, and sightings came one after another in the 1990s as well.
An old woman yokai who lives deep in the mountains. She is told of as a terrifying hag who eats people, yet she also appears as a mountain goddess and as the mother of Kintaro. She is familiar from folktales such as "The Three Charms."
