What on Earth was happening in Japan!? Looking back on the incredible occult boom in the Showa Era
What on Earth was happening in Japan!? Looking back on the incredible occult boom in the Showa Era
In the 1970’s an unprecedented occult boom sprung forth in Japan.
’The Prophecies of Nostradamus’ was a hit and UFOs, psychics and Unidentified Mysterious Animals were appearing continuously on TV. Kids became obsessed with hunting for Tsuchinoko and playing Kokkuri-San (a type of Japanese Ouija board) and a previous governor for the Tokyo Metropolitan area even went searching for Nessie.
You can only wonder what everyone was thinking during this occult boom of the Showa era. What was actually happening then? We asked writer Hatsumi Kenichi, who is well versed in Retro Showa and author of Encyclopedia of Our Showa Occult Boom – a look back at the erotic, grotesque and shameless boy’s era.
We were brought into an apprehensive world. 'The Crazy Era'
‘Looking back, I think it was a crazy time. Even now, occult-like things have their own subculture but back then it was completely mainstream. On TV or in magazines, it was overflowing. If you look at manga aimed at young kids, there was ‘Devilman’ in the boys magazines and ‘Baptism’ in the girls’ for example. There were these shocking manga everywhere. It felt as if all of society had their dial set to negative’
According to Mr Hatsumi, the Occult boom of the Showa era properly started around the year 1973. In this year, Sakyo Komatsu’s “Japan Sinks”, Ben Goto’s “ Prophecies of Nostradamus”, both works full of the feeling of doom, became bestsellers, then the following year the legendary occult movie “The Exorcist” was released. On top of this, began a pioneer of occult tv shows was ‘The world you don’t know” (Nihon TV series) and groundbreaking works that drew in fans of horror and the occult alike began appearing in succession. The background to this was a society that was anxious and unstable.
‘Around then, pollution was becoming a serious societal problem and the world was cast into a dark shadow. Even in elementary school classes photos shown of fish deformed due to pollution were extremely scary. Further more, there was the fear of nuclear war due to the cold war and news of student protests or terrorist bombings was a daily event. If we carry on like this, what will happen to humanity? That atmosphere hung thickly at the time and even children could feel it.’
The publication of “Prophecies of Nostradamus” was precisely at that time. The phrase In 1999, humanity will end! And the other shocking contents of the book traumatised many.
‘I don’t think there were any elementary school children that were able to ignore ”Prophecies”. We often said to our classmates “We will be 32 when the world ends, right?”. It was scary but there was also something quite exciting about being told that humanity would end. PTAs criticised it, saying “because of this book, children have lost hope for the future” but at the same time I was thinking that they didn’t get it at all. Being scared and being entertained. These two feelings coexisted within children.’
'Ventra Ventra' Showa Kids who Searched for UFOs on the School Roof'
Mr Hatsumi was born in 1967. Both before and during school, he grew up showered in information on UFOs, Nessie and psychics, right in the middle of the occult boom.
‘The occult occupied a large part of kids culture at the time. Shogakukan’s ‘Introduction Encyclopedia’ and Rippu Shobo Publishing’s ‘Jaguar Backs’ were children’s books adorned with gross covers and they stood guard in school libraries. They were found in every class everywhere. If you went fishing in the Tama River, you’d search for Tsuchinoko. You’d go to the school roof, form a cirlce and try to call a UFO. You’d walk in a circle whilst chanting “Ventra, Ventra, Space People” (laughs). Once photos of the school trip were posted up, kids of the time loved to see if they could find any ghosts or spirits in them. If any such weird thing was found, orders for those photos would flood in. The teachers must have thought ‘What on earth is all this about?’.
Something that you could say was emblematic of this occult boom was the psychic Yuri Gellar with his trademark long hair. His ‘Spoon-bending’ performance shown on TV caused mass enthusiasm throughout Japan.
‘This isn’t just a trick, he said. This is the real thing (laughs). At the time, there was a plausible rumour that the American and Soviet armies were training psychics and there was a strange reality to Yuri Gellar’s abilities. At the end of the show, Gellar always sent his abilities through the TV. At home, my grandfathers old clock suddenly began moving, it was quite odd.’
The day after airing, the elementary school was in great excitement. Children taking the cafeteria spoons to try their hand at spoon bending were popping up left and right.
‘No matter how much they tried, the spoon wouldn’t bend, so they grew impatient and ended up bending the spoon with force. These would be reurned to the lunch ladies and pretty much every cafeteria spoon ended up all bent up. As a result, homeroom teachers would place a ban on spoon bending (laughs). I think this happened in every elementary school across the country.’
Shintaro Ishihara, Previous Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Like the Occult!?
The more I hear about this period, the more I’m blown away, but the interesting thing is that this boom wasn’t just experienced by the children. Even adults were enraptured by it.
‘My parents also loved occult programmes and would especially keep an eye on ones about spirits. Whether it was Nostradamus, or spirits, this boom first started in the adult world and then filtered down to the childrens’. I can’t believe it at this point, but even Shintaro Ishihara formed a search party and went all the way to Scotland to search for Nessie. Mr Ishihara has an interest in UFOs and the abominable snowman, so he must actually like stories of this nature.’
The 70s was an exciting era in which preposterous things were being shown in the media one after the other and you’d instantly react ‘Really?!’. One such notorious case was of Oliver, the strange lifeform seemingly in between a chimpanzee and a human. Oliver rode a charter plane from America to Japan and was aired on tv several days in a row.
‘How ever you looked at it, it was just a shaved chimpanzee, right? (laughs). But instead of getting angry at being deceived, we all laughed. Even kids were sharp enough to see through it but enjoyed watching along. There was also a plan to seek a bride for Oliver, but if that happened now, there would be a huge human rights uproar. There was still an element of ‘freakshow’ on TV at the time and both the producers and the audience understood this. I believe that literacy for enjoying the occult was much higher that is is today.’
No matter what the craze, it always ends eventually. In 1978, this unprecedented occult boom began to slowly peter out following ‘The Slit-Mouthed Woman’ that terrified kids. From that point onwards the occult faced much criticism and self-restraints, it never came back into the mainstream and was then pushed into the corner. I wonder was the previous occult kids think of this.
‘People who were children at the time of the occult boom were very fortunate, I think. Their excitement and imagination were stimulated and there was never a dull moment. Some say that the occult is morbid and scandalous, but you should be able to enjoy it freely as it’s just a fantasy world. To a child, imagining a bright happy world or imagining the ruin of mankind, both can be fun. The current trend is to restrict anything negative, that feels quite wrong. It’s scary. Well, no matter how you look at it, it was too much at the time, too! (laughs)’
The Showa Occult Boom overflowed with eeriness and fantastic tales. The wild visions summoned by the 1970s continue to attract us to this day. Original:
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