Dying Of The Light..

 

 

 

                                                                  pic from Arknights.

 

Do not go gentle into that good night

By Dylan Thomas.

 

 

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Ungaikyo... The Demon reflecting mirror

 

 

 Ungaikyo...or the mirror beyond the clouds

Ungaikyo is a haunted mirror that is capable of revealing demons and monsters reflected in its surface.

Some believe the spirit that inhabitants  this mirror, as well as the countless spirits that have been reflected in it over the years, can manipulate the reflection and cause it to appear as anything they like. People who gaze into an ungaikyo might see a transformed, monstrous version of themselves looking back.


An ungaikyo can be used by humans to trap spirits.

On the 15th night of the 8th month in the old lunar calendar, water is poured
into a crystal dish to reflect the light of the full moon. (In the old days this was a popular way of admiring the reflection of the night sky.)

If that water is used to paint the image of a yokai onto a mirror, that spirit will then inhabit the mirror.


Ungaikyo appears in Toriyama Sekien’s book of tsukumogami Hyakki tsurezure bukuro. Sekien based this yokai on a mirror from an old Chinese myth. 

That mirror was called shomakyo (“demon revealing mirror”). It had the ability to expose the true forms of demons masquerading as humans when they were
reflected in the mirror. 

Shomakyo was used by  Zhou  to reveal that his consort was actually a wicked nine-tailed
kitsune, intent on runing his kingdom through her evil depravities.

Her true form revealed, she fled the country (setting into action a chain of events
that would eventually lead her  Japan as Tamamo no Mae). 

Shomakyo was used time and time again to reveal the true nature of disguised spirits.

Sekien believed that such a mirror might eventually pick up a little of the strangeness of each yokai and demon it reflected, eventually becoming one itself.

Perhaps the countless spirits that it has reflected over the years have slowly gained the ability to manipulate its reflections.

In more modern versions, ungaikyo is been described  as a normal mirror that has transformed into a living being upon reaching one hundred years of age, the mirror develops a soul and is transformed into a type of yokai called a tsukumogami.

The mirror  has also been portrayed as one of the many transformations performed by tanuki. 

 

By sucking in large amounts of air and inflating their bellies, a tanuki is able to display a picture on its bare belly similar to a television screen. This portrayal is not rooted in folklore however, but comes from Daiei Films’ 1968-69 yokai movies. 

 

Nonetheless, it has caught on and remains a popular variation of ungaikyo in many productions.

 

 

 

The Haunted Palace👻🏰

Edgar Allan Poe - 1809-1849

 

In the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace —
Radiant palace — reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion —
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair!

Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow,
(This — all this — was in the olden
Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odor went away.

Wanderers in that happy valley,
Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
To a lute's well-tuned law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well-befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.

And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.

But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn! — for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

And travellers, now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh — but smile no more.