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One of the curiosities at Himeji Castle is Okiku's well. In the Himeji version, Okiku was a servant of Aoyama, a retainer who planned a plot against his lord. Okiku overheard the plot and reported it to her lover, a loyal warrior. The plot was averted.<br/><br/> When Aoyama found out that Okiku had been the cause for his failure, he decided to kill her. So he accused her of having stolen one of ten valuable dishes. She was tortured to death and thrown into the well.<br/><br/> All the variations of the ghost story of Okiku feature wrongful and cruel treatment of a poor servant girl. Her ghost is said still to haunt 'Okiku's Well' at Himeji Castle in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture.
One of the curiosities at Himeji Castle is Okiku's well. In the Himeji version, Okiku was a servant of Aoyama, a retainer who planned a plot against his lord. Okiku overheard the plot and reported it to her lover, a loyal warrior. The plot was averted.<br/><br/> When Aoyama found out that Okiku had been the cause for his failure, he decided to kill her. So he accused her of having stolen one of ten valuable dishes. She was tortured to death and thrown into the well.<br/><br/> All the variations of the ghost story of Okiku feature wrongful and cruel treatment of a poor servant girl. Her ghost is said still to haunt 'Okiku's Well' at Himeji Castle in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture.
One of the curiosities at Himeji Castle is Okiku's well. In the Himeji version, Okiku was a servant of Aoyama, a retainer who planned a plot against his lord. Okiku overheard the plot and reported it to her lover, a loyal warrior. The plot was averted.<br/><br/> When Aoyama found out that Okiku had been the cause for his failure, he decided to kill her. So he accused her of having stolen one of ten valuable dishes. She was tortured to death and thrown into the well.<br/><br/> All the variations of the ghost story of Okiku feature wrongful and cruel treatment of a poor servant girl. Her ghost is said still to haunt 'Okiku's Well' at Himeji Castle in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture.
Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class.<br/><br/> The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as Bushidō. While they numbered less than ten percent of Japan's population, samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in martial arts such as Kendō, meaning the way of the sword.