Kowabana Encyclopedia: Gehoubako
Found in: Kowabana 37: Cursed boxes
Our narrator tells us that this happened when he went on a bike tour with his local bike store to Kodokoro Hot Spring near Mount Odaigahara in Nara Prefecture. One of the other cyclists is a young man by the name of Kenta who apparently likes to do his own thing, and once they leave the city and reach the mountains during the ride, he takes off by himself.
The narrator is riding at the end of the line, and when he reaches the designated cafe for break time, he finds everyone arguing with Kenta about how he can’t rush off and do his own thing. “What do you think’s gonna happen if you run over a snake, huh?” But Kenta reveals he already has.
At this, the entire group freezes. Seems there’s a local legend stating that if you step on a snake in the mountains during spring, then you’ll trip and fall over the edge of a cliff. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. But Kenta thinks it’s a stupid superstition, although he does ride quietly with the group after that.
As they approach a turn, however, they hear a noise. Someone has fallen from a cliff nearby. Of course, it’s Kenta. Thankfully, he’s still alive, but his bike is no longer serviceable. Kenta is sent to the hospital with several broken bones and the group chastises him for running over a snake. It seems he learnt his lesson, however, as he then tries to share that same wisdom with the younger riders who come in.
A short while later, the narrator returns to the bike store and finds Kenta working there. He’s doing okay and just got out of the hospital, but he’s already back on his bike again. He then invites everyone to join him at his parents’ house as they want to say thank you for helping their son. They live out in the countryside, so they can easily fit the entire bike group in their house no problem. In the end, only four people agree to go, including the narrator.
The men arrive and inside, the food etc is already laid out. They sample this and that, and at some point, Kenta returns from the toilet holding something in a cloth. Seems he found it in the storehouse when they were moving things. It’s a box, roughly the size of a rice bowl and covered in white paper.
He then flips it and shows them the bottom. Inside the white paper is some black paper and a red string tied around the box like a cross. He asked his parents about it, but they had no idea what’s inside either. Because Taki-san, one of the men there, is interested in “these sorts of things,” he was wondering if he might know what it is.
As soon as Taki-san attempts to pull the string, the narrator’s phone rings. He set it to silent before arriving, so how could it be ringing? Turns out it’s his mother, and before he can even say anything, she screams, “Don’t touch it! Don’t open that box!”
The narrator isn’t able to get a single word in before she screams, “It’s a gehoubako! Don’t touch it! Put it back in the wrapping!” She instructs them to wrap the box in the white paper again, then put it in a bowl on top of some salt. Do this seven times. Each time the salt will dissolve, until the final time where it won’t. Then wrap it back in the cloth and put it back in the storehouse. The narrator’s mother will then come over to get it.
Confused and panicked, the men do as she says. A storm picks up and the men stay the night. During the night, they hear lightning strike nearby, but can’t see anything. In the morning, they realise the storehouse got hit. The inside is completely burnt and the roof gone. It has to be a coincidence, right…?
The narrator later learns from his mother (who has an incredibly strong sixth sense) that the “gehoubako” is used by fortunetellers and witches to cast curses. It’s a tool they dedicate to the spirits. He never saw what was inside it though, so overall, it remains a mystery.
This story was first shared on 2channel on August 15, 2005. Gehoubako are an actual thing (and not just created for this story), generally being a box that shrine maidens and such carry around with magical items inside. Some believe that long ago, these boxes used to house human skulls, or perhaps dolls, but the insides were generally kept secret.
The “gehou” here refers to something that’s non-Buddhist. It is “outside” Buddhist ways, and was a way of referring to witchcraft etc. These boxes could be used for divination, spirit channelling, and other black magic-y things. In this case, everyone escapes unscathed, although the storehouse holding the gehoubako is destroyed. How it got there and why the family has it remains unknown, but it seems likely that Kenta had a family member back in the day that was perhaps into some dark magic… Whoops.