Sakabashira is a folk belief about wooden structures in Japan, and it refers to reversing the vertical direction of a tree from its original direction of growth when using it to make a pillar in a wooden building. Since ancient times, a tree made into a reverse pillar is said to cause things like yanari (a paranormal phenomenon where the house or furniture shakes for no reason) to occur at night. Besides making family fortunes decline, they were also said to cause unfortunate events such as fires, so they were greatly detested. The yōkai comic artist Mizuki Shigeru said that a reversed pillar would be a source of tree leaves yōkai, or that the pillar itself would turn into a yōkai. In Saikaku Oridome (西鶴織留), a piece of writing by Ihara Saikaku, a couple that lived in a house in front of the Kyoto Rokkaku-dō was tormented by this sakabashira paranormal phenomenon, and it is said that the sound of shattering beams would echo every night in that house, which led them to eventually move elsewhere.
Alias Sakabashira (逆柱, さかばしら)
Real Names/Alt Names Alt: Sakasabashira (逆さ柱, さかさばしら), “Reverse pillar”
Appearance List Saikaku Oridome (西鶴織留), Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (画図百鬼夜行, “The Illustrated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons” or The Illustrated Demon Horde’s Night Parade, 1776) Vol. 2 “Yang”
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Description Sakabashira is a folk belief about wooden structures in Japan, and it refers to reversing the vertical direction of a tree from its original direction of growth when using it to make a pillar in a wooden building. Since ancient times, a tree made into a reverse pillar is said to cause things like yanari (a paranormal phenomenon where the house or furniture shakes for no reason) to occur at night. Besides making family fortunes decline, they were also said to cause unfortunate events such as fires, so they were greatly detested. The yōkai comic artist Mizuki Shigeru said that a reversed pillar would be a source of tree leaves yōkai, or that the pillar itself would turn into a yōkai. In Saikaku Oridome (西鶴織留), a piece of writing by Ihara Saikaku, a couple that lived in a house in front of the Kyoto Rokkaku-dō was tormented by this sakabashira paranormal phenomenon, and it is said that the sound of shattering beams would echo every night in that house, which led them to eventually move elsewhere.
