Legend says that the Sessho-seki Stone, aka the “Killing Stone”, contained the corpse and imprisoned the spirit of Tamamo-no-Mae, a beautiful woman and would-be assassin who is really a demon, one more commonly taking the form of a nine-tailed fox. The stone, located in a hot springs area near the Tochigi prefecture near Tokyo, Japan, was said to prove deadly to anyone who dared touch it, hence its name. Recently it was discovered that the stone had split in-half. Uh-oh. There’s only one logical conclusion to be drawn from this: the thousand-year-old demon fox has escaped. The Sessho-seki had been a tourist attraction and will likely remain so; probably it will become more of a curiosity now that the demon fox has escaped. There might be plans to restore the stone, even. Krazy glue, perhaps? But if they do manage to glue the rock back together, how do they propose to recapture the demon fox? Lotsa luck with that one!
Experts attribute the breakage to a more mundane explanation. “…local media said cracks had appeared in the rock several years ago, possibly allowing rainwater to seep inside and weaken its structure.” Sure, but why would Tamamo-no-Mae not take advantage of that to facilitate an escape?
