島田秀平とオカルトさん！currently outside the Japan top 100
#288 怪談説法 三木大雲さん（中編）
Buddhist storyteller and temple priest Daiun Miki (三木大雲) reveals the moment that gave birth to his "ghost-story dharma talks" (怪談説法): a late-night encounter with a teenage bōsōzoku rider in Kyoto who confessed he was "a ghost in his own home." The episode also features listener stories about a mysterious floral scent in an Okinawan war cave, a Buddhist perspective on grave decommissioning and Obon, and a bittersweet haunted-doll tale from a Kyoto machiya townhouse.
What this episode answers
What made Daiun Miki start giving ghost-story dharma talks?
Miki began his ghost-story dharma talks after a teenager in a bōsōzoku group confessed that his alcoholic father and night-shift mother never acknowledged his existence, making him feel like a ghost in his own house — prompting Miki to teach the group about honoring what cannot be seen.
Can a spirit's presence be detected by smell, and does the scent differ between a well-tended and a neglected spirit?
According to Miki, the dead consume fragrance (香食, kōjiki) in Buddhist teaching: spirits who receive sufficient offerings carry a pleasant scent like sandalwood, while neglected spirits carry something closer to a smell of decay; when a rotten smell is noticed, he recommends lighting incense as an act of memorial.
Can ancestors still return during Obon if the family grave has been decommissioned?
Ancestors can still return during Obon regardless of whether a grave exists; the grave is a "stupa" (塔) in Buddhist thought and can be built within the heart, so as long as one presses one's palms together in remembrance, the act of memorial is complete.
What strange experience did a listener have at the Nyatia Gama cave in Okinawa?
As a father and his son left the Nyatia Gama cave, only the father caught a pleasant, flower-like scent — at a site where many women and children perished from illness during World War II, and where the father's wife had lifted a power stone fourteen years earlier before giving birth to that same son in December of that year.
What was the backstory of the Western doll that emerged from the ceiling of a Kyoto machiya?
Wet, bundled golden hair about 30 cm long drooped from the ceiling, and a blond Western doll was found wedged between the attic floorboards; it had belonged to an elderly woman, the previous owner, who had cherished it like a child and taken it shopping in a pram, but she died in hospital before a neighbour could bring the doll to her, and a neighbour said the wet hair was the doll's tears.
The Origin of Ghost-Story Dharma Talks — An Encounter with Bōsōzoku Riders
Daiun Miki's ghost-story dharma talks were born on a night he spent walking the streets of Kyoto looking for someone to preach to. He came across roughly twenty teenagers wearing jackets embroidered with the phrase "ten-chi-doku-son" (天上天下唯我独尊, "I alone am honored throughout heaven and earth") — an upper-echelon bōsōzoku group. Convinced that "a monk's ghost story is the ultimate hook," he launched into a personal experience.
The story was set in a bookshop. Miki possesses an acute sense of smell that he says detects cancer, and he had approached a man in the magazine section after sensing that scent from his body. When Miki offered to pay for a medical examination, the man replied, "Thank you. To tell you the truth, I died on December 8th last year" — and vanished.
The group erupted, and one young man raised his hand: "That ghost is me." He was very much alive, but his father drank around the clock and had never once said "take care" or "welcome home," while his mother worked nights and barely spoke to him. Every meal was eaten alone, paid for by cash left on the desk. "Inside the house I'm invisible to everyone — I really am a ghost," he said. Miki responded by teaching them why people visit graves and give thanks to the unseen: because the dead cannot be seen either, and that invisibility is precisely why memorial matters. Afterward the young men began helping to clean temples across Kyoto, and that night became the founding moment of Miki's ghost-story dharma talks.
Spirits and Scent — Sensing the Supernatural Through Smell
A listener using the radio name "Ryōte Masukake no Chichi" shared an account from a family trip to Okinawa. A father in his forties had visited Nyatia Gama (ニャティアガマ) cave with his fourteen-year-old son, and as they exited, the father alone noticed a pleasant, flower-like fragrance — his son smelled nothing at all. Nyatia Gama is a site where many women and children hid from American forces during the Pacific War and died of infectious disease.
The listener had a personal connection to this place stretching back fourteen years. He had visited with his wife at the time, and she had lifted the "power stone" (力石, Nibiru-ishi) inside the cave. His wife had been told her frail health would make it difficult to conceive; she gave birth to a son that December. This trip was a return to the same ground, fourteen years later, with that very son.
Miki explained that in Buddhist teaching the dead consume fragrance — a practice called kōjiki (香食). Spirits who receive sufficient memorial carry a good scent, like sandalwood, while those who are not properly honored carry something resembling a smell of decay. He advised listeners to light incense whenever they notice such a rotten smell.
Grave Decommissioning and Obon — "The Essence of Memorial Is Building a Stupa"
A listener named "Oyama Kozakana Love" asked how ancestors find their way home during Obon if the family grave has been decommissioned. Miki explained Obon through the concept of segaki (施餓鬼): the beings who return are those who died with strong attachments and have fallen into the realm of hungry ghosts (餓鬼界), a world of suffering where water turns to fire the moment they try to drink and food does the same. These beings stand roughly 30 cm tall, which is why segaki offerings are placed low to the ground.
Miki also reframed what a grave actually is. In Buddhism a grave is not a "home" — it is a stupa (塔). The Sanskrit word stupa is the origin of the Japanese sotoba (卒塔婆) grave marker, and building a stupa is considered the highest form of memorial in Buddhism. Crucially, a stupa can be built within the heart. Even after decommissioning a grave, if you think of the deceased and press your palms together, that act of remembrance constitutes memorial.
The Western Doll Hidden in a Kyoto Machiya Ceiling — A Bittersweet Ghost Story
The ghost story Miki told centers on a man who purchased the Kyoto machiya he had always dreamed of owning. Not long after moving in, water drops began falling on his face in the middle of the night, and in the morning he noticed what looked like thin strands of hair hanging from the ceiling. Days later he pulled them — and a 30 cm bundle of damp hair came free.
He climbed into the attic and found a blond Western doll lying wedged in a gap between the ceiling boards. A neighbor told him that the previous occupant, an elderly woman, had loved the doll like her own child — dressing it up, placing it in a pram, and taking it shopping with her. When the woman was hospitalized, she asked the neighbor to bring the doll to her. The request was never fulfilled, and she died. The neighbor added that at night the old house had echoed with the sounds of a child crying and running around. "The hair was wet because it was crying," the neighbor said. The man brought the doll to Miki's temple, where sutras were chanted and the doll was ceremonially burned. Miki closed the story by observing that the Japanese sense that old objects hold souls is rooted in the yaoyorozu (八百万) tradition — the feeling that spirits dwell in all things.
Takeaways
- Daiun Miki's ghost-story dharma talks were born from a midnight encounter in Kyoto where a bōsōzoku teenager said he felt like a ghost because his own family never acknowledged his existence.
- In Buddhist teaching, the dead consume fragrance: well-memorialized spirits carry a pleasant scent like sandalwood, while neglected spirits carry a smell of decay — a signal to light incense.
- A Buddhist grave is a stupa that can be built within the heart, so even after grave decommissioning, ancestors can still be honored — and Obon spirits return — as long as one presses one's palms together in sincere remembrance.
This article is edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. It is not an official summary — please listen to the episode itself.