Enmado 閻魔堂

Pop culture figures of a bygone era

You could easily miss the Enmado, the low-slung and inconspicuous hall and graveyard in Nagareyama City's Honcho neighbourhood. I recommend stopping here for a window onto Edo era pop culture. The hall has an Enma-sama statue, the god of hell, noted for it's stuck out tongue. He's the god who judges you when you arrive in the netherworld. You can peek at him through the veranda window. Facing the hall is the grave of a local bandit and his moll. Kaneko Ichinojo fell on hard times and became a good swordsman and robbed people. Eventually, he got caught and was executed. The influencer of the day was an Edo storyteller, Matsubayashi Hakuen II who wrote and performed a series of profiles and stories about Edo thieves, gamblers, and prostitutes. His squeeze is said to have been a prostitute, and when she died, she was interred beside Kaneko. Today, they're remembered in services. Enma be the judge of their exploits.