{"podcast":{"title":"Uncanny Japan","slug":"uncanny-japan-53805","podcast_index_feed_id":53805,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncannyjapan","website_url":"https://www.uncannyjapan.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/ce789110-6ed9-11f0-8407-37934f626e58/image/292cdc40479dd2ca3b3f4c150781b3ba.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"SpectreVision Radio","episode_count":198,"summary":"Uncanny Japan is a podcast about all the more obscure corners of old Japan, from strange superstitions, cultural curiosities, to creepy creatures. Here you can discover all the lesser known gems that author Thersa Matsuura digs up while doing research for her writing. Every episode is uniquely soothing, brought to life by immersive sound design or relaxing binaural soundscapes (ocean waves, autumn crickets, rice field frogs) all recorded right here in Japan. Thersa Matsuura is a writer, folklorist, and graduate of the Clarion West workshop. Drawing on her over thirty-five years of living in Japan, she is the author of The Book of Japanese Folklore. Her horror short story collection (The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales) was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Her forthcoming works include the Yokai Oracle Deck (Fall, 2025) and Legends of Japanese Mythology (Eyes Wide Editions, 2026). SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring the anomalous, the luminous, and the numinous. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passio…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-08T00:17:59.449469+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/uncanny-japan-53805"},"episode":{"title":"Everyone Has a Throat Buddha / What is it and Why? -- Nodohotoke & Story Time: \"The Buddha Bone\" (Ep. 189)","slug":"everyone-has-a-throat-buddha-what-is-it-and-why-nodohotoke-story-time-the-buddha-bone-ep-189","published_at":"2026-05-04T22:20:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/uncanny-japan-53805/everyone-has-a-throat-buddha-what-is-it-and-why-nodohotoke-story-time-the-buddha-bone-ep-189","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/uncanny-japan-53805","url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/PHTE3182716633.mp3?updated=1777933677","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/PHTE3182716633.mp3?updated=1777933677","summary":"Have you ever heard of the nodo-hotoke, or “throat Buddha”? In everyday Japanese, it usually refers to the Adam’s apple. But after death, especially in the context of cremation, the nodo-hotoke becomes something else entirely, the actual seat of your soul. In this episode of Uncanny Japan, I talk about the fascinating and beautiful funeral custom of gathering bones after cremation, using long chopsticks to place them into the urn from feet to head, with the nodo-hotoke placed last. I’ll also touch on the taboo against passing food from chopsticks to chopsticks, the role of the crematorium attendant, and the belief that this Buddha-shaped bone can be connected to the soul, the life lived, or rebirth into the Pure Land. After that, I read my dark story “The Buddha Bone,” originally published in Weird Horror Issue 7 by Undertow Publications. I also explain a couple of story-context words: hifuki-take, a bamboo tube used to blow into and stoke a fire, and hyottoko, the puckered-mouth comic figure associated with fire-blowing imagery. Content warning: this episode discusses death, cremation, funerary ritual, and contains a dark fictional story on those themes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"Have you ever heard of the nodo-hotoke, or “throat Buddha”? In everyday Japanese, it usually refers to the Adam’s apple. But after death, especially in th…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1971,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/uncanny-japan-53805/episodes/everyone-has-a-throat-buddha-what-is-it-and-why-nodohotoke-story-time-the-buddha-bone-ep-189/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/uncanny-japan-53805/everyone-has-a-throat-buddha-what-is-it-and-why-nodohotoke-story-time-the-buddha-bone-ep-189.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}