Pod Insights Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries 158. Inside the World's Most Haunted Castles | True Ghost Stories About this episode This week, we're exploring three of the world's most haunted castles—and the dark histories that made them that way. At Windsor Castle in England, we'll encounter the ghost of a beheaded king who appears whole. In Austria's Moosham Castle, we explore the only male dominated witch trials. And finally, we visit Himeji Castle in Japan to meet Okiku, the servant girl whose ghost inspired one of the most iconic images in horror.
TW: Mentions of possible s*icide, descriptions of t*rture
Show Notes: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/episodes/hauntedcastles
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Kaelyn Moore? This episode is brought to you by GU Skincare. GU just launched their Heal and Seal Trio, a simple three-step Korean skincare routine that replaces those complicated seven-step regimens. Polish pads to exfoliate, toner pads for dark spots and redness, and NAD Plus cream to lock in hydration overnight. These three products, three minutes a day. Dermatologist-tested with over 650,000 happy customers and a 90-day money-back guarantee. Recently, I've been using their NAD Plus cream, which has been so nice to put on at night. I really love it. It's not super heavy, which I love, but it still feels very moisturizing. It doesn't have a lot of scent, which I'm really sensitive to, which is why it works great in my routine. For a limited time, GU is having a crazy deal for our listeners. Their Heal and Seal Trio is already up to 50% off right now,
0:45 Kaelyn Moore? but our listeners can now get an additional 20% off plus free shipping with code HSP at J I Y U skin dot com. That's J I Y U skin dot com and use code HSP for an additional 20% off. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. This episode is brought to you by Seijo. A new season always makes me want to reset things, my space, my routine, how my mornings feel. And honestly, upgrading my bedding has made a big difference, and that's why I have been loving Seijo Home. I have the Airy Weight Eucalyptus Sheets from Seijo. They have a lightweight feel, cool-to-the-touch texture, and now my bed feels like a real reset at the end of a long day. I know that every little bit of improvement I can do with my sleep routine makes a huge difference,
1:30 Kaelyn Moore? and so I'm so happy I was able to get Seijo Sheets. The Airy Weight Sheets are made with Tencel Lyocell, they're doctor-recommended, Ecotex-certified, and even HSA and FSA-eligible, which I genuinely did not know was a thing for bedding. And if you're someone who prefers a more lived-in texture, their Luxe Weave French Linen Sheets are stone-washed and get softer with every wash. Really beautiful for a bedroom refresh. Go to seijohome.com and use code HSP to get 20% off your first order. That's S I J O H O M E dot com and use code HSP for 20% off at checkout. Today, I want to take you with me to three very haunted castles. I'm going to tell you about the royal ghosts that still haunt the whole. Falls of Windsor Castle, a castle in Austria with a haunted torture chamber that you can still
2:15 Kaelyn Moore? visit. And I also want to tell you about the haunting of a Japanese castle that inspired a very famous horror movie and see if you can guess which one. Welcome back to Heart Starts Pounding, our final episode of 2025. I'm Kayla Moore and I'm here with our friendly ghost Jinx, who is very excited for this episode. I wanted to do something both cozy and ghosty for the end of the year. So let's all sit by the fire and take this journey together. Now, we're gonna be off next week because I'm gonna have a baby. We'll see if he actually gets here on time. If he's anything like his mother, he's going to be late. But we do have some really great Patreon content to catch up on if you're looking for more. Last month, we covered the mystery of the
2:54 Kaelyn Moore? lost colony of Roanoke. How did 118 colonists vanish from the face of the earth 400 years ago? Over on Patreon, we're also going to be doing our wrapped episode where me, producer Matt, and producer Juno are gonna talk about our favorite episodes from the year. And I can tell you about the episodes that performed best. And of course, there's a free trial on Patreon and on Apple Podcasts if you want to do that. But for now, sit back, relax, curl up by the fire. If you're in Australia or South America, maybe crank up your AC and just pretend that is winter. And you can join me as we visit some ghosts.
3:35 Speaker 01 It's when your heart starts pounding.
3:39 Kaelyn Moore? Windsor Castle sits on a chalk cliff above the River Thames, just west of London, and it's been watching over England for nearly 1,000 years. William the Conqueror built it in 1070 as a fortress, but over the centuries, it's become something more: a royal palace, a home, a prison, and according to many who have lived there, the most haunted royal residence in all of Britain. The castle is basically laid out in three sections, all arranged around a massive round tower that dominates the skyline. Now, if you're standing at the main entrance, looking up at the castle, you've got the lower ward on your left, the middle ward where that iconic round tower sits, and then the upper ward on your right, where the state of Apartments and the royal family's private quarters are located.
4:23 Kaelyn Moore? The whole complex covers around 13 acres and it includes everything from medieval defense walls to Victorian Gothic revival architecture. There's a long walk, which is this insanely long lined avenue that stretches nearly three miles through Windsor Great Park. There's guard towers, gates, courtyards, endless corridors. It's massive, it's maze-like, and it's absolutely gorgeous. But for our hearts starts pounding toward this castle. We're gonna head to the creepiest part, straight to the lower ward, to St. George's Chapel, the final resting place for British royalty. St. George's Chapel sits at the western end of the lower ward. And when you first see it, it takes your breath away.
5:05 Kaelyn Moore? It's this massive Gothic masterpiece built in the 1400s with huge stained glass windows that flood the interior with beautiful colored light. The ceiling is this intricate fan vaulting that looks almost too delicate to support its own weight. And as you're walking through it, gazing up at the ceiling, you might not notice that dozens of bodies are resting below your feet underneath the floor. 11 monarchs and many of their family members are buried here beneath this floor, including Queen Elizabeth II, who was buried here in 2022. That's a lot of history compressed into one building. And apparently, some of it hasn't left. In 1813, a prince regent came to this chapel and demanded that a vault beneath the choir floor be opened.
5:50 Kaelyn Moore? It was the tomb of Charles I, the king who was beheaded on February 7th, 1649. He was just 48 years old and the first and only English monarch to be legally executed by his own government. Charles believed that he ruled by divine right, that he answered to God alone, not Parliament. And that belief eventually sparked the English Civil War in 1642. After years of fighting and betrayal, he was brought right here to Windsor Castle as a prisoner, where just before Christmas in 1648, he was tried for treason and ultimately beheaded. And as this prince regent started opening- Charles's tomb.
6:31 Kaelyn Moore? He thought about all of the supernatural occurrences surrounding Charles's death. For one, as King Charles the First's body was being moved to St. George's, a sudden and violent snowstorm swept across the castle grounds. Thick, heavy flakes of snow nearly blinded the few mourners that were there. And when it finally slowed down, they saw that the black velvet pall covering his coffin had been magically transformed to snow white. The mourners all saw this transformation as a sign, as divine proof that their king was not really a traitor. That marked the first supernatural occurrence around King Charles, but it definitely wasn't the last.
7:13 Kaelyn Moore? There have been multiple sightings of the king that have occurred after his death. There's whispers around the castle of King Charles's specter being seen in the canon's house and walking through the canon's cloister. The castle staff would call out to the king when they saw him, but he would just keep walking towards some unknown destination, his eyes open and unemotional, his head fully attached to his neck. And that was in part why the prince regent was there trying to open his tomb. He wanted to see for himself. Was the king's head reattached to his body in death after he had been beheaded? Slowly, the tomb was opened in the dead of night, and the cloth that Charles was buried in was peeled away.
7:58 Kaelyn Moore? A horrid stench filled the air. And there, even after over 150 years, it was obvious that King Charles the First's head was still attached to his body. And you could even see marks on his neck that showed someone had stitched it back on after his death. And you could even see the outline of where the blade made a clean cut all the way through his vertebrae. Now, King Charles the First is the only royal who's been executed by his own government beneath the chapel floors, but he's not the only royal who is still haunting the grounds that is buried beneath the chapel floors. In fact, he's actually buried right next to King Henry the
8:40 Kaelyn Moore? And King Henry VIII is one of the most active ghosts in the entire castle. Staff at Windsor Castle say that you tend to hear Henry before you see him. First, it's heavy footsteps that echo throughout the dean's cloister. And then there's a dragging sound said to be from his ulcerated leg. This is usually accompanied by sounds of him moaning in agony. The staff don't really seem that worried, though, that Henry VIII stalks the grounds in perpetual pain. The guy was a total nightmare while he was alive. He went through six wives, divorced two, beheaded two. One died during childbirth and one outlived him. He broke England away from the Catholic Church because the Pope wouldn't give him a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
9:24 Kaelyn Moore? He basically created the Church of England just so he could marry Anne Boleyn, who he had been obsessed with for years. And then, three years later, he had her beheaded on charges of adultery and treason that were almost certainly fabricated. But still, if you're walking the castle at night and you start to hear that moan and hear the sound of a leg being dragged behind a man, you may want to run. But you need to be careful because Henry isn't the only vengeful and unstable king that haunts the grounds. In fact, not far from where Henry is typically seen, the ghost of the mad king himself can be found. Now, King George III is sometimes called the King Who Lost America,
10:07 Kaelyn Moore? but he's more often called Mad King George. For the first 50 years of his life, though, this mad king wasn't so mad after all. He was known as being a devoted husband, a loving father to 15 children, and a genuinely good king who cared about his people. He was scholarly, he was interested in science and agriculture. They called him Farmer George because he actually enjoyed talking to common people about crops and livestock. He was very relatable in that way. But something changed in him in 1788, around the time he was 50 years old. He started having these episodes, violent outbursts, racing thoughts, talking for hours without stopping. His urine turned blue,
10:50 Kaelyn Moore? and he'd have these attacks of very severe abdominal pain. His skin would become sensitive to light. And during his worst episodes, he couldn't even recognize his own wife and children. For over 200 years, doctors believed that George III had what's known as porphyria, a rare genetic disorder that affects the nervous system and can cause psychological symptoms along with physical ones. The blue urine, the abdominal pain, the mental disturbances, they all fit the symptom list. But I will add that more recent researchers have questioned this diagnosis, and they've suggested that he may have had bipolar disorder or some other psychiatric condition, and the blue urine was part of something else that was happening, like a UTI.
11:34 Kaelyn Moore? We'll probably never know for sure, but what we do know is that in 1810, George III was completely incapacitated by this illness. He was blind, he was deaf, and he spent his final years, which was almost a decade, confined to a room in Windsor Castle, often restrained in a straitjacket and sometimes not even recognizing where he was. His son ruled while George III lived out his last years in darkness and confusion. But it was said that he would have these lucid periods about once a day, where he would stand at his window and watch the guards parade past. He may not have known where he was or even who his own children were,
12:19 Kaelyn Moore? but when he heard the guards march past his window every afternoon, he knew, deep down, that once he had been king. Every day, he would stand in that window, and he would return their salute to them. After George III died in January of 1820, while his body still lay in state, the guards were marching past his window when the commanding officer saw the unmistakable figure of the king standing in his customary place. Instinctively, he ordered his soldiers to face the king. And as they turned, every single one of them saw the king standing there, and they watched as he returned their salute one final time.
13:02 Kaelyn Moore? Multiple witnesses, the entire guard unit, all seeing the same thing. A king who loved his troops so much that not even death could keep him from honoring them one last time. People still to this day will see him standing at that window, looking longingly out, maintaining his post. And honestly, after everything he went through, after all of those years of confusion and darkness, maybe it is kind of a comfort that his ghost appears lucid, dignified, and doing the thing that gave him purpose. Now, all the ghosts that we've talked about so far have been real royalty that have lived in the castle. But according to some legends, not everything that haunts the grounds is human.
13:45 Kaelyn Moore? For our final stop, we need to leave the castle itself and venture into Windsor Great Park, because this is where something dark stalks the woods. Something unexplainable.
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15:00 Kaelyn Moore? The legend goes back to the reign of Richard II in the late 1300s. Hearne was a royal huntsman, one of the best, and a favorite of the king. One day, during a hunt, Richard II and Hearne cornered a white stag who attacked the two. Hearne ended up throwing himself between the stag and the king, and that caused him to be attacked to the brink of death. But ultimately, he saved Richard's life. And as Hearne lay on the ground, coming in and out of consciousness, this mysterious dark figure from the woods appeared. Some say it was a wizard, others say it was the devil himself. But this figure offered to save Hearne's life.
15:44 Kaelyn Moore? He cut off the stag's antlers, and he tied them to Hearne's head. Hearne ended up surviving, and the figure disappeared back into that forest. But after this supernatural encounter, a couple of weird things happened. First and foremost, Hearne lost his ability to hunt entirely. Now, when other huntsmen witnessed Hearne coming back to the castle with these bloody stag horns tied to his head, they accused him of poaching. Hearne tried to explain to them what happened, about the strange shadowy figure that approached him and saved his life, but no one really believed this story. Eventually, the other huntsmen were even able to convince Richard II of this poaching scandal. They knew that Hearne was Richard's favorite, and they wanted him to fall out of favor.
16:27 Kaelyn Moore? And because of this, Hearne was dismissed from his duties. Now, this caused him to spiral, and he ended up going into Windsor Forest and hanged himself from a great oak tree. But that's not the end of this story. After his death, the huntsmen who framed him also lost their abilities to hunt entirely. Every trap they set, every arrow they shot, all missed. Not knowing what else to do, they all ventured into the woods and tried to conjure this mysterious figure that Hearne had told them about. They wanted to see if it could help them. Now, he did appear to them, and he told them to meet at an oak tree at midnight, the very same oak tree where Hearne died. That night, Hearne's ghost appeared to them,
17:11 Kaelyn Moore? and he was wearing the bloody stag's antlers. The next morning, those huntsmen were all found hanged from the same tree, their faces frozen in terror.
17:24 Kaelyn Moore? Ever since then, people have said they've seen Hearn in Windsor Great Park. A figure with massive antlers riding this phantom black horse, accompanied by spectral hounds and rattling chains. He tends to appear during winter storms, usually at midnight. And the legend says that his appearance signals national disasters and warns that a monarch is near death. The legend has actually spread so far that Shakespeare even wrote about Hearn in The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1597, describing how he, quote, "Doth all the winter time, at still midnight, walk round about an oak." And sightings of Hearn have continued closer to the present day. In 1962, some schoolboys found an old hunting horn in Windsor Great Park,
18:08 Kaelyn Moore? and they decided to blow it. According to them, Hearn and his spectral huntsmen all appeared, riding through the trees towards them. The boys all fled in terror. And in 1976, a guardsman reported seeing a statue in the Italian garden come to life and start growing antlers just like Hearn. The original Hearn's oak, which was over 600 years old at the time, fell in 1836. Those logs were burned in the castle fireplace, but it didn't do anything to stop Hearn's ghost from appearing. Now there's a replacement tree that stands on the spot, and people still hear hunting horns in the dead of night. And every now and then, they'll still see a shadowy, antlered figure through the mist.
18:53 Kaelyn Moore? Windsor Castle is still very much a working royal residence. The royal family knows about the ghosts supposedly. A lot of them have said that they've seen them. Prince William reportedly said when he was mourned about the ghosts before moving in, quote, "No old hall would be complete without ghosts, would it?" And maybe that's the thing about Windsor Castle. It's not just haunted by the past. It's still very much living with it. A thousand years of history doesn't just fade away. Sometimes it rides through the park still on winter nights. Sometimes it returns a salute one final time, or checks on old library books, or argues with a long-dead spouse or two whose deaths it engineered. Or, in the case of our next castle,
19:36 Kaelyn Moore? sometimes the past hangs around and has more sinister intentions.
19:42 Kaelyn Moore? The next castle that I want to tell you about sits perched at over 3,500 feet in a remote region just south of Salzburg. And if you were to tour the grounds, you would find a pretty unusual and morbid feature of this castle. Now, in the courtyard between two of the castle sections sits a 50-meter-deep well, and that is an entry point into the deep belly of the castle that sits below ground, the dungeons. These dungeons have no windows. There's no natural light that comes through. The torture chamber down there, which is still visible to visitors today, contains some of the original instruments from the 17th century. And if you take the narrow stone staircase down to the cells
20:24 Kaelyn Moore? where prisoners waited, the acoustics create something unnatural. Footsteps start echoing, voices carry around corners, even your breath seems totally amplified. And according to many tourists, you may even hear the sounds of something otherworldly, like echoey screams coming from down a long stone hallway. The castle remembers the events that took place in these torture chambers. And what happened there between 1675 and 1690 was one of the most unusual and horrific witch hunts in European history. This is Mussum Castle, and it's what's called a spur castle, built on a narrow ridge of rock that juts out from
21:09 Kaelyn Moore? the mountains. It's surrounded by these thick alpine forests. It was first documented in 1191, when it belonged to the noble Mussum family, and some believe that it sits on the foundation of a Roman fortress. In 1285, the Prince Archbishops of Salzburg seized the castle after accusing the Mussums of disloyalty, and it remained under control of the church for the next five centuries. And starting in 1520, Mussum became the judicial center for parts of Austria, which meant that every aspect of the justice system happened here: trials, imprisonment, torture, and execution. And years after it opened, a mass hysteria would sweep through the countryside, landing thousands-
21:51 Kaelyn Moore? Within these walls, witch trials. These trials began with a single arrest in 1675. This woman named Barbara Collarin worked in the animal slaughter trade near Salzburg, a profession that definitely placed her firmly at the bottom of society's hierarchy. One day, when Barbara arrived at work, she saw the authorities were there waiting for her. She was told that an offeratory box from a church in Goling had gone missing, and that she was the most likely suspect. Now, Barbara had no idea what these officers were talking about, but they still grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her down into the dungeons at Musum Castle. She was arrested on suspicion of theft, but also witchcraft.
22:34 Kaelyn Moore? What happened next was horrifyingly routine for witch trials of that era. Barbara was tortured in the castle dungeons. Her hands were tied behind her back, and a rope was attached to her wrist and thrown over a pulley or a beam in the ceiling. From there, she was hoisted up into the air, suspended by her arms behind her. This was so her own body weight would dislocate her shoulders while they interrogated her. Her thumbs were then crushed by metal bars. Burning irons were pushed into her skin. And eventually, Barbara just couldn't take it anymore. She begged for death, but the prison guards weren't so kind. And so, not knowing what else she could do, she confessed.
23:16 Kaelyn Moore? She admitted that, yes, she was a witch. Just please stop the torture. But that wasn't enough for the interrogators. Tell us who helped you, they demanded. And they crushed her thumbs even harder until you could hear the bones breaking. And that's when Barbara said something that would eventually doom 139 people to death. She told them that her 20-year-old son, Paul Jacob Kohler, had made a pact with Satan himself. And then she was burned alive at the stake in August of 1675. Her son, Jacob, nicknamed Jackal or Wizard Jack, immediately became the most wanted man in all of Salzburg.
23:57 Kaelyn Moore? Authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, continually increasing the reward for turning him in, but he was always able to avoid being captured somehow. So the authorities started arresting every homeless boy on the street to interrogate them. One of them must have seen Jacob out on the street, even though there were reports in 1677 that claimed he had died. But then this 12-year-old homeless boy named Feldner was arrested, and under the same torture that Barbara endured, he caved. And he claimed that he had seen Jackal just three weeks earlier. "Doing what?" the guard asked. "Pulling Feldner up by a rope until his shoulders dislocated from his sockets." The boy cried out in pain and confessed that Jackal was the leader of gangs of beggar
24:42 Kaelyn Moore? children in the area, and he had seen him teaching these kids his black magic. That single confession triggered the 15-year reign of terror. Every single beggar child in Salzburg was pulled off of the street and dragged into the torture chambers at Mussum. They were all accused of being taught the devil's magic from Jackal. And then they were tortured, their bones were crushed and dislocated until they named other children, and finally, they were executed. Now, in typical European witch hunts, about 75% of the victims were women. They were usually elderly, usually poor, operating outside of acceptable societal norms. But the Salzburg Trials completely reversed those numbers.
25:25 Kaelyn Moore? Of the 139 people executed at Mussum Castle between 1675 and 1690, 81% of them were men and boys. And the age breakdown is even more disturbing. 39 victims were children between 10 and 14 years old, and another 53 were teenagers and young adults between 15 and 21. All but two of the 139 executed were homeless. And the saddest part is, that was completely by Design. No wealthy aristocrats were accused of witchcraft, just the beggars that the government wanted off the street anyways. See, years earlier, the Thirty Years' War had occurred.
26:06 Kaelyn Moore? It was a war from 1618 to 1648 that combined religious warfare, dynastic struggles, and territorial ambitions, and it had killed somewhere between five and eight million people across the Holy Roman Empire. Some regions lost two-thirds of their population, and the war created this unprecedented number of orphans. By the 1670s, groups of homeless teenagers were highly visible throughout all of Salzburg, and authorities felt like these boys were too aggressive in their begging, and that they represented proof that times were bad and leadership was failing. So, the narrative that was built around Jackal and his black magic
26:47 Kaelyn Moore? provided the perfect justification for eliminating this problem that they felt they had. As each new child was arrested and tortured, the mythology just grew. Under interrogation, the accused confessed that Jackal was influencing them. "He could make himself invisible," they said. "He could turn blocks of wood into mice. He could transform into a wolf, or enchant rats to ruin harvests." And the transcripts of the Mussum Trials that are all preserved in the Salzburg Archives showed that interrogators carefully guided these confessions, using children's imaginations to create an ever-more fantastical legend of Jackal as this all-powerful sorcerer.
27:30 Kaelyn Moore? For those who confessed, or who were convicted, the executions were public spectacles. Children under 14 often had their hands cut off and were branded with burning irons, and then they were paraded through Salzburg streets as warnings before they were burned alive. Teenagers and adults were sometimes granted the "mercy" of being hanged or decapitated before their bodies were burned, but many, many victims, especially the youngest ones, were burned alive at the stake. The peak of the trials came in 1681. When 109 people were executed in a single year. Now, these trials eventually ended in 1690.
28:12 Kaelyn Moore? By then, the hysteria had simply exhausted itself. Jackal was never found, and that gradually undermined the entire narrative. The circle of persecution had widened so far. Children, teenagers, anyone poor or homeless, that it completely disrupted normal social functioning in the area. And in general, all across Europe, skepticism about witchcraft was growing. The Roman Inquisition had acknowledged as early as 1635 that it had, quote, "found scarcely one trial conducted legally." And then, 100 years after the torture ended, in 1790, the castle fell in total decay.
28:54 Kaelyn Moore? And that's when something else strange happened on the grounds. In the 1790s, deer and cattle started turning up dead on the castle grounds, torn apart viscerally by something. Locals immediately blamed the remaining castle residents and the horrors that had occurred on the grounds all those years ago. "The devil must have not left," they said, "and he was tainting all of those who remained." They ended up accusing the residents of being werewolves. And so, a mob stormed the castle grounds and murdered everyone who was living there in the courtyard. And after that, the castle was abandoned until 1886. Today, Musum Castle is owned by the descendants
29:39 Kaelyn Moore? of a count who purchased the ruins and restored them. You can tour the castle if you dare and see the replica torture chamber, stand in the dungeons where kids as young as 10 waited to be interrogated, and then you can walk through the courtrooms where their fates were decided. The executioner's sword is still on display, and so are some of the original torture devices. And if you believe some of the stories, those children victims never really left the area. Visitors report hearing footsteps echoing through empty hallways, only to turn around and see that no one's there behind them. There's also this near constant sound of chains dragging across cold stone floors and tons of cold spots.
30:22 Kaelyn Moore? I kept reading about all the cold spots that everyone feels, even in the dead of summer. The torture chamber in particular is where most of this activity is. People say they often feel touched by unseen little hands, or that they're watched by invisible eyes. The most common apparition, actually, that people report seeing is a young woman in white who wanders the corridors, moaning, disappearing when she's approached. This may very well be Barbara, cursed to wander the grounds for all of eternity for her part in starting the witch trials. On quiet nights, locals say that you can still hear screams echoing from the mountains,
31:00 Kaelyn Moore? where 139 people met horrific deaths for the crime of being young, poor, homeless, and in the wrong place at the wrong time. The phantom at the center of all of this, Jackal, has never been seen, and he was never caught. But his legacy, which is now a cautionary tale about how fear, prejudice, and crisis can combine into lethal persecution of the most vulnerable, still haunts the stone walls of Mussum today. Now, let's move on to our final haunted castle, one that has also sparked many legends that continue to haunt not only the walls of the castle, but also haunt the nightmares of millions around the world, maybe even your own nightmares.
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34:51 Kaelyn Moore? Picture this: It's nightfall at Himeji Castle in feudal Japan. The last rays of sunlight disappear behind the castle's brilliant white walls, and darkness creeps all through the stone corridors. A young page named Morita Zusho stands at the base of the main keep, clutching a paper lantern in his trembling hand. His friends have dared him to prove whether the rumors are true, whether something supernatural really lives at the top of the castle tower. Zusho begins his ascent. The wooden stairs creak beneath his feet. His lantern casts dancing shadows on the walls as he climbs higher and higher, past the first floor, the second floor, then the third. The castle seems to close in around him. His heart is pounding so loud, he can hear it echoing in the empty chambers.
35:36 Kaelyn Moore? Finally, he reaches the sixth floor, the very top. And that's when he sees it: A faint light emanating from a door in the attic. Someone, or something, is up there. Before he can turn back, a woman's voice cuts through the darkness. Who's there? Who's there? Zusho freezes. He hears the distinct rustle of silk, the whispers of fabric moving around. The door starts to slide open slowly, revealing not the ancient crone everyone whispered about, but an elegant woman in her 30s, wearing an elaborate 12-layered ceremonial kimono that marks her as someone of extraordinary rank.
36:19 Kaelyn Moore? This is Osaka Behime, the Lady of the Walls. She's a powerful yokai who has haunted the uppermost floors of Himeji Castle for centuries. She despises humans, and she only emerges once a year to meet with the castle lord and foretell the castle's fate. Legend says that she can read your heart and manipulate you like a puppet. And anyone who sees her face dies instantly. But tonight, amused by Zusho's honesty and his bravery, she doesn't kill him. Instead, she hands him proof of their encounter: A piece of his own master's family armor, a shikorobuki neckguard that should have been Safely locked away elsewhere in the castle.
37:03 Kaelyn Moore? You'll need proof that you actually saw me, she says, her voice carrying centuries of knowledge and power. The next day, when Zusho presents the heirloom to his stunned master. Everyone realizes the impossible has happened. He met the spirit at the top of the tower and he lived to tell the tale. This is one of the most famous stories from one of Japan's most haunted castles. Himeji Castle called White Heron Castle because its brilliant white walls make it look like a bird taking flight. It's about an hour west of Osaka. It was built between thirteen thirty-three and sixteen oh nine and is widely considered the finest surviving example of Japanese castle architecture.
37:45 Kaelyn Moore? UNESCO recognized it as a World Heritage Site in nineteen ninety-three and that's for good reason. This place is massive. The complex contains eighty-three buildings, all connected by a maze of defense passages designed to confuse and slow attackers. The main keep rises a hundred and fifty-two feet into the air, appearing to have five stories from the outside, but actually containing six floors plus the basement. It's a deceptive design that's meant to throw off enemies. The upper floors are really sparse. There's these narrow staircases that connect bare wooden rooms. The sixth floor, where Osaka Bay Heime dwells, contains only one hundred and fifteen square meters and a small shrine that was built
38:28 Kaelyn Moore? specifically to appease her after a mysterious illness plagued the castle lords who displaced her mountain shrine during construction. The castle has survived almost seven hundred years of war, natural disasters, even World War Two. During the bombing of Himeji in nineteen forty-five, a firebomb landed directly on the top floor, but it failed to explode. The castle stood while the entire city around it burned. Some people say it's luck, but other people say that Osaka Bay Heime protects her domain no matter what. But the lady of the walls isn't the only ghost that's said to haunt Himeji Castle and she's certainly. Not the most famous one, at least outside of Japan.
39:13 Kaelyn Moore? There's another spirit here, one whose story is even more tragic. Okiku was a beautiful young servant who worked at Himeji Castle during Japan's feudal era, probably around the 1520s. Her job was to wash dishes and care for the household's most precious possessions, including a set of 10 valuable decorative plates, these heirlooms that had been passed down through generations. Over time, a samurai named Aoyama Tetsuzan became infatuated with Okiku, proposing again and again that she become his mistress. Each time, Okiku refused. She would not compromise her honor, no matter who asked. Aoyama's patience eventually ran out. If she wouldn't submit willingly, he was going to force her hand.
39:59 Kaelyn Moore? So he devised a cruel plan. He secretly stole one of the 10 precious plates and he hid it away. The next day, he summoned Okiku and told her that one of her master's plates was missing. Okiku's blood ran cold. Losing a family heirloom was punishable by death. With trembling hands, she opened the box and began to count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. She counted again and again and again, always getting to nine plates, never 10. Tears were streaming down her face. Aoyama watched her panic, and then he leaned in close to her ear with his offer. "I could overlook this matter.
40:41 Kaelyn Moore? I could tell the master it wasn't your fault, but only if you finally become my lover." Now, even facing execution, Okiku refused this proposal. She did not want anything to do with that man. So, he took her punishment upon himself. He had her beaten with wooden swords and then bound with ropes and dragged to the deep castle well. There, they suspended her over the dark opening and began lowering her into the freezing water, plunging her deep into the castle well until her lungs burned and she started losing consciousness. And then, they hauled her back up and- And Eoyama himself beat her again with his wooden sword.
41:24 Kaelyn Moore? And then it was this horrible pattern of bringing her down into the well and then up, and then down, and then up, each time demanding that she submit to him. And each time, she squarely refused. Finally, in a rage, Eoyama released the ropes. Okiku's broken body plummeted into the depths of the well, and the water closed over her until she completely vanished. But her death was not the end of her story. Not long after this, strange things began happening at the castle. At night, when darkness fell, those near the well would hear a woman's voice echoing up from the depths,
42:03 Kaelyn Moore? counting, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine." Okiku's ghost had returned, and those who saw her said that she would rise up from the well, this pale, dripping figure in white, with long, black hair hanging in wet tangles over her face. And every night, she would count. And when she reached nine, unable to find the tenth plate, she would let out a blood-curdling shriek that echoed throughout the entire castle before she would vanish back into the well. Anyone who heard even a part of Okiku's counting was cursed and would become severely ill. But those who heard her count all the way to nine would die.
42:45 Kaelyn Moore? Night after night, Okiku's ghost tormented Eoyama. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't escape that voice, counting over and over and over. And some versions of the story say that she eventually drove him to complete madness. Eventually, the castle lord summoned a Buddhist priest to deal with this haunting. The priest prepared himself with prayer and meditation, and then he positioned himself in the garden near the well as darkness fell. He began chanting sutras, and he waited. And then, at midnight, Okiku appeared. Her ghost rose from the well, and she began her eternal count. "One, two, three."
43:27 Kaelyn Moore? But then, when Okiku reached nine and opened her mouth to scream, the priest shouted at the top of his lungs, Ten. Her ghost froze. The scream died on her lips. Relief washed over all of her spectral features as she realized someone must have finally found the 10th plate. She smiled, and then she faded away like a mist. From that night on, it's said that Okiku never haunted the castle again. Or did she? Some versions of this story insist that this exorcism didn't actually work, that Okiku still rises from the well every night when the castle closes, that she's still screaming, still searching for the justice that never came.
44:12 Kaelyn Moore? The well exists to this very day. You can go visit it. Tourists will gather around the metal grating, peering down into the darkness, wondering if they might hear something from below. And locals will tell you that when the castle closes at night, you can still hear Okiku's voice echoing up from the depths. Now, if this story sounds familiar, a girl with long black hair who died in a well, rising as a vengeful spirit in a white burial garment? That's because you've absolutely seen her before, not in feudal Japan, but crawling out of a TV screen. Okiku's story was the direct inspiration for the 1998 Japanese film, Ringu, known in English as The Ring, based on the 1991 novel.
44:55 Kaelyn Moore? Sodako, or Samara in the American remake, is essentially Okiku transported into the modern age, her curse spreading not through the castle corridors, but through videotapes and television screens. Okiku's well still sits at Himeji Castle. It's covered in iron bars today. And this castle has survived everything: wars, earthquakes, firebombs. And it's said to be all because of the ghosts that still linger there to this day, protecting it eternally from these threats. It's an amazing place to go visit. Just pray that if you stand over Okiku's well, you don't ever hear her voice. And I will leave you with that. That's all I have for you this week. Actually, that's all I have for you this year. Do you guys have any more haunted places
45:40 Kaelyn Moore? you want us to visit on this show? We have all of our programming next year to explore more. More haunted locations. So let me know in the comments or wherever you listen. And once again, you can catch up on all of the great monthly bonus episodes, archived episodes and more, all for free with a trial, which is always nice around this time of year with Christmas shopping and holiday travel and all of that. Links are going to be in the description if you want to go listen to any of that stuff. I'm so excited for everything that next year has in store for us. 2025 was truly the best year of my life and I cannot wait for 2026 with you guys. But until next year, stay curious.
46:20 Kaelyn Moore? Heart Size Pounding is written and produced by me, Kayla Moore. Heart Size Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Our associate producer is Juno Hobbs. Additional research and writing by Matt Brown. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jurnigan, the team at WME and Ben Chaffee. Have a heart pounding story or a case request? Check out heartsizepounding.com. This episode is brought to you by our partner, VistaPrint. If you run a small business, you know that there's a moment where you go from just doing the thing you love to realizing you need stuff, like physical stuff. Custom merch for an event, branded apparel for your team, business cards that actually look professional. That was definitely me with Heart Starts Pounding. What started as a podcast I made in my closet turned into something that had merch, had mugs, had stickers, had all of this stuff that I needed to get made.
47:06 Kaelyn Moore? And VistaPrint made it so much less overwhelming. They are a true print expert. Premium quality products, fast turnaround and design tools that actually make sense. I actually got custom mugs made from VistaPrint and they are gorgeous and very, very good quality. The quality feels expensive without having an expensive price tag. There's a reason over 17 million businesses trust VistaPrint with their print needs. VistaPrint, print your possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at vistaprint.com using code NEW20. Do you want more Darkly Curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content, our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter and the HSP Book Club.
47:50 Kaelyn Moore? Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven day trial. Link in the bio or go to patreon.com backslash heart starts pounding. But whatever you do, stay curious.
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