The curse of Ho Tei

People are accustomed to hearing stories about cursed relics or objects considered to be unlucky in regards to their unfortunate owner. There are numerous examples of these, such as voodoo dolls cited as having the ability to inflict physical harm on the victim it supposedly represents, to children's toys, where the young owner has met an untimely demise and the bad luck from the event becomes engrained in the object itself, which is inevitably passed on to the next owner unlucky enough to come into contact with it. Despite an abundance of such events throughout history, very rarely have such qualities been evident in a carved depiction of a Japanese deity supposedly connected with good luck. The irony is tragic.


Ho Tei is a Japanese deity renowned for the very same quality, as well as being connected with general prosperity largely as a result of his facial expression which gives the image of an individual with a happy, cheerful demeanor. In terms of physical appearance, he is always dressed in traditional, Buddhist style regalia and is depicted as being large in size, with a pronounced stomach that has become his most famous hallmark, with a Japanese custom related to it which states that when a person gets the opportunity to visit or own a statue which represents him, they should rub his stomach with their finger and they will be rewarded with monetary riches. Could a carved representation of something so inextricably linked with good fortune, be infused with a curse as a result of its creation? The following tale may be evidence of such a possibility.


A certain Mr and Mrs Lambert were in the midst of an around the world trip they had been planning. Upon arriving in Japan, they happened to locate an antiquated curiosity shop and after exploring its many treasures, stumbled upon an ivory representation of Ho Tei. A combination of its inherent beauty and the store owners recommendation that it would bring them good luck, resulted in the couple purchasing the item. The statue was securely placed in Mrs Lambert's case while en route to their next port of call which happened to be Manila. During the trip, she started to experience excruciating toothache and after arriving in Manila, received medication from a dentist, which did little to alleviate the pain. After this unfortunate episode, they travelled towards Sydney, where the statue was transferred to Mr Lambert's case. It was de ja vu as he also succumbed to the same terrible tooth pain. With no doctor being present, he resorted to taking aspirins which proved futile in controlling his symptoms. These persisted for quite some time, culminating in him debarking at a particular port and instructing a dentist to keep pulling teeth until he gave the order to stop. After the extraction of the first, the pain subsided and he believed he had put an end to the sorry saga.


At this point, many sceptics would be forgiven for believing in a theory of coincidence as there were only a few instances of this phenomenon, but never the less, they continued. After arriving in Chile, the home of Mr Lambert's mother, they decided to take the opportunity to visit her. Upon encountering the statue, his mother instantly fell in love with it and so, as a gesture of kindness, they decided to give it to her as a gift. She quickly changed her decision, however, after succumbing to the very same affliction for a number of hours and ultimately decided to give the statue back to it's original owners, providing the excuse that it didn't suit her needs. Curiously, while travelling towards England, neither Mr or Mrs Lambert experienced any further pain, but there existed a specific reason for this as the statue was placed in the confines of the storage room. The perceived curse raised it's ugly head again however, after they arrived in England. While visiting friends, they handed it over to a woman to show her husband. Confusion set in when they didn't see or hear from the woman again for the remainder of the day. When encountering her the next morning, she appeared with a swollen face and a very similar tale in regards to others who had been in close proximity to the cursed relic.


After coming to the conclusion that something was awry, the couple began to realise the inherent connection between the tooth pain and the statue. This was due to their studious examination of the dates and times that people had it about their person. Once they had discovered the pattern and arrived at the answer, they decided that the only way to avoid any further instances of pain was to pass it on to somebody else. They promptly achieved this when handing it over to a Japanese curiosity shop in London. There have been numerous theories put forward for the pain administered by the statue. Some believe in a genuine curse surrounding the item, visiting bad luck on anybody unfortunate enough to come into ownership of it. The most bizarre of these however, states that the intense pain the elephant endured when it's tusks were extracted to provide the material for the statue, left an imprinted memory of the event within it, manifesting in similar pain for each subsequent owner. Whatever the explanation, whether plausible or far fetched, the statue definitely left it's mark on anybody who came into contact with it.