[Episode 18] Mount Sashiro (Daytime) — Discovering a Cursed Well at the Real-Life Setting Said to Have Inspired the Film Ring.

The main episode (daytime) of Episode 18, “Bound Ground.” The crew searches for the legendary well at the Sashiro Mountain and Kasama Castle ruins in Kasama, Ibaraki.

Legends about the “Sadako Well,” said to have been inside the castle, and accounts of warrior-like figures seen in the mountains are sometimes told. Most of these are oral tradition, and no historical backing has been confirmed. There are several theories about which well inspired the film Ring, and none is settled.

This episode shows the crew actually checking the well and filming around it. It is entertainment with staged elements and we do not guarantee its accuracy. The site is now a historic park open to many visitors in the daytime; please avoid entering at night.

What to Watch For

Note that Sadako in the film Ring is a fictional character, and in the original novel the well where a body was dumped is said to be under a facility in Hakone. We have found no material supporting the claim that the well in Kasama was the model. There are multiple theories about the model.

Our Take

This is speculation, but for a mountain castle a well was a lifeline for withstanding a siege; when the water ran out, the castle ran out. The memory of that “water supply” may later have overlapped with the image of a fictional well. Also, the materials of the demolished keep are said to have been used for the worship hall of Sashino Shrine above the keep base. Though the castle was destroyed, the timber continued to be used as a place of prayer. In our view, this shows, contrary to seeing the castle site as holding grudges, a history in which the defeated and the victors alike piled up on the same mountain and were gradually received as a space of prayer.