About

The Curse of Bura Tamori (Japanese: ブラタモリの呪い) is an urban legend that a Japanese TV program Bura Tamori^[1] brings misfortunes to the places they've introduced. Similar to Aki Higashihara's Death Blog in the 2000s, it's been rumored among some Japanese internet users since around 2017.

Origin

Hosted by famous Japanese comedian and television host Tamori^[2], this prime-time TV show has aired over 200 episodes of walking in an area on his foot and learning its history and culture since 2008. It's a well-known characteristic of the program to often call on natural science specialists to illustrate natural phenomena and geological/topological features that have affected the area's developments because the host is famous for being a terrain enthusiast.

Meanwhile, some Japanese people began seeing the relationships between the program and misfortunes when the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes^[3] damaged the area and the national heritage castle a few weeks after the program introduced Kumamoto city.

Spread

Around 2017, Japanese gossip newspapers began mentioning the curse of Bura Tamori as the voice of Twitter users when some accidents happened on sites they had visited.^[4] In 2019, the Notre Dame fire, typhoon Hagibis^[5], and Shuri Castle's destruction^[6] happened serially and drew a surge in the visibility of the curse among Japanese people and led to further media articles.^[7][8][9] On the other hand, a 2022 media article picked up other internet users' voices that defend the program as it's good for education for disaster prevention. They added that it's natural that natural disasters come after Bura Tamori because the program has visited all prefectures in this disaster-prone country through its hundreds of episodes.^[10]

Tamori and NHK, the broadcasting station for the program, have never reacted to this urban legend.

Various Examples

Sources: Nikkan Gendai (2017), Zakzak (2019), Tocana (2019), Smart Flash (2022), and NHK Archives^{[4][8][9][10][11]}

• On March 10th, 2011, Bura Tamori introduced Tokyo Tower, Japan's then-tallest structure.^[12] The following day, the Tōhoku earthquake^[13] damaged the tower and bent its large antenna on the top.^[14]

• On June 20th, 2015, Bura Tamori introduced a historical district in the center of Kawagoe city, Saitama Prefecture. The following day, five candy stores in the district's Kashiya Yokocho^[15] street burned down by a fire.^[16]

• On September 19th, 2015, Bura Tamori visited an archaeological excavation site in Fukuoka city, and Tamori pointed to the city's weak ground consisting of sand gravel layers. A year later, a massive sinkhole accident happened at a subway construction site nearby that site.^[17]

• In two episodes aired between March and early April 2016, Bura Tamori introduced Kumamoto Castle^[18] and Kumamoto City. About two weeks after its airing, on April 14th and 16th, large-scale earthquakes hit the city and left massive damage to Japan's important cultural property, which was assumed to require over 20 years for repair.

• On February 11th, 2017, Bura Tamori visited the amusement park, Rakutenchi (ラクテンチ)^[19], in Beppu City, Oita Prefecture. Two months after, a disinfectant mix-up accident happened in the amusement park.^[20]

• In February 2019, Bura Tamori introduced Paris in two episodes and started its first scene in front of Notre Dame. Two months after, the cathedral got ravaged by a massive fire.

• In February 2019, Bura Tamori introduced Musashi Kosugi, or Kosugi Chō in Kawasaki City, and explained that the now-rapidly developing town is in a flood-prone area that had often changed its terrain by floods by the Tama River^[21] in the past. In October of that year, the town's function collapsed and had stopped over a few weeks by a flood caused by the largest-ever scale typhoon Hagibis.^[22] The show has also introduced a residential street in a levee-less area in Futako Tamagawa in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, the opposite shore of Kawasaki, in another episode aired in 2009. This district was, too, fully submerged during the typhoon.^[23]

• On March 20th, 2016, Bura Tamori visited Naha city and Shuri Castle in Okinawa. In October 2019, an accidental fire completely burned down the national heritage castle's main hall and adjacent buildings.^[24]

• In July 2022, Bura Tamori introduced the Noto Region in Ishikawa Prefecture in two episodes. They seemingly shot the footage one or two months before. That means they visited the site just before a magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolted there on June 19th.^[25]

• On July 23rd, 2022, Bura Tamori announced it would introduce Sakurajima island in the next episode aired in August. The following day, the island's volcano caused explosive eruptions, which raised the nation's eruption alert level to the highest.^[26]

Search Interest

External References