Here they come again. Worming their way into the black matter of my brain. I told myself…they cannot touch me. They’re long dead…
That’s right folks! It’s Obon time again. This is when the spirits of our deceased ancestors are said to visit the realm of the living. And so Japanese people have several traditions to make that visit a comfortable one for their loved ones.
One such custom is the shoryo uma which traditionally are little horses made from cucumber or eggplant and designed to symbolically transport the dead across these planes of existence.
In recent years these horses have evolved into a variety of things from tanks to Gundam vehicles., but now it seems shoryo uma makers have been inspired by the hit movie Mad Max: Fury Road and created vehicles in its image to transport loved ones across that great apocalyptic divide.
The crowd favorite this year appears to be this Mad Max shoryo uma set of cars made from a combination of eggplant (nasu in Japanese), cucumber (kyuuri) and toothpicks, which earned over 24,000 retweets.
▼”This Obon my ancestors are coming through the Fury Eggplant Road.”
今年のお盆はご先祖さまに怒りのナス・ロード経由で来ていただいた http://t.co/xGFUlyNv8F
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ボサノバ和尚 (@sativa_high) August 12, 2015However, this wasn’t the only Fury Road Obon vegetable.
▼ “I made a shoryo uma like the Nux Car. I even made the scaffolding for the blood bag to go on.”
ニュークスカー風のものを精霊馬で作りました。こだわりは輸血袋の足場を作ったとこです。 http://t.co/NgQj9DdA6r
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内藤ウメ子 (@wappagohan8) August 09, 2015▼ “I made a trendy Nux Car shoryo uma. Mad Neko: Fury Obon Road.”
流行りにのってニュークスカー精霊馬作ってみた！
マッドネコ怒りの盆ロード http://t.co/6dCyClEOFJ
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白色 (@46971) August 11, 2015This last one isn’t the prettiest of the bunch but certainly deserves credit for the fury-kyuuri rhyme alone, especially since I think it might have been unintentional.
▼ “Mad Max: Fury Kyuri Road V8!V8!V8!”
マッドマックス怒りのキュウリ・ロード V8!V8!V8! #お盆 http://t.co/k2aon0jxvL
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もちもち (@mochimochi321) July 13, 2015Of course it wasn’t all Mad Max – others stuck to more traditional designs. Like battle suits…
▼ “I made this shoryo uma for my grandfather. He exterminated all other ancestors while coming back.”
おじいちゃんのために精霊馬を作ったよ。他の先祖を皆殺ししながら帰ってきてね。 http://t.co/Owe7BYVrKk
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飯島モトハ (@mochiunagi) August 12, 2015▼ “Last year’s shoryo uma.”
去年の精霊馬 http://t.co/qhFCPFtsLt
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sj-Kimura@松山市 (@sjkimura) August 13, 2015▼ “Look at these shoryo uma my wife made.”
うちの奥さんが作った精霊馬見て http://t.co/nsLm9NsNeL
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ホッケ (@HokBoy) August 13, 2015Join us again next Obon for more fun with vegetables, when you can be sure the stakes will be raised further. If there’s one thing I’m increasingly sure of as the years go by, it’s that there’s no limit to what you can do with a cucumber and eggplant.
Source: Twitter (Japanese)
Origin: We now bring you Mad Max: Eggplant Road
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