English Version
When you hear the words witch hunt, what comes to mind?
Maybe you imagine countless innocent women being killed. Maybe you picture a religious massacre, a dark and tragic age when an entire society trembled before something that did not exist.
But there is another disturbing side to this history: witch hunts were also treated as popular entertainment.
Like people watching an adults-only splatter film, crowds gathered to see human beings tortured and executed in brutal ways. The spectacle itself became a form of entertainment.
This is the truly chilling story: witch hunts as public amusement, the many execution methods used against the accused, and the uncomfortable fact that the spirit of the witch hunt has not completely disappeared.
What Witch Hunts Really Were
A witch hunt was a form of mass hysteria in Christian societies, where people accused of opposing the religious and social order were labeled witches and eliminated as threats.
Of course, actual witches were not hiding in every village. And if real witches had existed, they probably would have escaped with magic.
Most of the people branded as witches were ordinary people, no different from us. They may have been a little unusual, unable to fit into society, disliked by their neighbors, or simply inconvenient to someone else.
That was often enough. Men and women alike could be turned into witches for the smallest reasons.
Instead of innocent until proven guilty, the logic of the time was more like: if you are suspected, you will be punished, tortured, and publicly executed.
And many people wanted to see it happen.
The Entertainment Value of Witch Hunts
There were people even at the time who opposed witch hunts. But their voices were drowned out by the belief that killing witches was justice.
Once public executions were performed in front of people who believed that, they became something close to a festival.
Nearby buildings were rented out for viewing. Excited spectators threw stones at the bodies. Public executions became major social events.
As if responding to this demand, various methods of torture and execution were developed during the period when witch hunts spread. Here are three of the most representative methods.
Burning at the Stake
Joan of Arc, the national heroine who helped bring victory to France, was executed by burning.
It was believed that a witch had to be burned completely to ashes in order to be erased from the world. For that reason, burning was considered an especially suitable method for witch trials.
It was simple, brutal, and visually dramatic because of the flames. That made it a popular method for crowds seeking spectacle.
Beheading
Execution by beheading was also used in Japan, and it was one of the more standard methods of execution around the world.
Unlike burning, it could kill a person instantly, so among execution methods, it was sometimes considered relatively merciful.
That said, the blade did not always cut cleanly in one strike. The pain and terror of that possibility are almost impossible to imagine.
Death by Drowning
Drowning tests were among the most morally bankrupt methods.
The logic was horrifyingly simple: if the accused floated, they were declared a witch and then burned to death. If they sank, they were proven human and died anyway.
Whether the person was supposedly a witch or not, the result was death. It was a punishment made for people who wanted to watch an execution no matter what.
This may be the point where the entertainment of execution reached its most grotesque form.
Witch Hunts Still Exist
After reading this far, it is easy to laugh and think: witch hunts as entertainment? People in the past had no morals.
But can we really treat it as someone else’s problem?
The spirit of the witch hunt still exists in modern Japan, too.
One example often compared to a modern witch hunt is the so-called flip-phone woman case, where a person was widely singled out online amid a wave of public outrage. The pattern was familiar: everyone says she is the witch, so she must be one. Making an example of her is justice. Once someone is suspected, that person is evil.
An unspecified crowd, driven by a distorted sense of justice, exposed and attacked someone who was not proven guilty. Media coverage heated up as if to satisfy that demand.
That is the witch hunt as entertainment, in a modern form.
In that sense, perhaps we have not changed much since the old days. Or perhaps this is something frighteningly close to human nature itself.
When you think about it that way, ghosts and urban legends may not be the scariest things after all.
The most terrifying thing may be human beings.
Japanese Language
「 魔女狩り 」と聞くと、。大勢の罪のない女性が殺された 。とか、。宗教的な大量虐殺が行われた 。というイメージがありませんか？。なんだか、すごく暗くて悲しくて、社会全体が存在しない何かに怯えているような…。…いえいえ。実は 魔女狩りは、 庶民の娯楽 だったのです。。まるで18禁のスプラッター映画を観るかのように、人が残虐に拷問され処刑される様を見ること自体が、当時流行のエンターテインメントだったのです。この、。魔女狩りが娯楽だった事実 魔女狩りで行われた処刑の数々 今も魔女狩りは存在する という「 人間よ、道徳どこに置いてきた 」的なストーリーについて、生々しくお話ししてまいります。
魔女狩りの正体。。魔女狩り とは、キリスト教社会に背く者を「魔女」とみなして、脅威になりそうな人物を誰彼構わず排除した集団ヒステリーのこと。実際に魔女なんていませんし、もしいても魔法で逃れてると思います。当時魔女扱いされた人は、なんの罪もない私たちと同じような人々でした。ただ、。人とちょっと変わっていた 社会に馴染めなかった 単に嫌われていただけ とか、そういう些細な理由さえあれば、男女問わず、誰でも魔女に仕立て上げられる時代だったのです。
『疑わしきは罰せず』の対義語のような『 疑わしきは全員罰するし、拷問するし、公開処刑もするよ 』という歪んだ価値観が、その時代の常識だったのです。そしてこの処刑を、人々もまた望んでいました。魔女狩りの娯楽性。実は当時から、魔女狩りに反対する人も少なからずいました。しかし「 公開処刑は酷すぎる」という意見より、 「魔女を殺すことが正義」という声が圧倒的に大きかった のです。そしてその価値観を持つ人たちの前で公開処刑をするとなると、もうお祭り騒ぎ。
周囲の建物が貸し切られたり、熱狂した観客が遺体に石を投げつけたりと、公開処刑が社会現象的なイベントと化していました。この需要を満たすかのように 様々な拷問や処刑方法が開発された のも、魔女狩りが流行した中世から。当時の代表的な処刑方法を、3つご紹介します。火刑。 Wikipedia「火刑」 フランス軍に勝利をもたらした国民的ヒロイン「ジャンヌ・ダルク」は、 火刑に処され殺されました。
。魔女をこの世から消し去るには灰になるまで焼き尽くす必要があるとされ、火刑は魔女狩りに最適な処刑方法だったようです。シンプルかつ残虐で、火を使うことから視覚的に盛り上がる、人気の方法でもありました。斬首刑。 Wikipedia「斬首刑」 日本でも「首切り」による処刑が行われていたように、 世界的にも定番の処刑方法です。。火刑と違い瞬時に絶命するため、(処刑の中では)良心的な方法だったようです。
首が一撃で切れない場合も多々あり、その痛みは心底想像を絶しますね…。溺死刑。。水に溺れさせ、浮かび上がれば魔女確定⇒火刑で死亡 そのまま沈めば人間確定⇒死亡 という、 道徳の欠片も無い処刑方法。。魔女だろうが人間だろうが、とにかく処刑が見たい人々のための刑罰です。処刑の娯楽化、ここに極まれり…。今も魔女狩りは存在する。。ここまで読んでいただいて、。魔女狩りが娯楽とかｗｗｗ。と思いましたか？。中世人、倫理観無さ過ぎｗｗｗ。って、果たして他人事のように笑えますか…？
。今の日本にも、魔女狩りの精神ってあるんです。「 ガラケー女 」なんて、まさに現代の魔女狩りそのものですよね。みんなが魔女って言ってるから、魔女に違いない 魔女を見せしめにすることが、正義だ 魔女と疑われた時点で、そいつは悪だ この歪んだ正義感を持った不特定多数の人が、無実の人を晒し上げ、その需要を満たすかのように報道も加熱しましたね。まさに、 娯楽としての魔女狩りそのもの 。。中世の頃から、何も変わっていません。むしろ、これは変えられない人間の本性でもあるのかもしれませんね…。
そう考えると、やっぱり悪霊やら都市伝説より、 人間こそ最も恐ろしい と思わされてしまいますね
