Concept

Bancho Sarayashiki, （番町皿屋敷） (The Dish Mansion at Bancho) is a Japanese ghost
story of love separated by social class, and broken trust and promises that ultimately
lead to a dismal fate.

The story of Okiku and the Nine Plates is one of the most famous in Japanese folklore,
and continues to resonate with audiences today. Okiku was the beautiful servant of the
samurai, Aoyama Tessan. She refused his amorous advances so he tricked her into
believing that she had carelessly lost one of the family's ten precious delft plates.
She recounted the nine plates many times but when she could not find the tenth, Aoyama
offered to overlook the matter if she became his lover. Again she refused and he threw
her down a well to her death.  She became a vengeful spirit who tormented her murderer
by counting to nine and then making a terrible shriek to represent the missing tenth plate.
In some versions of the story, this torment continued until an exorcist or neighbor shouted
"ten" in a loud voice at the end of her count. Her ghost, apparently easily satisfied,
haunted the samurai no more.

"Ten" is the haunting experience of Okiku's death in the well, allowing the consumer to
become a part of Japanses folk history, sending chills down one's spine as the user
attempts to find her final plate ...