Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume One Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Supernatural

  Kuchisake-onna

  Mary-san

  Kaijin Answer

  Satoru-kun

  The village where if you fall over, you die

  Different to the dream

  The photocopier that shows your face of death

  Teketeke

  Hikiko-san

  Sugisawa Village

  Kashima-san

  Railway crossing

  Ghost test

  Tanaka-kun

  Mimikajiri-onna

  Fumikiri-san

  Dream test

  Inokashira Park curse

  Cow's Head

  Fatal fare

  Aka Manto

  Purple mirror

  Tomino's Hell

  Red Room

  Hanako-san of the toilet

  Okiku doll

  Inunaki Village

  Hitori Kakurenbo

  Society

  The test only murderers can pass

  Why there are so many bridges to Shikoku

  What you can understand by convenience store toilets

  The professor's note

  Secret behind the Tokyo Marathon

  Sony timer

  Curse of Colonel Sanders

  Pedestrian road signs

  Caramel grooves

  How to make curry rice

  Military-use highway

  Medical

  White ear string

  Knee barnacles

  The dreadful convenience store bentos

  Loach hell nabe

  Welding practice

  Chocolate and nosebleeds

  Fan death

  Death by soy sauce

  Burnt food gives you cancer

  Hair vitality

  Menthol cigarettes

  Human stew

  Entertainment

  The true meaning behind Spirited Away

  The true story behind My Neighbour Totoro

  Where's Wally?

  Kleenex commercial

  The Television's infamous lemon

  White noise

  NNN special broadcast

  Jokes

  The scariest story of all

  Barometer

  The doctor's powers of observation

  The Japanese man with poor English skills

  Foreigner at the sushi restaurant

  Crime

  Aokigahara suicide hunters

  Water tank

  Little girl at the shopping centre

  Boutique dressing room

  Katsudon in the examination room

  Sources

  Rate This Book

  Reikan Snippet

  Want Even More?

  About the Author

  Newsletter

  Toshiden Vol. 1

  Exploring Japanese Urban Legends

  Tara A. Devlin

  Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends Vol. 1

  First Edition: July 2018

  taraadevlin.com

  © 2018 Tara A. Devlin

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  INTRODUCTION

  [urban legend, noun]

  “An often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true.” -Merriam-Webster

  “A modern myth. A frightening untrue story in which the storyteller insists is true, but has no evidence to back up. Also, it never happened to the storyteller but someone removed from them.” -Urban Dictionary

  “A purportedly true, typically sensational, incident or phenomenon about which various second-hand accounts or anecdotes widely circulate: urban legends are usually untrue or unverifiable.” -Collins

  You’ve likely heard the tale of the killer in the backseat. How about the vanishing hitchhiker, or the alligator in the sewers? These are common tall tales told to us in the West, always something that happened to a friend of a friend, or something we’ve seen on the internet (so it must be true!).

  But have you heard about the woman who steals children in the rain and then drags them around like bloody, beat-up dolls? What about the poem of a young boy’s descent into Hell that kills all who read it aloud? And did you know that if you eat enough lunch meals from the convenience store it will delay the onset of decay after you die?

  In Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends I’ve not only translated but delved into the origins of over 60 different toshi densetsu (urban legends) from Japan, many of which have never been translated into English before. We’ll be looking not only at what legends are being whispered in the dark corners of the internet today, but how they came to be, how they developed over the years, and if there really is any truth to them.

  So pull up a chair and turn out the lights. Things are about to get creepy in here.

  Supernatural

  Kuchisake-onna

  An elementary school student was on the way home from school when a strange woman came walking towards him on the other side. Despite the fact it was summer, the woman was wearing a long red coat, and her mouth was covered with a large surgical mask. Then, as she passed the student, she asked him something.

  “Am I… pretty?”

  Although she was wearing a mask, the woman appeared to be quite young and beautiful, so the student answered, “Yes, you are!”

  The woman then removed her mask.

  “How about now?!” she screamed.

  The mask was hiding the woman’s mouth, slit from ear to ear. She removed a sickle from beneath her coat and attacked the elementary school student. The boy, terrified, tried to run, but the woman was too fast, catching him with incredible speed. Then she stuck the sickle in his mouth and ripped it from ear to ear.

  ABOUT

  This woman is called “Kuchisake-onna,” or the slit-mouth woman. Kuchi meaning mouth, sake meaning to tear or rip something, and onna meaning woman. It’s a pretty straightforward name. Kuchisake-onna is classified as a toorima, meaning a random attacker or slasher.

  In the present day, there are several explanations as to how Kuchisake-onna came about. The general story is that she underwent plastic surgery, which failed badly and left her with her mouth torn wide open. In order to unleash her unbearable build-up of rage, she attacks elementary school children on their way home from school, one after the other.

  Why did she undergo surgery though? One story says that Kuchisake-onna was the youngest of three sisters. Both her older sisters underwent plastic surgery to great success, but only hers was a failure and left her with her mouth torn. The surgeon that performed the operation was wearing quite a bit of pomade (hair wax) in his hair, which is how she especially came to hate that (but more on that later).

  Another story goes that there is not one, but three Kuchisake-onna. The oldest sister had a failed plastic surgery attempt, leaving her with her mouth torn. The middle sister had a terrible car accident, leaving her with her mouth torn. Then the youngest sister went crazy, cutting her own mouth to match her older sisters.

  A third version says that Kuchisake-onna carelessly cut her own mouth open, leaving the responsibility for the accident entirely in her own hands.

  There are also lesser known versions, where Kuchisake-onna accidentally cut herself whilst working in the garden, but in general something happened that caused her mouth to get cut wide open, and now she’s not happy about it.

  APPEARANCE

  She’s a young woman in her early twenties, aroun
d 155 cm tall (although in some stories she’s said to be over two metres tall!), and even though she has a mask on she appears to be quite beautiful. She has slanted eyes, and a cat-like voice.

  She’s most commonly known for wearing a red coat. This red coat has a dual purpose: so it doesn’t stand out when she is splattered with the blood of her victims, and so she can easily hide the sickle she attacks people with underneath it. There have been stories of her wearing a white coat, but in the majority of cases it’s red. She prefers red clothes in general. She’s sometimes seen wearing a red beret and even red high heels. Anything to make the blood of her victims stand out less. Over time she’s developed some local variations, however:

  In Edogawa Ward in Tokyo it’s said that she has a red umbrella with which she uses to fly.

  In Tamagawa in Tokyo she’s said to have a slovenly, dirty appearance.

  In Hachiouji and Kokubunji cities in Tokyo she’s known for wearing a kimono with sunglasses.

  In Okayama Prefecture she’s said to carry around a comb made of Japanese boxwood.

  She carries with her her infamous sickle to cut children’s mouths with. In some versions of the story this can be either a razor, knife, or even an axe, but she’s most well known for her sickle.

  She’s also said to be able to run incredibly fast; she can cover 100 metres in just three seconds! In some stories she can run so fast she can even overtake a police bike.

  METHOD OF ATTACK

  The most common version of the story starts with Kuchisake-onna approaching a young child and asking them “Am I pretty?” Whether they answer yes or no, it generally results in them being stabbed to death with her sickle. But like everything else when it comes to this urban legend that’s not her only method of approach.

  In several versions she’s known to approach passers-by and simply eat them, or spirit them away somewhere. Another version has her asking “Would you like to eat some yogurt?” When the passer-by declines, Kuchisake-onna goes on to eat them instead. Yet another method involves her tapping on someone’s shoulder. When the person turns around, she slashes their throat. The only way around this is to turn in the opposing direction to which shoulder was tapped. If she taps your left shoulder, turn right. If she taps your right shoulder, turn left. Only then can you escape.

  WHERE TO FIND HER

  Kuchisake-onna is said to have a love of the number three, perhaps because of the three sisters versions of her origin. As a result, she’s said to often appear places with the kanji for “three” in the place name. Mitaka City and Sangenjaya, both places in Tokyo with the word “three” in their names are especially popular haunting grounds for Kuchisake-onna. Some stories go so far as to say her base lies in a department store in Sangenjaya. But these places with the word “three” in them aren’t the only places you’re likely to see her.

  It’s not uncommon to find Kuchisake-onna living underneath the stage in school gyms, or even working as the school nurse who’s always hiding behind her sick mask. Outside of schools she’s known to frequent graveyards and shrines.

  HOW TO DEAL WITH HER

  Supposing you ever run into Kuchisake-onna in some dark alley, there are surprisingly numerous ways you can escape her grasp.

  First of all, it’s said that she doesn’t like pomade, a type of greasy hair wax. If you yell “pomade, pomade, pomade!” three times in succession she will falter, and this will give you the chance you need to escape. The reason for this is because, as mentioned earlier, when she was undergoing surgery, the surgeon used quite a lot of pomade in his hair and the smell made her sick. Throwing or sprinkling actual pomade will also aid in escape, and even just writing the word on your hand and showing it to her is said to be effective.

  Kuchisake-onna is also said to have a fondness for bekko-ame, a type of hard candy. She would become engrossed at the sight of it, giving children the chance to escape. Children often carried bekko-ame around when Kuchisake-onna mania was at its highest, so this was considered a useful way to escape her clutches. Other candies included kuroame (black candy) and Chupa Chups. Kuchisake-onna just really liked candy!

  A third way, the way most commonly known today, is to simply answer her question of “Am I pretty?” with “So-so.” This will briefly confuse her and give the victim a chance to escape. But these aren’t the only ways to escape her grasp. According to author Yamaguchi Bintaro, who wrote a book on modern yokai in 2007, he poses the following as confirmed methods to escape capture:

  Yelling “ninniku, ninniku” over and over. Ninniku is garlic, although there’s no explanation given as to why she doesn’t like garlic.

  Yelling “hage, hage.” Hage means baldness, but again no explanation is given as to why this works.

  Kuchisake-onna is also said to have a dislike of dogs, so writing the kanji for “dog” on one’s hand, or saying “There’s a dog coming!” will give you the chance you need to escape.

  For some unknown reason, Kuchisake-onna is unable to go past the second floor of buildings, so climbing higher than this will keep you safe.

  She also won’t chase people who escape into record or cosmetic shops.

  Lastly, Kuchisake-onna won’t attack people with O-type blood. A good time to go and get your blood checked out and see if you have a natural immunity!

  ORIGINS

  Rumours of Kuchisake-onna first begin to spread throughout Japan during the spring and summer of 1979, inspiring fear in elementary school students nationwide. The rumours became so widespread that police cars were sent out on patrols (Fukushima Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture) and groups formed to make sure that children returned home safely (Hokkaido). She even made it to the communication logs children took home with them from school, informing parents as to the fuss she was stirring up. Bekko-ame also became a problem as children brought it with them to school in order to protect themselves against her.

  On June 21, 1979, a 25-year-old woman living in Himeji City dressed up as Kuchisake-onna for a joke. She walked around holding a knife before eventually being arrested under the Swords and Firearms Control Law. Thankfully, no school kids were harmed during her brief reign of terror. In the same year the Mainichi Newspaper published a “History of Showa” series featuring trending words from the late 70s. They mentioned there was a popular service amongst the hostesses of Ginza which involved covering their mouth and asking their customers “Am I pretty?” Of course, the correct answer was to either say “bekko ame” or “pomade,” those two things Kuchisake-onna dislikes, but there’s no record of any customers facing the sickle if they got the answer wrong. Another phrase that was created around the same time was “kuchisaki-onna”, a play on words used for women who liked to shoot their mouth of a lot. In this case the saki means to go first, or ahead of someone.

  By August of the same year, the beginning of the summer holidays, the rumours that had been taking over the country calmed down. This is possibly because word of mouth ceased with children no longer at school to discuss the woman terrorising their streets. It’s not too difficult to see how word of this terrifying “Kuchisake-onna” could spread amongst the children so easily, considering the fear she inspired in them. But with no internet or social media at the time, the issue died down once the children were no longer together each day to talk about it.

  Enter the 90s. With news of plastic surgery and medical errors on the rise in the media, people once again because to speak of Kuchisake-onna, the woman who lost all reason thanks to her surgery mishap. Once again her name was on the lips of everyone across the country.

  It’s said that the story of Kuchisake-onna actually originated in Gifu Prefecture around the start of December in 1978, although some claim it was Aichi Prefecture. The first time she was mentioned by the press was in the Gifu Hinichi Newspaper on January 26, 1979.

  At the time, comparatively wealthy families were able to send their children to night cram schools in order to secure their future, yet children from poorer families were supposedly tol
d stories of Kuchisake-onna in order to make them give up their dreams of attending such expensive cram schools. “If you walk outside at night, Kuchisake-onna will attack you!” the parents told their children, trying to frighten them. As a result, however, the children became so frightened that the story spread to other parts of the country and cemented itself as an urban legend. She appeared on a local TV program in Osaka in the late 70s called Young Town, a talk show where various people discussed sightings of her, which helped her legend spread even further.

  In July 2012, an empty store in the Yanagase shopping district in Gifu City opened as a limited time haunted house featuring Kuchisake-onna. Using the setting of the Showa Period, visitors chased Kuchisake-onna throughout the mansion as she abducted a little boy. The event was so popular that it received a lot of attention from around the country and even sparked a revival in the town. People praised their smart usage of the urban legend that was born in their home prefecture.

  Some people have traced Kuchisake-onna’s origins back even further, however. In his book Himitsu Heya Aka, author Seiryouin Ryuusui speculates that the actual basis for Kuchisake-onna comes from a real woman named “Otsuya,” who lived in Shiga Prefecture during the Meiji Era. Rumours abounded that she walked around late at night holding a straw doll in hand and carrying a carrot in her mouth, making it look torn to those who glimpsed her in the darkness. A long period of time passed, allowing the rumours to simmer and incubate, and they returned in Gifu Prefecture in 1978 as “Kuchisake-onna.”