Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume One Read online

  There were also rumours of a “Kuchisake-onna” in the Edo Period. There was a story of a kitsune in the Edo area that would turn into this slit-mouthed woman. The story is as follows:

  There was a young man of 20 called Kosuke, who worked at a shop called Daikokuya in Motogikucho, Edo. Being a fresh new employee, he was asked by his boss to run an errand in Ookubohyakunincho (present day Shinjuku). All he had to do was deliver a letter and wait for the reply, but the reply took a considerable amount of time, and by the time he was able to return the sun was already setting. But that wasn’t all; it had started to rain as well. Kosuke pulled out his umbrella and lit a lantern, then put the letter in his pocket and hurried along the street home.

  With his umbrella held up against the rain, Kosuke felt a presence before him. He looked up to see a young woman, soaked and running along the street. Seeing her like that, he started running, yet realising that she might be the daughter of an influential man, he felt compelled to call out to her. This proved to be a fatal mistake. He called out to the woman and told her he was returning to Motogikucho, but if she would like to share his umbrella along the way, why didn’t she join him?

  She turned around. The moment she did, Kosuke screamed and fell backwards. The woman’s mouth was cut from ear to ear. Fangs jutted out and her eyes sparkled at the sight of him.

  Kosuke, worried about returning to the shop late, ended up being carried back in a litter. It was as though he had aged all at once; his teeth fell out and his face grew old. Without saying another word, he took his final breath.

  It was known at the time that kitsune had made the areas neighbouring Ookubo their habitat. They especially liked to turn into women on rainy days and trick passing men. It’s said that the woman with the slit mouth that Kosuke called out to that day was also a kitsune.

  This wasn’t Kuchisake-onna’s only appearance in the Edo Period, however. She was also depicted in the Sayoshigure Picture Book by ukiyoe artist Hayami Shungyousai. A courtesan is pulled aside by a man whilst walking down the street in the red-light district. When the lady turns around, her mouth is cut from ear to ear. The man passes out and promises to never return to the red-light district again.

  VARIATIONS

  Kuchisake-onna is such a popular urban legend that she has inspired several variations. One such variation is “futakuchi-onna,” the woman with two mouths. It’s said this woman has a large, second mouth on the top of her head. If you answer “Yes, you’re pretty,” to her question she’ll pull apart the hair on her head to reveal her second mouth. If you answer “No, you’re ugly,” she’ll proceed to eat you with that second mouth. There is, of course, a yokai named Futakuchi-onna that first made her appearance in the Hyakumonogatari Picture Book of the Edo Period, but this particular version is entirely unrelated to her. She’s simply a variation of the modern Kuchisake-onna.

  There’s another variation in Ehime and Fukushima Prefectures called “Kuchiware-onna,” which translates to the broken-mouthed woman. In Ehime Prefecture she’s said to ask “Am I beautiful?” and if you don’t answer she proceeds to stab you with a knife. That’s not all, however. For those who simply hear about this tale, it’s said that Kuchiware-onna will appear to them within three days, so be careful. It could be you next!

  In Fukushima Prefecture she’s said to ride around in a red Celica car and stops to ask “Are my eyes pretty?” Unlike Kuchisake-onna, Kuchiware-onna likes the famous local Fukushima candy instead. It’s said this version came about when a local newspaper misprinted Kuchisake-onna’s name as Kuchiware, and the name stuck.

  The story even spread to Korea in 2004, gaining traction with a new generation of children to terrify. There she’s called the “Akai mask onna,” the red masked woman, with the red signifying blood.

  Another version has Kuchisake-onna working with a companion, a man in a mask. This version is said to appear in the Hachiouji and Kokubunji areas of Tokyo.

  MEDIA

  Kuchisake-onna has appeared in countless media over the years. There are far too many to list here, so you can head over to her English Wikipedia page for a fairly comprehensive list.

  Mary-san

  A family was getting ready to move houses when the young daughter’s beloved doll, Mary, was accidentally thrown away. The girl was extremely sad and wept to her parents.

  “It’s okay, we’ll buy you a new doll,” they said, and the girl unwillingly accepted.

  As she got used to her life in a new place, the girl eventually forgot about Mary-san. Then one night she got a call at home. Her parents hadn’t returned yet, so she answered.

  “Hello?”

  “…”

  “Hello? Who is this?”

  “It’s Mary-san. I’m in the rubbish.”

  “Huh?!”

  The phone hung up.

  Mary? That was the name of the doll she lost. She put it down to a prank call, but it still bothered her.

  Then the phone rang again. Although she thought it might be the same prank caller, it might also have been her parents, so she picked up the phone.

  “Hello, Mum?”

  “It’s Mary-san. I’m at OO Station now.”

  The phone hung up again. That station, it was near her house. For a prank call, something sure was strange, the girl began to think.

  Then the phone rang again.

  ‘It’s gotta be Mary-san again,’ the girl thought, but she convinced herself it might be her mother and picked up the receiver.

  “Hello, Mum? Is that you? Come home, quick!”

  “This is Mary-san. I’m in front of OO.”

  The phone hung up.

  OO was the shop near the girl’s house. It was then the girl realised that the perpetrator of the prank calls was gradually getting closer. An indescribable fear began to gnaw away at her heart.

  ‘I’m in danger,’ she thought. She picked up the phone to call her mother’s cell, but at the same time the phone rang, causing her to answer it accidentally.

  “…Yes?”

  “This is Mary-san. I’m in front of your house now, OO-chan.”

  The phone hung up.

  The girl trembled with fear. Not only did the person on the other end of the line know her name, they were standing in front of her house. She pulled the phone line out of the wall and peered outside.

  There was nobody there. There was just a dim light cast over the road from the streetlights.

  Unable to stand it any longer, the girl checked the front door was locked, then went to run upstairs to lock herself in her room.

  But then the phone rang. The same phone she’d pulled out of the wall.

  There was no way it could ring. No idea what was going on, and her fear and anger laid bare, the girl picked up the phone.

  “Who is this?! Stop it right now!”

  “This is Mary-san. I’m right behind you now.”

  ABOUT

  Mary-san (or Merry-san, but I’m going to go with the most popular romanisation) is a popular Japanese urban legend that ends with the line “I’m right behind you now.” This, along with the building dread of Mary-san getting closer and closer, made it extremely popular, as it’s left to the imagination what happened after the ending. This also led to several variations of the story, however, where people tried to fill in the gaps. Some of these variations include:

  The girl being murdered once she turns around.

  The girl getting stabbed, although her death is left up in the air.

  The setting changed to an apartment building where the calls get closer to her floor each time.

  The taxi driver of a hit-and-run receives calls from the person he hit, someone named Mary.

  The caller is a Rika-chan doll and not Mary-san.

  If you don’t tell 5 people of this story after hearing it, Mary-san will call you next.

  Compositions of any of the above.

  There are also several comical variations on the ending where Mary-san didn’t quite get her way:

&
nbsp; The girl ignores the fact that Mary-san is behind her, and witnesses can see the doll following her, half-crying.

  The girl lives on the 147th floor of a skyscraper. Rather than taking the elevator, Mary-san takes the stairs, stopping to call and catch her breath on each floor. By the time she reaches the 147th floor, she passes out.

  Mary-san accidentally goes right past the girl. A few years later she gets a call from Mary saying she’s in Russia now.

  Mary-san is unable to open the door, so calls once again to plead for the girl to open it. Being an automated lock system, however, she’s unable to.

  In the case of someone getting on the train right as Mary-san calls, she’s left behind on the platform, chasing after the train and shouting “I’ll find you, no matter what!” like an old-fashioned romance tale.

  If someone is leaning against the wall or sitting in a chair against the wall when she calls, she’ll plead to be let out or otherwise be crushed.

  There’s a version where Mary-san takes the Osaka railway, changing trains as she gets closer. However, due to the complex nature of the network she gets lost and can’t find her way out. There are also versions of this for the Tokyo Shinjuku subway.

  Mary-san gets the wrong house, letting the girl know she’s in front of her apartment when the girl lives in a single-story house.

  On her way to see the girl, Mary forgets what she was doing and goes sightseeing instead.

  There is of course a movie called Mary-san’s Phone Call that was released in 2011, and you can find an incredible amount of artwork and fanfic on the internet today. She’s one of the more popular urban legends in Japan at present.

  ORIGINS

  One of the first things you might be thinking after hearing this story is “Why Mary?” Mary isn’t a Japanese name, so why is there an urban legend featuring a doll with that name when Japan already has a wealth of famous homemade dolls itself? There are even variations of the story where it is indeed a Rika-chan doll and not Mary-san.

  Who created the story of Mary-san’s phone call is to this date unknown, but over the years people have surmised that perhaps she was based on a real person. That person was Yokohama Mary.

  After the second world war, Japan faced great hardships, and many people found it difficult to feed themselves. A lot of women turned to prostitution, and one of them was Yokohama Mary. She was an elderly lady who painted her face entirely white and wore frilly dresses, just like a doll. Mary was often seen standing on a particular street corner in Yokohama, like a part of the local scenery. She drew widespread attention in the 80s when the media did several reports of the “strange” people you could find living in Tokyo. She then disappeared in the 90s, although it later came to light that she had moved into a senior citizen’s home and then passed away in 2005.

  A woman named Mary who wore frilly dresses and painted her make-up to resemble a doll. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s not impossible to think that someone created a scary story about this woman back in the day, which spread through word of mouth and morphed into the legend of Mary-san’s phone call today.

  HOW TO DEAL WITH MARY-SAN

  So, supposing Mary-san actually calls you, how are you supposed to deal with her? This is actually pretty simple.

  Don’t answer the phone.

  Place your back to the wall.

  Make sure the house is locked.

  Even if she does appear behind you, don’t turn around.

  Before she gets behind you, get behind her.

  The Mary-san legend is very similar to two more legends that we’ll look at in a moment: Satoru-kun and Kaijin Answer.

  Kaijin Answer

  Everyone, have you ever heard of “Kaijin Answer?” Kaijin Answer is a yokai who will answer whatever question you ask, and you can easily summon him via your cell phone.

  First, you need 10 people to form a circle. Then, the first person needs to call the second person on their phone, then the second person the third, the third person the fourth, and so on. Repeat until the tenth person calls the first. Because everyone should be calling the person next to them at the same time, the phones should be busy. The phones will instead be put through to Kaijin Answer, and he will answer any question you have for him.

  He will answer nine questions from the ten, no matter what is asked, but in return he will ask one person a question himself. That question will be incredibly difficult and near impossible to answer; for example, “What day will September 1st, 12825 be?” Supposing you cannot answer or give the wrong answer, a hand will appear from your phone screen to steal away a piece of your body.

  For you see, Kaijin Answer was born deformed as only a head. By collecting body parts in this way, we can perhaps assume that he is attempting to become a complete human.

  ABOUT

  “Kaijin Answer” was first circulated on various urban legend websites around August 10th, 2002. Before long it became such a hot topic that it even made its way to TV, spreading the story even further as they attempted to contact Kaijin Answer in a filmed experiment.

  About a year later it came to light that the story was the creation actually of one person. A webmaster by the name of Hiroshi-san (who ran a website on modern ghost stories) did some investigating and traced the story back to an author going by the name of Kunerizu Airi-san, who detailed on their own website how they created the story. It seemed this person wanted to see how stories were distributed throughout the internet and successfully crafted a story to spread throughout the most popular urban legend sites. The writing style of each story was slightly different to the last, while keeping the content mostly the same, making it seem it was posted by several people. It was even suggested the story may have something to do with Kashima-san, riding on the coattails of another popular legend at the time.

  It was through this story that a lot of people realised for the first time just how easy it was to use the internet to spread false information. Before the internet there was a limit as to how far a single person could spread a story, but now it could be done instantaneously to thousands, if not millions of people at once.

  Satoru-kun

  Supposing there was a way to find out anything you wanted, would you try it? Just by using the public phone, “Satoru-kun” will answer any question you have. It’s so simple that anyone can do it, so you should definitely give it a try.

  You’ll need three things: a 10 yen coin, a cell phone, and a public phone. The 10 yen coin is for the public phone; a telephone card or different coin is no good. It must be a 10 yen coin and nothing else.

  First, find a public phone and put in the 10 yen coin. Call your own cell from it.

  Then, once you get through, turn towards the receiver and say the following. “Satoru-kun, Satoru-kun, please come. Satoru-kun, if you’re there, please reply.” You must make sure not to mess up even a single word.

  Next, once you’ve finished the chant, hang up the receiver and end the call. Turn your cell phone off as well.

  Once you have done this, you’ll receive a call from Satoru-kun within the next 24 hours.

  But Satoru-kun won’t just call you once; he will call several times, but you won’t be able to question him just yet. Instead, Satoru-kun will tell you his current location. For example, “I’m in so-and-so elementary school,” or “I’m in such-and-such park.” Each time he calls, these locations will get closer and closer until finally he calls to let you know “I’m right behind you.” At this point you may ask him your question, but there is something you must be careful of. That is, you must under no circumstances turn around. If you do, or if you don’t ask your question, Satoru-kun will snatch you away. It is said that you may only ask Satoru-kun a single question, but he can correctly answer anything, even from the distant future.

  ABOUT

  The legend of Satoru-kun closely resembles two other popular urban legends; Kaijin Answer and Mary-san. Kaijin Answer will answer whatever question you have, while Mary-san, said to be a foreign-made doll
thrown away by her owner, will call at regular intervals to inform you of where she is, until finally she appears right behind you. If Kaijin Answer married Mary-san, their child would be Satoru-kun. This is one of the most notable characteristics of the Satoru-kun legend. It’s thought this particular urban legend was specifically adapted from the above two in order to spread even further and become more widely known. Satoru-kun is said to have first appeared in 2002, around the same time as Kaijin Answer, so it’s a comparatively new legend. The number of public phones has been decreasing in recent years, however, so it’s becoming more and more difficult for people to try out for themselves.

  Satoru-kun is also thought to be based off the game of Kokkuri-san. When playing Kokkuri-san, the Japanese version of the ouija board, one uses a 10 yen coin and asks a question for Kokkuri-san to answer.

  WHO IS SATORU-KUN?

  Kaijin Answer is said to be a deformed yokai that was born with only a head, now going around gathering parts to build the rest of his body. Mary-san is a discarded doll. Yet Satoru-kun is wrapped in mystery. It is unknown if he is a yokai or spirit, or even how old he is. All we know is that the majority of people who call Satoru-kun are presumably spirited away.

  THE MOVIE

  Like many urban legends, Satoru-kun was made into a movie in 2015 called Satoru da yo (It’s me, Satoru). However, this movie only aired in theatres for a single day, April 18, 2015. This was, of course, a marketing technique. Satoru-kun is said to show up within 24 hours, and the movie only aired for 24 hours. The film itself was supposedly filmed in only four days and consists of three shorts revolving around the Satoru-kun legend. It can now be seen on DVD for those who missed the 24 hour theatre window.