Supernatural Legends From JAPAN

This video first aired on The ATRD Podcast on June 1st, 2025 and is subject to copyright from then. Here's the vide: https://youtu.be/iAnmM2LTS20 

Introduction

I absolutely love a good scary urban legend, but even by my standards Japan has some very intense and terrifying ones floating around within their zeitgeist; tales such as Teke Teke the halved woman ghost that relentlessly crawls in chase of her prey, Gozu the cow headed beast that guards the gates of hell, or the Kunekune a being described as having a thin, white paper or fabric-like form and appears in open fields on very hot days. I, for one, am very much in love with Japanese culture and am very much looking forward to exploring and sharing some really scary and interesting Japanese Urban legends with you all. So let’s get started shall we?

Inunaki Village

I think that most countries around the world probably have little stories and legends about mysterious or creepy towns or communities that you should stay away from, not visit and definitely not stop for gas in (In my specific area it’s a small town called “Humansville” but I digress); but I have never heard of one so infamous and terrifying that the government itself has made laws, and issued decrees saying that said town/community does not exist and should not be sought after. Well in Japan there is a legend about a village, Inunaki Village, that is so far beyond the pale that the Japanese government has told people not to seek it out, saying it does not exist or must not be found.

Do I have your attention now? I thought so. It’s pretty strange to take the approach of both “it does not exist” and “it must not be found”. I can only assume that both statements were made at different times by different individuals who were talking about this terrifying enigma of a village. So I can already hear you asking “But what about this village is so scary that a governing body would bother issuing statements, and passing laws to deter people from looking for it?” Well I am so very glad you asked because, my friend, this is one of the most notorious urban legends in all of Japan.

Inunaki Village is said to be a small village in Fukuoka Prefecture, specifically east of Inunaki Mountain and near the most upstream tributary of Inunaki Gawa. The village is said to be quite small and very easy to miss. Now I am not sure just how familiar with the Japanese language some of you might be, so let us dive into a little etymology here and see if there are any clues in the name of this village that may provide a clue as to why it is such a taboo place. Now Inunaki is made up of two distinct words: First is “Inu” which you may or may not know translates to English as “Dog”. Secondly we have the word “Naki” which means to cry or make noise. So Inunaki would mean “Dog howling” or “Dog barking”. So far there is nothing here to really raise any red flags so we’ll have to look more into the history of this enigmatic village to find out why even the government has taken steps to keep people from seeking out this community, especially when such a specific idea of where it is located exists.

So history would tell us that Inunaki Village was a very small town that was abandoned in the wake of WWII and has, officially at least, not been touched since then. The rumors also go that no electronic devices will even work properly when on the trails that would allegedly lead to the village. In the wake of the abandonment of the village it is said that signs began to appear along the trails leading to Inunaki that read “All laws of Japan and human decency do not apply here”. You see, for centuries before WWII (Which might be a little hard for listeners in the US to wrap their heads around) Inunaki Village was what I think could be defined as a “non-conformist society”. While I’m reluctant to say it was an “anarchic society” it certainly did not conform to most traditional Japanese or any other civilized society’s values.

Things that would be considered taboo in most places were readily practiced, if not encouraged here. Incest, cannibalism, murder and all manner of depravity is said to have just been the norm here. This non-conformity in a culture where standing out is the quickest way to become ostracized would certainly lead to people developing some pretty strong ideas about what was going on out there in Fukuoka. It kind of sounds like the culture of Inunaki Village would have been based on some kind of reverence for the strong, in which if you were strong enough to do whatever you wanted to someone then it was permissible, and the only thing that would stop you would be if the person you were trying to “victimize” were strong enough to do so. This is all speculation of course but it would be my job to try and bring some kind of knowledge or theory here to help make sense of this very extreme tale.

I thought it would be kind of cool to insert a true story about Inunaki Village in here if I could find one and I actually found a true crime that is associated with the Inunaki Tunnel, which was built in 1956 in order to help commuters cross the mountain with more ease. So in 1988 five men attacked, abducted and tortured a factory worker and actually set him on fire, burning him alive. This story has led to the rumors of Inunaki Tunnel being one of the most haunted places in Japan and I think it would be understandable if it were haunted after such atrocious things being committed there.

I also feel it’s worthwhile to mention that a real place called Inunakidani did exist from 1691 until 1889 when it was integrated with another village and ultimately formed the city of Miyanaki. The original site of Inunakidani was flooded in 1986 when the Inunaki Dam was constructed and its populace was relocated to a village named Wakita. However this village is also unrelated to the story of legend, but because they share a name I did want to make mention of it just to get ahead of things. Yes, Tom does his research.

While a town or village like this set anywhere in the world would be scary to the other citizens of the country. But in a nation that values conservatism and conformity like Japan the notion of such a place is true nightmare fuel. I think the depths to which the idea of such a place shakes the Japanese is communicated loud and clear through their use of their bureaucracy to dissuade anyone from seeking this place out. Though for me it would not take a government decree or a law to tell me that seeking out such a place would be incredibly unwise for any outsider. For in a village where such taboo things are wholeheartedly embraced it would not be a stretch to assume that this town would value its secrets and that any incursion by outsiders would not be welcome by the inhabitants of such a wild and untamed village such as Inunaki. 

Kuchisake-Onna

(The Slit-mouth Woman)

This is one of my absolute favorite urban legends from Japan. I know it’s incredibly popular and nearly every other horror channel on the planet has done something on this one, well now it’s my turn. So let’s take a look at the sinister Kuchisake-Onna and see if we can find any clues as to her origin.

The slit mouth woman, or Kuchisake-Onna, is often referred to as a malicious spirit or onryō, although many often refer to her as a contemporary yōkai, which for people unfamiliar with the term yōkai are like cryptids or fae. You could almost equate them to demigods also if you really want to simplify it.

The legend of Kuchisake-Onna itself actually dates back to the Edo period in the 17th or 18th centuries, although the more contemporary form only emerged in 1978 and did not become more widespread until 1979 when several newspapers began to run stories about the legend and started something of a small scale panic where children were not allowed to walk to school alone and as such people began to walk in groups of adults and children to and from school, however by August everything seemed to have run its course and things kind of went back to normal.

The earliest newspaper to report sightings of a masked woman disfiguring and killing people was printed in January of 1979 by the Gifu Nichi Nichi Shinbun which is a newspaper located in Gifu prefecture (Located roughly halfway between Kyoto and Tokyo to give you an idea). But it speaks of a woman wearing a surgical mask approaching people and asking “Wa-ta-shi Ki-re-i?” Or literally “Am I pretty?” From there what we kind of know as the legend of Kuchisake-Onna is laid out in the newspapers. Prior to the newspapers picking up and running with the story it was said that it was children that were passing on tales of the slit-mouth woman, and even after the newspapers began to circulate the tale no one seemingly knew of any actual victims of the monster.

Then in June of 1979 several kilometers from Gifu where the stories had seemingly begun in Hyogo Prefecture in the city of Himeji a 25 year old woman dressed as Kuchisake-Onna was arrested by the local police. She was wearing the mask and carrying around a kitchen knife which she was brandishing to scare passersby to great effect.

The legend itself goes that Kuchisake-Onna was a woman that was horribly disfigured in her life, the most popular versions in Japan goes that she was maimed during cosmetic surgery or the result of being attacked by another woman jealous of her appearance (oftentimes her sister). In other common versions Kuchisake-Onna was a promiscuous woman, in many versions the lover of a Samurai that was always away fighting and during his absence she would… seek the comfort of other men and once the Samurai learned of her infidelity flew into a rage and inflicted on her the horrific facial wounds that are her trademark.

Now how an encounter with Kuchisake-Onna would most likely play out should you encounter her during a lovely trip to the land of the rising sun then a woman wearing a surgical mask would approach you and ask you if you think she is pretty. If you say “no” she will kill you immediately with a pair of scissors. If you respond “yes” she will remove the mask and reveal the horrific slits in her face and ask if you think she is pretty now. If you say “no” again she will kill you with her scissors. If you say “yes” then she will “make you pretty like her” and cut your face just like hers. So it kind of feels like a catch 22 situation right? Well let me explain a little something about Japanese legends such as this one where you are presented with two choices of A and B, your best bet of survival is to choose option C. Yes there is always an option C. There are other ways it’s said you can survive an encounter with Kuchisake-Onna, as she is said to be able to run extremely fast and by some accounts even float over obstacles to track her victims like a terrible bird of prey. One of these methods says that she will not chase a person if they run inside either a record store or a cosmetics store. It is also rumored that she cannot or will not chase someone higher than the second floor of a building so if you try to escape her this way make sure to run to at least the third floor. Some people say she dislikes the men’s hair gel known as “Pomade” and that if you sing “Pomade” six times she will go away. If you are worried you may have an encounter with Kuchisake-Onna and want to plan ahead you could write “Pomade” on the palm of your hand or on the soles of your shoes to help ward her off. Finally you can try sprinkling some around you like a protective salt circle in order to ward her off.

If you tell Kuchisake-Onna that she is “alright” or “average” or just give a generally neutral answer she will become confused just long enough for a person to escape from her. This is kind of a common and recurring theme across many Japanese legends where the most non-committal answer will usually buy you enough time to escape and save your own life. Kind of like the most ambiguous answer will usually get you out of the situation. Telling her she is pretty would probably fall into the category of being patronizing or just obviously lying trying to tell her what she wants to hear. Saying she is not pretty while maybe true is just rude. So the middle ground would appear to be the safest in the case of having an encounter with any Japanese creature that presents you with choice A or choice B.

Hone Onna

(Bone Woman)

A kind of disturbing undead yōkai that I found while looking into another yōkai that was originally going to be here and since there are already two other Onna’s on this list I figured in for a ¥… and so the other act got bumped and in its place I give you the Bone Woman. Let’s see what makes this yōkai so terrifying.

So this one gets a little bit spicy as far as urban legends go and let’s face it that’s just going to make it a bit more enjoyable. The story of Hone Onna dates pretty far back to 1666 to a story known as “Botan Dōrō” or “The Peony Lantern” in a collection known as “Otogi Bōko” written by Asai Ryōi and in this tale it speaks of a man named Oniwara Shinnojō who meets a beautiful young woman named Yako, who carries with her a chōchin, or lantern, adorned with botan flowers. The pair become “entangled” every night. At some point one of Oniwara’s neighbors, an elderly woman, catches sight of the pair; and what she sees is truly terrifying. She does not see the beautiful young Yako that Oniwara seems to perceive. What she sees, is in fact, Oniwara…. cavorting with a decrepit skeleton.

The story would appear to be kind of a more updated and slightly moral-free take on a much older Chinese tale “Jianding Xinhua” circa 1378 by Qu You. While I’m not exactly sure what that would mean as I’m not terribly familiar with the work in question and finding a translated version just did not make the “to do” list on this one (sorry folks kind of a TLDR situation).

And Hone Onna does not refer to just one instance or story. There are in fact apparently numerous bone women with tragic backstories. Such as the instance of Yako and Oniwara, Yako was in fact the spirit of a beautiful young woman who had met a tragic fate at a young age and had returned to the person she had once loved most during her time alive. There are several accounts of bone women returning to see their loved ones once more, oftentimes to maybe pick up a love affair where one had been tragically cut short. It also seems that for the most part the loved ones in question cannot see the spirit for what it truly is, a yōkai, the decrepit form of a long dead loved one that has returned out of pure grief and regret, longing for more time in this world, more time with the person that they loved more than anything. A sympathetic tale to be sure.

While not an outright malevolent or vengeful creature, Hone Onna is a yōkai. While she is driven, beyond death, by the pure power of the love she once felt in life, and at night rises from her grave to wander to the home of her beloved, upon each visit, each coupling, Hone Onna drains a little bit more of her lover’s life force, gradually draining both their constitution and even their very will to live. Without intervention the lover will eventually succumb to death and forever join Hone Onna in the afterlife. Many times a friend or someone will see through the guise and warn Hone Onna’s lover who will then likely be repulsed by the truth, although completely unaware and unaccepting of the fact she is dead Hone Onna will continue to come to her lover’s home every night. The house can be warded by charms to keep ghosts from entering but such things only work as long as the master of the home wills them to. As Hone Onna’s body becomes more decayed the illusion of her allure only becomes more powerful and she becomes all the more enticing and eventually most give in and allow her in one final time, only to join her in eternity.

I find it incredibly interesting that her appearance to the people who love her is as it was in life, a young and beautiful woman untouched by age or death. Only people whose feelings are unclouded by love or those of a very powerful religious faith can see Hone Onna for what she truly is, the rotted and fetid corpse. It is also said that when in the presence of a high priest Hone Onna will collapse and fall to pieces.

I think that Hone Onna’s motivation is truly interesting, especially in the land that produced the Yandere archetype. Because her motive is not malicious, it is not driven by hate or revenge. Her sole motivation is love. What in life may have been a perfectly normal and pure love, in death is twisted into something far darker, something dangerous possibly more so because Hone Onna does not realize that she is in fact dead. Even should her lover reject her she will continue to come see them every single night when she arises from her grave. I think it’s safe to say that by the time Hone Onna is rising from her eternal rest and wandering around until she finds the home of her lover, we’re not dealing with love, or true passion. No. We are dealing with obsession.

And not even that kind of obsession where she is determined and actively thinking the old “If I can’t have you…” but in her woeful state Hone Onna does not see anything she is doing as wrong or harmful. She is merely following the same kinds of impulses she would have in life, albeit perhaps with a teensy bit more gusto. I think the fact that she is neither setting out to cause harm, and because she does not realize that she is in fact causing harm and going against the natural order only makes the story even more tragic, and let’s face it kind of beautiful.

Yuki Onna

(The Snow Woman)

This wonderful yōkai actually has a multitude of names that she is called by. Some of them kind of just depend on who is telling the story and others are more of a regional thing. Let’s start by listing out some of her aliases shall we? She is known as  Yuki Onna (Snow Woman), Yuki-onago (Snow Girl), Yukihime (Snow Princess), Yuki-anesa (Snow Sis), Yuki-onba (Snow Granny), in Ehime she is known as Yukinba (Snow Hag) and in Nagano she is known as Yukifuribaba (Snowfall Granny/Snowfall Hag). If you kind of have a general feel for how the Japanese language works then you probably have noticed throughout your exposure to their culture that they are anything but subtle when it comes to naming things, and most names are incredibly specific if not a teensy bit on the nose. So the way in which they refer to Yuki Onna will actually tell you a lot about how they feel about this particular yōkai.

Now I’m sure with that being said a lot of you are going “Hey what does that even mean anyway?” Well I am glad you asked because it would be kind of insensitive of me to just assume that people listening will have absolutely any idea about Japanese language or culture. Lucky for you that kind of explanation is exactly what I get paid the aggressively medium bucks to bring to your ears. So we’re going to take a bit of a longer look at some of these names. I feel like by now you have picked up on the fact that the word “Yuki” means “Snow” and if not well then now I’m telling you. So the word snow is part of pretty much every name we have for her. Onna is a word for “woman” and is a pretty standard neutral and polite term. While on the next name we have for her “onago” is more for addressing a younger girl, to use it appropriately without offering too much insult it would probably be applied in reference to a girl of about 13 years old or younger, calling a young lady older than that “onago” would probably be seen as condescending. “Hime” is the Japanese word for princess and while this term could be used in a sarcastic or condescending way usually when someone is being referred to by it there is a certain level of respect being conveyed. “Anesa” is the first one we hit, that is a term that would be used in a more familiar way and means “sister” or just “sis” and would really only be used very casually when talking to or about someone you are very close to. From there on the list of names starts to get a bit more disrespectful or distasteful with the words for “granny” or “hag” starting to show up more.

Yuki Onna is another of those very, very old Japanese tales with one of the earliest mentions of her coming from the Muromachi Period renga poet named Sōgi, in his work “Sōgi Shokoku Monogatari”. He writes about how he had seen a Yuki Onna when he was visiting Echigo Province (modern day Niigata Prefecture). Which tells us that stories about Yuki Onna existed as far back as far back as the Muromachi Period which ran from 1336-1573 when the Ashikaga Shōguns were officially deposed, but that is another write up for another podcast (listeners to the Darker Side of Neon stay tuned!).

Yuki Onna dwells in the snowy mountainous regions of the Japanese Alps and they spend their existence hunting humans. While a Yuki Onna can eat normal food their true source of sustenance comes from feeding upon the life energy of human beings, as with an overwhelming number of yōkai. There’s really not one singular spot or entity associated with Yuki Onna as they have been spotted a lot in Niigata but also in Yamagata. So either one entity is very well traveled or there would seem to be more than one Yuki Onna much as with Hone Onna.

I can’t really say there is a particular “story” or “legend” about Yuki Onna because there’s not one so much as a series of them. As I mentioned at the beginning there are stories about snow women going as far back as the 1300s. I think this would certainly lend a kind of credence to the notion that perhaps there’s more like a species of Yuki Onna as opposed to a singular entity. But we’re going to go ahead and have a look at some of these stories since that is most definitely what we all came here to do.

In Ojiya, Niigata Prefecture there are tales of a beautiful woman who came to visit a man who lived there and became his wife. The woman exhibited a reluctance to bathe and when she was made to go into the bath she vanished leaving only a few floating icicles in her wake. 

While in Kaminoyama, Yamagata Prefecture there is a story about a Yuki Onna that came to visit an elderly couple one snowy night to warm herself by the irori. Late in the night when she made to leave the old man grabbed her wrist to stop her and found her to be unnaturally cold to the touch. Before his eyes the woman turned into a swirling snow cloud and vanished up the chimney.

Meanwhile in Aomori and in Yamagata prefecture there is the tale of a Yuki Onna in a blizzard holding an infant, yukinko, and asking passersby to hug the infant. Those who refuse will be shoved into a snowy valley but those that say “yes” and take the child into their arms will find the infant growing heavier and heavier until they are buried alive in the snow. It is rumored that anyone who can handle the ever increasing weight of yukinko will be blessed with tremendous strength.

There are a few other stories from other specific regions of Japan but from here on they are all more similar with the most notable difference being the name of the region and possibly the particular name given to Yuki Onna. But then that might also be near the top of the list of “interesting things” about Yuki Onna, the consistencies in the stories. From Aomori Prefecture in the farthest northern regions of Honshu nearly to Hokkaido down into Fukushima Prefecture all tell of the snow women and their hunger for the life essence of humans.

Hachishakusama

(Eight Feet Tall)

I would be hard pressed to explain just exactly why this is one of my absolute favorite Japanese Urban Legends ever. Perhaps it’s because this particular yōkai has a lot of similarities to my favorite American Urban Legend; Slender Man. Hachishakusama fulfill much the same role in Japanese legend that Slender Man does in the American legend in that they are both primarily used to frighten children into behaving or conforming to what their parents and authority figures tell them to.

Ms. Eight Feet Tall, or Hachishakusama, has a habit of preying upon children almost exclusively and once she has decided that she “likes” you there is very little one can do in order to protect oneself from the powerful specter. Some believe that if you are ever “liked” by Hachishakusama that the only way to ever be safe from her is to leave Japan entirely and to never return.

The descriptions of Hachishakusama more or less depict her as some kind of a very beautiful woman with dark and soulless eyes, wearing a white dress and wide brimmed hat. In some versions she wears sandals upon her feet and in others she is barefoot. One thing that never changes is her height, because why would we get subtle with the naming of things at this point right? The other detail that seems to never change is the distinct “Po” sound that she makes whenever she is near. And when it comes to abilities, well Hachishakusama definitely has quite an impressive list of them including supernatural charisma and immortality. As with most of the yōkai, as they exist in popular myth, Hachishakusama also has the ability to feed upon a person’s life force.

It is believed that Hachishakusama chooses to target children because they are smaller and easier to control and take advantage of than an adult as most children are still very dependent upon their family for security. As such Hachishakusama will draw upon another ability in her arsenal and will often impersonate a child’s family members when she attempts to take them. No one really knows where she takes the abducted children or how she transports them, but it’s safe to assume that it’s through some kind of teleportation ability the yōkai possesses.

Once Hachishakusama has “liked” a child she will then begin to stalk that child for days, and sometimes even months as she learns the child’s routine from a distance, observes any interactions between the child and their family and also beings to take note of the mannerisms, voice and appearance of any trusted adults within the child’s orbit. One can assume it goes through the trouble of learning the adults so she can imitate them later and possibly lure the child away.<