I love the Japanese love ghost stories and urban legends. They do it really well, too.�
Think the original versions of The Ring or The Grudge.
Scary storytelling goes back hundreds of years to the Edo period (1603-1868). There was a game played at night called Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (Gathering of 100 Supernatural Tales). One hundred candles would be lit and placed in a ring in front of the players. Each player�would, in turn, tell a ghost story, and then extinguish a candle.
Many people believe that once the final candle is blown out, a supernatural being would be summoned. It is believed that the game was originally a test of courage among the samurai but later was played by commoners to scare each other. These are a few stories have been told from generation to generation in Japan.
My mother is Japanese and when I spoke to her about these she told me that these tales use to petrify her as a child and still give her shivers to this day.
1. Kuchisake-onna
The Slit-mouthed Woman walks around alone at night wearing a surgical mask. Underneath the mask her face is slit from ear to ear because her husband mutilated her with scissors. The legend says that the woman will stop a child and ask, “Am I pretty?” If the child answers no, the child will be killed with a pair of scissors. If the child answers yes, the woman pulls away the mask, revealing that her horrifying and bloody gash and asks:
“How about now?”
The only way to escape the slit-mouthed Woman is to answer her question ambiguously or ask another question back, which will confuse her and give you time to run away.
Next Page: More Japanese urban legends that will send shivers down your spine!
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