Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume One

by Tara A. Devlin

  HOW TO DEAL WITH HER

  There are a few ways to escape Hikiko-san’s grasp, although not all of them are easy. First of all, she won’t attack anyone who has the same name as her, nor will she attack children who are being bullied. This is because Hikiko-san has been there herself, and doesn’t wish to inflict the same pain on others who already understand her suffering.

  But if your name isn’t Hikiko and you haven’t been bullied, what should you do? Hikiko-san experienced a lot of trauma when she was dragged around the school by bullies. By yelling, “I’m gonna drag you!” you can make that trauma fresh in her mind and use the chance to escape. Hikiko-san also can’t stand the sight of her own disfigured face, so if you show her her reflection in the mirror you can escape.

  Sugisawa Village

  Hidden deep within the mountains of Aomori Prefecture there exists a village called Sugisawa. One day, a man from the village went crazy. Within a single day he killed everyone living in the village and then took his own life.

  Nobody knows why he went crazy, nor why he went on such a violent crime spree. But the end result of this horrific crime remained the same: Sugisawa Village became empty.

  The events of that day were so cruel that the local government decided to leave the village abandoned, and at the same time deny anything ever took place. They then erased all trace of the village from the local maps.

  Luckily the village was deep in the mountains, so it was easy to cover the events up. But, of course, they couldn’t erase the fact that the horrific crime did take place in the first place.

  There were rumours of thick bloodstains all over the village, and those who approached the village would undoubtedly be cursed by the evil spirits that lived there.

  Furthermore, according to the legend, it’s impossible to reach Sugisawa unless you leave the straight path that leads further into the mountains. Then you will find a sign with a warning standing at the entrance. That sign states “You may enter, but do so at your own risk.”

  You can also find an old red shrine gate at the entrance, and a stone shaped like a skull sitting at its feet.

  ABOUT

  The legend of Sugisawa Village first appeared in the 1990s, although the events mentioned in the legend itself are purported to take place early in the Showa era (the late 1920s and early 30s). The story was one of the first and biggest to be spread through the internet in a time when it was just starting to take off. The story became so popular that several media outlets picked up on it, and it was through the TV show Kiseki Taiken Unbelievable in 2000 that it truly reached the masses. The episode set out to find this fabled village and determine whether it actually existed or not. They searched throughout not just Aomori Prefecture but similar stories all over Japan, but in the end they never found it. The program then claimed that Sugisawa Village must exist in a space-time warp, able to appear and disappear at will. After the program aired many people set out to find the village themselves, uploading blog entries and later YouTube videos on their findings, many of which you can still watch on the internet today. Despite claims to the contrary, nobody has ever found the “real” Sugisawa Village of legend, and it’s unlikely anyone ever will.

  HISTORY

  The legend of Sugisawa Village began in Aomori, the place the village is supposed to be located. There was a real village call Kosugi. It was a small village in the Obatakezawa district of Aomori City. This area received its name because of “a mountain stream that flows through the cedar forest.” Sugi means cedar and sawa means marsh or mountain stream. People would say they were going to “the cedar,” which sounded a lot like the word “Sugisawa” in Japanese, and thus it came to be affectionately called that. However, the village was only accessible by foot, and as the years passed it became abandoned because of depopulation, not a murderous crime spree. So how did the benign village of Sugisawa become the fabled site of such a horrific crime?

  There was an actual crime in 1938, the same time the Sugisawa legend is supposed to have happened, that took place in the small village of Kamo, close to Tsuyama in Okayama Prefecture. A man, Mutsuo Toi (21 at the time) killed 30 people and injured three before killing himself. Toi had tuberculosis, and in his suicide note claimed that the villagers treated him cruelly, so he wished to extract revenge. He snuck into people’s homes over the course of a single night and using a shotgun, katana, and axe, killed over half the village’s occupants before killing himself at dawn. Although Okayama and Aomori are separated by quite a distance, somehow the story of this crime in Okayama was adapted to the abandoned village in Aomori and became the modern day legend of Sugisawa Village.

  There exist even more crazy rumours about the truth of Sugisawa. Some claim it’s actually a cover-up for a secret government Echelon base, while others have claimed it’s a settlement for old Templar Knights. Apparently you can find Jesus Christ’s grave in Aomori Prefecture as well. Who knew?

  FINDING THE VILLAGE

  There are several key signs that you have stumbled upon Sugisawa Village:

  There is a sign at the entrance that states “You must not proceed past this point. There can be no guarantee for your life if you do.” There are variations on the exact wording, but in every version the sign states that if you go past it, you will be in big trouble.

  There is an old, red shrine gate at the entrance to the village, beneath which you’ll find a stone shaped like a skull.

  Upon entering the village you’ll find several abandoned buildings with bloodstains on the walls.

  WITNESS’S ACCOUNTS

  There are several creepypastas on the internet from people who claim to have visited Sugisawa. The following is a common tale shared amongst friends of friends:

  One day, two young men and a woman went for a drive deep in the mountains when they got lost and stumbled upon an old, beat up shrine gate. Beneath the gate there were two large stones, one of them shaped like a skull.

  The young driver saw it and remembered a rumour he’d heard long ago. The rumour was that a skull found at the bottom of a shrine gate was a sign of the entrance to Sugisawa.

  The two men got out of the car; however, the young woman said to them, “I’m scared, let’s get out of here.” They decided to search the village, however, and all went in together.

  About 100 metres after passing under the shrine gate, they suddenly found a large open area before them with four old, abandoned buildings. The three of them stepped inside one of the buildings and inside they found a large amount of dried blood on the walls.

  The two men felt a shiver run up their spines, and the woman suddenly cried out.

  “Hey, there’s something strange about this place. I can feel a presence!”

  The three of them fled the building in surprise, and as they did, they felt like they were being surrounded by a large number of people.

  The three of them ran for the car. However, something was wrong. No matter how much they ran they couldn’t seem to reach the car.

  The open space to the car should have only been 100 metres, and it was a straight path so there’s no way they could have gotten lost. Even so, as the three of them kept running and running they couldn’t escape from Sugisawa.

  Unawares, the woman suddenly found herself separated from the two men, and as she kept running for what felt like forever she somehow finally found herself back at the car. Thankfully, the keys were still in the ignition. She climbed into the driver’s seat to go and get help and turned the key to start the car.

  However, no matter how much she turned the key the car refused to start. On the verge of tears she kept turning the key, over and over, trying to get the car to go.

  Then…

  Don don don.

  A large sound suddenly reverberated from the windscreen. She looked and noticed the windscreen was covered in bloody red handprints.

  No, not just the windscreen. Countless bloody red handprints appeared on all the windows as though they were all being beat upon at the same tim
e.

  The woman crouched down in fear, and before long she fainted…

  The next morning one of the locals, out for a morning walk, stumbled upon the bloody car and the dumbfounded young woman inside. Her hair had turned white from fear overnight.

  She was taken to the hospital where she explained her terrifying experience. Afterwards she disappeared and was never seen again. Her two male friends were also never found.

  The following is a tale from someone calling themselves Matsu-san:

  This is a story someone who went to Sugisawa Village told me. They were driving up the mountain when they finally found a gravel road they could pass through when they found a sign. They ignored it and kept going before they realised they’d arrived at Sugisawa Village. The place apparently stank of garbage.

  There were a few wooden buildings and a lot of rubbish lying around. This person felt someone watching them, though, and feeling creeped out they left. A few days later a friend who was with the person at the time died.

  And the following is from Keiko-san in Saitama:

  I went to Aomori Prefecture to go mountain climbing. About two hours into climbing the area was wrapped in fog, and I couldn’t see well. I made my way slowly up the mountain so I didn’t fall and there were several villages along the way.

  Then it was like there was this village smack bang in the middle of the jungle. It was dark, so I pulled out my torch and approached it. There were six buildings in total, and I went from house to house checking each one. There was no sign that anybody lived there. All I saw were two cats.

  While I was walking around, I sensed somebody approaching me, yet when I looked around nobody was there. It was incredibly strange.

  There were houses further back in the village as well, but I was too scared to go and look at them. About 20 minutes later I noticed a man standing behind me. He was wearing a straw hat and had pale skin and blue eyes. I said hello, but he said nothing in reply. I paid him no attention and kept walking, but then he suddenly screamed and ran at me.

  I ran and finally reached the sign that stated I was back on the mountain climbing track. That was the first time I’d ever been so scared. I still don’t know what that guy was doing there now. I told people about what happened there, but nobody believes me.

  The following message was posted by someone claiming to be a police officer in Aomori:

  Sugisawa Village exists. It’s close to Aomori Airport…

  But you must never go looking for it, and please don’t enter it half-cocked.

  Because if you do, you’ll never come back…

  MEDIA

  There have been several documentaries and even a movie made about Sugisawa Village over the years. It’s featured in several manga, multiple TV shows, and you can even play a game on your mobile phone where you try to escape from the village. You can find a full list of all these at the Japanese Wikipedia site.

  Kashima-san

  There was once a woman named Kashima Reiko. She suffered abuse at home and was bullied at school. With no place to go, the girl considered suicide and threw herself onto the railway tracks. Her lower body was severed, but she didn’t die straight away. Her upper torso spent some time crawling around looking for the lower half of her body that had been cut off.

  To all who hear this story, Kashima Reiko will appear to them within three days, late in the night. She will try to take your lower body, but there is an incantation you can recite to drive her away.

  On the first day you can chant “Kashima-san” three times to make her disappear.

  On the second day you can chant “Ka wa kamen no ka (ka is for the ka of mask), shi wa shibito no shi (shi is for the shi of dead person), ma wa mamono no ma (ma is for the ma of goblin)” and she will disappear.

  But on the third day, no matter what you chant, nothing will work.

  To completely drive Kashima Reiko away you must share this story with someone within three days. That is the only way to break her spell.

  ABOUT

  Kashima Reiko, or Kashima-san, is an urban legend that’s most commonly tied to either Kuchisake-onna or Teketeke. The origins of Teketeke appear to lie in the legend of Kashima-san, while Kashima-san and Kuchisake-onna both became popular around the same time. There are some versions of the Kuchisake-onna legend that claim her real name is Kashima Reiko, or that Kashima-san is her daughter instead. While there are many variations of Kashima-san’s origin, the one presented above is almost word-for-word what happens to Teketeke, so it’s not difficult to see why they are often related.

  At heart, Kashima-san is a ghost who appears to people while they are sleeping. She is generally depicted as missing the lower half of her body, and her uniqueness lies in the fact that if you don’t pass her story on within three days, she will appear to claim you as well. This allows her story to spread, much like Sadako’s ring virus in Ringu. If you want to save yourself, you need to pass her curse on to someone else. There are methods to make her disappear on the first and second nights, but if you haven’t shared her story by the third night, you’re all out of options and it’s game over.

  Many versions of Kashima-san’s story involve her appearing to take a person’s legs, such as in the following:

  There’s a female ghost with no legs that will appear during the night while you sleep who will ask you the following.

  “Do you need legs?”

  If you answer “no” she will pluck off your legs, and the only way to survive is to chant “Kashima-san” three times.

  Kashima-san will appear to all who hear this story within three days, so whatever you do, don’t forget how to survive.

  HISTORY

  Kashima-san’s legend lies in two different stories. The first, a ghost story called “The ghost who appears once you hear its story,” and the second, “The ghost who comes to steal your legs.” Over the years these two stories combined to become a ghost tale called “The Ghastly Creature.” The story of “The Ghastly Creature” was retold in Matsuyama Hiroshi’s book Chasing the Cursed Legend of Kashima-san:

  When Ms Aoyama was a child, she heard the story of “The Ghastly Creature” who appears in the doorway from a friend.

  She was told that on a rainy night the creature will visit by rapping “ton ton” on the front door. The friend did not pain in detail who this figure was, just that it was “a ghastly creature.”

  The ghastly creature will then question whoever opens the door.

  “Do you require legs?”

  To those who answer “no” it will cut off and carry away one leg. To those who answer “yes,” an extra leg will begin to grow on the body.

  If you ask the ghastly creature “Where are you from?” it will answer as follows.

  “Kaa shii maa…”

  Those who hear of this story will find one rainy night that the ghastly creature will come to visit them, too.

  “The Ghastly Creature” later came to be known as “Kashima” in 1972 in Sapporo City, Hokkaido. A legend began to spread of a one armed, one legged disabled person called “Kashima-sama.”

  There’s a shrine in Kashima City, Ibaraki Prefecture dedicated to the god of war, Takemikazuchi. Many soldiers visited the Kashima Jingu shrine to pray for victory during times of war. Folklorist Yanagita Kunio claimed that many yokai were simply gods who had fallen into ruin. With Japan’s great loss in WWII, the existing story of “The Ghastly Creature” led to the creation of an unidentified yokai named “Kashima-sama,” the yokai-ification of the downfallen God of War from Kashima Jingu. Takemikazuchi was even called “Kashima-sama” by the locals of Kashima before the legends began.

  Kashima Jingu has branch shrines all over Japan, including one in Hokkaido that was relocated due to traffic congestion in 1972, the same year the Kashima-san legend was born. Coincidence? Perhaps, but perhaps not.

  After the word “Kashima” was applied to “The Ghastly Creature,” the yokai became a ghost, and further aspects were added to the story, such as the need
to answer the ghost’s question correctly. It was here that the first steps towards the legend of Kashima Reiko were taken.

  At first the legend claimed you needed to tell five people within three days, or Kashima-san would appear, and it was here that the legend blew up. The legend quickly spread from Hokkaido down to Niigata Prefecture and caused widespread panic. The story made it all the way to Tokyo where the addition of the railway tracks version was created. It then spread further to Kansai, giving birth to a version where Kashima-san bears burn scars thanks to the Sennichi Department Store building fire of the 1970s. From Kansai it spread to Hiroshima, birthing a version where Kashima-san was a wounded soldier from the atomic blast of WWII who went around various areas of the country begging to survive. By the time the legend made its way to Okinawa, having conquered the entire country, several variations existed as to who Kashima-san was and why he or she existed.

  The railway tracks version is considered the standard of the Kashima-san legend in modern times, and it’s thought this was based on the actual suicide of a woman at Akabana Station in Tokyo in 1935. The woman threw herself in front of a train and her legs were cut off, but because she was crushed under the train wheels, this then stopped her from hemorrhaging. For better or worse, the woman remained alive and was even lucid enough to answer the train conductor’s questions. She was eventually taken to the hospital where she died, but the event was so shocking that it eventually became an urban legend in its own right.