Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume One

by Tara A. Devlin

  In 1938, Eikichi moved to Sakhalin. He gave the doll and his sisters remains to the Mannenji Temple in Kurisawa City, Hokkaido. Then, after the war, Eikichi was thankfully able to return to his hometown.

  Yet when he visited the temple and stood before the doll once more, strangely he noticed its hair had grown even longer. Perhaps Kikuko’s spirit really had taken up residence in there.

  ABOUT

  Chances are good that you’ve heard about this particular legend before, even if you didn’t know the doll’s particular name. A cursed doll with hair that continues to grow… Okiku is a legend amongst terrifying tales of dolls.

  The Okiku doll (kiku meaning chrysanthemum, with the o- being an honorific prefix) is very real, and it can be found in the Mannenji Temple in Hokkaido. The doll stands roughly 40 cm high, wearing a red kimono with hair of varying lengths, depending on whether the monks have cut it recently or not. But does the doll’s hair really continue to grow 100 years later, like this urban legend suggests? Let’s take a look.

  ORIGINS

  Although the legend states that everything takes place during the 1920s and 30s, the first time this story appeared to the public was in 1962, and that story was rather different to the one told today. Journalist Mabuchi Yuta wrote the following article for the August 6, 1962 issue of Shuukan Josei Jishin:

  On the Hinamatsuri of March 3, 33rd year of the Showa Era (March 3, 1959), miner Suzuki Sukeshichi (36) visited a temple to entrust them with something important. “This is my daughter. Please look after her well,” he said, leaving behind those puzzling words before moving to far away Honshu. He never returned. The doll he handed over to the temple was placed in the corner… and then forgotten.

  Summer, three years later. Chief priest Imagawa Junno (59) had a strange dream for two nights in a row. Suzuki-san stood by his pillow, drenched like he had been doused with water. He spoke to the monk, his voice piercing.

  “Please cut my daughter Kiyoko’s hair…”

  Chief priest Imagawa retrieved the doll, but when he looked upon it, he involuntarily screamed. A chill ran down his spine… The doll’s hair had grown! The bob cut that only reached its ears had grown to its waist.

  We can see the differences quite plainly from this version of the story to the one told today.

  The doll was given to the temple in 1959, not 1938.

  The daughter’s name was Kiyoko, not Kikuko.

  It was Sukeshichi, the father, who took the doll to the temple, not Eikichi. Eikichi isn’t mentioned once.

  Sukeshichi never returned to the temple. It was the chief priest who discovered the doll’s hair had grown.

  As we can see, at this point the doll wasn’t even called Okiku. The father of this story, Sukeshichi, said his daughter’s name was Kiyoko. However, in the July 15, 1968 issue of Young Lady, six years later, the name of Okiku makes its first appearance, coincidentally enough in an article written by the same journalist, Mabuchi Yuta. This story goes as follows:

  A large exhibition was held in Sapporo, Hokkaido (1918), and on his way home Sukeshichi, holding his daughter Kiku-chan, stopped by a doll shop in the Tanukikoji shopping district to buy a doll. Ever since that time Kiku-chan would cling to and play with the doll, and even when she went to sleep she wouldn’t let it go.

  However, Kiku-chan fell ill to pneumonia the next year thanks to a cold and passed away. She died on March 24. Years passed and in August 1938 Sukeshichi moved to Maoka, Sakhalin to work in the mines there. He brought Kiku-chan’s remains, together with her doll, along to me.

  I put the doll in the drawer beneath the pedestal of Tathagata… and though I shouldn’t have forgotten about it, I did. Then, after the war… It was the spring of 1955. When I was cleaning the temple, I came across the doll once more, and when I looked upon it I saw hair was growing out of the wrapping paper covering it. The doll had short hair when I took it in!

  Here we can see some more familiar features of the story taking shape:

  Events have been moved back to the Taisho Era from the Showa Era.

  Sukeshichi, originally born in 1923, now has a daughter in 1918.

  The dead girl’s name has changed to Kiku, and her date of death given as March 24.

  The doll was given to the temple in 1938.

  The chief priest discovered the doll’s hair was growing whilst cleaning, not thanks to a dream.

  While the story presented in Young Lady was much closer to the legend in its present form thanks to these changes, it wasn’t until two years later in the August 15, 1970 edition of the Hokkaido Shinbun that the current version of the story was printed for the first time. It was here that the Mannenji Temple acknowledged that they were in possession of the doll and revealed it to the public for the first time.

  HOW DOES THE HAIR GROW?

  The Okiku doll is real. You can visit it in Mannenji Temple right now, and its hair really does grow. But how? Several explanations have been given over the years, ranging from the glue used to keep it in place feeding it nutrients, to even more supernatural reasons that can never be proven or disproven. The real reason, however, is likely much simpler. It’s the way Japanese dolls are built.

  The hair inside the doll’s head is threaded in a U-shape. Say, for example, you wanted to make a doll with hair that was 10 cm long. The doll-makers would take a length of hair over twice that length, around 25 cm, and wind it into a loop around the centre. They then insert that loop into the empty space in the dolls head, affix it with glue to stabilise it and voila. A single piece of hair has been threaded. So while the hair only appears 10 cm long from the outside, each strand is actually double that length, with the rest hidden inside the doll’s head.

  As the glue weakens over the years, the strands of hair slowly come apart and appear to grow. Of course, they can only grow to the roughly 25 cm in length that’s inside the doll’s head before it falls out entirely. The priests of Mannenji Temple have never allowed anyone to examine the doll, so it’s impossible to say for certain what is happening with Okiku, but knowing how Japanese dolls are made, this seems to be the most likely explanation.

  CHANGING EXPRESSIONS

  Another common rumour about the Okiku doll is that its expressions change depending on the day and who’s looking at it. Again, this can be answered quite simply and is another characteristic of these Japanese-made dolls. They are created intentionally so that, depending on the angle you view the doll from, its facial expression appears to change. The doll is supposed to look different whether viewed from the front, side, above or below. There’s nothing supernatural at work here; just incredible craftsmanship.

  WHY OKIKU?

  No reason is ever given for the name change from Kiyoko to Kikuko as the story developed over the years. Kiyoko means clean or pure child and fits the theme of the original story well. Yet the next time the story appeared her name changed to Kikuko, meaning chrysanthemum child, with the doll eventually gaining the honourable o- prefix and losing the child suffix. There could be several reasons for this, first and foremost being that the original author simply felt this name suited her better. There is, however, a type of doll made in Japan that goes by the name Kiku Ningyo, or Kiku doll. These are life-sized dolls where the head, hands and feet are constructed of doll material, but the body consists of a wooden frame that is then decorated with chrysanthemum flowers. They were first made during the Edo period and remain popular to this day. It’s possible the author was trying to draw a parallel to these world-famous Japanese dolls.

  Then there is the story of Okiku, a ghost story from the 1700s. Okiku, bearing the exact same name as the doll, was a story about a woman aptly named Okiku who was a beautiful servant to a samurai named Aoyama. The samurai made advances upon Okiku often, but she always refused him. Frustrated, he tricked Okiku into believing one of her family’s ten precious plates was missing. Knowing this would result in her death, Okiku furiously counted and recounted the plates, over and over, only ever finding nine. She went to Ao
yama in tears and he promised that he would overlook the matter if she became his lover. Okiku again refused and Aoyama threw her to her death down a well in his rage.

  Okiku then rose as an onryo, a vengeful spirit, and each night counted to nine before screaming a horrible, high-pitched shriek. She was not placated until an exorcist shouted “ten” at the end of her count, making her believe that the long-lost tenth plate had finally been found.

  This story is particularly famous, so the name “Okiku” already has supernatural associations attached to it. It certainly makes for a more terrifying doll’s name in the Japanese mind than Kiyoko does.

  Inunaki Village

  There is a small, mysterious village close to the infamous ghost spot Inunaki Ridge in Fukuoka Prefecture called Inunaki Village. There are several rumours surrounding this village.

  1. There is a sign at the entrance that states “The Japanese constitution is not in effect past here.”

  You must take a side road past the haunted old Inunaki Tunnel to reach the village, but it’s small enough that you’ll miss it if you’re not paying close attention. You’ll find the entrance to the village at the end of this path with the aforementioned sign.

  2. All who enter Inunaki Village don’t return.

  It’s said the village is full of traps, and if you fall into one the villagers will attack with hatchets and sickles. The residents are also extremely fast runners, so it’s impossible to escape from them.

  3. There’s no phone service.

  There’s no phone service in Inunaki Village and any cell or smart phones that go in will read ‘out of range.’ This means that if you enter and the villagers hunt you down, you’ll be unable to call the police. Not only that, the village has been erased from all maps, so it technically doesn’t even exist.

  4. The village has been isolated since the Edo Period.

  Inunaki Village was discriminated against severely during the Edo Period and thus became isolated. The people learned to be self-sufficient and shut out the outside world. The current government treats the village as a ‘special reservation’ and their laws have no effect there.

  5. You’ll know you’ve found it by the broken-down Sedan.

  There’s a broken-down Sedan in the middle of the village’s open area. This is the car of a couple that once visited from Shimane Prefecture…

  ABOUT

  Similar to Sugisawa Village, Inunaki is a village lost in time. Supposedly the site of extreme discrimination in the Edo Period, Inunaki differs to Sugisawa in that we know exactly where it (supposedly) is. The old Inunaki Tunnel is a famous ghost spot in Japan today and people come from all over the country to visit it. Inunaki Village is just off the beaten path from here, and there was indeed a real Inunaki Village in the past. But where does the truth separate from fiction?

  IN REALITY

  Today the old Inunaki Tunnel is boarded up. You can’t go through or around it, making it near impossible to try to find this fabled Inunaki Village nowadays. However, one user posted a story about their visit to the area 20 years ago. At the time the tunnel wasn’t boarded up, and this person went for a drive through it with a friend. They found a small path, and after driving along it they found a red gate with a sign posted on it that stated, “We cannot take responsibility for what happens to you after this point.” A little further down the path they found a single farmhouse. Too scared to go any further, the pair returned. So while Inunaki Village, as described in the legend, may not exist, at this particular time there were still people living in the area near the tunnel, and the sign they discovered was more realistic than the rumoured one. If true, this sign may have been the actual basis for the one in the legend.

  Furthermore, according to locals, the area was used as a dumping ground for the yakuza, leading to more rumours about how the police had no jurisdiction there. A popular ghost spot, rumours of a dangerous area full of dead bodies, signs to keep away and houses few and far between… seems ripe for the setting of an urban legend.

  The real Inunaki Village existed from 1691 to 1889. Proof of this can be found in literature, and the modern version of the village still exists today. But the old village wasn’t the site of discrimination of any sort. Instead it was the home of local ashigaru (foot soldiers), and from the second half of the Edo Period when these foot soldier’s graves were being moved for reburial, copper coins, katana swords, plates, bowls, and other expensive materials were excavated. It would appear the foot soldiers who lived here were actually quite well-off.

  In 1889, Japan switched to the municipal system, and Inunaki Village became part of the nearby Yoshikawa Village. It continued to combine with other areas over the years and the modern day Inunaki Village is now located in Miyawaka City, Fukuoka Prefecture. The area the old village was located in is now a large dam. Seems it would be a little difficult for the locals to get violent and attack all who enter from down there, but never underestimate an angry discriminated Japanese villager, I suppose.

  OTHER RUMOURS

  There are even more rumours that exist about the village, such as the following:

  The locals commit incest.

  There is a shed just past the open area of the village full of human skulls.

  The village is surrounded with a fence on which strings of cans are tied. When people try to jump the fence, it alerts the locals who will then chase them with weapons.

  The public phone at the nearby convenience store can’t be used to reach the police.

  You can’t travel to Inunaki in odd numbers.

  You can’t travel to Inunaki in a white Sedan.

  The villagers don’t speak Japanese.

  The villagers own cars.

  All paths leading to Inunaki have been blocked up by the villagers.

  A LOCAL ACCOUNT

  The following is from a user on 2chan who reportedly lives near Inunaki Village:

  There’s a famous ghost spot in my hometown of Inunaki Ridge in Fukuoka Prefecture. I don’t believe in ghosts at all, but even putting ghosts aside, the place is really strange.

  There’s a small path you can easily miss to the side of a particular tunnel in Inunaki Ridge. As you climb that path, it will gradually get smaller. But when you reach the end, you’ll come across a village that you won’t find on any map. There’s a sign on the way that states, “The Japanese constitution is not in effect passed this point.”

  One night one of my friends wanted to go there, and he found a prefab hut at the entrance to the village. He stopped the car suddenly and while he was looking at the hut, four or five men gathered around him, and they were looking right at him with pissed off looks on their faces.

  They approached the car with incredible speed. ‘Shit!’ he thought. My friend panicked and tried to turn around (the entrance to the village widened enough to allow a U-turn), but then the back of the car was destroyed with hatchets.

  Another friend of mine tried to go there during the day. The village was empty. There were several run-down wooden houses with beat up doors, and there was a wide open space with a mangled white car in the middle. It had a Shimane Prefecture number plate. Come to think of it, didn’t a couple from Shimane go missing around here a while back…?

  Another strange thing is that, regardless of your provider, all cell phones go out of range in the area (my phone has done the same). And while it’s unconfirmed, I heard that if you try to dial the police from the public phone at a nearby convenience store, it doesn’t work. I heard from someone that the police and government aren’t allowed to interfere in that area (it’s some sort of protected space?). I mean, yeah, despite being a famous spot around here, the TV stations never go past the ridge to film anything.

  According to one rumour, the village suffered terrible discrimination in the Edo Period and cut themselves off from the outside world. That village alone has become self-sufficient, and because there aren’t many females they partake in incest with close family members over and over. There are stories
that they’re genetically messed up, but that’s just speculation, really.

  My hope is that they do something about the area as soon as possible. Recently the number of kids looking for the place as a joke has increased dramatically…

  So this was one of those legends that was able to spread because it has a strong basis in reality, and everyone loves a good missing village story. The old Inunaki Village was a real place, and the modern-day Inunaki Village still exists nearby as well. Old Inunaki Tunnel is also nation-wide famous ghost spot, drawing supernatural explorers from all over. While you’re probably not going to find a village full of incestuous Japanese hillbillies that live by their own laws today, it’s not too difficult to see how this legend was able to become so popular and widespread.

  Hitori Kakurenbo

  Have you ever heard of Hitori Kakurenbo? It’s a form of communicating with the dead, similar to Kokkuri-san, and it’s said that when you perform it, various supernatural events will occur.

  Detailed instructions on how to play were posted on the 2chan occult forums in April 2006, and people who tried it met with baffling phenomena, one after the other.

  Then it spread even further, thanks to the internet.

  ABOUT

  Hitori Kakurenbo, or lone hide and seek in English, is a type of game or ritual. Some say it’s the modern-day Kokkuri-san, a popular game that school children used to play that’s similar to the Western ouija board. It’s a game of hide and seek involving one person and a stuffed toy, and it’s said that if you play, you’ll either die or be cursed. Why would anyone want to play it then? Because if you’re successful, a bunch of supernatural stuff will happen and you’ll make it out the other end with a cool story to tell. The internet is full of blog posts and YouTube videos of people playing the game, because nothing gets more brownie points than surviving an urban legend for all to see.