Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume One

by Tara A. Devlin

  Water tank

  There was an apartment complex, and in that complex there lived a young girl. When she went out to play one day, however, she went missing. Both her parents and the police looked everywhere they thoughts she might be, but in the end they never found her.

  Three months later, people who lived in the same building began to complain that the tap water was giving off an awful smell. The manager went to check on things, but day by day the complaints grew, and so he went up to the roof to check the water storage tank.

  When he opened the lid to the tank, his nose was assaulted by the foul smell of rotting flesh. Floating in the water was the dead body of a small child. An autopsy revealed it was the little girl who went missing three months earlier. It appeared the girl was playing on the roof when she looked into the open lid of the tank, under inspection at the time, and fell in.

  The people in the apartment complex had been drinking the water her dead body was floating in for three whole months.

  ABOUT

  This urban legend is popular all around the world, not just Japan. The idea that one might be drinking contaminated water has surely crossed everyone’s mind at some point or another. There are even real world precedents for this tale. There’s the death of Elisa Lam, a Canadian student who was found in the water tank atop the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles in 2013. She was reported missing a month earlier, and just like the above legend, she wasn’t found until the hotel guests started to complain about the water supply. In Indonesia in 2012, a man was also charged with murdering a maid and dumping her body in a rooftop water tank.

  Going back even further, the story “Floating Water” by Ringu author Koji Suzuki focuses on this very legend. Released in 1996, it was later turned into the movie Dark Water, in which (spoilers) it turns out there was a dead body in the water tank on top of the apartment complex all along. But we can find evidence in Japan of dead bodies in water tanks even earlier than this.

  It’s common for the sites of murders and suicides to turn into ghost spots in Japan, but it’s rare for such events to happen the other way around. In 1975, rumours started popping up in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, of a ghost wearing a black sweater. Story goes that a taxi driver came across her on the streets late one night, so he got out of his cab to check on her. When she turned around, however, her face was rotten and melting away. Rumours continued to spread, with many others claiming to have seen the woman with the melting face and black sweater. A stone was placed in the area with “A ghost appears here!” written in chalk, and despite the fact no-one touched it, the stone moved to a different area each day.

  It wasn’t until 1977 that a firefighter went to check on a water tank near the Eifukuji Temple in Saitama. He was checking the tank for maintenance when he noticed a foul smell the moment he opened the lid. When he looked inside, he saw a dead body floating there. Just like the ghost rumours, the woman’s face was melting off her body due to decomposition, and she was wearing a black sweater. The autopsy determined she was a 21-year-old missing woman they called “Y-san,” and she was pregnant at the time. The tanks were checked for maintenance once a year, and it was determined that she must have been placed in there shortly after its last check. These dates appeared to coincide with the first appearances of the ghost in the black sweater. The murderer turned out to be her then-boyfriend, who was arrested just three days after investigations began.

  It’s likely that the seed of this legend was planted in the minds of the public with this particular incident, and with Koji Suzuki’s popular Dark Water in the late 90s moving the action to an apartment rooftop, a place that could affect nearly anyone, at any time, its status as an urban legend was cemented.

  Little girl at the shopping centre

  A five-year-old girl and her mother were shopping at a large chain supermarket. There was a special bargain sale on, and the mother was engrossed in her shopping.

  “Mummy, I need to pee,” the little girl whined.

  “I’m shopping, so go by yourself.”

  The girl was already five-years-old, so the mother thought she should at least be able to go to the toilet by herself.

  But she was wrong.

  A short while later she realised her daughter hadn’t returned. Worried, she made her way to the toilets to find her. Only the end stall was in use. She heard a rattling from inside. She approached a nearby staff member and had them open the door.

  Inside she found her daughter with a middle-aged man, a broom handle thrust up between her legs. While the little girl survived, she was never able to have children again.

  ABOUT

  There’s an urban legend in the West where a teenage girl is found pleasuring herself with a broom handle, and then her mother walks in, surprising her. The girl falls off whatever object she’s standing on, causing the broom to be thrust up through her body and killing her. It’s a warning tale to not let teenagers’ sexual desires take over and cause them to do stupid things, but in this Japanese legend we instead find a cautionary tale for parents.

  The story itself is widespread throughout Japan, although nobody knows for sure when it first appeared. Local areas have their own versions of events, however. For example, in the Kanto region the criminal is a middle-aged man, while in Kinki the criminals are a gang of teenage boys. Depending on the area, the shopping centre may change to a local shop, or a well-known chain store. The resolution also changes depending on the area you visit. In some instances the girl is saved just in time, in others a settlement is reached with the criminal. In most the girl is revealed to never be able to have children again, however.

  There was a real-life incident that took place in 2003 involving a junior high boy who kidnapped a four-year-old boy from a shopping centre, then assaulted and murdered him. This event saw a revival in the above legend as people saw scary parallels. Threads were posted on 2chan, with posters sharing stories they’d heard from their own home towns, adding more conviction to the legend. It served as a warning to all parents to keep a close eye on their children, and the legend persists until this day.

  Boutique dressing room

  A group of women went to Paris on vacation. They found a boutique a little off the main street and decided to stop by and have a look. It was somewhat out of the way and not full of the highest quality goods, so there wasn’t much to choose from. One of the women managed to find something she liked, however, and stepped away from the others to continue searching the store.

  The rest of the women returned to the main street and enjoyed some window shopping, and thinking their friend should be done by now, they returned to the boutique. But the woman wasn’t there, and after asking the shop assistant about her they found out she left the store earlier.

  The women shrugged their shoulders and moved on, thinking she would return to the hotel herself by nightfall. But she never did. The women grew concerned and in the morning called the local police. Yet they never found their friend and were forced to return home without her.

  They later found out the boutique was well-known to police, and many people had disappeared from the area. While they didn’t know exactly what happened to these people, it was thought that they were drugged and sold on the black market. They were sold for others amusement and in the end carved up for their organs.

  ABOUT

  This legend first began to spread through Japan in the early 1980s. More and more women were graduating from university and then travelling overseas as a result. The magazine Shuukan Yomiuri reported in its August 2, 1981, edition that a newlywed bride disappeared from a boutique dressing room in Rome while on her honeymoon and was later found in a back alley in Spain with both her legs and arms cut off. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs looked into the matter and confirmed no such incident had taken place, but the idea was planted in people’s minds.

  The legend also has roots in a French urban legend from the late 1960s. Called “The Rumour of Orleans,” the legend stated that people were going missing after
entering the dressing room of a Jewish boutique in Orleans, roughly 100 km south of Paris. This legend made its way to Japan and, after several changes to make it more suitable to a Japanese audience, became the legend that is still spread today.

  VARIATIONS

  This wasn’t the end of the story, however. Like many urban legends, this one has several variations, including one that makes it uniquely Japanese. One such version goes as follows:

  Some newlyweds went to Southeast Asia for their honeymoon. The couple were enjoying some shopping and entered a certain clothes store. The friendly shop assistant recommended some clothes to the woman and she entered the dressing room, but after a considerable amount of time had passed, she still hadn’t returned. Finding it strange, her husband opened the dressing room door but found it empty.

  In reality, the room was fitted with a magic mirror, and the woman was taken through it to be sold on the black market.

  A few years later the husband returned to the country on business. Unable to forget what happened to his wife, the man was approached by a cheerful man on the street. He was the owner of an exhibition nearby and informed the husband that he could see things only available at this particular show.

  The husband decided to take a look, thinking it might be a nice diversion. He entered the tent right as the show was reaching its climax. The stage performers brought out a naked woman with no arms or legs. The husband knew that face… it was that of his wife, who went missing several years earlier.

  Another version brings the action closer to home, reminding audiences that you don’t even need to leave Japan to fall afoul of black market gangs:

  Two young women went to Osaka to go shopping. However, they were separated in the crowd and one of them went missing. The police got involved and began investigating, but they couldn’t find the girl.

  Six months later the girl’s parents received a call from the police letting them know that someone who resembled their daughter was discovered in Hong Kong. Her parents made arrangements to head to Hong Kong without delay. They were taken to a small exhibition hall with a sign that stated “Japanese Daruma” out the front. What they found inside was a girl they could no longer recognise as their own daughter, her arms and legs cut off, and gone mad because of it all. “There’s no way this thing can be our daughter,” they said.

  The girl is secretly being cared for in a mental institution even now.

  This particular version of the legend goes by several different names, such as “Japanese Daruma” “Japanese Kokeshi” (another doll without arms or legs) or simply “Human Daruma.” While the location often changes, the base story of a young woman being kidnapped, usually in a dressing room, and showing up several months or years later as a human daruma remain the key points.

  Legends of people being made into human darumas first began to widely circulate in the 1970s thanks to the movie The Empress Dowager, based on the real life Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi. The movie features a scene of a woman having her arms and legs cut off, and as this story spread throughout Japan, it later combined with the Orleans legend to become the urban legend most well-known today. It was especially popular in the Tokyo area, with stories of women being kidnapped, turned into human darumas and then sold into sexual slavery.

  The legend remains as a cautionary tale to people, particularly women, when travelling overseas to be aware of their surroundings and always take care, even when you think you’re in a safe environment.

  Katsudon in the examination room

  In the cold examination room of a certain police station, a suspect was being interrogated for his part in a theft by two detectives. The young detective smashed his fists down on the table and screamed at the man, “You’re the one who did it!”

  But the suspect said nothing.

  The older, veteran detective, watching the scene from the back of the room, stepped forth.

  “Hey, stand back…”

  Then he spoke gently to the man.

  “By the way, do you like katsudon?”

  The man was surprised, not expecting to hear that, and the detective presented him with a steaming hot bowl of rice with crumbed pork. The man, his stomach grumbling from hunger, broke out into tears and shovelled the food into his mouth before confessing to the crime.

  You can see such a sight at police stations around the country. It’s standard routine for detectives to treat their suspects with a bowl of katsudon while in the examination room.

  ABOUT

  This legend sprang to life thanks to several TV dramas. After the Second World War, Japan as a country was very poor and a meal such as katsudon—crumbed pork served on top of a bowl of rice—was considered a luxury. At the time, detective dramas often featured police officers giving their suspects a bowl of this luxury food out of their own money as a gesture of kindness, and in return the suspects would confess to their crimes. Sounds sweet, doesn’t it?

  THE TRUTH

  As you can probably imagine, this doesn’t happen in real life. Food is forbidden in examination rooms because the utensils could be used to harm the officers, the suspect, or even to escape. There was, however, an incident on September 6, 2006, in the Tokorozawa Police Station in Saitama Prefecture where a detective was discovered to have given a suspect a bowl of katsudon. This in turn became a rather large scandal, and the officer involved not only received a pay cut for the next three months, he retired the very same day. The two junior officers who knew of the incident but didn’t report it to their superiors also received a warning.

  SOURCES

  The following is a list of websites visited while gathering information for this book.

  Aniwota Wiki: https://www49.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/

  Believe it or not!: https://believeitornot666.com/

  Bukimidick: http://bukimidick.com/

  Cinema Room: http://www.sakawa-lawoffice.gr.jp/sub5-2-b-07-22kutisakeonna1.pdf

  Choujou Genshou no Nazotoki: http://www.nazotoki.com/

  Chou Kowai Hanashi Jitsuwa: http://chokowabanasi.blog.fc2.com/

  Contact Lenses: https://www.contactlenses.co.uk/

  Crazy Dog no Blog: https://ameblo.jp/crazy-dog01/

  Dara Kowa: http://kowaihanashi.esy.es/

  Fuminji no Kenkyujo: https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/evan4963/

  Fushigi Kuukan: https://dostoev.exblog.jp/

  Fushigi Navi: http://www.decoration.tokyo/

  Fushigi Net: http://world-fusigi.net/

  Home Made Research: http://www.homemate-research-tv-station.com/

  How Stuff Works: https://www.howstuffworks.com/

  Ikai Tanbo: http://commushougai.seesaa.net/

  Kashima Reiko Kenkyu Honron: http://kashimareiko.blog.shinobi.jp/

  Kensaku Shite wa Ikenai Kotoba: http://miekensaku.blog.fc2.com/

  Kerotama: https://kerotama.exblog.jp/

  Kiniburo: http://kininarun.com/category/occult

  Kore wa Yabai!: http://ghibli-tosidensetu.com/

  Kowai: http://kowaiahya.gozaru.jp/

  Kowai Kopipe: http://kowai-story.net/

  Kyofu no Izumi: https://xn--u9jv84l7ea468b.com/

  Latte: https://latte.la/

  Livescience: https://www.livescience.com/

  Lounge Pure: http://ww5.tiki.ne.jp/~qyoshida/

  Mag2News: https://www.mag2.com/p/news/

  Mukashi Mukashi: http://mukasimukashi.blog.fc2.com/

  Mystery News Station Atlas: http://mnsatlas.com/

  Naosuke no Toshi Densetsu to Zatsugaku: https://blog.goo.ne.jp/naosuke26_1978/

  Naver Matome: https://matome.naver.jp/

  Netcast: http://netcast.xyz/

  News na Dekigoto: http://newsplus.at.webry.info/

  No Life No Uverworld: https://ameblo.jp/no-life-no-uverworld/

  NPR: https://www.npr.org/

  Okoru! Daikazan: http://www.okorudaikazan.com/

  Oni Kowa News: http://onikowa.com/

  Onryo no Shiryo File: http://sugisawa.mu-sashi.com/

  Otakuma: ht
tp://otakei.otakuma.net/

  Qtaro no Blog: https://ameblo.jp/qtaro007/

  Ranpo: http://ranpo.co/

  Seeing is Believing: https://ameblo.jp/omoidaseta9999/

  Sharetube: http://sharetube.jp/

  Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/

  The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/

  The Occult Site: http://occult.xxxblog.jp/

  THE Tsuburu: https://sumaapu0.hateblo.jp/

  Tennink-NET: https://tenink.net/

  Tera Kowasu: http://terakowasu.blog.fc2.com/

  Tofugu: https://www.tofugu.com/

  Toritemi: https://www.toritemi.com/

  Toshi Densetsu Archives: http://www.td-archives.net/

  Toshi Densetsu Kokontosai: http://sfushigi.com/

  Toshi Densetsu Denshi Hon: http://www.ublegend.com/

  Toshi Densetsu Hiroba: http://umaibo.net/

  Toshi Densetsu no Atsumaru Basho: http://toshidensetsublog.seesaa.net/

  Toshi Densetsu Japan: https://xn--japan-9t2hu30gsg3fz4l.com/

  Toshi Densetsu Kaimeidan: http://todenkaimei.web.fc2.com/

  Toshi Densetsu Matome: http://totosh.blog.fc2.com/

  Toshi Densetsu Paradise: http://toshidensetsuu.com/

  Toshi Densetsu wo Matomete Ikki Yomi: http://toshidensetsu-ikki.com/

  Toshi Densetsu Ya: http://toshi-densetsu.com/

  Unbroken Snow: http://roanoke.web.fc2.com/

  Uwagoto no Tonari: http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/DD2/Rumor/ul.htm

  Very Well Health: https://www.verywellhealth.com/

  Wikipedia: https://ja.wikipedia.org/

  Woman Excite: https://woman.excite.co.jp/

  Yahoo! Chishiki: https://chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/

  Yokai Zukan: http://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/