A CURSED DOLL

I don’t really have any phobias or debilitating fears, but there are things in this world I’m not really comfortable with. For example, sharks while I'm swimming in the ocean, scary movies, and dolls. Yes, dolls creep me out. I know that most people, especially kids, think of dolls as immensely lovable and huggable playthings. They're meant to comfort and entertain us, not scare the living bejeezus out of us! But personally, I think of them as mostly creepy and sometimes cursed. This is especially true for a particularly pee-inducing doll from Japan called the Okiku doll.

Now, I briefly talked about this doll before in one of my list videos, but I want to go into depth here. If you know anything about Japan, or watch some of their movies and TV shows and read some of their urban legends, you’ll know that the country does not mess around when it comes to anything creepy. I mean, its horror movies are the scariest, its haunted places are, I think, the creepiest, and this is no exception when it comes to haunted or cursed dolls. This one, in my opinion, might be one of the creepiest in the world.

Just looking at this doll may not conjure up any Chucky-esque images, but this is one doll Chucky might even swipe left on. The story goes that a man named Eikichi Suzuki bought this doll while he was in Sapporo, Japan, for his 2-year-old baby sister in 1938. The doll, as you can see, is wearing a traditional Japanese kimono. It has black eyes and hair covering its porcelain face. The man brought his sister the doll; the sister, named Okiku, loved the doll so much she even named it after herself. Unfortunately, a short time later, the girl fell ill and eventually passed away. In her remembrance, her family placed the doll on their household altar and began to pray to it every day.

This is where things begin to get weird. The hair on the doll, which was originally a neat shoulder length, started to grow and was soon at the knees of the doll. Even when the hair was trimmed, it soon grew right back. The family, believing that Okiku’s spirit had inhabited the doll, decided not to burn it with holy fire right away. Instead, they gave it to Mannenji Temple in Hokkaido, Japan, before they moved away. The doll—to this day—is still in a wooden box at the temple, where you can still see it. It’s probably the only doll in the world that needs regular haircuts because the hair just keeps growing.

Even though there is still no plausible explanation as to why or how Okiku's doll’s hair continues to grow, scientific research has concluded that the figurine’s hair is indeed akin to that of a young child—probably Okiku in this case! However, I want to bring up another possible explanation. I don't believe that the doll is inhabited by Okiku's spirit. Instead, I think the doll is actually possessed by a Harionago, or long-haired woman, which is an urban legend about a Japanese ghost with extremely long hair. This ghost can continue to grow her hair and use it as a weapon to attack, in general, young men who smile at her...or maybe Okiku became a Harionago? I’m just trying to figure out the whole "never stop growing hair" part.

Anyway, apparently, the long-haired woman ghost is a pretty evil ghost who walks around the streets, and because she's so beautiful, people tend to look at her. If you're a guy, and you look at her, and then she smiles at you and you smile back, her hair just extends and hooks you, ripping you to pieces. So, if you do go and see this doll—and I don’t know why you would—maybe don’t smile at her.

Speaking of dolls, I just wanted to mention a new game that is being played around Japan and apparently the whole world by people who seem to just want to die, I think. The game is called "Hide and Seek for One." Basically, you take a doll, remove its innards, fill it with uncooked rice, sew it up with red thread, then put the doll in a bathtub of water at exactly 3 AM. Apparently, you’re supposed to keep a knife with you in case things go wrong. At 3 AM, you’re supposed to go up to the doll and say, "Tag, you’re it," then stab the doll, cut the red thread, and go hide with saltwater in your mouth because that’s supposed to ward off evil spirits. When you go back and check on the doll, it has disappeared! Now, your job is to go find the doll.

Okay, I have no idea why anybody would think this is at all a fun game. And just because you have a knife doesn’t mean the doll can’t get a knife itself—like every Chucky movie ever made. You’re at a severe disadvantage being, I don’t know, 20 times bigger than a doll. So yeah, again, Japan with the creepiest doll stories, probably in the world.

Thank you so much for reading!