Top 10 Japanese Urban Legends

I don't know if you have heard of any urban legends about Japan.

Personally, I'm intrigued by the news about it.

After all, the most fascinating thing about these urban legends is that you can never be sure of the meaning behind it.

Today, let's take a look at the top 10 classic Japanese urban legends.

No. 10 Sphinx

Sphinx is probably one of the less scary, yet most famous urban legends.

It first appeared in 1989.

A journalist from a Japanese weekly magazine reported this story.

One rainy night, a man was driving his car on the highway.

Suddenly a running dog was reflected in his rear-view mirror.

The car was travelling at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour.

The man didn't care at first and only increased his speed a little.

But the faster the car went, the faster the dog caught up with him.

Suddenly the dog appeared on the window directly in front of the car.

He had a human face, with thick eyebrows and long, thin eyes, and a human smile.

A few days later, the story was widely circulated around the country, producing different versions of the story.

One person even called the police to report the appearance of a sphinx right near his home.

There is actually a reason why sphinxes have become so widespread in Japan.

As early as 1836, there were widespread rumours of a sphinx in Japan.

The Thought Lent newspaper, issued by the Security Section of the Japanese Police Security Bureau at the time, carried the story that a local child with four legs like a cow had been born, prophesying that the war would end this year and that an epidemic of infectious diseases might occur then. If one ate more dried plums or leeks one would not contract the disease.

After saying these words, the bull-like child died.

It was later thought that this type of legend was particularly likely to circulate among the people in times of war or natural disasters.

Perhaps the sphinx is also a distortion of this type of demon legend.

The ninth biology teacher's mannequin.

The mannequin in the biology classroom is one of the most famous schoolyard legends in Japanese urban legend.

It is said that in the middle of the night, the mannequin in the biology classroom of the school would leave its original position and run around the school grounds.

If someone hit him with something, he would fall apart.

Until the next morning, he would be intact in the biology classroom again.

This urban legend may seem absurd, but there is actually a source for it.

In July 2016, the local high school in Kagoshima, Japan, contacted the police after a skeleton suspected to be a human skull was found while sorting through specimens stored in the biology classroom.

The police reviewed the information and found that the skull belonged to a woman who had passed away 50 years ago.

At the time the government buried the woman as an unidentified person and there were no details about the woman.

Subsequent investigations led to the discovery of many similar cases.

The skeletons used for sketches in many school art classes were actual human bones.

Many were unidentified dead people.

Eighth, the daughter's day doll with long hair.

In Japan, March 3rd is Daughter's Day, and families with daughters put up beautiful, elaborate dolls dressed in classical kimonos.

The richer the family, the more dolls are put up and the more elaborate they are.

Since ancient times, however, the Japanese have believed that dolls with human forms actually have a soul of their own.

Daughters' Day dolls carry with them a huge amount of thoughts and trust.

When the daughters grow up, these dolls are often abandoned.

And the resentment of the dolls grows longer and longer along with the hair.

Seventh place, the non-existent Kisaragi Station.

Kisaragi Station is actually an urban legend that has been circulating on Japanese social media sites.

The story begins in 2004.

A user named Renishi was riding a train late at night when he accidentally arrived at a place called Kisaragi Station.

Everything about the place was quite bizarre.

He posted what he experienced on his website.

He tried to call the police but they thought it was a prank because there is no station called Kisaragi.

The netizen said that he could often hear bells and drums that no one else could hear.

He also bumped into an old man on one foot in Kisaragi station.

His last message was that he had got into a stranger's car and was being driven to the mountains.

Then he was lost on the internet.

No one knows what happened to him and whether he is still alive.

Later on, there were also several references to Kisaragi Station on the internet, but the exact location remains unknown.

These bits and pieces of information have shrouded Kisaragi Station in a veil of mystery, and no one knows what truth lies behind that veil.

Number six, the white thread running out of your ears.

This is an urban legend that was once very popular among schoolgirls in Japan.

A girl wanted to wear earrings. So she asked a friend to pierce her ears for her.

After the piercing was done, she looked in the mirror and noticed a white thread in her ear.

She tried to reach out and pull it, but suddenly her eyes went black.

It turned out that the white wire was her optic nerve and when she pulled her hand, the wire tugged and she became blind.

In fact ear piercing does not cause blindness at all.

This legend seems to have been used by some teachers who teach their female students not to pierce their ears indiscriminately.

There are five more urban legends about Japan, which we will continue to share in the next issue.