Folklore — Japan
Folklore — Japan. 3 places in the catalogue, each with coordinates, the story behind it and a danger level from white to black.
Kuchisake-onna, the slit-mouthed woman
A woman in a surgical mask stops a passer-by and asks: am I beautiful? Say yes and she takes the mask off, revealing a mouth slit to the ears, and asks again. The legend erupted in the spring of 1979 in Gifu Prefecture and crossed the whole of Japan within months: schools sent children home in groups, police stepped up patrols, newspapers reported the panic. The roots are older, going back to the Edo period, but the 1979 version was the country's first case of an urban legend requiring a police response.
Yonaguni Monument
An underwater formation off the Japanese island of Yonaguni with flat terraces and right angles. Some read it as a sunken city, others as natural sandstone split along its bedding — the argument is still open.
Aokigahara Forest
A dense forest at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan, known in folklore as a home to yūrei — the spirits of the dead. Its heavy silence and tree roots gripping hardened lava give it a singular atmosphere.