{"id":606,"date":"2017-10-23T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/?p=606"},"modified":"2017-10-28T15:43:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T14:43:13","slug":"a-very-japanese-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/23\/a-very-japanese-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"A Very Japanese Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author Corinne Morier is our guest poster today. Corinne is an American currently living in Japan whilst on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme, and she’s here to share what Halloween is like in Japan with us.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Japanese culture is ripe with urban legends and ghost stories. So you\u2019d think that they\u2019d use that to their advantage and tie it in with Halloween, right?<\/p>\n

You\u2019d be dead wrong. (haha, see what I did there? xD) Ghost stories in Japan are told in the summertime, not in October. Halloween is mostly a consumer holiday, a time for stores to stock up on Halloween-themed items in order to generate sales.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pumpkin pudding at the local 7-11.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Pumpkin pancake snack at the grocery store.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes these are things that have an obvious relation to Halloween, like the pumpkin snacks pictured above. Sometimes it\u2019s questionable\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"
“Halloween\u201d cookies and cream flavored cream puff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
\u201cHalloween\u201d tiramisu-filled dorayaki (pancake-like snack)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And sometimes, they have nothing at all to do with Halloween and you wonder what people were even thinking\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cHalloween\u201d frozen cheese pizza.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
\u201cHalloween\u201d puppy pads.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Living in Japan, I\u2019m feeling very deprived of spook. So I got to researching some Japanese ghost stories and thought I\u2019d share some of my favorites here.<\/p>\n

Kuchi-sake Onna<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

I first heard of this legend after reading a writer friend\u2019s novel that is based off this legend. She is a malicious spirit mutilated by her husband, who, after learning that she was having an affair, slit her mouth from one ear to the other in revenge.<\/p>\n

She wears a cloth mask, or, in more modern versions of the legend, a surgical mask, and will approach you and ask \u201cAm I pretty?\u201d If you answer yes, she will remove her mask and ask once more. Then, another yes will earn you a slash from ear to ear to match her. And it\u2019s not as if saying no will save you either. If you say no, she\u2019ll walk away and leave you alone, but later that night, she\u2019ll follow you home and brutally murder you!<\/p>\n

How to avoid this grisly fate? It\u2019s best to give her a confusing answer, ask her a question in return, or throw candy at her to give yourself a chance to escape.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Imagine a pair of everyday scissors doing that to your face!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hanako-san<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

This one is a bathroom story. The ghost Hanako-san haunts school bathrooms. Just like our \u201cBloody Mary\u201d legend, if you say her name three times, you can summon her, but you must be in the third stall of the third-floor bathroom. However, Hanako-san seems to have become nothing more than a fairy tale\u2014none of my kids mention Hanako-san unless I bring it up.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Or is she really only a fairy tale? If you summon her, she\u2019ll take your life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teketeke<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teketeke is the vengeful spirit of a girl who was sliced in half by a train. Named after the sound she makes when she runs, \u201cTeketeke\u201d (onomatopoeia for \u201cclick clack\u201d) she can\u2019t find peace and will try to trick kids into becoming like her. Most often, she\u2019ll go after kids who are playing at dusk, chasing on her elbows and hands after them and slicing them in half so they become like her.<\/p>\n

\"\"
No wonder my kids go home before dark!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Himuro mansion<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

This one is the creepiest because it apparently is based in reality. The exact location of the Himuro mansion is unknown, but it\u2019s apparently somewhere just outside of Tokyo. The Himuro family took part in a grisly Shinto ritual known as the \u201cStrangling Ritual.\u201d In order to ward off bad spirits, they would commence a ritual once every fifty years or so.<\/p>\n

A maiden in the family is chosen from birth to be the sacrifice. She is kept locked away so as not to develop any ties with the outside world. On the day of the ritual, she is tied up and quartered, and the ropes that bound her are soaked with her blood and placed over the portal from which the family believed bad spirits would emerge. But that\u2019s not the end of it.<\/p>\n

In one of these instances, the maiden fell in love with a man who tried to save her from the ritual. This created a tie to the physical world, tainting her blood and the ritual itself. Enraged, the master of the mansion killed her, the rest of the family, and then himself. It\u2019s said that the spirits of the family still haunt the mansion, trying to repeat the ritual with anyone who dares wander inside.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Is this really real? The only saving grace is that this event happened quite recently, between thirty and eighty years ago, and the police have no records of such a brutal murder ever occurring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After researching these stories, I\u2019ve definitely got my fill of spook. Don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be able to sleep tonight\u2026<\/p>\n

Did I miss any? What Japanese ghost stories do you know? Leave them in the comments below!<\/p>\n

\u4e59\u5973<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Corinne Morier<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Corinne Morier is a fantasy author with a penchant for writing stories that make readers feel. Born and raised in Oakland, California, she now lives in Japan, where she works as a TEFL teacher for her local elementary school. In her free time, she enjoys swimming, watching anime, and, of course, writing.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow Corinne: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Website<\/a><\/em>
\nPublished works: JL Anthology Vol. 1<\/a>, The Photo (Paranormal Flash Fiction)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author Corinne Morier is our guest poster today. Corinne is an American currently living in Japan whilst on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme, and she’s here to share what Halloween is like in Japan with us.   Japanese culture is ripe with urban legends and ghost stories. So …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"yoast_head":"\nA Very Japanese Halloween - Just-Us League<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/23\/a-very-japanese-halloween\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Very Japanese Halloween - Just-Us League\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author Corinne Morier is our guest poster today. 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