Legends of strange, unexplained events such as spirit abductions and ghostly fires.
Entries: 31
A female ghost of Mexico and Latin America. A woman who drowned her own children in a river is said to wander the waterside after death, crying "Oh, my children," and to take children away. It is also told to warn children not to stay out late at night, and it became a horror film.
A festival held on October 31. Its origin is said to be "Samhain," celebrated by the ancient Celts at the end of summer, when the spirits of the dead and monsters were thought to return to this world. Jack-o'-lanterns, costumes and trick-or-treating spread mainly in America.
The theory that the moon affects humans: on full moon nights, crimes, accidents and births increase and minds are disturbed. The English word "lunatic" also comes from the moon. It spread through a 1978 book, but most statistical studies have not confirmed any link.
People believed to bring misfortune through magic. In 15th–17th-century Europe, many people were put on trial as witches for "making pacts with the devil," and tens of thousands were executed. The image of flying on a broomstick with a black cat spread through folklore and later stories.
An art and philosophy from ancient to early modern times that sought to turn base metals such as lead into gold and to make an elixir of immortality. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, it developed in Europe by way of the Islamic world. It never achieved its goals, but its laboratory techniques became the foundation of modern chemistry.
The mystical tradition of Judaism. It explains God and the creation of the world through diagrams such as the "Tree of Life" (Sephiroth), ten spheres connected by lines. It developed in medieval Spain and southern France and later influenced Western magic, the occult, numerology, and even anime and games.
A mysterious figure who appeared at the courts of 18th-century Europe. He spoke several languages, was versed in alchemy, and was rumored never to age. Records say he died in 1784, but sightings continued to be told afterward, and he became legendary as an "immortal man" and "time traveler."
A story pattern in which a hero dies and is reborn in another world, or wanders into another world alive. It became a huge boom in the 2010s from novel-posting sites. Tales of going to another world and back are old, like Urashima Taro, and the internet also has urban legends about "ways to go to another world."
One of the "Seven Wonders of Honjo," ghost stories of Honjo in Edo (today's Sumida, Tokyo). When anglers tried to take home fish caught in the moat, a voice from the water said "Leave it, leave it," and the fish vanished. It is said to be the origin of the Japanese expression "oitekebori" (being left behind).
A tale of a vengeful spirit set in Hanyu Village, Shimousa Province (today's Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture), in the Edo period. The spirit of Kasane, murdered by her husband, haunted two generations until the high priest Yuten Shonin laid it to rest. It is also known from the rakugo epic Shinkei Kasanegafuchi.
Japan's most famous ghost story, told in the Edo-period kabuki play Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan. Betrayed by her husband Iemon and poisoned so that her face is disfigured, Oiwa returns as a vengeful ghost. It is said that a curse falls on productions whose members do not first visit the shrine dedicated to Oiwa.
A Japanese doll kept at Mannenji Temple in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, whose hair is said to grow. It belonged to Kikuko, a little girl who died young, and after her death the doll's bobbed hair began to grow, it is said. It is one of the most famous mysterious dolls in Japan.
A dish-mansion ghost story set at Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture. Okiku, a maid who discovered a plot against her lord, was framed when a treasured plate was hidden, and thrown into a well. "Okiku's Well" still remains at Himeji Castle, and the legend of the "Okiku bug" is also told.
A ghost story set in Bancho, Edo. Okiku, a maid in a samurai mansion, was killed for breaking a treasured plate and thrown into a well, and from then on a voice counting plates was heard from the well every night. It is one of Japan's most famous ghost stories.
A ghost-cat story set in the Nabeshima household of the Saga domain. To avenge the mother of a retainer killed by the lord, her pet cat becomes a bakeneko and torments him. It was a huge hit in late Edo-period storytelling and kabuki, and is counted first among Japan's three great ghost-cat disturbances.
The strange feeling of strongly sensing "this has happened before" in a place you are visiting for the first time or during a new experience. It means "already seen" in French. Many people are said to experience it, and it is sometimes linked with memories of past lives or precognitive dreams.
The 75th emperor of Japan, of the late Heian period. Defeated in the Hogen Rebellion, he was exiled to Sanuki (Kagawa Prefecture) and died there. He is said to have vowed to become "a great demon of Japan" and turned into a tengu while still alive, and is counted with Sugawara no Michizane and Taira no Masakado as one of the Three Great Onryo of Japan.
A rock at Nasu-Yumoto in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, long feared for killing any living thing that approached it. Legend says it is the nine-tailed fox Tamamo-no-Mae turned to stone after being unmasked and slain. In 2022 the stone was found split in two.
A village that once existed in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, with a legend that the corpse of an oni was buried there. It is said to be where an oni killed by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was buried. Its name disappeared in a Meiji-era merger, but the legendary "oni stone" still remains.
A small artificial human said to be created in a flask through alchemy. A book attributed to the 16th-century alchemist Paracelsus describes how to make one. It also appears in Goethe's Faust and has become a motif of many works.
