What is Teke Teke?
Teke Teke is an urban legend about a ghost with only the upper half of a body. It moves at tremendous speed, crawling along the ground on its elbows, and gets its name from the “teke teke, teke teke” sound it makes. If you meet it on a road at night, it chases you at frightening speed, and if it catches you, it takes the lower half of your body, the stories say.
The origin of Teke Teke
The best-known story is of a woman in Hokkaido who was hit by a train at a railway crossing in winter and lost the lower half of her body. It was so cold that the blood vessels in her wounds froze, and she did not die at once but writhed in agony for some time before dying. Her ghost, the story goes, wanders in search of her missing lower half. Sometimes a twist is added: anyone who hears the story will be visited by Teke Teke within a few days.
Teke Teke as a school ghost story
From the late Showa to the Heisei era, the story spread among children throughout Japan as a school ghost story. Similar tales include Kashima-san. It has also been made into films and remains one of the classic scary urban legends of Japan.
