Hanako-san, or Hanako from the toilet

Hanako, promotional poster

A certain urban legend says that when you knock at the third stall of the girl's bathroom on the third floor and cry out loud "Hanako-san, are you here?", a voice will say "Yes!".
If you decide to enter the stall, you will see a little girl in a red skirt. What happens next varies to regions.

Indeed one of the oldest urban legend to arrive in modern Japan.

Hanako is said to be a Japanese elementary schoolgirl from the 50s who died in mysterious circumstances and haunts nowadays every restrooms of Japan, the third door of the third floor to be precise.

 

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanako-san
http://pinktentacle.com/2010/04/hanako-san-terror-of-the-toilet/
http://matthewmeyer.net/blog/2010/10/27/a-yokai-a-day-hanako-san-or-hanako-of-the-toilet/
https://hyakkumonogatari.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/toire-no-hanako-san/

 

Work in progress... 

Izanami, goddess of creation and death

Izanami is one of the most ancient deities of Japanese mythology, wife of the god Izanagi and, together, they are considered to be the creators of the world of humans and of the cycle of life and death.

Izanagi, by Kobayashi Eitaku, 1885

According to the myth, Izanami was responsible for the creation of the cycle of life and death. After being emprisoned in the Yomi - the world of death - by his former husband Izanagi, she screamed with rage that if she was left here, she shall destroy 1000 lifes every day, in which he shouted that he then shall create 1500 lifes every day. Thus was set the cycle of life and death.

The myth of Izanagi and Izanami is similar to the greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in which the desperate Orpheus tried to fetch back his beloved dead Eurydice from the underworld and failed due to breaking the only promise he did to the gods of the underworld: not to look at Eurydice until they are out of the underworld.





What is similar to this myth is that Izanami died when giving birth to Kagu-Tsuchi, the incarnation of fire whose flames burned her mother to death. Outraged by such a loss, Izanagi killed Kagu-Tsuchi who then gave birth to dozens of other deities.
Unable to live without her, Izanagi then went to the Yomi, the shadowy land of the dead, which was accessible via a tunnel, the Yomotsuhirasaka, in order to fetch back Izanami to the living world.
However, when he finally found her, he could not see her as the omnipresent shadows were hidding her. She informed his husband that he came too late because she had already eaten the food of the underworld, becoming one with it.
Shocked by the news, Izanagi refused nonetheless to leave her and, desperate to see the once beautiful face of his lover, set his comb on fire to see her when she was asleep, only to discover with horror that Izanami became a hideous corpse with maggots and other foul creatures running over her rotten flesh.
Submerged by fear and disgust, Izanagi fled the Yomi, leaving Izanami behind. Awaken by his husband's scream, Izamani shrieked with indignation and chased him, sending demons to hunt him and bring him back to Yomi.
Now out of the Yomi, Izanagi shut the entrance with a large boulder, trapping the enraged Izanami behind it.

Izanami then became as we know today the goddess of creation and death.

Izanami, by Genzoman

Now we know who started everything.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izanami-no-Mikoto

Alma Wade, science is horrible (F.E.A.R)

Alma Wade (young) 

Alma Wade is the main antagonist of the video game franchise F.E.A.R developed by Monolith Productions.

While she was still a child, Alma had psychic powers and was used in experiments by the government to use her abilities as weapons. Due to endless suffering and trauma, she developed a humongous grudge against the corporation which had emprisoned her. After her death, she returned wreacking havoc as a ghost.

Alma's character is pretty reminiscent of the popular onryō, spreaded by (in)famous antagonists such as Sadako, Kayako or Samara.
Throughout the franchise, Alma's appearance changes from a creepy black haired child dressed in red to, with great surprise, a voluptuous naked woman with her face hidden behind her long dark hair, along with another more hideous one.

Sources:

http://fear.wikia.com/wiki/Alma_Wade

Work in progress...

Sachiko Shinozaki, or the Girl in the Red Dress (Corpse Party)

Sachiko depicted in the game

 Sachiko Shinozaki is the main antagonist of the Japanese video game franchise Corpse Party developed by Team GrisGris.

A little shy girl who witnessed her mother's death and was strangled by the murderer, the principal of the school. Her angered spirit returned haunting the school, trapping anyone who enters in a parallel dimension where the ghosts of the dead victims and Sachiko pursue any tresspassers to gruesomely murder them.

Sachiko follow the popular image of the onryō, the Japanese vengeful spirit, as a creepy long dark haired girl. Although she might be dressed in red instead of the traditional white, her skin is dead grey, sometimes bloodstained. She loves murdering her victims with a pair of sharp scissors.

"It's time for some mind games"

Sources:

http://corpseparty.wikia.com/wiki/Sachiko_Shinozaki

Work in progress...

Sadako Yamamura, she began everything with her cursed video tape

Sadako, Ringu (1998)

Sadako is the main antagonist of the Japanese horror film Ring directed by Hideo Nakata and released in 1998. An american remake was also released in 2002, The Ring, directed by Gore Verbinski, introducing the onryō to the western public. In fact, Ring is an adaptation of the book bearing the same name and written by Koji Suzuki. She was the first of the many onryō in cinema to know global popularity and start the global phenomenon of "dead wet girls" as monsters in theaters.










Who is she?

In her past life, Sadako was the daughter of Shizuko Yamamura, a woman practicing nensha, the art of projecting images onto film by thought alone, thus making Sadako already


As an onryō, Sadako interacts with people using a haunted video tape which, once viewed, will make the closest phone to ring, only to hear someone


Technology:

Sadako coming out of the TV, Ringu (1998)

Sadako is one of the few onryō that combine modernity and tradition, by using technology as a main tool to interact with their victims. Unlike other yūrei and onryō depicted in movies before her, Sadako was the first to break up with the traditional Japanese ghost, appealing more to younger viewers by the use of modern devices such as televisions and, for that time, video tapes. Like said before, Sadako's main tool is a video tape that contains her curse.





 In fact, she confronts the modern viewer an unexpected fear, the fear of technology, which is an everyday tool of our live, essential to have among us. What Sadako does is that she turns technology against us, making us terribly isolated and vulnerable since it is everywhere at anytime, plunging us into an endless and relentless oppression.

 

Sadako, Sadako Vs. Kayako (2016)

 

 Now here is her cursed video, see you in hell in 7 days.

 

Sources:

http://ring.wikia.com/wiki/Sadako_Yamamura
http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Sadako_Yamamura
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Yamamura

Work in progress...

Teke Teke, she will cut you in half, like fate did to her

Teke Teke, Matthew Meyer

Teke Teke is a dreadful creature taking its source from a japanese urban legend.

The legend says that one day, in Japan, a young schoolgirl fell into the rails and was brutally killed by a collision with a passing train, cutting her in half. Restless, her spirit became an onryō, the upper part of her dead body rose on her hands, and with a large scythe in one hand, she began crawling in dark, desolated and isolated places of Japan.
Nowadays, it is said in Japan that wanderers should never walk alone at night or in a gloomy day, by fear of meeting the Teke Teke. But if you were unlucky enough to meet her anyway, your only option to stay alive is to run as fast as you can, in order to loose her behind. In fact, she will relentlessy chase you on her fast moving hands, hitting viciously the ground with her broken nails, making a fearful sound : "Teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke...

If you managed to loose her, congradulations, you are still alive and traumatised for the rest of your life. But if you were not fast enough, she will eventually catch you and split you in half, exactly as she was.

Two films were made inspired by the urban legend:

Teketeke (2009), directed by Kôji Shiraishi...

Followed by its sequel, Teketeke 2 (2009).

Sources:

http://matthewmeyer.net/blog/2015/10/31/a-yokai-a-day-teke-teke/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teke_Teke

Work in progress...

Toshio Seaki, that little boy who stares you upstairs (Ju On, The Grudge)

Toshio Saeki (ghost form), Ju-On

Toshio Saeki is an onryō appearing in the Ju-On and the Grudge franchise. He was the only child of Takeo and Kayako Saeki. After the murder of his mother by his father, Takeo, he was drowned in his bathtub along with his black cat.
After the curse has been set, his spirit became an onryō, a japanese vengeful spirit, and therefore haunts the Saeki mansion and kills everyone he encounters.







Toshio behaves as a warning, he is always the first manifestation of the Saeki's curse towards their victims. When he is roaming somewhere, his mother Kayako is certainly crawling around.

His main way to interact with humans is to stare at them, ominously meow at them and, sometimes, kill them - always off-screen in the movies - .
About the fact that he can perfectly meow like a cat, it is the result of "fusing" with his cat's spirit since they were both killed by drowning - and maybe because a cat and his master stay together in death? - , despite the fact that we can see the cat acting independantly from Toshio.
Although he does not kill alot, leaving it to her mother, the way he kills does not reflect exactly how he died - he was seen beheading someone with his bare hands in Sadako Vs. Kayako -.

This is the face you make when you see your father killing your mother, The Grudge 2

"MEOOOOOOOOOOW!!", The Grudge

Work in progress...