Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume One

by Tara A. Devlin

  In this legend there was a girl who was cut in half by a train and yet didn’t die. She crawled towards the train conductor to ask for help. The conductor, consumed with fear, climbed a telegraph pole, but the girl crawled up after him. The next morning his dead body was found on top of the telegraph pole, the girl clinging to him.

  While this was a complete legend in its own right, the addition of elements from the Kashima-san legend, predominately “She will appear to all who hear this story” took it to another level, and once again the story of Kashima-san transformed.

  KEY ELEMENTS

  With so many variations on the one legend, the following are the key elements that appear across all versions:

  A ghost missing body parts. While some versions of Kashima-san feature a soldier looking for his lost limbs, most involve a female ghost who is missing either one or both legs, and very occasionally her arms and even head as well. She appears at night while you are sleeping, or in the toilet during the night as well.

  The ghost will ask you a question. The most common question is “Do you need legs?” There are cases where she may ask “Where are my legs?” however, and other times where she may ask about each limb in order; “Do you need your left leg?” “Do you need your left arm?” etc.

  If you answer her question incorrectly, she will remove one or all of your limbs. There’s no consensus on how to answer her questions, however. If she asks “Do you need your legs?” there are versions of the legend where you must answer “yes” and versions where you must answer “no.”

  Once you hear her story, Kashima-san will appear before you within a certain time limit. This is generally three days, but in some versions it can be as short as one day and as long as a week. If you pass the story on, however, she may skip you entirely.

  MAIN VARIATIONS

  There are endless variations of the Kashima-san legend which we have seen so far. Yet out of all of these stories, the following three can be considered the main standards of how Kashima-san came to be:

  A woman hit by a bomb. Kashima-san is a woman who loses her legs in a bomb attack (in some versions an atomic bomb) during the war. Although she has lost her legs, her upper torso is able to crawl around for a while before she dies. After death she spends her time looking for her lost legs.

  A woman who suffered abuse. Kashima-san is a woman who is assaulted by several American soldiers after the second world war. Enjoying her slow, painful death, the soldiers shoot off both her arms and legs and leave her on a highway. She escapes with her life in exchange for her limbs, but unable to live in such a state any longer she throws herself in front of a train from her wheelchair.

  A woman hit by a train. Kashima-san is a woman from Hokkaido who is involved in an accident at a railway crossing during winter. Her legs are cut off, but due to the cold her blood freezes and delays her death. She spends her last moments crawling around, looking for the rest of her body.

  DEALING WITH KASHIMA-SAN

  Like all good urban legends, there are ways to deal with Kashima-san should she ever appear. The first in the one stated right in the legend; tell someone else about the story. Much like Sadako’s ring curse, this will pass her on to become somebody else’s problem. But supposing you forget and find Kashima-san leaning over your bed one night, asking you a bunch of questions, here is how you should answer her.

  If she asks “Hand over your arms” answer with “I’m using them right now.”

  If she asks “Hand over your legs” answer with “I need them right now.”

  If she asks “Who did you hear this story from?” answer with “Kashima-san.” Another way to answer this question is presented in the original legend above, with a little addition at the end. You can chant “Ka wa kamen no ka (ka is for the ka of mask), shi wa shibito no shi (shi is for the shi of dead person), ma wa mamono no ma (ma is for the ma of goblin), rei wa rei no rei (rei is for the rei of ghost), ko wa jiko no ko (ko is for the ko of accident).” This of course spells out Kashima Reiko, her full name.

  If all of this is too much to remember, you can fall back on the failsafe of chanting “Kashima-san, Kashima-san, Kashima-san,” but according to who you want to believe, this may only work on the first night, so best to memorise something else for the next time she appears. Or better yet, pass the story on right now! She can’t get you if you share her story with someone else, after all.

  Railway crossing

  A woman was walking home from work when she heard the sound of the railway crossing go off, so she stopped to wait for the train. A female junior high school student rushed up beside her and without a second thought ducked under the barriers and onto the railway tracks. It takes a bit of time once the barriers go down for the train to arrive, so the girl didn’t seem bothered at all. But as she was crossing her foot got stuck, and she was unable to move.

  The girl began to panic, but was unable to break free. The sound of the train and the lights got closer, but nobody was able to help her, and in the end the girl screamed out “I don’t want to die!” The woman averted her eyes.

  A short while later the woman nervously opened her eyes, but the train passed by without incident, and as the barriers raised the other people waiting crossed over as usual. There was no trace of the junior high girl who got her foot trapped in the tracks.

  ‘That’s strange,’ the woman thought, and when she cast her eyes to the side of the tracks, she noticed flowers and incense quietly sitting by the side of the tracks.

  ABOUT

  There’s not a lot of concrete information about this legend. In fact, I can only find it, pretty much word for word, across a handful of websites, which leads me to believe it was likely copied from 2chan or a related blog and that was that.

  The story itself is pretty straight forward and more of a straight ghost story than a warning or moral lesson. Lady sees a girl crossing the tracks, girl gets stuck, no-one goes to help her and the train comes. Only the train doesn’t kill her, because she was already a ghost.

  Railway crossing are a popular subject for Japanese ghost stories, however. With the sheer prevalence of them all over the country, with very little standing between people and high-speed trains, it’s not too hard to see why. This is a story you could hear anywhere, at any time, and that’s what makes it an urban legend.

  Ghost test

  Are you able to see ghosts? There are an unexpectedly large number of people who don’t realise they can. I’m going to introduce you to a simple test that will let you know whether you can see ghosts or not.

  First, find a quiet spot and close your eyes. Then imagine the front door of your childhood home as accurately as possible. Once you’ve done that, open the door and walk in. Then open every window in the house, one after the other.

  Once you’ve successfully opened all the windows, proceed to close them all in the opposite order to how you just opened them. Then, finally, leave the house and it’s all over. You can open your eyes again.

  Question. Did you happen to see anyone in the hall or rooms while you were imagining your house? Supposing you did, then there is a good chance that you are able to see ghosts. The more attuned you are to seeing ghosts, the more people you will see in your house.

  ABOUT

  The above urban legend stresses that people have varying levels of ability to see ghosts. The idea of reikan, or someone’s ability to sense the supernatural, is very strong in Japan, and just like your favourite action heroes, it come with varying levels of ability. You can have strong or weak reikan; you may be able to see some ghosts but not others, or sense some supernatural events whilst being completely blind to the rest. How can you tell if you’re a regular human or a Super Saiyan on the reikan scale? The classifications are as follows:

  You didn’t see anyone. In this case it’s unlikely you have any ability to see ghosts. Sorry.

  If you saw any family members or pets. There’s a good chance you have the ability to see ghosts. However, if your family or pets looked
how they always do, then your ability isn’t very high. If they looked strange, however, there’s a chance you’re in danger.

  If you saw any strangers. You have a strong reikan, and will likely experience many supernatural events after this. But who was in the house? If it wasn’t a friend or someone you knew, this could mean trouble. If you happen across that person in real life, chances are very high that they’re already a ghost.

  OTHER TESTS

  This isn’t the only way to test whether you have a strong or weak reikan, however. You can also try the following:

  1. The pinky test.

  Check the length of your pinky finger and ring finger on your left hand. If your pinky is longer than the first joint on your ring finger, you can see ghosts. If it’s not, you can’t. The longer your pinky finger is, the stronger your ability to sense ghosts is.

  2. The dinner test.

  What did you eat for dinner last night? Try to remember. If you remember what food you had, you’re unable to see ghosts. If you see yourself eating dinner in third person, or from far away, then you have a very strong reikan.

  3. The kitsune test.

  Make the shape of a kitsune with your hand (hold your middle two fingers against your thumb while your index finger and pinky remain in the air). Now try to press your index finger and pinky together. If you could, you can see ghosts. If you couldn’t, you can’t.

  4. The self-check test.

  People who have several of the following factors are said to have an extremely strong reikan:

  Your family (especially parents or grandparents) can see ghosts.

  You have a powerful imagination.

  You have intense impressions of things.

  You often have trouble sleeping at night.

  You often question people about their complexion.

  If you have over half the above list, then you have a strong ability to see ghosts. Reikan is said to pass down through the generations, so especially if you answered yes to number one, then there’s no mistaking it.

  5. The clasp test.

  Clasp your hands together. The index finger from which hand is on top? Left or right? If the index finger from your left hand is on top that means you have the ability to see ghosts.

  Try it again, this time deliberately putting the other hand on top. Feels strange, doesn’t it? That’s because this action is controlled by either the left or right side of your brain. If your left-hand ends up on top that means you work predominately with the right side of your brain. People who work with the right side of their brain are said to be dreamers, artistic folks who can see that which isn’t really there.

  As a side note, I personally tried this test when I was working at a junior high in Japan. The teacher brought it up one day and asked all the kids to clasp their hands together without telling them why. He made them check which index finger was on top, but rather than it being your ability to see ghosts or not, this test supposedly revealed whether you had a male or female spirit. Cue a lot of kids forcing their hands to switch places if they got the gender they didn’t want!

  These days you can even download a bunch of apps that will tell you whether you have a strong reikan or not, simply through a series of questions that usually mirror everything you see above. The story with the windows is the most popular of all, however, and you can often find people’s answers to how many people they saw in the comments of various blogs that post the story. Why not try it and see for yourself? You never know who you might see.

  Tanaka-kun

  One day Tanaka-kun went cycling with his friends when suddenly he disappeared.

  Having heard this story, Tanaka-kun will soon appear in your dreams. He will tap on your shoulder, and if you turn around Tanaka-kun will be standing there, half his body crushed to a pulp. Once you’ve had this dream, you will die within a few days.

  The only way to escape this fate is to make sure you don’t turn around when he taps on your shoulder.

  ABOUT

  Tanaka-kun is a fairly prototypical nightmare urban legend. When you have a bad dream, you then die. This book alone features several of those stories. Like you can find in many ghost stories, this tale features a character who has gone missing all of a sudden, only to appear in people’s dreams, seemingly unaware that he’s actually dead. What originally may have been his attempts at having his friends rejoin him has turned into yet another chain mail similar to Kashima-san, where once you hear about the story he will appear to you as well.

  While there’s no information about how or even when this legend came about, we can easily chalk it up to someone’s literary skills. After all, if Tanaka-kun kills everyone who hears about his story, there would be a lot more people dying from their dreams!

  Mimikajiri-onna

  A young woman was walking through Shibuya when she heard a strange voice call out from behind her.

  “Are your ears pierced?”

  When she turned around a strange woman was standing there, looking at the ground. Thinking it strange, the woman answered truthfully, “Yes, they are.” The moment she did, the woman bit her ear off, piercing and all.

  ABOUT

  This legend has roots in the white ear string legend and started making the rounds during the 1990s. Mimi means ear, kajiri means to bite, and onna means woman. She’s the ear biting woman, although her true name is supposedly Kaoru. She got her ears pierced and then fell victim to the white ear string legend, pulling the string she found dangling from her ear piercing and going blind. This drove her mad, and so she trolls Shibuya looking for women with pierced ears to take her revenge on.

  Fumikiri-san

  This is a story I heard in junior high.

  It’s limited to people who are married or in relationships, and the woman who appears in this urban legend is called Fumikiri-san.

  Her real name is unknown.

  Fumikiri-san husband cheated on her. She took her husband along to the railway tracks in an attempt at a double suicide, but he resisted and she alone fell onto the tracks. Her body was cut up into pieces, all of which were eventually recovered but for the ring finger of her left hand.

  As mentioned above, only those who are married or in a relationship can ask her whether their partner is cheating or not. They must stand in front of the railway crossing and ask, “Fumikiri-san, Fumikiri-san, is (partner’s name) cheating on me?” A woman missing her ring finger will appear and say, “Is this the person you wish to spend the rest of your life with? If not, leave. Otherwise I will kill you.”

  If you answer “Yes, I want to spend the rest of my life with this person,” and the person isn’t cheating, she will answer “May you be happy together.” But if the person is cheating, they will be killed at a railway crossing, and you will also be killed for doubting them in the first place.

  ABOUT

  This seems to be a fairly recent urban legend, and the only information available about it comes from one urban legend website.

  Fumikiri in Japanese means railway crossing, which is why she appears and kills her victims there. At first glance she’s very similar to Teketeke, or Kashima-san, another legend that takes place at railway tracks with a woman killed by a train. This legend is a little more specific, however, because Fumikiri-san can only be summoned to confirm whether your partner is cheating on you, and in the end the only way to survive an encounter with her is if you truly love your partner and said partner is not cheating on you. Probably easier to just ask your partner outright than die regardless of whether you’ve done anything wrong or not.

  Dream test

  When you fall asleep, there will be an old woman standing before you. But this isn’t any old dream. This old woman will chase the person who is dreaming. If she catches you, she will kill you, so you must run as fast as you can.

  While you are running from the old woman, you must take the first right corner you come across. You must take the next right corner as well. If you don’t, the old woman will catch you. As you continu
e running, you will come across and red door and a green door. You must take the red door here.

  Now, to everyone who has heard this story, you will have the same dream yourself within a few days. Of course, things will happen exactly as explained earlier. If you take the wrong path, the old woman will catch and then kill you. This doesn’t just happen in the dream, however. If you are killed by the old woman in your dream, you will never open your eyes again.

  ABOUT

  Urban legends of dreams where you need to follow a certain set of instructions are fairly common, and the above is one of the most well-known. Although it’s not stated in this story, the instructions you must follow to survive can get far more complex than simply turning right twice and taking a red door. They often involve more steps than a normal person would be expected to remember, which is what makes them so scary. While the legend may appear to be like any other fake scary story to us, you can find people on the internet asking others if they remember the steps because they’ve just heard the story and they’re afraid they’re going to have the same dream within the next few days. This, just like Kashima-san, is how the story continues to spread.