Glossary
The words behind the legends.
Japanese urban legends lose a lot in translation. These are the terms that keep recurring across the archive, with the context an overseas reader needs.
Kinds of stories
Japanese has several overlapping words for strange tales. They are not interchangeable: each one hints at where a story comes from and how seriously it is meant to be taken.
- Kaidan 怪談
- Literally “strange talk”: a ghost story or tale of the uncanny. The word carries a long literary history, from Edo-period story collections to Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan (1904), and today covers everything from classic ghost stories to live storytelling events.
- Yōkai 妖怪
- A broad word for supernatural creatures and phenomena. Classic yōkai belong to folklore and picture scrolls; modern legends such as Kuchisake-onna are often called yōkai too, which shows how flexible the category is.
- Toshi densetsu 都市伝説
- “Urban legend”, a calque of the English folklorists’ term. In everyday Japanese it is used loosely for any modern rumor, conspiracy theory, or eerie story, not only for legends set in cities.
- Gakkō no kaidan 学校の怪談
- School ghost stories: legends attached to toilets, stairwells, music rooms, and science labs. The phrase is also the title of popular book series and films from the 1990s that collected and standardized many of these stories. See: Hanako-san.
- Gakkō no nana-fushigi 学校の七不思議
- “The seven wonders of the school”, a list of local mysteries that students pass down. The number is traditional rather than literal; lists vary by school and often joke that knowing the seventh wonder is itself dangerous.
- Kowai hanashi 怖い話
- Simply “scary story”. On message boards it is the everyday label for first-person horror posts, whether presented as true experiences or openly as fiction.
- Netto-roa ネットロア
- From “net” plus “folklore”: legends that circulate mainly online. The term highlights that copying, editing, and reposting are part of how these stories evolve.
Message-board vocabulary
Many modern legends were born on anonymous Japanese message boards. A handful of board terms explain why the original posts look the way they do.
- 2channel / 5channel 2ちゃんねる / 5ちゃんねる
- Japan’s best-known anonymous text board, launched in 1999 and renamed 5channel in 2017. Its topic boards and archive culture made it the birthplace of many legends in this archive. See: Kisaragi Station.
- Okaruto-ita オカルト板
- The occult board: the section of 2channel devoted to the paranormal. Long-running threads there collected “scary stories” that were later copied around the web.
- Sure / resu スレ / レス
- Short for “thread” and “response”. Posts are numbered in order, so researchers often cite a legend by thread and response number — useful for checking what was actually said first.
- Jikkyō 実況
- “Live commentary”. A poster describing events as they happen, as in Kisaragi Station, borrows the format of live-commentary threads, which gives the story its sense of urgency.
- Kopipe コピペ
- “Copy-paste”: text that is reposted again and again. A legend that becomes a kopipe often loses its original context — the thread, the date, the replies — which is why tracing the first post matters.
- Matome まとめ
- A “summary” or roundup site that republishes selected posts. Matome sites helped legends reach readers who never visited the original boards, sometimes with edits or added details.
Words inside the legends
Some legends turn on a single word, unit, or ritual object. Knowing what it means often explains the whole story.
- Shaku 尺
- A traditional unit of length of about 30.3 centimeters. Hachishaku — “eight shaku” — therefore describes a figure roughly 2.4 meters tall. See: Hachishaku-sama.
- Kisaragi 如月 / きさらぎ
- An old name for the second month of the traditional calendar. As a station name it sounds plausible but slightly antique, which is part of the legend’s unsettling effect. See: Kisaragi Station.
- Kuchisake 口裂け
- “Slit mouth”. Kuchisake-onna means “slit-mouthed woman”; the name describes the reveal at the center of the legend rather than giving her a personal name. See: Kuchisake-onna.
- Ofuda お札
- A paper talisman issued by a shrine or temple, often placed on doors or walls for protection. In legends it frequently appears as the last barrier between a character and whatever is outside.
- Morijio 盛り塩
- Small cones of salt placed at entrances or room corners for purification. Salt that darkens or melts is a recurring sign in modern ghost stories that something has tried to get in.
- Jizō 地蔵
- Stone statues of the bodhisattva Jizō, commonly found at roadsides and village edges, and associated with protecting travelers and children. Legends sometimes cast them as boundary markers that keep something contained.
- Kamikakushi 神隠し
- “Hidden by the gods”: an old folk explanation for sudden disappearances. Stories of people stepping into another world, such as Kisaragi Station, echo this much older idea.
- Shinrei supotto 心霊スポット
- A “haunted spot”. The label is often attached to real tunnels, dams, and abandoned buildings, which can lead to trespassing and danger; dossiers in this archive separate the legend from the actual place. See: Inunaki Village.
- Kimodameshi 肝試し
- A “test of courage”: visiting a frightening place, usually at night and in a group. Many legends are framed as a kimodameshi that went wrong.
- Tatari / noroi 祟り / 呪い
- Two kinds of curse. Tatari is misfortune caused by an offended spirit or deity; noroi is a curse deliberately placed by someone. Cursed-object legends often blur the two. See: Kotoribako.