Every dossier, by kind of legend.

Internet-born legend

Stories that first appeared on personal websites, 2channel threads, or early web animations, and whose posting history can still be partly traced.

• 003Japan · 2000–03KunekuneA 2000 web story, a 2001 2channel post, and the 2003 thread that named the white figure in the rice field.
• 009Japanese web · 2000Saru YumeAn August 2000 forum post about a dream train — what the original said and what retellings added.
• 019Japan · 2001The Samejima IncidentA 2001 2channel legend of an incident too terrible to describe, and the thread, rules and films that kept it alive.
• 004Japanese web · 2003The Red RoomAkai Heya: a Flash horror work and web curse about a red pop-up you cannot close.
• 001Japan · 2004Kisaragi StationThe January 2004 2channel thread: Hasumi’s live report of a train to a station not on any map.
• 006Japan · 2008Hachishaku-samaA single 2008 2channel post about an eight-shaku visitor, the sealed room, and the 2021 revival.

School ghost story

Gakkō no kaidan: legends attached to toilets, stairs, and classrooms, passed between students long before they reached books, TV, and the web.

• 005Japan · c. 1948Hanako-sanA c. 1948 Iwate rumor that grew into Japan’s best-known school-toilet legend.
• 007Japan · 1980s–2000sTeke TekeAn Okinawan recollection c. 1980, 1990s school-ghost books, a separate railway legend, and the 2009 film.

Rumor panic

Rumors that spread through playgrounds, newspapers, and weekly magazines, sometimes fast enough to trigger real-world reactions from schools and police.

• 014Japan · 1930sAka MantoHow a 1930s rumor about a red-caped kidnapper became the “red cape or blue cape?” voice in school toilets.
• 002Japan · 1978–79Kuchisake-onnaThe slit-mouthed woman: a 1978 Gifu rumor that became a national school panic in 1979.
• 013Japan · 1989–90JinmenkenThe dog with a tired man’s face: the 1989–90 rumor boom, its Edo-period precursors, and the magazine theory.

Ritual and divination

Games and rituals that promise contact with spirits, from Meiji-era table-turning to procedures posted on message boards — and why they are better read about than tried.

• 011Japan · 1880sKokkuri-sanFrom Meiji-era table-turning to the coin-and-paper game of 1970s classrooms: what is documented about Kokkuri-san.
• 012Japan · 2007Hitori KakurenboThe 2channel-era ritual in which a doll plays “it”: its 2007 spread, the media wave, and why it is better read than tried.

Place legend

Legends tied to a real tunnel, village, or region, where the story and the actual location need to be carefully separated.

• 020Kyoto · road tunnel since 1960Kiyotaki TunnelA 1929 railway tunnel turned one-lane road: what is documented, what is rumor, and why the signal became the legend.
• 008Fukuoka · 1999Inunaki VillageThe village is a legend; the closed tunnel and the dam are real. What is documented and what is rumor.
• 016Aomori · c. 1999–2000Sugisawa VillageA village said to be wiped out in one night and erased from the records: a late-1990s TV feature, a web boom, and real models.

Cursed object

Boxes, dolls, and texts said to carry a curse, and the way invented histories make them feel older than they are.

• 015Hokkaido · 1918 / 1962The Okiku DollThe doll at Mannenji temple in Iwamizawa said to grow hair: the temple’s account and the versions that disagree.
• 010Japan · 2005KotoribakoA June 2005 forum story, not an old Shimane tradition — how it was built and why its framing matters.

Literary legend

Legends that grew out of poems, short stories, and essays by named writers, and then lost their authors as they were retold.

• 018Japan · 1965Ushi no KubiThe ghost story no one will repeat: Komatsu Sakyō’s 1965 tale, a 1973 essay, and a possible 1926 predecessor.
• 017Japan · 1919 / 2004Tomino’s HellSaijō Yaso’s 1919 poem and the modern warning that reading it aloud brings misfortune.

Other ways in

Read the legends in the order they first appeared on the timeline, or look up the Japanese words that keep recurring across them in the glossary. How each dossier is researched is explained in the editorial policy.