Mythology Of Shinto

Shinto 神道 , also kami-no-michi, the indigenous spirituality of Japan.

Makura Gaeshi

Have you ever woke up and realized your pillow is in a very strange place?
You had a peaceful night but still your pillow is in the strangest and weirdest position ever.

Or you wake up, and you find yourself on the other side of the bed, completely disoriented!
Even though you had a good sleep it happens to us all.
But how is this possible?
Is there a reason?


The legend

The Makura Gaeshi will creep up to people who are sleeping and turn their pillows around, or sometimes put it to their feet or even move their sleeping bodies, so they wake up with their heads where their feet were supposed to be.


Another story says that a blind man that was murdered by an inn owner lingered on as a spirit in the room where the deed happened, and turned into a makura-kaeshi.
If he actually turns the entire sleeper around, so that his head is where his feet were, this would not only be very amusing to the Makura Gaeshi, but also very chilling to the sleeper when he finally wakes up.

In a book about Japanese ghosts, in a section regarding funeral customs, the Japanese (traditionally) only sleep facing south.
Consequently, when someone dies, they are laid down with their head facing north.
To wake up in a position normal only for a corpse would be unsettling indeed!
As a Western parallel, it would be like waking up in a coffin.

One story mentions a kappa that got a kick out of doing this.
Then he got caught, repented and even put it down in writing that he'll never pull a trick like that again.
And because he'd been so good, he turned into a zashiki-warashi, and apparently still tends to show up in a certain ryokan in Iwate province, in the town of Ninohe.


Another story is about a jizō statue that moves peoples' pillows--if you sleep next to it with your feet towards it, you'll wake up to find the pillow next to your feet, closer to the statue.


The pillow or makura:

Along with the pillows of court ladies from Heian, the wooden neck stands that they placed their heads on in order not to mess up their hair while sleeping were also called makura.
These wooden makura were often made with tiny little drawers, and the court ladies put their diaries in them, so nobody could read them while they were asleep.

And since they put all of their most secret thoughts into those diaries, it's not difficult to see how that would lead to a belief that a person's soul rests in a pillow/makura while they are asleep.


What is the truth?

It would be a very scary to tell your kids.
They would freak out if they ever see there pillow elsewhere!

It does happen you wake up on the other side of the bed, and is does happen you find your pillow elsewhere.
But is the Makura Gaeshi the reason?

Or something or someone else...

Maggots In The Brain

This is the case of Mr. Shota Fujiwara, a japanese man from Gifu Prefecture.
He complains incessantly about a persistent headache.
Mr. Shota Fujiwara loves his sashimi and sushi very much to the extent of trying to get them as "alive and fresh" as can be.

He developes a severe headache for the past 3 years and has put it off as migraine and stress from work.



 It was only when he started losing his psycomotor skills that he seeks medical help.

A brain scan and x-ray reveals little however.
But upon closer inspection by a specialist on his scalp, the doctor noticed small movements beneath his skin.

It was then that the doctor did a local anaesthetic to his scalp and discovered the cause when tiny worms crawled out.

A major surgery was thus immediately called for and the extent of the infestation was horrific!

The worms on the head of Shota Fujiwara are actually the parasites that usually found on the body of raw fish.





Another case.

A man gets an ingrown hair on his head.
After some time, it gets infected and the man gets a boil.
Weeks are passing and the boil is still growing every day.

The hair and infection are eroding downwards to his skull.
People keep telling him to go to the hospital for checking his boil.
But he refuse to do so.

The infection reaches his skull.
Bone, once infected, presents little barrier to the spread of infection to contiguous bone and so it spreads within his skull.
The bone dies and begins to erode.

People are noticing a smell and keep telling him to see a doctor.
The smell is starting to attracts flies which begin to lay eggs in his festering wound and maggots take hold.

The infection breaches the inner layer of his skull and reaches the meninges.
Though their tensile strength is impressive the meninges are quite thin and the infection breaches them.

Your brain just isn't supposed to be on your outside and presents almost no barrier to anything when exposed. 
Now, infection and maggots set to work on his brain.

This makes him feel a little wobbly on his feet and he decides to see a doctor.
He walks in to the Stanford ER and doctors found several maggots in his brain.



What is the truth?

This is claimend to be true, but I can not say for shure it really happend.

On the medical matter, maggots can infest the human brain, evidently, and so can certain types of tapeworm larvae.
But these conditions are fairly rare, and the chance of resulting from ingrown hairs or sushi is close to impossible.

Tapeworms and roundworms and their eggs which abounds in all fishes fresh or saltwater can only be killed by thorough cooking and/or freezing the fish to between 4 degC - 0 degsC.
The eggs of these parasites can only be killed if it is cooked or frozen to the said temperatures for a week or more.

Think twice about that raw dish next time... or you might get a headache.

The Real Cursed Kleenex Commercial?

In my Blog about the `Cursed Japanese Kleenex Commercial` I wrote that there was still a THIRD Kleenex commercial.

I have found the third commercial!

I have watched it many times. And it is alike the red demon version. But the atmosphere is completely different.

Should this be the REAL cursed commercial?

So in this YouTube video you can see the two red demon commercials.

You can see in the first one a happy red demon that is playing with the lady.
They look happy and having a great time with the tissues.

But in the second commercial the red demon looks angry and the lady tries to cheer the red demon up.
An other detail is that they are on straw.
Why is it suddenly angry? And why are they on straw?


A second Angel version

Thanks to an anonymous comment I found also a second `Angel` commercial!

The song featured in both versions of the Angel ad is called "Kleenex" by Geinoh Yamashirogumi and it's from their 1978 album "Ougonrin Sanyo "Exultant Pisces in Cantics Nostris".

We also can see that the actors in the angel version are not asian. Is this to make the contrast bigger? Or is it made by some other commercial agency?



What is the truth?

So we have found two demon versions and two angel versions.
Each has their song and actors.

I played the commercial over and over, and still nothing happened. I played it backwards, slowmotion, ect.
And still I can`t find anything abnormal.

It is strange the legend speaks of a third commercial. But I allready found four.
So is there a thirt demon version that is really cursed?...

Issei Sagawa

Issei Sagawa was born in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan to wealthy parents.
He attended the University of Paris.



On the afternoon of June 13, 1981, the Japanese man walked to the Bois de Boulogne, a park on the outskirts of Paris, carrying two suitcases.

The contents of those suitcases, to the lament of a nearby jogger, was the dismembered body of a fellow student.

A Dutch woman named Renée Hartevelt, whom Sagawa had shot three days prior and had spent the days since eating various parts of her body!


He was soon arrested.
According to reports, Issei uttered, "I killed her to eat her flesh," when they raided his home, whereupon they found bits of Renne still in his fridge.

Sagawa was declared insane and unfit for trial and was institutionalized in Paris.
His incarceration was to be short, however, as the French public soon grew weary of their hard-earned francs going to support this evil woman-eater, and Issei was promptly deported.
Herein followed a bizarre and seemingly too convenient set of legal loopholes and psychiatric reports that led doctors in Japan declaring him "sane, but evil."

On August 12, 1986, Sagawa checked himself out of Tokyo's Matsuzawa Psychiatric hospital, Due to loopholes in the law, Issei is a free man to this day.



What is the truth?

This is a true story.

Sagawa now lives in Tokyo and is a minor celebrity in Japan. He was often invited as a guest speaker and commentator throughout 1986-1997.
He has also written restaurant reviews for the Japanese magazine Spa. In 1992, he appeared in Hisayasu Sato's exploitation film Uwakizuma: Chijokuzeme (Unfaithful Wife: Shameful Torture) as a sadosexual voyeur.

Besides books about the murder he committed, Sagawa wrote a commentary book Shonen A in 1997 on the Kobe child murders of 1997, when a 14-year-old referred to in the media as "Seito Sakakibara" and "Boy A" ("Shōnen A") killed and decapitated a child and attacked several others.

Despite this early freelance work, Sagawa can no longer find publishers for his writing and has been rejected from over 500 different places of employment.
Each job application requires writing his resume out in longhand.
He was nearly accepted by a French language school because the manager was impressed by his courage to use his real name, but employees protested and he was rejected.

In 2005, his parents died.
He was prevented from attending his parents' funeral, but he repaid their creditors and moved into public housing. He received welfare for some time but no longer does so.

In an interview with Vice magazine in 2009, he expressed suicidal thoughts and said that being forced to make a living while being known as a murderer and cannibal was a terrible punishment.

WARNING: This video contains extreme content matter which most will find disturbing! 
Do NOT watch if younger then 18! The video contains sexual and gore scenes. 
Viewer discretion is required and advised!

Bloody Date

Takena Nagao, is an avid fan of heavy metal music and horror films.
Whilst studying physics at Kyoto University he began making clay animations.
His works are renowned for violence and gore!

Enjoy one of his work, Bloody Date!

Namakubi video

In the search of scary video clips you sometimes find a video that is so weird and disturbing you can`t explain what is really going on.
Is it real? Fake?

Sometime you just can`t know.

Watch this video clip closely. Alone and in the dark.
Look closely at the environment and the lighting.

Did you had the feeling the face moved?
Did you saw the lighting chance on her face?

I love the hole scene in it.
The detail of the room,the TV, closet, the box.




What is the truth?


I love this video! This will scare everybody. And leave you with a really bad feeling.

Only the scream at the end kinda ruined the hole scene.

I have tried to translate most of the Japanese texts.

So the title says Namakubi.
Namakubi means “freshly severed head”, which is a reference to Samurai culture, specifically, the presentation of the heads of the vanquished to the leader of the victorious.

But in these days it is used in art form, drawings and tattoos.

When I look at the comments of the video, it looks like it is some kind of competition. To create a scary video with the theme Namakubi.

Someone said in the comments that he filmed it in daylight so it would be darker in the closet.

Well, I say the creator really succeed in creating a freaky and disturbing video!

Suicide forest Aokigahara

Aokigahara, also known as the Sea of Trees, is a 35-square-kilometre forest that lies at the northwestbase of Mount Fuji in Japan.

The forest contains a number of rocky, icy caverns, a few of which are popular tourist destinations. Due to the wind-blocking density of the trees and an absence of wildlife, the forest is known for being eerily quiet.

The forest floor consists primarily of volcanic rock and is difficult to penetrate with hand tools such as picks or shovels.


The forest has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology and is a popular place for... suicides!



54 completed the act in 2010, despite numerous signs, in Japanese and English, urging people to reconsider their actions.



 There are also a variety of unofficial trails that are used semi-regularly for the annual "body hunt" done by local volunteers.


In recent years, hikers and tourists trekking through Aokigahara have begun to use plastic tape to mark their paths so as to avoid getting lost.


Though officials try to remove the tape time and time again, more tourists and thrill-seekers inevitably leave more of the litter, and a great deal of it lies scattered throughout the first kilometer of the forest, past the designated trails leading to tourist attractions such as the Ice Cave and Wind Cave.


The forest is the most popular place for suicide in Japan and second in the world after San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Statistics vary.
In the period leading up to 1988, about 30 suicides occurred there every year.



Body count

In 2002, 78 bodies were found within the forest, exceeding the previous record of 74 in 1998. In 2003, the rate climbed to 100, and in recent years, the local government has stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to downplay Aokigahara's association with suicide. In 2004, 108 people killed themselves in the forest. In 2010, 247 people attempted suicide in the forest, 54 of whom completed the act. Suicides are said to increase during March, the end of the fiscal year in Japan.

The high rate of suicide has led officials to place signs in the forest, in Japanese and English, urging those who have gone there in order to commit suicide to seek help and not kill themselves.
The annual body search, consisting of a small army of police, volunteers, and attendant journalists, began in 1970.

Don`t forget that the forest is 35-scuare-kilometre! So how many body`s aren`t found yet!


Why this forest?

The site's popularity has been attributed to the 1960 novel 'Nami no Tō' ("Tower of Waves") by Seichō Matsumoto, which ends with two lovers committing suicide in the forest.

However, the history of suicide in Aokigahara predates the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death: ubasute may have been practiced there into the 19th century, and the forest is reputedly "haunted" by the Yuri (angry spirits) of those left to die.

What is the truth?

Yes this is all true.
I don`t understand why the suicide rate in Japan is so high.
But Japan is surely not the only country with a high suicide rate.
Like in Belgium, suicide is the second highest cause of death.

People are depressed and lonely in these modern times with no hope.

However there is.


In this documentary made by 'Vice' you can see the beauty and horror of Aokigahara!

Girl`s Suicide Drawing

In Japan a teenage girl drew a picture of herself.

She scanned it in and posted it online.

After she posted the drawing, she committed suicide...

The weird part is they say it is hard for a person to stare into the girls eyes for longer than 5 minutes, there are reports that some people have taken their own lives after doing so.
People say the picture changes,as you view it there is a hint of a growing taunting smirk appearing on the girls lips or a dark ring grows around the girl or her eyes.

In Korea this story broke out and it spread like wildfire.
There are various posts around in Korean forums that say that the viewer gets drawn to the girls blue eyes,they say they can detect a hint of wraith and sadness within the eyes.

Maybe the girl had died with so much sadness and anger that her spirit haunts the image, or maybe the image provoke sadness.

What is the truth?

People are making fun of it over the internet.
YouTube movies where they let the picture move, or flash files.

If it is really drawn by a girl that committed suicide, is possible. Why not?

But the girl doesn`t looks really Japanese, but there is a signature with Japanese letters.
I do not know what they mean, they aren`t really visible. But it could be the name of the girl.

The drawing is interesting and very well drawn, It kinda looks digital made. However the quality of the picture is to low to really investigate.

That the picture is made by a girl who committed suicide is possible but why would it be cursed? There is no reason.
I do not have the feeling of sadness, the girl kinda looks happy to me, but she is hiding something.
But the longer you look at the picture and think about it, you will fantasies hundred of stories what could have happened.

Aka Manto

Nothing is more horrible then going to a public restroom!
The horror...

Or even worse... school restrooms!





To make it even more scarier I will introduce you to Aka Manto, a Japenese Legend.

Aka Manto or Red Cape is a malicious spirit who haunts public- and school toilets.
He used to be a handsome man and hides his face with a mask for his admirers. He mostly haunt women restrooms to be with girls and women.

If you are sitting on the toilet (usually the last stall), a mysterious voice will ask you if you want red paper or blue paper. If you answer red paper, you will be sliced apart until your clothes are stained red. If you choose blue paper, you will be strangled until your face turns blue.

Any attempt to outsmart Aka Manto by asking for a different color will result in you being dragged to the netherworld.

So to be saved, you must answer with 'No'.
If you say that you do not need toilet paper he will leave you alone.

Aka Manto is sometimes referred to as Aoi Manto (Blue Cape).
The voice will ask you if you want a cape rather than paper.
If you agree to red, the skin on your back is ripped off to resemble a red cape.
If you ask for blue, all the blood is drained from your body.




One popular version of the story changes the choice from red paper to a red vest:
A police man and woman were called to a school after a student reported hearing a male voice in the girl's bathroom. The police woman went to the bathroom while her male partner waited outside.
When inside the stall a voice asked “Shall we put on the red vest?”
The police man outside, who was listening at the door, heard his partner answer “Yes”.
A sudden scream and loud thud followed.
When the policeman opened the bathroom door, he found the police woman decapitated.
Her blood had soaked into her vest, turning it red.



What is the truth?

This is like a typical elementary school joke, to scare your little friends with.
The legend is more funny then scary. And it has a little perverse side to it. Why is the ghost of a man hanging around in the lady`s restroom.
 

The most freaky and disturbing thing about this legend is... the restroom itself.

Teke Teke

Tek...tek...tek...tek...tek...tek...

A school boy was walking back home at night. When he crossed the railroad, he spotted a beautiful girl standing by a windowsill resting on her elbows.
They smiled at each other for a moment.
The girl asked him: "Where are my legs?"
The boy didn`t understand it and answered: "I do not know?"
The girl jumped out of the window and revealed her lower half was missing. Frightened he stood in the sidewalk looking at her disfigurement.

She makes her way towards him, clawing along the ground and running on her elbows making a tek-tek-tek sound.
With a scythe, she sliced the boy in half, mimicking her own disfigurement.

Who is that girl?

Teke Teke is the ghost of a Japanese schoolgirl who roams the train stations of Japan.

In life, this girl was a scarey cat and people are always playing practical jokes on her.
One day at the train station after school, her friends decided to put a cicada, a bug that appears in the summer in Japan, on her shoulder.
Sadly, this turned out to be a fatal prank. She was so scared she fell off of the platform and was hit by a Shinkansen (The fastest train in Japan) and her body was split in two.

Now she is haunting the train stations of Japan, dragging herself with her elbows and sometimes her hands. She is known to kill people with her scythe and split people in half with the harsh speed of the Shinkansen to make her victims feel her pain. Her name is “Teke Teke” or “Bata Bata” because of the noise she makes when she is dragging herself around.

The girl also go by name 'Kashima Reiko' that appears to be an abbreviation of Kamen Shinin Ma (Mask, dead person demon).


Can you save yourself from her?
There is a way to save yourself. When she asks : "Where are my legs?"
You must tell her that her legs are at the `Meishin Railway` and answer `Kashima Reiko` if she asks you who told you this.

But when you do not answer or give the wrong answer she will split you in two with the speed of a Shinkansen.

What is the truth?

I really do love the Japanese urban legends.

This one is kinda familiar with the `Slit Mouth Woman` legend.

A girl or woman who takes revenge to what is happened to her by doing the same thing on others.

But is this legend possible?

There are people living without legs or lower body. With medical help, they can survive.

But slide someone in half with the speed of a bullet train is physical impossible.

Or she must have extremely strong arms and a very sharp scythe.

The legend also say when you hear of this story, you will see Teke Teke after a month nearby a train station or railroad.

I live near a railroad, so I hope to meet her soon!

Slit Mouth Woman

The slit mouthed woman.

In Europe we call it an `Angel smile`.
In Japan it`s called `Kuchisake-Onna`.
In Korea it is known as `The Red Mask Lady`
In America the 'Glasgow Grin'


A young woman walking down the streets, with a surgical mask. She  is thin and pale skinned and she wears a long crimson coat Walking alone with her head down. And when she see a child or man, she will ask: "Am I pretty?"

This is the famous legend of the woman with a slit mount. Her mount is slit from ear to ear. And she ask strangers if she is pretty.

But what you answer her can make your life horrible.


She is wearing that crimson coat for a reason,... for the bloodstains.
So the answer you are giving her is life dependent.

If you answer: "No"
She will kill you instant.
With what weapon varies, but it is most likely the weapon that slit her mount.

If you answer: "Yes"
She will take of her mask, and will ask again: "Am I pretty?"

If you answer again "Yes",
She will take her weapon and slit your mount just like hers.

So is there no escape? Are you doomed if you encounter her?
Legends say there is an escape.
-You can mess with her mind when you answer to her; 'you are normal, average,..'
 So she have to think and gives you time to run away.
- You can give her candy, like most woman likes candy. Give it to her or trow it before her so she will pic it    up or eat it. That gives you the chance to run away.

Were does the legend comes from?

This legend originated in Japan, as far back as the Edo period. Legend has it that a jealous man accused his beautiful, vain wife of adultery, and slit her smile with his sword. “Who will think you are beautiful now?” he asked, assured of her faithfulness from then on.

The story resurfaced with a vengeance in 1970’s Japan. It is said—this is, remember, an urban legend, so any information can be passed along with a clear conscience—that in the late 70’s, a woman who attacked and killed children was hit by a car while chasing a child, and as a result, her face was split into a macabre grin.

It is theorized that this real woman’s death was the catalyst for the story’s resurfacing and spreading.

Around 2004, the legend hopped to Korea, which added the detail of the red surgical mask.
It seems to be more prevalent here these days than Japan, but these stories come in waves.

The facial deformity that the Red Mask Woman has is commonly called a Glasgow Grin, because the practice is said to have originated there (clearly not true, as they were doing it in the Edo period of Japan).
In the much publicized murder of Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) in America in 1947, her mouth was slit in a Glasgow Grin. Victor Hugo, in 1869 France, wrote The Man Who Laughs, a novel about a man whose mouth had been cut in a similar fashion.
More recently, and perhaps most famously, Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight sported this mutilation.
Clearly the idea, one of being hurt so much you’ll never frown again, rings true in cultures world-wide.
The juxtaposition of pain and the image of a smile, of a smile made out of scars is a jarring one.

What can we tell about the appearance of the woman?

 She must be a young woman, around the 20 years old. She wears a crimson coat and a surgical mask.

But in Japan thousands of people wear those masks. So it must be hard to identify her. It could be any woman with a mask and crimson coat.

How did she became disfigured? It could have been plastic surgery gone wrong, perhaps it was a car crash. Or maybe she’s so crazy that she did this to herself, hoping for a more beautiful smile. 

Or was it her jealous husband.

There are other rumors about her:

-She can run 100m in 3 seconds 

-She is one of three sisters

-She likes the number 3, she often appears inplaces which have "three" in there names.

What is the truth?

I say it is possible!

How so?

In Europe the 'Angel smile' is rare but happens.

It's when a gang wants to rape a girl, and they put a knife in her mount and ask if they can have sex with her. If she say no, they will slit her mount.

So it may be possible that a girl takes revenge to men, and kill or slit there mount.

But it is not something you hear on the news or read in the newspapers.

But it is still possible. 

Or a psychopath that likes the idea and dresses up like the woman to kill children or men.

That she can run 100m in 3 seconds is not really realistic, and not all versions say so.

So if ever encounter a woman with mask and she ask you if she is pretty...RUN, run for your life!

Cursed Kleenex Commercial

The cursed Kleenex TV commercial.

The tissues company Kleenex made in the 1980`s three different Japanese TV commercials. Each of the advert had the song "It`s a fine day" by Jane and Barton played.
But, many viewers found the commercials very disturbing. Because of the strange things happening and the music, that sounded like a German curse, and there were claims that the sound of the music varied according to the time of day.
But then the rumors started...

This is what happened;

1. Everyone who made the commercial became ill or died in a strange way.
- The cameraman was burned to death in a sauna from a machine failure
- When the commercial was aired, not one of the film crew was still alive.

2. The actress became pregnant with a demon child and suffered from mental illness.
- She was forced to retire from acting and was incarcerated in a mental institution.
- She committed suicide by hanging herself.

3. The child actor that played the red demon died suddenly.
- The child was hit by a car soon after filming, he got decapitated.
- The child also suffered from nightmares and sleep paralysis non-stop for three days and nights.

4. If you watch this advert, you will be cursed and/or die.
- Many people committed suicide after watching
- If you play it in SAP the girl`s voice change into that of an old woman.
- If you record it first and then replay it, the red demon turns into a blue demon.

What is the truth?

I must say it is a freaky commercial!

And I love the strange rumors. 

There are so many questions... what is that lady doing? What is that creature? Is it evil or friendly? Where are they? And what does it have to do with tissues?

So let`s see what the truth is about this strange commercial!

1. Everyone who made the commercial became ill or died in a strange way.

 I can`t find any information about the film crew. The commercial was made in the 1980`s so that makes it hard to find anything.

2. The actress became pregnant with a demon child and suffered from mental illness.

 The actress name is Keiko Matsuzaka born in Tokyo on July 20,1952. And is... still alive and acting

 Among her other works are songs and a book of photographs of her in 2002. And she still plays in movies and TV shows. That she was pregnant is unknown. But she looks sane and is still an active actress.

3. The child actor that played the red demon died suddenly.

I can`t find anything about the child actor. If he is still alive or dead is unknown. I can`t find a name or whatsoever.

4. If you watch this advert, you will be cursed and/or die.

Well... I am still alive... and I watched it more then 20 times. I also don`t feel about killing myself.

I have played the song in different speeds, tones, ect. But nothing abnormal or scary.

I recorded and played it back, but the red demon was still red.

Conclusion:

So is it true? I am still alive and the actress is also. What happened to the child actor and film crew is unknown. I played the commercial over and over, and still nothing happened. I must say it is freaky and the song is so strange in this. It does mess with your mind, but that`s the only thing it does.

Sources say that there are three Kleenex commercials made. So we have the "Red demon" version and the "Angel" version.

It makes sense, the contrast of an angel and a demon.

But I can`t find anything about the last one! Maybe that commercial is the cursed one, and is banned and destroyed. So maybe we are looking at the wrong commercial... and is the cursed one still out there.

But if you think about it... Japan has strange TV commercials.

As the investigation gos on, other commercials are found. Check the link for part 2 of the Cursed Kleenex Commercial!