In ancient times in Japan, samurai used to play a game called hyaku monogatari kaidan. They will sit in a circle around a hundred candles. Every time someone finishes telling a horror story, a candle is blown out. When the last candle goes out, the room will sink into darkness and ghosts will appear.
Since I can’t tell you a hundred horror stories, I will tell you six of the scariest ones about ghosts or demons from Japan. You can tell it to your friends, or tell your kids like a bedtime horror story.
YAMAMBA’S SECRETS
Yamamba — the mountain witch looks like harmless old women, but they are frightening demons that live in the mountains and often eat human flesh. One of the oldest legends about the mahogany recorded in Konjaku Monogatari.
Once upon a time, a priest was walking on the road when the storm hit. Fortunately, the priest saw a small house appeared before his eyes. An old lady invited him inside, offering him food and shelter. Strangely enough, the old lady told the priest, “Whatever happens, don’t look into the room behind there.”
The priest could not suppress his curiosity, so he ignored the warning. When the old woman went out to find firewood, the priest looked through the crack in the door and saw a horrifying sight: in that room was full of corroded corpses. The priest immediately knew that the old woman was the yamamba, often seducing pedestrians into the house and eating them. The priest quickly left the house, not bothering to look back.
The story of Oiwa
Not all ghost stories are myths. The story of Oiwa is based on a real event in Edo in the seventeenth century.
Oiwa is a beautiful woman. She is married to a samurai named Lemon. Lemon is a narrow-hearted man, he married Oiwa solely because of her beauty. There was another lady named Oume, who blindly in love with Lemon. Because of her jealousy, Oume tricked Oiwa into using a poisonous face cream. The poison slowly destroys Oiwa’s appearance. She looked like a walking corpse with her gray skin and lifeless eyes and falling off hair.
Lemon became disgusted with the deformed face of Oiwa. He wished he could leave Oiwa quickly and soon marry Oume. The despicable samurai hired his friend Takuetsu to rape Oiwa to get rid of her. Oiwa’s appearance frightened Takuetsu so much he wasn’t unable to comply with Lemon’s request. He told Oiwa all of her husband's plot against her and let Oiwa see her own face in the mirror. Oiwa terrified to see her deformed face in the mirror. She then committed suicide with Takuetsu’s sword. Before dying, Oiwa cursed the treacherous husband.
On the wedding night of Lemon and Oume, Oiwa’s deformed ghost appeared in resentment. Lemon got scared for his life and immediately ran away. But wherever he goes, he still cannot seem to escape Oiwa’s ghost. After that night, wherever Lemon went, he saw the ghost of Oiwa appear and stare at him.
The Snow Woman — YUKI-ONNA
Yuki-onna or snow lady — is a type of snow monster. Snow lady often kills wanderers in her cold land, or sometimes falls in love with some of them.
A young man was walking through a snow-covered mountain. Along the way, he encountered a snowstorm and got lost. When he gave up all hope and lay waiting to die cold, a woman as pale as snow, her whole body covered with ice appeared. She was the snow lady. Seeing the young man, the snow lady pitted him so she took him to a warm wooden house on the mountain to save his life. In return, the snow lady forces the young man to swear he will not tell anyone about her.
Years later, the boy got fell in love and married a lovely woman. Her name is Yuki (Snow). The two of them lived happily together for many years. One day, he broke the old vow. He told Yuki about the time she was saved by the mysterious snow girl. As he finished speaking, Yuki appeared to be the snow girl in the past. The worship had been broken, she instantly vanished into the cold night.
Okiku — The Vengeance Ghost
In the past, there was a maid of Aoyama samurai living in Himeji castle called Okiku. One of the tasks Okiku had to do was take care of ten precious plates of her master. One day, when Okiku was cleaning up the plates she found out that one of them was gone. No matter how many times she counted it over and over, there were only nine. Samurai Aoyama knew Okiku had lost the precious plate, he got extremely angry. He then threw the maid into the well.
Because of unjust death, Okiku became a vengeance ghost. Every night she crawled out of the well to count her master’s plates. Whenever she counted to the ninth plate, Okiku let out a shrill scream. Okiku’s scream was so intense that the people living in Himeji castle were scared for life and unable to sleep. They then seek a priest to ease Okiku’s vengeance soul.
The Peony Lantern
One of the three most famous horror stories in the land of cherry blossoms.
One evening, the samurai Ogiwara stumbled upon a beautiful girl, carrying a peony lantern on the streets of Edo. Immediately, Ogiwara was struck by love. He invited the beautiful girl to his home. At Ogiwara’s house, he and Otsuyu happily shared their feelings towards each other. One of Ogiwara’s neighbors overheard demon-liked giggling coming from his house and decided to check on Ogiwara. However, the neighbor was shocked to see Ogiwara hugging a skeleton. The next morning, the neighbor came over to tell Ogiwara what he saw the night before. Ogiwara was terrified by what the neighbor said and decided to visit a temple near his house.
At that temple, Ogiwara was horrified to discover Otsuyu’s grave. He realized that the girl he loved had died a long time ago. Now Otsuyu’s ghost will not appear in front of Ogiwara anymore.
Despite knowing that Otsuyu is a ghost, Ogiwara still misses her deeply. Not long after that, Ogiwara couldn’t bear his grief anymore and returned to the temple where Otsuyu was buried. Otsuyu’s ghost stood in front of the temple gate waiting for him. She held out her hand, pleaded with Ogiwara to take her home. Ogiwara did not hesitate, he took Otsuyu’s hand and the two vanished together into the darkness.
After visiting that shrine for the last time, Ogiwara disappeared. The monk at the temple could not help but worry so he decided to dig up Otsuyu’s grave. Inside the coffin are two corpses: one from Otsuyu, one from Ogiwara. The two of them can be together forever.
