10 Terrifying Japanese Urban Legends Worth The Nightmare

From a creature with eyes for hands to the girl who watches you from the gap; in this article, we’re going to learn about 10 most terrifying, unusual, and perhaps the most popular Japanese urban legends!

10. The Dream School

This legend is extra creepy because apparently if you don’t forget it within a week – it will happen to you. One night, a boy had a dream about a school. The hallways looped forever, bringing him back to the start.

Staircases led back to the first floor. As he got scared, he heard footsteps behind him. He ran until he found an emergency exit with a glass box and a key next to it.

The glass had been smashed and there was a note saying it could be found in room 108. When he found that room, it was empty – no students – but there were backpacks hanging off every chair.

There was a pounding on the door. He opened it, terrified, to find the hallways covered with dead children. It’s said that he never woke up from his dream and if you don’t forget the story in one week, you’ll meet the same fate.

9. Daruma-san

Among other Japanese urban legends, this is more of an old game passed down through the years. You shower in a bath, turn off the lights, and chant, ‘Daruma-san fell down.’

While you wash your hair, it’s said that you will see a woman in your mind. She is Daruma-San. She will be standing up in a bath. You’ll see her slip and fall onto an old rusty tap.

It goes straight through her eye and kills her. Then, you will feel her ghostly presence behind you. If you turn around – there she is. Black tangled hair, rotting clothes, one eye is bloodshot and the other is just a bloody, hollow eye socket.

The game continues even further than that if you dare, but I think that’s enough for you to understand this creepy urban legend.

8. Ashura

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In Japanese Buddhism, after death, humans eventually become reborn in one of six Buddhist realms.

Those reborn into Shuradō, the realm of Ashura, become multi-faced and limbed, warrior demons that feast upon chaos, violence, and destruction, but above all else, they live for war; being the embodiment of everything they desire.

Various tellings of the Ashura exist, as some depict them as mere warriors of the demon realms, and others tell tales of more powerful beings, considered to be gods among lesser beings; but every tale says they are all powerful, intelligent, and magical beings, far superior to humankind.

7. Sukima Onna – The Girl From The Gap

From other Japanese urban legends, this comes from people’s natural fear of what lies lurking in the cracks of a home. Do you ever see something move past the hinge of a door?

Is that someone looking out from inside your wardrobe? Have you ever pictured a hand reaching out from between your bed and the floor?

Well, it could be the girl from the gap – a spirit that lives both physically and metaphorically – between worlds.

It’s said that if you ever see her, she will ask if you want to play hide and seek. At that point, the game is on. When you hear between a gap again, the shell drags you to an otherworldly hell.

6. The Red Room

This is a very modern legend, compared to other Japanese urban legends, is about a pop-up ad that’s red with black test. In a child’s voice, it simply repeats the phrase – Do you like?

A boy who got the popup tried to close it but it kept reappearing. Then, it changed to – Do you like red? He keeps trying to close it but it grows large and changes again to say – Do you like the red room?

Then, the site changes. All red and black. It has a list of names on it – his friends are at the bottom. And hand reaches out towards the boy’s neck from a video.

The ending gets even more twisted but guess what, it’s based on a real website. It’s still out there. If you can find it, you’ll know the gruesome legend of the red room and if the horrible ending comes true for you.

5. Nure-Onna

*Nure-onna (Sawaki Sushi/Public Domain)*

This one comes from the old Japanese folklore which translates to wet woman. She is often described as having the head of a woman and the body of a snake – with long claws, snake eyes, and jet-black hair.

She carries with her a childlike bundle to lure in her victims. If a person tries to pick up the baby, they find it’s not a child at all. The bundle then becomes very heavy and stops the victim from fleeing.

The snake woman then uses her long tongue to suck all of the blood from the victim’s body until they die.

4. Onibaba

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Onibaba is a demon woman who often appears in Japanese folklore. She will often appear as an old woman asking for help but if you get too close, she will slice you open with a knife and eat you.

Onibaba is said to be the tormented spirit of a woman who accidentally killed her pregnant daughter and unborn grandchild in an effort to find a cure for her friend’s child being sick.

She was told to bring them the liver of an unborn child but when she finally killed her victims, she found they were her own family.

3. Kuchisake Onna

The Kuchisake Onna, or slit-mouthed woman, was once a beautiful woman who was murdered in a grotesque and violent way; returning as a spirit to seek her retribution upon the world for allowing such an act to happen.

It is said she’ll appear as a beautiful woman who hides her face behind a mask in an attempt to disguise her two deep and bloody gashes; each of which stretch from mouth to ear on both sides of her face.

Kuchisake Onna stalks her victims in the shroud of darkness, revealing herself to ask her prey if they think she is pretty. If answers “yes”, she removes the object to reveal her horrifying face. Again she asks, this time in a more grisly voice.

If they still think she is pretty. If you answer “no” or scream, she carves a matching smile onto your face; if you respond with “yes” again she leaves, only to return to the victim’s house that night to murder them.

2. Hitobashira – The Human Pillars

This legend dates back to ancient times in Japan where it’s known as Hitobashira. Back then, there was a belief that a human sacrifice sealed inside a structure would make a foundation more stable.

This means that many old Japanese buildings are said to contain the spirits of the people who were sacrificed during their construction. One famous example is Matsue Castle where a woman was sealed inside the foundations during its construction.

Now her spirit is said to haunt the castle and whenever a woman dances there, the castle shakes violently. Many building owners in Japan are open about their building being a Human Pillar.

1. Tenome

Tenome, or “eyes with hands”, is a yokai that masquerades as an elderly suit, or blind guide, with eyes not upon its face, but instead on its hands.

They walk aimlessly through open fields and graveyards in a food search; for the bones of a living human. Tenome waits for their unsuspecting prey to come in close before making their attack.

It can keep track of running victims in the dark due to an exceptional sense of smell to compensate for its horrendous sight.

In legend, a young man entered a graveyard at night as a test of his courage; when from out of the darkness, an old blind man appeared.

When it was close enough, he noticed it had eyes on its hands yet not its face, so he ran to a nearby temple, receiving shelter from a priest who hid him in a locked chest.

The Tenome would eventually track the young man down due to his smell; when the priest opened the chest after the Tenome was gone, the young man was nothing but a sack of flesh.

So from all these Japanese urban legends, which one you find the most terrifying? Comment below.