The Story of Hachishakusama

The Eight Foot Tall Woman

Hi I'm Paige and I am gonna tell you my encounter with "THE EIGHT FOOT TALL WOMAN". 

My grandparents lives in a small neighborhood in japan every summer my parents would take me there on holiday to visit them. The last time I saw them was the summer when I was 8 years old. My grandparents were inside the house and I was playing by myself outside in the backyard. I heard a strange sound like "Po...po...po...po" I didn't know what it was and it was hard to figure out where it was coming from. I was looking around searching for the source of the noise when I noticed something on top of the hedges that enclosed the background. It was a straw hat, it wasn't resting on the hedge it was behind it. That's where the sound was coming from. Then the hat began to move, it stopped at a small gap in the hedge and I could see a face peering through...it was a woman...but the hedges were high almost eight feet tall. I was surprised on how tall the woman was. I wondered if she was wearing stilts or some sort of huge high-heel shoes. Then a split second later she walked off and the strange noise disappeared with her fading into the distance.

Confused I got up and ran back into the house, my grandparents were in the kitchen drinking tea. I sat down at the table and told my grandparents what I had seen they weren't paying attention to me until I mentioned that distinctive sound.  They both froze grandma's eyes grew wide and she covered her mouth with her hand, grandpa's face became very serious and he grabbed me by my hand. "This is very important" he said very intensely "how tall is she?" he asked. "As tall as the garden hedge" I said with a shaky voice. "Where was she standing?" "when did this happen?" "what did you do?" "did she see you?". 

I tried to answer all his questions as best as I could, he rushed out of the hallway and made a phone call. I couldn't hear what he was saying but after he hung up he walked out the door. "Grandma what's going on?" I said. "There is something dangerous abducting children in this area" she said. "We call it 'hachishakusama' it takes on the appearance of an extremely tall woman and says "po..po..po" in a deep voice. A long time ago it was captured by monks and they managed confine it in a ruined building on the outskirts of the village. They trapped using statues that they placed at the north-east and west of the ruins so that it could not escape but somehow it did. The last time it appeared was 15 years ago. My grandmother said "anyone who saw it was destined to die within a few days". This all sounded crazy.