Teke Teke

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by Brynn_Mckenzie

by Brynn_Mckenzie

The Teke Teke (also known as Tek-Tek) is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a young woman, or school girl, who fell on a rail way line and was cut in half by the oncoming train. Now a vengeful spirit (Onryō), she carries a scythe or a saw and travels on either her hand or elbows, her dragging upper torso making a scratching or 'teke teke' sound. If she encounters anyone at night and the victim is not fast enough, she will slice them in half at the torso, mimicking her own disfigurement.

Legend

As a young school boy was walking home at night, he spotted a beautiful young girl standing by a windowsill resting on her elbows. They smiled at each other for a moment. The boy wondered what a girl was doing in an all-boys school, but before he could wonder more about the girl she jumped out of the window and revealed her lower half was missing. Frightened, he stood in the sidewalk, but before he could run she cut the boy in half.

Alternative version

A very similar urban legend concerns another girl, Kashima Reiko, who died on the train tracks and lost her legs. Kashima Reiko, appears to be an abbreviation of Kamen Shinin Ma (Mask, dead person demon). Kashima haunts bathroom stalls and will ask the occupant where her legs are. Answering incorrectly will result in having your legs ripped off. To save yourself, you must tell her that her legs are at the Meishin Railway and answer Kashima Reiko if she asks you who told you this. Sometimes she will ask you what her name is, which is a trick question. Answering "Kashima Reiko" will result in her attacking you. The correct answer is "Mask Death Demon," derived from the meaning of her name.

In fiction

Kôji Shiraishi's 2009 horror film Teke-Teke and its 2009 sequel Teke Teke 2 revolve around the legend.

Takeshi Furusawa's 2006 horror film Otoshimono features a variation of the legend

Future Diary manga creator Sakae Esuno's 4-volume mystery-horror manga, Hanako to Guuwa no Tera (花子と寓話のテラー, Hanako and the Terror of Allegory), originally serialized in comic magazine Shounen A from 2004 to 2006, features folklore detective Daisuke Asou who investigates urban legends including the Teke Teke.

The first episode of the anime Ghost Stories features a Teke Teke. It is depicted as a white, glowing, bald-headed spectre that is almost entirely covered in a sheet except for its hands and the top-half of its head, but its gender is irrecognizable. It carries a scythe in on hand and a pair of scissors in the other (a possible reference to the Kuchisake-onna, a ghost that was intended for the show but was cancelled). In the episode, the Teke Teke chases the group, but they manage to escape it when they trip and fall across the floor and it flies over them as it cannot attack if its victims duck.