Once, in a quaint Japanese town, whispers of a haunting figure began to stir among the people. She was known as Kuchisake-onna, the Slit-Mouthed Woman, a ghostly presence wrapped in the shroud of an urban legend.
As the story goes, Kuchisake-onna was once a woman of unparalleled beauty, married to a samurai. Her beauty became her curse, for in a fit of rage, her husband sliced her mouth from ear to ear because she had affair with another young man, after cutting her mouth he asked "Who will find you beautiful now?"
Cursed by her disfigurement and driven by vengeance, her spirit lingered. She roamed the streets at night, her face hidden behind a cloth mask, often approaching the unsuspecting with a haunting question: "Am I beautiful?"
Those who answered "no" met a swift and grisly end at the hands of her sharp scissors. But even a "yes" was not a salvation, for she would then reveal her grotesque smile, asking again, "How about now?" Those who screamed or recoiled were doomed to suffer the same fate as her own – a mouth slit from ear to ear.
The legend says that the only way to escape her wrath is to give an ambiguous answer, such as "you look average," or to distract her with money or hard candies, giving one a chance to flee.
Kuchisake-onna's tale is a grim reminder of the thin line between beauty and horror.
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Slit-Mouthed Woman
ParanormalThe tale of Kuchisake-onna, or the "Slit-Mouthed Woman," is a chilling piece of Japanese folklore about a malevolent spirit.
