Urban Legends and Games

Kuchisake-Onna

The legend of the woman with the slit mouth originates from Japan, although it is now also quite a well-known myth in Chinese and Korean culture. It is said that there was once a stunningly beautiful woman who was married to a Samurai. The samurai believed her to be adulterous, and in his rage he slit her mouth open from ear to ear and taunted by saying 'Now who's going to think you're beautiful?' This urban myth was first recorded in 1979 in Japan in Nagasaki, and it caused such uproar that police were forced to increase their presence and schools instructed their students to travel in groups.

Apparently, the slit mouth woman, known in Japanese as Kuchisake-onna, lurks on the streets in Japan wearing a surgical mask. If you have the bad luck of coming into contact with her, she will ask you a question – 'Do you think I'm beautiful?' If you answer 'Yes', she'll rip off her mask and scream 'What about NOW?'.

 If you answer the second time, 'No', the legend suggests that you will die a grisly death at the hand of the woman and her oversized pair of scissors. The scariest part is, even if you answer 'Yes' the second time, so warped is her mind that she will still slit your mouth open, so that you can be just as 'pretty' as she is. You can't just run away either – if you try to escape, every time you turn around still be standing there. Right in front of you.

She is said to almost exclusively hunt children, and reports of sightings have occurred not only in Japan – she was sighted once again in South Korea as recently as 2004 wearing a red mask and following children. If you're unfortunate enough to run into her on the way home, you should answer he questions noncommittally – 'You look alright', or 'I think you're average' – this kind of answer is said to confuse her, giving you time to get the hell out of there.