Collection of Spooky Stories

Kuchisake-onna

In 1979 children all around Japan started to do something very strange.

Every night on their walk home from school they would carefully watch the bottom of each telephone pole that lined the road. They would try to hurry past as fast as possible, hoping not to see a woman standing there with long black hair hanging down to her waist and wearing a surgical mask.

Surgical masks are commonly worn in Japan during the cold and flu season to help protect people from germs, but that year a woman wearing that kind of mask could mean something different –it could mean she was an angry ghost called Kuchisake Onna, the Slit-mouthed Woman.

After a while the children started to travel in groups for safety, then teachers got involved and would usher home the kids in their classes. But that didn't work and such a panic set in that even the police got involved, they upped their patrols to keep an eye out for the woman in the surgical mask that was known to wait in the shadows at the bottom of phone poles.

The police thought she was a dangerous psycho on the loose but the schoolkids thought differently, they saw her as a spirit that they had to avoid at all costs.

The thing is, if you walked near Kuchisake Onna she would step out of the shadows and suddenly appear right in front of you.

"Do you think I'm beautiful?" she'd ask.

It's an odd and unexpected question... but hey it seems innocent enough right? But how would you answer the question to determine your fate?

If you answered "No" to her question she'd take out a kitchen knife and kill you right on the spot. If you said "Yes" she'd rip off her surgical mask to reveal that her mouth was slit from ear to ear and then say

"How about now?"

At this point you might get really scared and try to run away, but it's no use. Kuchisake Onna is an eerily fast runner and will always get in front of you to ask the question again and again.

If you answered "No" this time you'd be cut in half, and if you answered "Yes" she'd cut your mouth from ear to ear and make it look like hers. Sooo...now you can see why the school kids were watching the bottom of the telephone poles so intently.

HOW TO ESCAPE THE SLIT-MOUTHED WOMAN

So is Kuchisake Onna still around? The urban legend of the Slit-mouthed Woman says that she can't be killed so according to the story she's still around, but there are some ways to escape her if you're lucky. They're really strange ways of fending her off but hey it's worth a try right?

One rumor says that she absolutely hates Pomade (a kind of hair gel) and if you simply say "Pomade pomade pomade" it will keep her away. That one sounds dubious to me but for some weird reason it's the most popular one.

The second most popular way to survive Kuchisake Onna is when she asks you "How about now?" to answer with "So-so". The idea with this one is that it will confuse her and while she's thinking about it will give you just enough time to get the heck out of there.

Another way to escape her is by saying "sorry I'm in a rush" then she will pardon herself and go away.

The kuchisake onna myth has been around for a very long time. Indeed some have traced it back to the Heian Era (794-1185). But for a story to last this long it must undergo some changes. It must adapt to the current culture.