Teke Teke (A Japanese urban legend)

Teke Teke

The Teke Teke (テケテケ) is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a young woman, or schoolgirl, who fell on a railway line and was cut in half by an oncoming train. Now an onryō, or a vengeful spirit, she travels on either her hands or elbows, dragging her 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 schoolboy was walking home at midnight, he spotted a beautiful young girl looking out a window, resting on her elbows on the windowsill. They exchanged smiles 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 down from the window and revealed her lower half was missing. The boy was frightened, he stood on the sidewalk, but before he could run, she caught the boy and killed him. His body was later found with his lower half missing.

A very similar urban legend concerns another girl, Reiko Kashima, 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. If the occupant answers incorrectly, she will rip their legs off. To be saved, they must tell her that her legs are at the Meishin Railway and answer Kashima Reiko if she asks who told them this. Sometimes she will ask people what her name is, which is a trick question. Answering "Kashima Reiko" will result in her attacking them. The correct answer is "Mask Death Demon", from the meaning of her name. In one area of Japan, a statue of rice straw called Kashima-sama was made in order to protect the village from bad influence, and seems that residents call its name in order to expulse of an evil spirit. However, when it was transmitted to other areas,"-sama" changed into "-san" and it seems that it was mistaken as an evil spirit name of a woman or a wounded soldier who worshiped the Kashima shrine.