Kuchisake-onna
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Kuchisake-onna (口裂け女, "Slit-Mouthed Woman") is a figure appearing in Japanese urban legends. She is a woman who was mutilated by her husband, and returns as a malicious spirit. When rumors of alleged sightings began spreading in 1979 around the Nagasaki Prefecture, it spread throughout Japan and caused panic in many towns. There are even reports of schools allowing children to go home only in groups escorted by teachers for safety,[1] and of police increasing their patrols. Recent sightings include many reports in South Korea in the year 2004 about a woman wearing a red mask who was frequently seen chasing children, and in October 2007, a coroner found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing little children. She was then hit by a car, and died shortly after. Her mouth was ripped from ear to ear.[2] Although some stories describe her as a former patient of a mental asylum, the more common story describes that her husband found out that she was cheating and used a sword to cut her mouth from ear to ear and shouted "Who will think you are beautiful now?"[citation needed]
The modern urban legend
According to the legend, she walks around wearing a surgical mask.
The woman will ask a potential victim "Am I pretty?" If they answer no, she will kill them with a pair of scissors, which she carries. If they answers yes, she will pull away the mask, revealing that her mouth is slit from ear to ear, and ask "How about now?" If they answer no, she will cut her victim in half. If the person answers yes, then she will slit his/her mouth like hers. It is impossible to run away from her, as she will simply reappear in front of the victim.
When the legend reappeared in the 1970s, rumors of ways to escape also emerged. Some sources say she can also be confused by the victim answering her question with ambiguous answers, such as "You are average" or "So-so". Another method is to flip her questions towards her, such as asking her "Do you think I'm pretty?" Unsure of what to do, she will give a person enough time to escape while she is lost in thought. Another escape route is to tell her one has a previous engagement; she will pardon her manners and excuse herself. In some variations of the tale, she can be distracted by fruit or candies thrown at her which she will then pick up, thus giving the victim a chance to run.
The original legend
According to the legend, she covers her mouth with a cloth mask, a fan, or a scarf.
The woman will ask a potential victim "Am I pretty?" If he answers yes, she will remove her mask and ask him again in a grisly voice. If he answers no or screams, she will slash him from ear to ear so that he resembles her. If he answers yes, she will walk away, only to follow her victim home and brutally murder him that night.
To avoid this fate, several people during the Edo period claimed that they gave her confusing answers or threw money or hard candy at her, buying themselves time to run away and lose her.[3]
In popular culture
Live action
- Kuchisake-onna (Video, 1996)
- Kannô byôtô: nureta akai kuchibiru aka The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2005)
- Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman aka Kuchisake-onna (2007)
- Kaiki toshi-densetsu - Kuchisake-onna (2008)
- Carved 2: The Scissors Massacre aka The Slit-Mouthed Woman 2 aka Kuchisake-onna 2 (2008)
- The Slit-Mouthed Woman 0: The Beginning aka Kuchisake-onna 0: Biginingu (2008)
- Kuchisake-onna Returns (2012)
- Constantine, in episode 5, Danse Vaudou
Manga and anime
- Kuchi-sake Onna
- Kuchisake Onna Densetsu
- The Kuchisake Onna was mentioned in an episode of "Detective Conan"
- The Kuchisake Onna makes an appearance in the manga Mob Psycho 100
- Kanojo wa Rokurokubi (character: Yotchy)
- She is parodied in chapter 123 of "+ Tic Nee-san"
- She is based on the sinner of Envy "Kayo Sudou"
- Zekkyou Gakkyuu (a version appears in Chapter 21)
Other appearances
The Kuchisake-onna also makes an appearance in:
- Hell Teacher Nūbē
- Hanako and the Terror of Allegory
- Franken Fran (includes a short parody of the Kuchisake-onna legend in an extra of Volume 2)
- Toshi Densetsu (Includes the Kuchisake-onna)
- Ghost Stories (The Kuchisake-onna was planned to make an appearance in episode 5 of the series, but it was banned after several complaints that her disfigurement looked too much like a cleft palate.)[4]
- Danganronpa The split personality of character Touko Fukawa, the scissors wielding serial killer Genocider Syo, was most likely inspired by Kuchisake-onna.
- Touhou Shinhiroku~Urban Legend in Limbo as Hata no Kokoro's attributed urban legend
- In the comics spin-off of Fables, Kuchisake-onna is called Mayumi, and acts as Tomoko's right hand.
- Perhaps not intentional but Mortal Kombat's character Mileena design is possibly based on the Kuchisake-onna as well. She even wanted to be beautiful in some of the games just like the spirit wanted to be.
Kuchisake-onna is also mentioned in the Japanese visual novel Rewrite.
Kuchisake-onna is a central figure of Arabella Wyatt's digital novel Horror of Kuchisake-onna, which uses the urban legend to explore both domestic abuse and social conformity.
See also
- Bloody Mary, a similar apparition in western urban legends.
- Glasgow smile
- La Llorona
- Onryō, a malicious ghost in Japanese folklore
- Teke Teke, another malicious Japanese spirit.
- Japanese urban legends
- Vengeful ghost
References
- ^ Severed Mouth Woman on YouTube
- ^ "Kuchisake Onna | The Mask of Reason".
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-06-03. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "LiveLeak.com - The Slit-Mouthed Woman (J-Horror)". liveleak.com.
