Usually described as wearing an out-of-fashion red dress and bob haircut, she can be summoned by going to the girl’s bathroom on the third floor, knocking on the third stall three times, and saying, “Are you there Hanako-san?” Depending on regional variations, Hanako will respond by saying, “Yes I am,” or a ghostly hand will appear. Like all ghost stories, the details of Hanako’s origins vary somewhat from telling to telling, but in general, Hanako is said to be the ghost of a young girl who died around WWII, and now haunts school bathrooms. One of the best-known of Japan’s bathroom spirits is Toire no Hanako-san, or Hanako of the Toilet. “Even though we generally flush things down, it would not seem surprising for something mysterious to come up through the toilet.” A hand reaching up through the toilet is just one of the possible creep-outs a Japanese bathroom ghost might visit on someone. “In that sense, the bathroom is a place of transition, and the toilet in particular is a portal to a mysterious otherworld,” says Foster. Foster describes bathrooms as liminal spaces in that they connect the normal, everyday world to a whole different realm, namely the sewer. “The bathroom is a somewhat unusual space in a household or school or wherever it exists,” says Michael Dylan Foster, author of The Book of Yôkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. Each one has its own grim story and particular behavior, but they all share a connection to the bathroom. ![]() Some reach out from the insides of toilets others whisper through the stall walls. In Japanese folklore, there are a number of spirits rumored to appear in bathrooms. But when it comes to conjuring up the most terrifying possible interruptions to our most private moments, no one beats Japan. From Janet Leigh’s infamous shower scene in Psycho to the blood-spewing drain pipes of Stephen King’s It, there’s no shortage of genuinely startling imagery connected to lavatories. Public DomainĪs any horror film fan can attest, the bathroom can be a scary place. Today, Okiku's Well can be visited at the Himeji Castle.Illustrations of the 12 different types of Kappa, a water spirit who is sometimes known to haunt outhouses, from the 19th century. Afterwards, in the nights following her death, her spirit would rise from the well and loudly count the plates, letting out a blood-curdling scream when she reached ten. The samurai flew into a rage and beat her and dunked her into the castle's well again and again before finally killing her with his sword. The samurai used this to blackmail Okiku into getting involved with him. The samurai became fed up and came up with a diabolical scheme to force Okiku into accepting his advances: he stole one of the plates she was responsible for and hid it, knowing that she would face serious (even deadly) consequences over the plate's disappearance. A samurai who served the castle's master was very attracted to Okiku and pursued her, but she never reciprocated. Long ago, Okiku was a beautiful girl who was in charge of the owner's ten priceless plates. On the castle's property is a well that is known as "Okiku's Well" and it's said to be the resting place of a former servant girl who worked in the castle. ![]() ![]() However, the castle is also the scene of a chilling and tragic ghost story. Himeji Castle is one of Japan's most beautiful examples of architecture and luxury.
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