Continuing my Halloween look at Japanese urban legends, today let's look at another vengeful spirit. Yesterday we looked at Hanako-san of the Toilet. Today, let's look at...

The Slit-Mouthed Woman (口裂け女, Kuchisake-onna)

According to the legend, if a woman in a surgical mask walks up to you and asks "Am I pretty?", you might as well give up because are pretty much screwed.

If you answer "no", she will kill you with a pair of scissors. If you answer yes, she will remove her mask, revealing a mouth that has been slit ear to ear, and ask "How about now?". If your next answer is no, she will kill you immediately. If it's yes, she will slit your mouth ear to ear to make you just like her. In some versions of the story she will let her victim go if they answer "yes" the second time, but she will follow them home and murder them at night.

Trying to run away does no good. In true horror story fashion, she will immediately appear in front of you wherever you run. No, my friend, you are as good as gone.

But there is hope! Various versions of the tale do include ways to escape. My favorite of them is to tell her you have a pressing engagement elsewhere. She will apologize for her rudeness at delaying you and allow you to go. Even Japanese ghouls can't be rude, after all.

Other versions of ways to escape involve telling her that she's only average, which evidently confuses her giving the victim enough time to run away. Other ways suggested involve throwing money or candy at her which slows her down because she will stop to carefully pick them all up.

Unlike yesterday's tale, Hanako-san, which only dates from the 1950s, this one is considerably older. Various dates have been given, the oldest of which is the 17th century.

It is said that Kuchisake-onna was the adulterous wife of a samurai. After catching her in her infidelity, her husband punished her by slicing her mouth from ear to ear and then killing her. Another version says she was instead the samurai's mistress and it was his wife who did the slicing after catching her. More modern versions of the tale involve medical or dental procedures gone wrong.

It is very common in Japanese mythology for people who don't die fairly to rise up as vengeful spirits (called onryō). These spirits seem to be mostly women.

Anyway, the story of Kuchisake-onna wasn't popular or well-known until 1979 when it was published in a newspaper piece which used the old tale in reference to a current event. This led to something of a national panic as suddenly there were sightings of her everywhere. This event is said to be one of the factors leading to Japan's style of horror movies of the present-day.

There have been a few movies based on this story. I haven't seen any of them (I'm not a huge fan of horror films) but they seem fairly popular. I think they have been translated to English, so if you are looking for a good Halloween movie, they might meet the bill.

So anyway, the moral of this story is if a masked woman stops you and asks if she is pretty, tell her you have pressing business and quickly move away. If that doesn't work, pelt her with candy and run.

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

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