Japan Lover Me

#JLMyūreioftheday : Kuchisake-onna 😷✂️ 

Also known as the "slit-mouthed woman", kuchisake-onna is an old but famous urban legend, with stories even dating back from the Edo period. It is said that she is a vengeful ghost of a woman who was mutilated by her husband by cutting the sides of her mouth. 😬

When she appears before a victim, she asks "Am I pretty?" If you answer yes, she will cut the sides of your mouth too with the huge pair of scissors she's holding. If you answer no, she disappears but then follows you home where she kills you. 😵 

However, it is said that there are many ways to escape her: confuse her by answering her question with a question, confuse her by quickly saying "you're so-so", or confuse her by throwing money or candies at her then say "I'm busy!!" 🏃🏻‍♀️#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyūreioftheday : Today's ghost story is about Okiku, or the plate-counting ghost. 💀 According to Japanese folklore, there was once a beautiful maid named Okiku who worked for a samurai. 

The samurai fell in love with her, but she always repelled his romantic advances. Desperate, the samurai tricked Okiku into believing that she broke one of the 10 ancestral plates in the samurai's mansion, a crime punishable by death. Okiku counted the plates again and again to find the missing plate, but to no avail. She tearfully asked for forgiveness from the samurai, but he told her that unless she marries him, she will not be forgiven. 

Despite this, Okiku still rejected him. The samurai then angrily pushed her down the well, where she drowned and died. 😰 It is said that from then on, she haunted the mansion, specifically the well. Her ghostly sobbing voice can be heard counting up to nine again and again. It is said that one needs to shout "ten!" after she says "nine" to make it stop. 😨 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

Let's start off our #JLMyureioftheday series with a yurei called ubume. 👩‍👦🗿Ubume are said to be the ghosts of women who died during childbirth. 😰

During their haunting, they carry bundle of cloth that is supposedly their baby, and ask a stranger for help by carrying it for them. Afterwards, the ubume will disappear, leaving the stranger with the baby, which would turn out to be just very heavy rocks. 😱 They usually appear with a topless/naked torso and a red skirt stained with lots of blood. 😧 #japanloverme#JLMhalloween ❤️ Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Ōkubi, or giant floating heads in the sky! 😲 

Ōkubi are generally harmless, they often like to scare people and blow their hats or umbrellas off. 

However, it is said that once an ōkubi appears, it is a sign of an impending calamity, like a storm/hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, or fire. 😱 

It is also said that instead of flesh and bones, or a ghostly gas, they are jelly-like and squishy in texture.😦 #japanloverme Art by @chichilittle 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Tanuki or the Japanese raccoon dog 🐻 

Tanuki are considered as powerful magical creatures, much like the kitsune (foxes), which are basically their rivals in magic and mischief. 

Tanuki are generally jolly, playful, and loves to have a good time playing tricks on humans. They also like to shape shift, and their most notable feature is their giant testicles 🙈 which can shapeshift into anything they want (an umbrella, a parachute, a cart, etc) 😅

They also love to drink and eat tons of food. In fact, sometimes they can even possess a human, causing the human to eat and eat and eat until they pass out. 😵 Tanuki possess humans either to punish them for violating nature, or more often, just for the sake of pranks. 😑 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

Today's #JLMyōkaioftheday is a bit scarier than the rest: the te-no-me 🙌🏻👁👁 The te-no-me comes in the form of a blind old man that literally has no eyes on his face. 

Instead, his eyes are on his palms! 👋🏻

He often roams in graveyards, where he is said to hunt for humans. He is allegedly incredibly fast, and his very strong sense of smell makes up for his lack of eyes on his head. 😬 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Tsuchinoko 🐍 

Tsuchinoko is a mythical creature in Japan that resembles a very fat and short snake. Legend has it that it can talk and likes to lie or make up stories. It is also said that it loves to drink alcohol. 

Sometimes, it swallows its own tail to form a round form and "roll around like a wheel". 😂 Imagine seeing a fat round rolling snake!#japanloverme Art by @chichilittle 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Sunekosuri 🐶 

Sunekosuri is a small, plump, furry, dog-like yōkai that likes to run between the legs of a walking person. It especially likes to rub or snuggle against a person's legs when it's raining, as if cuddling or looking for warmth.

 Although harmless and generally cute, it can cause people to trip on it while walking. 😅 (much like a regular dog would lol) #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

 #JLMyōkaioftheday Raijū, the legendary creature who is the companion of Raijin, the Shinto god of lightning. ⚡️ 

It can sometimes take the form of a wolf, a cat, a fox, or a weasel. It can shoot and conduct electric bolts, and turn itself into a ball of lightning, but is generally harmless when tame. 

It is said that it loves to sleep atop s sleeping person's belly, and when Raijin needs to wake it up, he shoots a lightning bolt to it, which of course harms the sleeping person too! That's why in superstition, it is advised to sleep facing sideways or down, especially during thunderstorms. ⛈ Which pop culture character does the raijū remind you of? ☺️⚡️ #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Kappa ! 💦 

Kappa are amphibians in nature, but they are more dangerous when in water than in land. They swim very fast and are known to trap humans by pulling them deeper underwater. 😨 

On land however, they are somewhat clumsy, often moving carefully to avoid spilling the water on the top of their heads, which give them energy. They love playing games and can be very courteous, so one way to trick them to spill their water is to bow to them, which makes them bow back, spilling their precious water. 😅 

After outsmarting them, you gain their admiration and friendship, and kappa are known to be loyal friends once befriended. 😚 Aside from human intestines, they also love cucumbers. 🥒#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Futakuchi-onna or the "two-mouthed woman" 🙀 

It is said that a second mouth grows at the back of the head of a woman due to a curse that often targets girls who eat so timidly and so little. Her hair would then act as hands to feed this 2nd mouth, which is almost always hungry, and demands A LOT of food. 

If not fed, the 2nd mouth would cause terrible headaches! 😨 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🍣

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Rokurokubi and nukekubi 👯

One of the most famous yōkai is the rokurokubi, which is a woman who can magically elongate her neck at night to scare men, or to find lamp oil to eat. A nukekubi is a variant of the rokurokubi, but her head detaches instead, and is usually deadly and vampiric in nature. 

Both are regular women by day, but when they fall asleep, they transform into yōkai. 💁🏻💁🏻 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Jinmenju, or the tree with fruits that have faces 🌳 

It is said that the fruits of jinmenju have such a shallow sense of humor, they will actually laugh at almost everything. 

In fact, they spend most of their time laughing! 😂🌿🤣🌿😂🌿🤣 And if you slice one open, you'll find that their seeds also have faces on them, which are laughing as well. #LOL #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

Have you ever seen or been to a shrine or temple and wondered what are the two animal stone statues outside supposed to be? 

They're komainu, or "lion dogs"! 🦁🐕 Komainu are legendary creatures that are said to be guardians of holy places. 

Their statues are often placed near the gates of a shrine, often as a couple: one male and one female. 

The male komainu is said to guard the place itself, while the female komainu protects the people inside the place. #JLMyōkaioftheday#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

Did you know that there's a Japanese version of the Loch Ness monster too? 😯 

Issie is a Japanese lake monster that is said to live in Lake Ikeda on the island of Kyushu. According to the myth, Issie was a white female horse that lived on the island with its little foal. 

One day, her foal was stolen by a samurai, and after being unable to find it, Issie jumped off a cliff into the lake in despair. 

Her grief transformed her into a black cryptid monster with two humps on its back, which resurfaces every now and then to try to find her lost foal. #JLMyōkaioftheday#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Noppera-bō or the "faceless ghost" 😶 

Although mostly harmless, noppera-bō are known for tricking and scaring humans by imitating someone else's face, then wiping it off to reveal a smooth, featureless blank surface. Their victims are often tricksters, stubborn people, and most especially, unfaithful lovers. 💔🖤😏 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Tenko , or "Heavenly/celestial nine-tailed fox" ✨🦊✨

When a kitsune (fox yōkai) grows its ninth tail, it becomes a "kyūbi no kitsune", one of the most powerful legendary yōkai in Japanese mythology. 

Then, when it reaches 1000 years, it becomes even more powerful than that (and also turns gold)! It becomes a tenko. ✨ 

Tenko is the highest rank of foxes, and can ascend to the heavens and can command or punish lower-ranked kitsune. It can also possess a human being and grant that person divine spiritual powers. 😮✨#japanloverme art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨