Winter Yokai : Yukinba

 

Yukinba - 雪婆 - Snow hag.

Her story is pretty similar to other winter Yokai  stories, except for the fact that some Yokai like the Yuki Onna can show some degree of kindness. The yukinab has no such warmth, she is just bad, she is constantly on the hunt for kids who she then kidnaps and eats.

 

Her name combines the kanji雪 (yuki; snow) + 婆 (ba; hag). Though it's slightly different depending on the region. In Yamagata prefecture she's called the Yukinbanba (雪ばんば) with “banba” being a regional dialect for “hag.”

The similar child eating yokai, the Yukifuriba, has a nicer name but is equally as horrible . 雪降り(yukifuri; falling snow) + 婆 (ba; hag, old woman) or The Old Woman of the Falling Snow.

The Yukinba looks like an actual monster she is just a  giant head hopping on one leg, with a lot sharp,  teeth and grasping clawed hands. 

The Yukifuriba just looks like a normal old woman with pale, white skin and dressed in a thin, white kimono who always carries a red rope. She may possibly even be an elderly version of the  Yuki Onna. 

Tthe Yukinba Origins..

"Once in the dead of winter, a man was walking through a snowy wheat field when he heard a woman's voice calling out to him. As he looked, a one-legged crone with wild hair appeared and tried to attack him. He fled desperately, when the snow cleared, Yukiba disappeared..."

Both the Yukinba and the Yukifuriba are well known child eaters. They hide out in the mountains and call out to children in an old woman’s voice, preying on the trusting nature of the young. They lure the children in , capture and eat them. 

Parents in the colder region like Niigata prefecture  warn their children not to play at nights when the Yukinba and Yukifuriba are hunting.

Yokai in the mountains and winter seem to have a preference for eating kids, the Yamauba mountain witch in another one to be wearying off.  In many areas, the Yukifuriba is considered to be a “snow version” of the Yamauba in the same way that the yeti is basically  a snow version of bigfoot.

There are many winter yokai described as having only  one foot.

Similar to the  Ippon Datra another Yokai that is mostly peaceful except for December 20th of each year, on that day it will kill any human it comes across.

Most of these are snow monsters, like the Yuki Nyudo and the Yukibo. The legend comes from an uneven patter of snow melting. When snow melts in pockets, it looks like something with a single, large leg has been hopping around the forest. In the case of the Yukibo, this happens in tree wells.  people saw these track like marks and imagined a one-legged snow monster roaming the mountains.

 the Yukiba was also affiliated with "small fuzzy winged insects" called "yuki-mushi" or "snowbugs" - its been believed that if they appear during the autumn, a yukinba  attack occur soon.

Japanese Yokai: Gashadokuro 💀

 

💀Gashadokuro💀

This Yokai is the physical manifestation of human regret, hunger and death.

The Gashadokuro is a towering monstrous skeleton formed from the grudge and regret of those that have died on the battle field or from starvation. It's body is made from the Bones of countless dead  individuals.

The earliest record of a gashadokuro goes back over 1000 years to a bloody rebellion against the central government by a samurai named Taira no Masakado. 

His daughter Takiyasha hime was a famous sorceress. When Masako was eventually killed for his revolt, his daughter continued his cause. Using her dark magic, she summoned a massive skeleton from the bodies of dead soldiers to attack the city of Kyōto. Her monster is depicted in a famous print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

. . 

In another vision of the story the Gashadokuro is formed from soldiers whose bodies are left to rot in the fields and victims of famine who die unknown in the villages or off in the wilderness and don't receive a proper funeral, unable to pass on, their souls linger as vengeful spirits these people die with anger and pain in their hearts. 

That energy remains long after their flesh has rotted away, As their bodies decay, their anger ferments into a grudge against the living, which twists them into a supernatural force. When the bones of hundreds or thousands of victims gather together into one mass, they form the giant, skeletal monster. This Yokai existence will last for however the rage and regret in the bone s it's made of still lingers. They are most often found around graveyards mass Graves or battlefields where there are a large mass of dead bodies or death.

This Yokai wanders around the countryside in the late hours of the night. Their teeth chatter and bones rattle with the “gachi gachi” sound. 

However they aren't always noisy. If they spot a human out late on the roads, the gashadokuro will silently sneak up and catch their victims, crushing them in their hands or biting off their head.

Be careful of you're next night walk you definitely don't want to run into one of these guy's... 💀👻

..  ...... 

Gashadokuro in anime.

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💀🎃👻

Bakeneko the Demon Cat..

             -----------Bakeneko or Changing cat is a type of yokai (Sprite / demon) -----------




Cat's are often seen as sly and mysterious creatures..

Cats depicted as yōkai in Japan date back as far as the Kamakura Period  (1185–1333).

In the collection of setsuwa (oral tradition of folktales before the 14th century), the Kokon Chomonju   from this period, there are several descriptions of cats that do odd and suspicious things, noting that "these are perhaps ones that have turned into demons.
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One of the more well know legends regarding a Bakeneko...
 is the story of Takasu Genbei...

 In this story  a man named Takasu Genbei, whose mother's personality suddenly changed  after his pet cat went missing for many years. His mother avoided interactions with old  friends and even family and would  often eat alone in her room. Untill one day when the family peeked in on her, they saw a cat-like monster in the mother's clothes, chewing on animal carcasses. Takasu, still skeptical, slew what looked like his mother, and after one day his mother's body turned back into his pet cat that had been missing. Takasu then tore up the floorboards of his mother's room to find her skeleton hidden there, her bones gnawed clean of all flesh.


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Folk lore:.....

The Bakeneko myths from arond Japan....


In Yamagata District, Hiroshima Prefecture, it is said that a cat raised for seven years or longer would kill the one that raised it. There are also many regions where when people began raising a cat, they would decide in advance for how many years they would raise it because of this superstition.

 Also, depending on the area, there are stories in which cats that were killed by humans in a brutal manner would become bakeneko and curse that human. The stories of bakeneko are not only about aged cats, but are also sometimes stories of revenge against cruel humans.

 
The abilities attributed to the bakeneko are various, but include shapeshifting into humans,  wearing a towel or napkin on the head and dancing, speaking human words,  cursing humans manipulating dead people, possessing humans  and lurking in the mountains and taking wolves along with them to attack travelers.

 As an unusual example, on Aji island, in  Oshika District, of the Miyagi Prefecture and in the Oki Islands, Shimane Prefecture, there's a story of a cat that shapeshifted into a human and wanted to engage in sumo.

 
However the legend of cats with the ability to speak, may have arisen because humans simply misinterpring the cat's meowing as human language, and for this reason some would say that the cat is not a type of yōkai. In 1992 (Heisei 4), in the Yomiuri newspaper, there was an article that argued that when people thought they had heard a cat speak, upon listening a second time, they realized that it was simply the cat's meowing and that it was only coincidence that it resembled a word in human language.

In the Edo period (1603–1867), there was a folk belief that cats with long tails like snakes could bewitch people. Cats with long tails were disliked and there was a custom of cutting their tails. It is speculated that this is the reason that there are so many cats in Japan with short tails nowadays, because natural selection has favored those with short tails.

Folk beliefs that cats can cause strange phenomena are not limited to Japan. For example, in Jinhua, Zhejiang, in China, it is said that a cat, after having been raised for three years by humans, would then start bewitching them. Because it is said that cats with white tails are especially good at this, there arose the custom of refraining from raising white cats. Since it is said that their ability to bewitch humans comes from taking in the spiritual energy of the moon, it is said that when a cat looks up at the moon, whether its tail has been cut or not, it should be killed on the spot
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The reason that cats are seen as yōkai in Japanese mythology is attributed to many of the characteristics that they possess: for example, the way the irises of their eyes change shape depending on the time of day, the way their fur seems to cause sparks due to static electricity when they are petted (especially in winter), the way they sometimes lick blood, the way they can walk without making a sound, their wild nature that remains despite the gentleness they can show at times, the way they are difficult to control (unlike dogs), the sharpness of their claws and teeth, their nocturnal habits, and their speed and agility.


There are many yōkai animals other than cats in old tales that have similar attributes: the deep tenacity of snakes, the ability of foxes (kitsune) to shapeshift into women, and the brutality of tanuki in eating humans depicted in the Kachi-kachi Yama folktale from the Edo period. Cats in particular, however, have acquired a great number of tales and superstitions surrounding them, due to the unique position they occupy between nature and civilization.

As cities and towns were established and humans began living farther apart from nature, cats came with them. Since cats live close to humans yet retain their wild essence and air of mystery, stories grew up around them, and gradually the image of the bakeneko was formed^.
 
One folk belief concerning the bakeneko is that they would lick the oil of oriental lamps, and in the Edo period encyclopedia, the Wakan Sansai Zue, it is said that for a cat to lick this oil is an omen of some strange event about to occur.

 People in the early modern period used cheap oils from fish, like sardine oil, in the lamps, and that could explain why cats would want to lick them.

 The diet of most  Japanese people at that time was based primarily on grains and vegetables, and the leftovers would be fed to the cats.

 However, since cats are carnivores, such a diet would have been lacking in protein and fat, and therefore they would have been even more attracted to the oil in the lamps.

Furthermore, the sight of a cat standing up its hind legs to reach the lamp, with its face lit up and eyes round with anticipation, could have seemed eerie and unnatural, like a yōkai.

The mysterious air that cats possess was associated with the image of prostitutes who worked in the Edo period red-light districts. This was the origin of a popular character in kusazōshi (among other publications), the bakeneko yūjo

Nure onago

 

 

 

              

                                      The Nure Onago

濡女子
ぬれおなご
wet girl // soaked woman .. or  nure hanayome wet bride.

The Nure onago look  like a regular young  woman with wet hair.
 

They are most often encountered on roads near swamps, rivers, and the coasts, or during nights with heavy rain fall.

As the name implies, they are soaked with water from head to toe. Often, nure onago are covered with dead leaves and things stuck to their dripping bodies. They wander arond  soaking wet and dripping;


Travelers along the coasts and rivers of the islands of Shikoku and Kyūshū will occasionally encounter young girls, lost and soaked to the bone. Most people who see them would feel the need to rush over to help the poor girls. 

 

But once a human gets  close enough to a nure onago, she looks up into their eyes and smiles. If the smile is returned, she will follow the helpful stranger everywhere, sticking by him forever.

Although she  doesn't actually  harm the individual, her constant presence is often enough to ruin the rest of a person’s life because the nure onago continually drip water and stink of mildew and swamp water. Not someone you  want following you home or to work.

Ignoring a nure onago and refusing to return her smile is the only way to avoid this yōkai. Unfortunately, by the time her true nature is discovered it's usually too late.

It's a common belief that Nure onago are born from the strong feelings of loss and sadness shared by widows of drowning victims—particular widows of sailors lost at sea. These feelings build up and materialize into a nure onago, whose desire for attention is the amplified desire of heartbroken widows to see their husbands again.

The Nure onago behavior is somewhat similar  to the hari onago, though in a far less violent form.

 

 The two are sometimes grouped together as waraionago, smiling girls. Both are also found on the island of Shikoku, suggesting a possible connection between them. They should not, however, be confused with the similarly named nure onna or iso onna,  two far more dangerous yōkai.

Oni Myths, Shuten Doji the King of Oni.

 

 

Shuten Doji  was also called the “little drunkard”

He is considered among the most fearsome and evil yokai in all of Japanese folklore even among other Oni. 

However unlike most yokai, Shuten dōji was not born an oni. 

There are many stories about how he came to be, but most of them claim that he was originally a human boy who was born over a thousand years ago either in present-day Shiga or Toyama. 

His mother was a human woman and his father was the great dragon Yamata-no-Orochi. How he changed from boy to demon varies greatly from story to story, but the one popular version goes like this: There was a young boy who was supernaturally strong and abnormally intelligent for his age. 

Everyone around him constantly called him a demon child due to his incredible strength and wit, and he gradually became terribly anti-social and resentful of others. At age six, even his own mother abandoned him. Orphaned, he became an apprentice priest at Mt. Hiei in Kyoto. 

Naturally, he was the strongest and smartest of the young acolytes, and he grew resentful of them as well. He slacked off on his studies as a result and got into fights. He also fell into drinking, which was forbidden to monks; however he could out-drink anyone and everyone who was willing to sit down and drink against him. Because of his fondness for alcohol, he became known as Shuten dōji, “the little drunkard.”

One night there was a festival at the temple, and Shuten dōji showed up very drunk. He put on an oni mask and went around playing pranks on his fellow priests, jumping out from the darkness to scare them and such. At the end of the night, he tried to take off his mask but found he couldn’t — to his horror, it had fused to his body! Ashamed, scared, and scolded by his masters for being drunk, he fled into the mountains where he would no longer have to interact with other humans, whom he saw as weak, foolish, and hypocritical. He lived there on the outskirts of Kyoto for many years, stealing food and alcohol from villagers, and drinking vast quantities of alcohol. His banditry eventually attracted groups of thieves and criminals, who stuck with him loyally and became the foundation for his gang.

 

 

Living in exile, Shuten dōji grew in power and knowledge. He mastered strange, dark magic, and taught it to his thugs. He met another demon child like him, named Ibaraki dōji, who became his chief servant. Over time, the young man and his gang gradually transformed into oni, and eventually he had a whole clan of oni and yokai thugs who prowled the highways, terrorizing the people of Kyoto in a drunken rage. He and his gang eventually settled on Mount Ōe, where, in a dark castle, he plotted to conquer the capital and rule as emperor.

Shuten dōji and his gang rampaged through Kyoto, capturing noble virgins, drinking their blood and eating their organs raw. Finally, a band of heroes led by the legendary warrior Minamoto no Yorimitsu assaulted Shuten dōji’s palace, and with the help of some magical poison, were able to assault the oni band during a bout of heavy drinking. They cut off the drunken Shuten dōji’s head, but even after cutting it off, the head continued to bite at Minamoto no Yorimitsu.

Because the head belonged to an oni and was unholy, it was buried it outside of the city limits, at a mountain pass called Oinosaka. The cup and bottle of poison that Minamoto no Yorimitsu used are said to be kept at Nariai-ji temple in Kyoto.

 

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Modern Imagery

 

Shuten Doji From The Fate series

 

                                          https://www.artstation.com/artwork/GXPGqa

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                                           https://www.zerochan.net/3245251

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Japanese Legends: Momotaru, The Little Peach Boy.

 

 

                                 MOMOTARU: The Little Peach Boy.

 

Todays post will be a well known folkstory from Japan, Momotaro: The little peach boy.
There are a few different visions of this story that vary slightly from one region to the next.
The first  one is one of the more well know versions in modern time.

There is now a popular notion that Momotaro is a local hero of the Okayama Prefecture, however this claim is
relitivley new and was invented in the modern era, it is not accepted as fact in other rigions
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The tale of Momotaro has been handwritten and printed since the early Edo period leading into the Meiji era.

One significant change is that in most examples of Edo Period literature, Momotaro was not born from a peach, but born naturally
to the elderly couple who ate the peach and regained their youth. these  subtypes are classed as kaishun-gata or "rejuvenation" type,
whereas the now conventional subtypes are termed kasei-gata  "birth from the fruit" type.
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This is the offical Okayama version of the story.


Once upon a time there lived an old man an old woman in Okayama.

The old man went everyday into the mountains to cut wood, while his wife would go to the river to wash clothes.
One day, while the old woman was down at the river washing clothes, a big peach came floating down the river!
It looked so delicious, she decided to take it home for her and her husband to eat.

When the old man came back to their home, the old woman cut the peach open, and to their surprise, there was a small boy inside!

They decided to call him Momotaro, which means ‘peach boy’.

The old couple raised Momotaro to be big and strong.

One day, he decided to go and defeat the ogres living on Ogre Island that were pillaging the land.

The old woman fixed him some delicious millet dumplings, known as kibi-dango, for his long journey to the island.
On the way, a monkey, a dog, and a pheasant joined him, giving them a dumpling each in return for their help in fighting the ogres.


Once he  reached Ogre Island, Momotaro and his companions found that the gate was locked to the Ogre’s fort.

The pheasant flew inside, and grabbed a key to let the others in. Once inside, they fought the evil ogres.

The pheasant pecked their eyes, the dog bit their legs and the monkey jumped on their backs, clawing at the beasts.

Finally, the ogres cried for mercy! They gave the strong Momotaro all of their treasure, and he returned to his village triumphantly.
Momotaro and the old couple lived happily ever after.


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This next version was popularized during the Meiji Period and was even printed in school textbooks back then.

Momotaro was born from a giant peach, which was found floating down a river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there. 

The woman and her husband discovered the child when they tried to open the peach to eat it. The child explained that he had been bestowed by the Gods to be their son. The couple named him Momotaro, from momo (peach) and taro (eldest son in the family).

When he matured into adolescence, Momotaro left his parents to fight a band of Oni (demons or ogres) who marauded over their land, by seeking them  out in the distant island where they dwelled (a place called Onigashima or "Demon Island"). On his way there, Momotaro met and befriended a talking dog, monkey  and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or "millet dumplings"). 

At the island, Momotaro  and his animal friends managed to break in to  the demons' fort and beat the band of demons forcing those who remained to  surrendering.

 Momotaro and his new friends returned home with the oni's ' stolen treasure and the demon chief as a captive.

 

 

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In an   old version of the story written in 1753 , an old woman who did not have any children brings home a giant peach floating in the stream.
 

When the old woman ate a portion of the peach, she unexpectedly recovered her beauty and youth. Her husband was surprised to find a young,  beautiful woman when he came back from work. He did not believe her when she explained that the magical peach restored her youth. He also ate a portion of the peach, and turned young too. A boy was born after they made passionate love that night. They named the boy ‘Taro’, which is a  common name for the first sons in Japan.

There are a few variants to the story, depending on geographical area, Some say Momotaro floated by in a box, a white peach, or a red peach. 

 

Stories from Shikoku and Chugoku region muddy the distinction with characters from other folk storys, in most versions a Monkey, dog and pheasant accompany  Momotaro to the oni island in other versions he befrinds  a bee ( hachi), a crab ( kani), a mill stone ( usu), a chestnut (kuri), and cow dung ( ushi no hun). In old days, all of these animals and objects were believed to possess spirits and could move by their own will. 

The cow dung was sometimes given the honorific dono. This was to appease the cow dung spirit, so as it won’t move to be under you when you stumble  or take a step.

There are different versions of  Momotaro’s  growth; one is that he grew up to meet the expectation of the old couple to a good man.
 

Another is that he grew up to be a strong but lazy person who just sleeps all day and does not do anything.

Today, Momotaro is one of the most well kown characters in Japan, as an ideal model for young kids for his kind-heartedness, bravery, power,  and care for his parents.

In some tales Momotaro is still in his teens in other virsions he is an adult.. Grown up Momotaro goes on journey to defeat the demons (oni) when he hears about the demons of the Onigashima (oni island).

In most stories Momotaro volunteered to go help the people by fighting off the oni, but in other stories he was forced by the townspeopleor others to go on journey.

However, regardless of the variants, the ending of the story is always the same.

All the stories describe Momotaro defeating the Oni and living happily ever after with the old couple.
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the oral version of the story may have emerged during the Muromachi period (1392–1573), it may not have been set down in writing until the Edo period (1603–1867).

The oldest printed works of Momotaro known to have existed had been dated to the Genroku era (1688–1704) or possibly a little earlier.

In most of the Edo Period books, peach boy is not born from the peach but from the woman who consumes the peach and grows several  years younger.


Momotaro is now heavily association with Okayama City or its prefecture, but this association was only created in the modern era. 

                                                Momotaro Statue in  Okayama.
 

The publication of a book by Nanba Kinnosuke entitled Momotaro no Shijitsu (1930) for example helped the notion of Momotaro's origins in Okayama  to gain wider familiarity.

 

Still, even as late as the antebellum period before World War II (1941–1945), Okayama was considered only the third contender behind two other regions  known as Momotaro's homeland.


The demon island (Onigashima) from the story is sometimes associated with Megijima Island, an island in the Seto Inland Sea near Takamatsu, due to the vast manmade caves found there.

                                                             Iki Island oni statue

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One of the earlyist English translations  was called (The Adventures of Little Peachling") by A.B. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan in 1871. William Elliot Griffis published a version in 1880, which remained obscure even to researchers, even though English translations in the following decades apparently borrowed from Griffis's phraseology and use of idiom, sometimes even copying his text outright.

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An Anime version loosely based on the Momotaro story is currently airing called "Peach Boy Riverside" it is also a Manga.

My next few post will be Oni related..

Monsters, Cryptids and Yokai: the Kuchisake Onna or Slit Mouthed Woman.

 

 i love myths and folklore from all over the world.

Japan  is  full of interesting yokai, today's post will be about the Kuchisaki- onna or slit mouthed woman.


The slit mouthed woman is a well know yokai and has been seen in several popular modern shows and movies.

She can also be found in several  manga, live-action movies, anime and video games throughout Japan.

She was in the 1994 animated film Pom Poko, produced by Studio Ghibli, and would later appears in the 1996 live-action
short film titled " Kuchisake-onna", directed by Teruyoshi Ishii.
   

The 2007 horror movie "Carved" (also known under the titles Kuchisake-onna or A Slit-Mouthed Woman), directed by Koji Shiraishi  and featuring Miki Mizuno as the Kuchisake-onna,  The film was then followed by a sequal Carved 2: The Scissors Massacre  (also known as Kuchisake-onna 2) and The Slit-Mouthed Woman: The Beginning (or Kuchisake-onna Biginingu), released in 2008.

 Another movie in 2012 called Kuchisake-onna Returns,  

As well as in the occult/supernatural webcomic Mob Psycho 100.

And several other mentions and appearances in various manga's and shows.

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According to the urban legends, children walking alone at night may encounter a woman wearing a surgical mask, which is not an unusual
sight in Japan as people wear them to protect others from their colds or sickness.

The woman will stop the child and ask, "Am I pretty?" If the child answers no, the child is killed with a pair of scissors which the woman
carries. If the child answers yes, the woman pulls away the mask, revealing that her mouth is slit from ear to ear, and asks "How about now?"
 If the child answers no, he/she will be cut in half. If the child 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 myth reappeared, the late 1970s rumors of ways to escape her soon followed. Some sources say she can be confused by the victim answering
her question with ambiguous answers, such as "You are average" or "So-so". Unsure of what to do, her victem will have enough time to escape while
she is lost in thought. Another way too  escape her is simply to tell her you have 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.
 

Another way is for the child to ask her if the child is pretty; she will get confused and just leave.

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The Origins ===
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The Kuchisake-onna was a woman who was mutilated during her life, with her mouth being slit from ear to ear,and became a vengeful yokai after death.

In some versions of the story, the Kuchisake-onna was the unfaithful wife of a samurai during her life.
As punishment for her infidelity, her husband sliced the corners of her mouth from ear to ear.

Other versions of the tale claim her mouth was mutilated during a medical or dental procedure,
or that she was mutilated by a woman who was jealous of her beauty and one that stats her mouth is actually filled with several sharp teeth and her mouth
is split to accommodate them.

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Regardless of how her mouth became split, after her death, the woman would return as a vengeful spirit, or onryo.

As an onryo, she covers her mouth with a cloth mask  (often specified in modern tails as a surgical mask), or in some iterations, a hand fan or even just a handkerchief.  

She also carries a sharp instrument with her, in some versions  a knife, others its  a machete, or a scythe, but the most well know versions  she uses a large pair of scissors.
 

In every version of the legend, she is said to ask potential victims if they think she is pretty often phrased as "Watashi, kirei?"  (which translates to "Am I pretty?" or "Am I beautiful?").  If the person answers "no", she will kill the person with her knife,  and if the person answers "yes", she will reveal her mutilated mouth.

She then repeats her question  (or asks "Kore demo?",  "Even with this?" or "Even now?") and if the person responds with "no" or screams  in fright, she will kill the person immediately .

If the response is "yes", she will slice the corners of the person's
 mouth from ear to ear, so that they will look like her.

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===escape====
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An individual can survive an encounter with Kuchisake-onna by using one of several methods. like the ones listed above.

In other versions of the myth, the Kuchisake-onna will leave the potential victim alone if they answer "yes" to both of her questions, though in other tales, she will visit the individual's residence later that night and murder the person  while they sleep.  

Other survival tactics include replying to her question by describing her appearance as "average", giving the individual enough time to run away;  distracting her by giving or throwing  money or hard candies (particularly the kind of candy known as bekko ame, made of caramelized sugar) in her direction, as she will stop to pick them up; or by saying the word "pomade" three times.
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older versions
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When rumors of alleged sightings began spreading in 1979 around the Nagasaki Prefecture, other sightings soon spread throughout Japan and  caused panic in several towns.

Though the original myth is believed to date back as far as the Edo piriod, the modern version of the  Kuchisake-onna can be  traced back to as early as 1979.

Several articles reported sightings of this malevolent yokai, the Gifu Prefecture newspaper Gifu Nichi Nichi Shinbun on  January 26, 1979,
 

the weekly publication Shukan Asahi on  March 23, 1979, and the weekly news magazine Shukan Shincho on  April 5, 1979.

With so many new sightings of the Kuchisake-onna spreading throughout Japan, mass hysteria soon followed to the point  that younger children would sometimes be accompanied by members of parent–teacher association groups while walking home from school. to keep them safe.

The police even  increasing their patrols to ease public concern.
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==More recent sightings====
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In 2004 here were many new  reports in South Korea about a woman wearing a red mask who was frequently seen chasing children, and in October 2007, a coroner allegedly found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing young children.
 

She was then hit by a car, and died soon after. Her mouth was reportedly ripped from ear to ear.



so be weary of strangers, and maybe keep some hard candy as a decoy just in case lol..