Kuchisake Onna

Lately I have been re-reading a lot of my books that are about Japanese urban legends and ghost stories. Japanese ghost stories are fascinating. No other country has the ability to scare the hell out of you with a story like Japan. One of the more well known stories is called Kuchisake Onna, which means "split mouth woman".

As far as Japanese urban legends go, this one is fairly new. Stories of this woman first started surfacing in the 1970's. According to the legend, a beautiful woman wearing a surgical mask follows groups of young school children and stops them and asks "Am I beautiful"? The child usually says yes because at first glance, she is beautiful but then she takes off her surgical mask revealing a very deep ear to ear slice. The she asks "How about now"?

When the child screams in terror and flees, the woman follows them and begins to butcher them with a scalpel while screaming "AM I BEAUTIFUL, AM I BEAUTIFUL...AM I...AM I... If the victim is female, she is turned into a disfigured woman as well. Some versions of this story have the woman attacking with a Scythe but i think the scalpel version is more fitting considering she is wearing a surgical mask and is apparently the victim of a botched plastic surgery job or a murderous husband who is tired of his wife's vanity.

Recently there was an accident in Japan. A woman was seen chasing a group of children down a busy road and was hit by a car. When police and bystanders went over to her to see if she was OK or if she was killed, they turned her over to see her face and her face was slit from ear to ear. True story. It was in all the major Japanese papers and on the Japanese news channels. Authorities said that the slice on her face was a result of the car accident but the pathologist said that it was an old wound and was not caused by the car accident.

Last year there was a movie made in Japan about this legend. The movie is called Kuchisake Onna, just like the legend. If you can find it, I highly recommend it. Its a great film.