Every society has its own superstitions and horror stories paralleling these beliefs. These are usually stories from ancient times, but some legends, such as Kuchisake Onna, are fairly recent. In the Kuchisake Onna story, there is a malevolent character called a woman with a torn mouth because her mouth is cut from one end to the other, just like the Joker character.
There are countless rumors that have been put forward as an answer to the question of whether the story of Kuchisake Onna, who killed young men and young children, especially when they appeared in front of them, is true. Even more interesting, this horror story has caused people to be afraid of going out at night for a long time. Let’s take a closer look at the story of Kuchisake Onna, which is also said to be a kind of CIA project, and how it has had an impact on society.
The Kuchisake Onna story:
To a young man walking alone in the evening, or sometimes to a child returning from school, a woman, whose face is covered with a handkerchief or fan, approaches softly and touches his shoulder. When she looks back, that woman says, ‘Am I beautiful?’ she asks. When she gets the answer yes, she opens her face and asks again with her bloody mouth cut from ear to ear, ‘Am I still beautiful?’ When a no is answered or a scream is made, the woman kills by cutting the other person’s mouth just like herself. If he answers yes, he quietly walks away but follows that person home and kills him at night.
Is the chilling Kuchisake Onna story true?
The story of Kuchisake Onna, which started to be heard for the first time in December 1978, managed to find itself in the newspapers in 1979 in Gifu, Japan. In the following years, this horror story circulated in Korea and China as well.
After the news spread, a farmer woman said she saw Kuchisake Onna and broke her hip while running away from her. On June 21, 1979, a woman who actually looked like Kuchisake Onna was captured as described. But it turns out that this woman only wore the costume of the character in this story.
The rumor spread mostly among primary school students in the country because it was especially mentioned that it was haunting children. After dark for a long time, neither children nor adults went out. In the summer of 1979, the rumors first subsided, and then the Kuchisake Onna story was completely forgotten.
How did such a story come out of nowhere?
There are many different origin stories about the emergence of the Kuchisake Onna legend. According to a rumor, the evil rumor that emerged after a rebellion in the 18th century evolved into this story. Another story tells that the character of Kuchisake Onna was actually a little girl, but changed over the years.
There are countless rumors that a woman who escaped from a mental hospital wanders around as Kuchisake Onna, that Kuchisake Onna is the ghost of a woman who died in a car accident, in fact, these are three sisters and travels all over the Asian continent, that women who have had unsuccessful plastic surgery somehow go crazy and do such things.
There are also those who say that this story was spread by a secret CIA experiment:
It is possible to consider it as a kind of conspiracy theory, but Kuchisake Onna is already a fictional story. Some people say that the Kuchisake Onna story is a rumor spread by CIA agents in the country, the purpose is a social determination. CIA agents, seeing how quickly this story they put forward spread from word to mouth, conducted an experiment on how to spread much more critical rumors in the future. Even if it is not a very scientific method, is it still possible?
In fact, the Kuchisake Onna story is a class wound:
In the Meiji period of Japan, a woman named Otsuya used to go to a town behind the mountain to meet her lover. But since it would be dangerous for a woman to walk alone in the mountains, she wears white clothes, paints her face white, messes up her hair, takes a crescent-shaped carrot in her mouth and hits the road with a sickle in her hand. Such a frightening-looking woman also gave birth to the legend of Kuchisake Onna over the years.
The most logical origin story of the Kuchisake Onna legend is a bit sad. In the 1970s, students went to the classroom after school and left late. However, since these classrooms were very expensive, only the children of wealthy families could go. Poor families have also made up the Kuchisake Onna story to blunt this desire of their children and said that it is dangerous to go out at night. Later, this story spread among the students.
Good, but how did people believe this story, which has no tangible side?
Let’s ask, why shouldn’t they believe it? For example, don’t you still get a little nervous when you cut nails at night, don’t you hit wood when you say a bad word, don’t you get a little chill when a black cat passes by, or take a look around you, how many items do you have with evil eye beads?
Let’s face it, people are afraid of what they can’t see or even control. Just as our primitive ancestors could not control fire, water, sun worship; We are afraid of such things. Evolutionarily, we have a fear of the dark in our genes because whatever happened to us came in the dark. Even today, don’t we shiver a little when we pass an illuminated street?
Of course, there is also the case of supernatural beings leaving people helpless. You can’t fight, you can’t run, you can’t ask for help; When you come across it, you will either read a prayer according to your faith or suffer whatever happens to you. Combined with this fear of the dark, we believe in Kuchisake Onna, we believe in werewolves, and we believe in vampires.
Of course, the Kuchisake Onna story ran out too:
After the Kuchisake Onna story was heard, the staff at the host clubs, a place where you find ‘friends’ in Japan, closed their mouths and asked their customers, ‘Am I beautiful?’ he began to ask. Of course, this was done as a kind of flirty game.
In the same year, many people who said they saw Kuchisake Onna were interviewed on a television program called Young Town. In 1979 Kuchisake-onna wo tsukamaero! A song named hit the charts. Kuchisake Onna and similar characters were featured in the animes Gakkō no Kaidan and Toshi Densetsu. So this horror story has become a kind of pop culture icon.
We talked about the details you need to know about this urban legend by answering the question of whether the story of Kuchisake Onna, which spreads fear in the whole country because it is believed to kill those who go out at night, is true. If you know such horror stories, you can share them in the comments.