Freaky Folklore: Kuchisake-onna
Kuchisake-onna (口裂け女, 'Slit-Mouthed Woman') is a malicious spirit or onryō from Japanese folklore. Also described as a contemporary yōkai, she is known as a masked figure who targets people on the street to ask them about her beauty.
Appearance:
Kuchisake-onna is described as a beautiful woman with long black hair and pale skin, wearing a mask. However, beneath that mask is a ghastly scar that runs from ear to ear across her mouth. It is this scar that gives her her name.
Origin:
Author and folklorist Matthew Meyer has described the legend of Kuchisake-onna as having roots dating back to Japan's Edo period, which spanned from the 17th to 19th centuries. However, professor of Japanese literature Iikura Yoshiyuki, dates her much later, with origins in the 1970s.
What we do know, is that evidence of Kuchisake-onna in print can be dated back to at least 1979.
Legend:
According to legend, in life Kuchisake-onna was the beautiful, adulterous wife to a samurai. Her story typically goes as follows...
With her husband being away and fighting so often, Kuchisake-onna grew lonely and began to have multiple affairs with local men. However, word of her infidelity eventually reached her samurai husband who returned in a rage. In punishment for her sins, he slashed her mouth from ear to ear in a grisly slit.
Unsurprisingly, following her death, Kuchisake-onna returned as a vengeful spirit. She appears to travellers at night, wearing a surgical mask to cover her scar. She carries with her an exceptionally sharp pair of scissors, and is said to have impossible levels of speed. As she approaches her victim, she asks “Watashi, kirei?” (Do you think I am beautiful?). Should the victim say "no", she will kill them instantly with her scissors. If the victim replies "yes", however, she will remove her mask to reveal her true face. At this point, she will ask "Kore Demo?" (Even now?).
What happens beyond this point is up for debate. Some claim that replying "no" after seeing her scar, or showing any kind of negative reaction, will result in her cutting you in half with her scissors. Equally, if you say "yes", she will bestow upon you your own scar to match hers, permanently disfiguring you.
However, other stories claim that to say "no" results in you getting a matching wound, whilst saying "yes" allows you to leave the interaction safely, only for her to hunt you down and kill you in your sleep.
In fact, there is a lot of debate around the details of Kuchisake-onna. Some say, for example, that she does not wear a mask but rather covers her face with a fan or delicate handkerchief. In other tales, she also carries a knife or a scythe rather than large scissors.
Naturally, all of this variety comes with equal amounts of confusion when it comes to how you might escape her grasp. For example, some people claim that all you have to do to walk away from the interaction safely is to politely bow to her and explain that you are running late. Others claim that you can confuse her for long enough to make a quick getaway by reponding that she is "average" or "so-so".
Perhaps the most bizarre ways given to escape certain death is to throw hard candy (specifically bekko-ame) at her or to cry out "pomade!" three times in a row.
Media:
Possibly one of the more popular Japenese yōkai, Kuchisake-onna has appeared in a mutlitude of different media within pop culture.
Arguably her most well known appearance is in her own movie, titled Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (also known under the titles Kuchisake-onna or A Slit-Mouthed Woman.) Directed by Kōji Shiraishi in 2007, the film garnered enough popularity for two sequels.
She has also been featured in anime (such as Jujutsu Kaisen), webcomics (such as Mob Psycho 100) and video games (such as Ghistwire: Tokyo).
