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Kuchisake-onna

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Dark Lord M:
This is copied from wikipedia, and one reason I'll never walk around Japan on a lonely night...


--- Quote from: wikipedia ---The legend is said to originate with a young woman who lived hundreds of years ago (some versions of the legend state the Heian period) and was either the wife or concubine of a samurai.She is said to have been very beautiful but also very vain, and possibly cheating on her husband. The samurai, extremely jealous and feeling cuckolded, attacked her and slit her mouth from ear to ear, screaming "Who will think you're beautiful now?"

The urban legend picks up from this point, stating that a woman roams around at night (especially during foggy evenings), with her face covered by a surgical mask. When she encounters someone (primarily children or college students), she will coyly ask, "Watashi wa kirei"? ("Am I beautiful?") or a similar question. If the person says yes (the common answer), she will tear off her mask, revealing her mutilated mouth and repeat her question. The victim will usually run away screaming, and the Kuchisake-onna will chase after, usually carrying a bladed weapon, such as a knife (in some extreme versions of the tale, she will summon a giant scythe). If she catches the person, the results depend on the gender of the victim; men will be killed instantly, while women will be turned into another Kuchisake-onna, cursed to commit the same horrors.

The legend says that to answer yes to the second question will cause her to smile and leave the person in peace, though some variations say that extremely agitated Kuchisake-onna will refuse to do so. The surest way to escape, according to all versions of the legend, is to distract the Kuchisake-onna by way of throwing candy, fruit or something of interest.

During the spring and summer of 1979, rumors abounded throughout Japan about sightings of the Kuchisake-onna having hunted down children. This story, however, may have originated from a case of a woman attacking a child in public, though even this is not confirmed.[1]

In 2004, a similar legend spread throughout cities in South Korea, though this may have been fueled by tales of the 1979 cases in Japan, as well as a 1996 Japanese film
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