Aka Manto and Kuchisake-Onna | Ep. 55
Welcome to another episode of Believing the Bizarre. This week, we travel far East to Japan and discuss a couple of Charlie’s favorite Japanese urban legends – The Aka Manto and Kuchisake-onna, also known as the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
One of these entities invades your personal space in public restrooms and the other wears a face mask to cover a terrifying facial wound and asks you a very dangerous question.
But, what do Tyler and Charlie make of these urban legends? Listen now to find out.
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Japanese Urban Legends
OOOOOHHHH NOOOOO! There goes Tokyo, go go Godzilla!
What’s up Bizarro’s? In this week’s episode, we dive into the unknown and unusual Japanese Monsters.
Perhaps the most well-known fictitious Japanese Monster is the aforementioned, Godzilla, but there are more monsters in Japan than the 400-foot menace to Japanese buildings.
We’ll be covering two of these today on Believing The Bizarre.
AKA MANTO
The first monster we’ll discuss is Aka Manto, aka the red cloak. This particular monster haunts public restrooms, and more specifically, the ladies’ restrooms.
Legend has it that as you’re sitting in the stall you notice there is no toilet paper. You then hear the door open, and through the crack in the stall, you can see the red cloak of Ako Manto.
“Do you prefer red toilet paper or blue toilet paper,” the caped menace asks.
If you say red paper, Ako will burst into your stall and slit your throat.
If you say blue paper he bursts into the stall and will strangle you to death.
If you say yellow, he shoves your face into the toilet (this is gross. This would make me scream RED! RED! RED!) drowning you. If you state any other color the floor will open up, sending you to hell.
So what do you do if you find yourself in a bathroom stall and the Red Cloak poses the question to you on your preference for toilet paper?
Stay silent. By choosing no color you can avoid death at the hand of the red cloak.
Kuchisake-onna
Kuchisake-onna, also known as the split-mouth lady, is a modern-day yokai, similar to the ones that haunt Aokigahara, The Suicide Forest.
The legend of Kuchisake-onna is a sad and tragic one, and it begins like this….
Long ago in Japan, there was a beautiful woman who married the proudest samurai. Now because of his wife’s beauty, the man was very jealous and resentful at times. When his wife would simply smile at another man, he would beat her senseless and leave her beautiful skin bruised.
This went on for a few years until the husband was called back to war. He left his wife and she stayed home alone.
Now the wife had gotten tired of her husband’s violent behavior and no longer loved him. That’s when she started inviting strange men into her home and sleeping with them. Night after night until her house was known among all the men. Men would line up outside her house to get a taste of the beautiful maiden.
One night, the husband came back from the war earlier than expected but he didn’t go straight home, he went to hang out with a few friends of his.
The samurai gets pretty drunk with his friend and that’s when his buddy began to tell him about this place you can go and have sex with this beautiful maiden for a small amount of money.
The husband grinned. “How pretty is she?”The friend laughed. “As if she was the goddess of beauty earthbound.”
The husband liked the sound of that and had his friend lead the way to this ‘beautiful’ maiden.
Unfortunately, when the friend led the husband to the place, he began to recognize his own house. There was an unbelievable line of men waiting to see the maiden.
He stormed past the line of men telling him to wait his turn and he barged into the house. He drunkenly made his way to their bedroom and there he saw his wife on top of another man.
Letting out a roar of anger and he kicked the man out of the house. He threatened the other men with certain death if they didn’t leave his home immediately.
Once all the men had left, the husband went inside and grabbed his beautiful wife by her hair, and dragged her outside.
She screamed and tried to break her drunk, angry husband’s grasp, but it was fruitless, He forced her down to her knees and held his sword to her face.
“Let’s see if they still think you’re beautiful after this,” the samurai sneered into his crying wife’s face.
He then grabs her face and carves the side of her mouth out.
Her screams echo through the woods, as the samurai walks away, leaving her to bleed to death in the woods, alone and scarred.
Soon after the samurai takes his own life. It is said that he was haunted by his wife’s ghost who would not let the samurai have a moment’s peace.
She now walks the streets of Japan with a mask hiding her gruesome injury. Typically she is dressed in a long, dark trench coat while holding a knife. She approaches innocent people asking them one question.
“Do you think I’m beautiful?” the split-mouth lady will ask the unsuspecting victim.
If you say yes she pulls down her mask revealing her disfigured face “Am I beautiful even now?” she asks.
If you react in any way or say no, Kuchisake-onna will attack you gashing your face from ear to ear.
If you say yes, she allows you to leave, making you think she has let you live. However, she will follow you home and stabs you while you’re sleeping.
How can you escape the Kuchisake-onna?
One way is to say I do not know, darling Kuchisake-onna. But you must go on your way. Your husband is coming and he knows what you did.” And she’ll turn white with fear and disappear.
Another way is to have a specific candy on you called, “bekko ame”. You throw the candy and say “pomade” three times.
Listen to the encounter one individual had with the split-mouth lady.
Before I tell you this story that my mom told me. It is said upon hearing her story, she’ll haunt you to no end. You’ll start to see her everywhere you go. A long black-haired woman with a bloody surgical mask hiding her hideous face. She’s usually seen wearing a dark trench coat and holding a long steak knife. And once you’re finally alone, she’ll kill you in the most gruesome of ways.
My mom came face to face with Kuchisake-onna. She had been walking back from the store and was on her way home. She had stopped to look for her phone in her purse and when she looked up, she saw a woman standing right in front of her.
She had long black hair and a deep red surgical mask on and a trench coat. Her hands were stuffed into her pockets, but my mom knew who she was looking at and she knew how to get away.
“Do you think I’m pretty?” she asked my mom.
“I do not know, darling Kuchisake-onna. But you must go on your way. Your husband is coming and he knows what you did.” my mother replied. The woman became paralyzed and my mom didn’t even hesitate to walk past her quickly. When she turned around, the woman was gone.
Now, I heard the story, not from my mom but I looked it up, and now I regret it. I see her everywhere. In the mirrors, in the corners of my eyes. I feel as if she is always behind me, watching and waiting.
So if you’re in Japan there are two rules you should adhere to if you want to avoid meeting these spirits.
- Do not, in any case, talk to strangers wandering the streets of Japan.
- Stay out of public bathrooms and do your dirty business at home.
Be safe out there Bizarros.