Kuchisake Onna is a famous japanese legend about a woman who, after being killed, comes
back as a yokai, or an evil spirit, to take revenge.
The story goes… a long time ago, there was a woman, who was as beautiful as bigheaded.
She was so beautiful that she was courted by many men.
Out of all her suitors, she decided to marry an important samurai.
But the rest of the suitors didnt give up – at first, she wouldnt pay attention to
them, but her husband had to go to war and she soon started feeling very lonely.
In the end, she fell for the charms of one of the suitors.
Her husband had been away for too long and she was the prettiest woman in town….
Tired of waiting for him, she decided she could do as she wanted, so she kept on with
her relationships with the different suitors, who were richer, more powerful and stronger
each time.
But as we all know, rumors fly, and the samurai ended up hearing a story about a beautiful
woman, who would only accept the strongest men that went after her.
When he heard this story, the samurai, a very proud man, felt really curious about this
girl, even tho he was married.
One day, the samurai went back home and he went out for some drinks with his friends
to celebrate his comeback.
The party went on till late at night, when one of his friends told him: “do you remember
the woman I told you about?
She lives nearby”.
And the samurai, self-confident, decided to go and court the pretty lady.
The closer he got to the place, the more familiar it seemed, but he was under the influence
of alcohol.
Suddenly, they stopped opposite a nice red door and his friend said: “it´s here”,
but the samurai was speechless, he didn’t say a word, and the friend teased him “what
now?
Are you gonna back up?
Hahaha”.
The samurai, very serious now, answered… “this… this is my house”.
He then went in, kicking the door, ran to his bedroom and found his wife with another
man.
The woman’s face turned white after seeing that, all of a sudden, her husband had taken
a sword through the man, and as he was taking it out of his back, the samurai asked her
“do you think you are beautiful?”.
Then, he held her, strongly, put the sword in her mouth and, full of jealousy, cut her
mouth, while the lady wouldn´t stop screaming.
People say the woman turned into an evil spirit, the kuchikane-onna, who came back to the world
thirsty for revenge.
She looks like a completely normal woman and she hides her wounds by wearing a mask, something
really common in Japan – lots of people wear it to protect themselves from different
diseases.
Kuchisake-onna wanders around the streets looking for victims, specially during dark
and gloomy nights.
She approaches them and says: “Am I beautiful?”.
If you are carried along by her beauty and you answer “yes” , she’ll slowly take
her mask off, letting you see her horrible scars, and then she’ll ask again, “and
now?
Am I beautiful?”
If the victims gets scared, screams or says “no”, the woman will cut their mouth using
some big scissors, imitating her scars.
The victim will bleed to death – the wounds caused by Kuchisake-onna can never be healed.
Others say if you answer “yes” to both questions, but showing you are afraid, the
evil spirit will go with you to the door of your house and will stab you to death there.
However, if you answer “yes” twice, calmly and without fear, the woman will give you
a bloodstained rúby and then leave.
Tho they all agree on this: Kuchisake-onna will leave you alone if, when she asks you
for this first time, you say that you don’t have time – she will apologize and you will
continue your way.
The japanese legend of Kuchisake-Ona is said to have very old origins, but it came back
to light in 1996 with the movie Gakoi No Kaidan.
Since then, it was present in several Japanese movies: tho we should highlight Carved and
its sequels, she also appeared in tv shows like American Horror Story: Freak Show, and
Constantine.
And remember; if a woman with a mask asks you in the street if she’s beautiful, say
you don’t have time… and dont look back!