Hello and welcome back to life’s biggest questions, I’m Charlotte Dobre.
Today on life’s biggest questions, we are going to talk about the Japanese urban legend,
teke teke and what would happen if it was not just an urban legend, but a real being.
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The teke teke is a Japanese urban legend about a monster who makes strange sounds as it pursues
its victims.
The teke teke was once a young woman who fell on a railway and was subsequently cut in half
by an approaching train.
After this, it took quite some time for her to die, and so when she did, she turned into
a vengeful spirit, otherwise known to the Japanese as onryo.
She travels around Japan, and moves around by dragging her upper torso with her claw-like
hands.
As she does this, the sound of the clacking of her claws resembles, teke teke, which is
how she got her name.
She has long black hair that covers her face, which ranges from being disfigured to being
beautiful, depending on the story.
Legend has it that if teke teke finds anyone at night that isn’t traveling fast enough
to escape her, she slices them in half by the torso, like what happened to her with
the train.
There are multiple versions of the teke teke legend, but one of the most compelling goes
like this.
Following world war 2, a female office worker was assaulted and raped by American military
personnel in Muroran Hokkaido.
Stricken with misery, she jumped off a bridge onto a railroad track, but an oncoming train
hit her and sliced her in half.
It was extremely cold that night, and so her blood vessels contracted which prevented her
from bleeding out and dying.
Still alive, She crawled to a train station where there was an attendant, whom she asked
for help.
But instead of helping her, he covered her with a tarp and left her to die a slow, painful
death.
Teke Teke is similar to another Japanese urban legend known as Kuchisake-onna, the slit mouth
woman, as well as the story of Kashima reiko another woman who was assaulted in a bathroom
and lost her legs, she goes around haunting bathrooms.
Both are vengeful ghosts, women who’s purpose is to torment and kill the living.
Why does the teke teke want to cut people in half?
The exact reason is not certain.
Some say she is looking for her lost legs, other say she is angry because no one helped
her when she was dying.
There have been films made about teke teke, by Koji Shiraishi.
Japanese children tell the story to each other as a warning to not walk home alone at night.
The teke Teke is said to chase children who play at dusk.
She also is known to frequent train stations.
She cuts people in half with a scythe or a saw, turning them into one of her own.
So now that you know a little about teke teke, let's talk about what would happen if she
was real.
According to legend, 3 days after hearing about teke teke, you will see her, either
in a dream or in a phone call.
If this ended up being true teke teke would be story rarely told, except by people who
don’t believe in ghost stories.
There would be a ban on talking about teke teke, to prevent the spread of her story,
but like with the case of many things, tell someone not to do something, and they’ll
probably do it anyway.
Because teke teke is known for chasing children at dusk, curfews would be in place.
Children would have to be picked up and dropped off at school, and no one would be allowed
to walk around the streets after sunset.
There are many train stations in Japan, all of which would likely half to be closed down.
Like the Kuchisake-onna, it is impossible to get away from or defeat the teke teke.
The monster is incredibly fast and can travel at speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour.
That being said, It is possible to survive an encounter with teke teke, as long as you
don’t run away.
she will ask you a riddle, that you have to respond to with the correct answer.
She will say, do you need your legs, to which you have to answer, I need them right now.
She will then ask, who told you my story, to which you must respond Kashima Reiko.
Ka as in mas.
Shi as in death.
Ma as in demon.
Rei as in ghost.
And ko as in an accident.
Say this response without mistakes, and there is a chance teke teke will let you go.
The teke teke story is believed to have originated as a way for parents to scare children into
avoiding walking home alone at night.
Another purpose of the story could be to prevent people from treating others badly, as teke
teke rose again as a vengeful ghost who was treated so badly by humanity that she died
a painful death.
Moral of the story, be nice to others, or they might come back as a vengeful ghost and
chop you in half.
Sound good?
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