Hanako

Hanako San is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a young girl that’s supposed to haunt school toilets, opening and closing doors and scaring anyone who enters the bathroom, knocks on her stall, and calls her name.

Hanako

Hanako, the ghost in the toilet almost achieved the status of a national phenomena in Japanese legend 20 years ago, when a wave of stories of ghost-sightings swept through the nation’s school yards.

Every child had a “Hanako” story to tell. The stories, of course, are many and varied but every schoolchild in Japan, at one time or another, has stood in dread and anticipation as he or she ventured into the school toilet alone.

This is similar to the legend of Kashima Reiko, a female ghost without legs who also lives in school bathrooms. She calls out “Where are my legs?” when people enter the bathroom. The correct way to answer her varies. In one version, you have to say: Kashima Reiko: KA = Kamen (Mask), SHI = Shinin (dead person), MA=Ma (Demon).

Yet another version features Aoi Manto or Aka Manto, a male ghost who waits in the last stall in the girls’ bathroom. Anyone entering the bathroom hears a voice asking, “Which do you prefer, the red paper or the blue paper?”

If they pick “red,” he kills them by slashing their back or neck repeatedly with a blade, to make them look like they’re wearing a red cape. If they pick “blue,” then they’re killed by hanging.

He’s known as Aka Manto, Aoi Manto, Aoi Hanten, Aka Kami, and Aoi Kami.

Posted in Japanese Legends on Feb 11th, 2007, 1:42 am by scary for kids   
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12 Responses

  1. February 11th, 2008 | 7:28 pm

    [...] Hanako-San The toilet ghost [...]

  2. emo_girl007
    July 2nd, 2008 | 5:06 pm

    OMG!
    THAT IS CREEEPPYY!!!!!!

  3. bloody0angel147
    August 23rd, 2008 | 3:47 pm

    i love that red or blue paper thing! i’d say “green!” to confuse him :D …but that would probably get me killed…just don’t say purple or you’ll probably get stabbed then hanged!

  4. paranormalgirl1001
    April 12th, 2009 | 7:04 pm

    im scared to go in my school bathroom now

  5. reallyscaredboy
    May 10th, 2009 | 4:38 pm

    i would say battery charged blue what if i get eletrified O.O this is very creepy

  6. Sitaliea
    June 10th, 2009 | 5:54 pm

    lol just sit on the things head lol it has no buiness bing in the tolit in the first place :P

  7. will16
    July 18th, 2009 | 10:22 pm

    i would poo on her head. LOL. She sounds like a freaky ghost to me. LOL

  8. Arima_Hanako
    July 19th, 2009 | 11:01 pm

    Just saying about the red or blue paper thing, what if you were colour blind? And I actually feel bad for Hanako. Her story is actually alot like Hikiko’s.

  9. dethklok
    August 6th, 2009 | 11:55 pm

    ha! i would soo take a poo on her head, i mean really! wats the worst thing possible that shed do, stick a knife up ur butt!

  10. ViciousMistress
    September 18th, 2009 | 6:10 pm

    I was going to comment on the picture being so creepy, but after reading these comments about pooing on her head, I can only laugh looking back at the picture…

  11. kiki1198
    February 18th, 2010 | 1:16 am

    …ok im never going in my school bathrooms AGAIN!

  12. Wysteriia
    March 16th, 2010 | 2:30 am

    @VicioustMistress: Same here. My lil sis and I have devised a plan about what to do if a head pops up from the toilet, and it involves doing…business…on her. LOL. But still, I’m scared.

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