Aokigahara Forest

West of the open Pacific south of Tokyo lies the Devil's Sea, known in Japanese as Ma no Umi, an area Japanese fishermen have regarded with unease ...

Himeji Castle's brilliant white ramparts hide one of Japan's most famous ghost stories, the legend of Okiku's well. According to the tale, first re...

Aokigahara, the dense forest blanketing the northwestern base of Mount Fuji, grew up on lava rock left by the volcano's last major eruption in 864 ...

The kappa is a water-dwelling creature from Japanese folklore, usually described as roughly child-sized, with green or yellow scaly or slimy skin, ...

The tsuchinoko is a legendary snake-like creature from Japanese folklore, described as short and unusually thick-bodied, sometimes said to have fan...

The Hibagon is a Bigfoot-like cryptid said to inhabit the forests of Mount Hiba in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, described as a large, dark-haired, ...

Kuchisake-onna, the "Slit-Mouthed Woman," is a modern Japanese urban legend describing a pale woman wearing a surgical mask who stops passersby, us...

In the snow country of northern Japan, travellers whisper of Yuki-onna, a woman as pale as fresh drifts who appears when blizzards trap the unwary....

In the countryside around Okayama, storytellers have long delighted children with the tale of Momotaro, the boy born from a peach. An old childless...

Often called Japan's oldest surviving narrative, the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter recounts how an old woodsman near Mount Fuji finds a glowing stalk o...

One of Japan's most unsettling modern urban legends, Hachishakusama emerged from internet message boards in the 2000s but is told as though passed ...