![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Get to Know Your Japanese Bathroom Ghosts
Oct. 4th, 2017 12:10 pmhttp://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japans-bathroom-ghosts?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=9493dbefe0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-9493dbefe0-63124913&ct=t()&mc_cid=9493dbefe0&mc_eid=dbc2f66964
Get to Know Your Japanese Bathroom Ghosts
Illustrations of the 12 different types of Kappa, a water spirit who is sometimes known to haunt outhouses, from the 19th century. PUBLIC DOMAIN
AS ANY HORROR FILM FAN can attest, the bathroom can be a scary place. From Janet Leigh’s infamous shower scene in Psycho to the blood-spewing drain pipes of Stephen King’s It, there’s no shortage of genuinely startling imagery connected to lavatories. But when it comes to conjuring up the most terrifying possible interruptions to our most private moments, no one beats Japan.
In Japanese folklore, there are a number of spirits rumored to appear in bathrooms. Some reach out from the insides of toilets; others whisper through the stall walls. Each one has its own grim story and particular behavior, but they all share a connection to the bathroom.
“The bathroom is a somewhat unusual space in a household or school or wherever it exists,” says Michael Dylan Foster, author of The Book of Yôkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. Foster describes bathrooms as liminal spaces in that they connect the normal, everyday world to a whole different realm, namely the sewer. ( Read more... )
Get to Know Your Japanese Bathroom Ghosts
Illustrations of the 12 different types of Kappa, a water spirit who is sometimes known to haunt outhouses, from the 19th century. PUBLIC DOMAIN
AS ANY HORROR FILM FAN can attest, the bathroom can be a scary place. From Janet Leigh’s infamous shower scene in Psycho to the blood-spewing drain pipes of Stephen King’s It, there’s no shortage of genuinely startling imagery connected to lavatories. But when it comes to conjuring up the most terrifying possible interruptions to our most private moments, no one beats Japan.
In Japanese folklore, there are a number of spirits rumored to appear in bathrooms. Some reach out from the insides of toilets; others whisper through the stall walls. Each one has its own grim story and particular behavior, but they all share a connection to the bathroom.
“The bathroom is a somewhat unusual space in a household or school or wherever it exists,” says Michael Dylan Foster, author of The Book of Yôkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. Foster describes bathrooms as liminal spaces in that they connect the normal, everyday world to a whole different realm, namely the sewer. ( Read more... )
