Okin

This is what is supposed to be a true ghost story form Japan...(see explanation on the bottom why it must be a true story)

A Long time ago, back in the days when the Japanese people use to wear kimono frequently and had their hair styled differently, there lived a husband and wife in Edo (about the 1600's). The husband was having an affair on his wife. After a while he got tired of her; and with the suggestion of his mistress, he killed her with poison. Mind you that back then, all poisons were not that effective. Sometimes they slowly killed. This was the fate of his wife, Okin. She first started to notice something was a miss when she combed her hair. Her hair was falling out as she combed. Then, she got extremely sick. She was bedridden while her husband still went around with his mistress. While bedridden, she started to bleed from all sorts of lesions that appeared from her body. When she looked in the mirror to check, her face was extremely disfigured from the lesions. Her face was puffy. She had lumps on her head with sparse bits of hair. She cried and cried for her husband to take care of her but he didn't want anything to do with her....Eventually, she died...

After her funeral, she came back to her husband. "Why?" She would ask him. He would scream his head off and Okin would disappear. Later the ghost got more insistent. "Why did you kill me, husband? I was a good wife to you? Why?" She kept on appearing to her husband constantly. Then, when he went to his mistress's house, she appeared there in front of them. "Is this the reason why you killed me?" She asked him. He went berserk and confessed and told her to stop bothering him. His mistress, not believing it was a ghost tried to stab her. Then she told them that she would haunt them for the rest of her life....Which caused them both to go insane.

The reason why I say it's true?

First of all the story is well known throughout Japan. It is sort of a story that is re-told during O-Bon season when we pray for the dead. And lastly, there is a grave with an inscription that reads "Okin" in Tokyo (which was called Edo during those times). It is in downtown, between two big office buildings. In the middle is this grave. If the desks in each of the buildings are faced away from the building, the person who sits there gets extreme bad luck, so all desks in both buildings are facing the grave. Beyond this gravesite is a small house in the back. This is where the caretaker lives, and this is the place to pray for poor Okin's soul. They get lots of visitors at this shrine.There are some reports that people still see this ghost.... looking for her husband who killed her.



Charmedwishes...

Blessed be!

The Cursed Tissue Commercial

The story is about a commercial for Kleenex tissues that was shown on Japanese TV back in 1986 or so. It featured an actress in a white dress sitting next to a child made up to look like a baby ogre. There was supposedly a really creepy song in a foreign language that when researched, is actually an old German folk song with the words “Die, die, everyone is cursed and will be killed.” Soon after the debut of the commercial, a lot of people complained that it was creepy, or cursed, and it was quickly pulled off the air.

Soon after though, accidents started to befall the actors and crew of the commercial, including the child playing the baby ogre dying of sudden organ failure, the actress being committed to a mental institution where she is either still there, or at some point committed suicide by hanging herself (depending on the version of the story). You can see where this is going, it’s pretty much a standard urban legend.Just like the movie Ring, anyone who sees the commercial will have anything from bad luck to a violent death, etc.

Below is the allegedly cursed commercial. To say the least, I was not impressed by the lack of spookiness in this commercial. Not only was the little ogre-kid cute and the lady pretty, the song is in English, and is called “It’s a fine day” by Miss Jane. The ‘accursed’ lyrics are:

It’s a fine day
People open windows
They leave their houses
Just for a short while
They walk by the grass
And they look at the grass
They look at the sky
It’s going to be a fine night tonight
It’s going to be a fine day tomorrow

Not really the kind of lyrics that people associate with curses and fatal accidents. I’ll give the rumormongers that it is in a minor key and the song could sound a little strange if you didn’t understand the lyrics. Also, of course, there haven’t been any string of accidents or deaths among the people associated with the commercial. In fact, the actress in the commercial is a woman by the name of Keiko Matsuzaka and she is still working as an actress and is active in Japanese celebrity circles. Other interesting roles of hers are that of Princess Fuse in the 1983 movie production of the Hakkenden, and she had a role in "The House of Inugami (dog spirit). This sounds like a horror/thriller to me, so those looking for her in a horror role will finally be rewarded, I suppose.But who knows, maybe its the belief that THERE IS a curse on the commercial that gave power to the curse. Do you have enough courage to watch the commercial?

Charmedwishes...

Blessed be!

Japanese Girl Suicide Legend

There is a legend that has been circulating the internet for years now. You probably heard of it already, but if you haven't then read on. According to the legend, a beautiful Japanese girl made her self-portrait and then posted it on the internet. For unknown reasons, she committed suicide after doing so. Below is the portrait she made.

Now it gets spookier. According to various accounts, those who stared in the eyes of the girl in the portrait could see "intelligence" gleaming from the eyes. In short, the picture is alive! Not only that, those who have tried to look at her for at least 5 minutes were said to commit suicide themselves. Are you brave enough to test if the legend is true?

Go ahead, stare in her eyes. I dare you...