Japan's scariest ghost story - Kit Brooks
Looking at her father’s brutally
murdered body,
Oiwa was sick with despair.
Her father had been Oiwa’s only hope
for ending her marriage
to the cruel and dishonorable
samurai Iemon.
And now, while her husband and
brother-in-law vowed to find the culprit,
Oiwa was trapped in her unhappy home
with only the household servant Kohei
to witness her suffering.
What the grieving woman couldn’t guess,
however, was just how close
the killer was.
After Oiwa’s father tried
to end the marriage,
it was Iemon who murdered him
in cold blood.
Hearing of her troubles,
Oiwa’s wealthy doctor neighbor sent
some medicine to soothe her.
However, when Iemon went to offer thanks,
the doctor revealed his gift was
part of a sordid scheme.
His beautiful young granddaughter
was madly in love with Iemon,
and if the samurai left Oiwa for her,
the doctor would offer him great riches.
Iemon happily accepted this bargain,
and eager to marry his new bride,
he sent a man called Takuetsu
to dispose of his poisoned wife.
But when Takuetsu arrived in Oiwa’s room,
he was appalled.
The poison had swollen her eye
and her hair fell to the floor
in bloody clumps.
Taking pity, Takuetsu told Oiwa
about the doctor’s scheme.
Furious, Oiwa lunged for a sword.
Takuetsu wrestled it away and flung
the blade across the room.
But when Oiwa ran to confront her husband,
she stumbled,
falling against the sword.
Wounded and poisoned,
Oiwa cursed Iemon’s name
as the life left her body.
At the discovery of his wife's demise,
Iemon arranged to remarry
that very night—
but not before killing his servant Kohei,
who heard Oiwa’s death.
While Iemon celebrated his wedding,
his friends nailed both corpses
to a heavy door
and sunk them in a nearby river.
That night, Iemon reveled
in his successful scheme.
But suddenly his bride’s sleeping face
shifted into Oiwa’s tortured features.
Iemon acted on his violent instincts,
slashing her throat.
But when his fear subsided,
he realized that he’d killed his new wife.
He stumbled out of the room
and into another monstrous figure
wearing the face of his deceased servant.
The samurai ran his sword through the man—
only to discover he’d slain his new
grandfather-in-law as well.
Iemon fled the house, running frantically
until he came upon a moonlit river.
Here, he stopped to plot his next move,
fishing as he thought.
Soon his fishing rod began to twitch,
but the harder he pulled,
the heavier his catch became.
Finally, a wooden door broke
the river’s surface—
with Oiwa’s writhing body on one side
and Kohei’s on the other.
Iemon ran for days,
finally taking shelter
in a mountain hermitage.
Over the following months,
he tried to convince himself these
horrible visions were just illusions—
but his nightmares never relented.
One night, as he attempted
to walk off another bad dream,
a nearby lantern began
to crackle and tear.
The paper stretched larger and larger
until Oiwa’s ghost appeared
in a blaze of fire.
Iemon begged for mercy,
but Oiwa had none to offer.
Over just 24 hours, the spirit slaughtered
his parents and friends,
and tortured the samurai
with ravenous rats.
Only when Iemon was truly hopeless
did Oiwa enlist her brother-in-law
to secure bloody justice
for her and her father.
In the 19th century,
Oiwa’s quest for vengeance
was one of the most popular
kabuki theater performances,
renowned for its grisly narrative
and groundbreaking special effects.
To depict Oiwa’s iconic transformation,
designers hid bags of fake blood
in her wig.
And for her grand, ghostly entrance,
Oiwa’s actor really would emerge
from a flaming lantern,
doing an assisted handstand to look
as though she’s descending from above.
Today, Oiwa is considered
Japan’s most famous ghost,
and her image continues to inspire
counterparts in film and television.
But those who retell her story
still tread carefully,
often asking her spirit’s permission
at her rumored grave in Tokyo.
In this way, modern storytellers continue
to give Oiwa
the respect— and fear—
she so rightfully deserves.
