Most Haunted Doll In Japan: Hair Never Stops Growing

I don't really have any phobias or debilitating fears, but there are things in this world I'm not really comfortable with. For example, sharks while I'm swimming in the ocean, scary movies, and dolls. Yes, dolls creep me out, I know that most people, especially kids think of dolls as immensely lovable and huggable playthings. They're meant to comfort and entertain us; not scare the living bejeezus out of us! But personally, I think of them as mostly creepy and sometimes cursed. This is especially true for a particularly pee-inducing doll from Japan called the Okiku doll.

So if you know anything about Japan or watch some of the Japanese movies and TV shows and read some of their urban legends, you'll know that country does not mess around when it comes to anything creepy. I mean, its horror movies are the scariest, its haunted places, I think, are the creepiest, and this is no exception when it comes to haunted or cursed dolls. And this one, in my opinion, might be one of the creepiest in the world. The story goes that a man named Eikichi Suzuki bought this doll while he was in Sapporo, Japan for his 2-year-old baby sister in 1938. The doll is wearing a traditional Japanese kimono, it has black eyes and hair covering its porcelain face. The man brought his sister the doll, the sister, named Okiku, loved the doll so much she even named it after herself. But unfortunately, a short time later the girl fell ill and eventually passed away. In her remembrance, her family placed the doll on their household altar and began to pray to it every day. This is where things begin to become weird. The hair on the doll which was originally a neat shoulder-length had started to grow and was soon at the knees of the doll. And even when the hair was trimmed it soon grew right back. The family, believing that Okiku's spirit has inhabited the doll, decided to, instead of burning it right away with holy fire, they give it to Mannenji temple in Hokkaido, Japan before they moved away. The doll - to this day - is still in a wooden box at the temple where you can still see it, and it's probably the only doll in the world that needs regular haircuts because the hair just keeps growing. Even though there is still no plausible explanation as to why or how Okiku dolls' hair continues to grow, scientific research has concluded that the figurine's hair is indeed akin to that of a young child, probably Okiku in this case! But I just wanted to bring up another possible explanation. I don't believe that the doll is inhabited by Okiku's spirit, I believe the doll is actually possessed by a Harionago, or long-haired woman, which is an urban legend about a Japanese ghost with extremely long hair that can keep on growing her hair and use it as a weapon to attack, in general, young men who smile at her...or maybe Okiku became a Harionago? I mean, I'm just trying to figure out the whole never stop growing hair part. Anyway, apparently the long-haired-woman ghost, it's a pretty evil ghost who walks around the streets and because she's so beautiful people tend to look at her. So, if you're a guy, and you look at her, and then she smiles at you and you smile back...he hair just continues to extend and hooks you and just rips you to pieces. So if you do go and see this doll, and I don't know why you would...maybe don't smile at her.

And anyway, speaking of dolls, I just wanted to talk a little about this new game that is being played around Japan and apparently the whole world by people who just wanna die, I think. Anyway, the game is called "Hide and Seek For One". Basically, you take a doll, you take the innards out of the doll, you fill it with uncooked rice, you sew it up with red thread, then you put the doll in a bathtub of water at exactly 3 AM. Apparently, you're supposed to keep a knife with you in case things go wrong. Anyways, at 3 AM you're supposed to go up to the doll and say "Tag, you're it" then stab the doll, cut the red thread, and just go hide with saltwater in your mouth because that's supposed to ward off evil spirits. And then when you go back and check on the doll, the doll has disappeared! Now, your job is to go find this doll. Okay, I have no idea why anybody would think this is at all a fun game. And just because you have a knife, doesn't it mean the doll can just get a knife itself? Like every Chucky movie ever made? And you're at a severe disadvantage being, I don't know, 20 times bigger than a doll? So yeah, again, Japan with the creepiest doll stories probably in the world.