The Woman Who Bought Candy at Midnight
A pale woman came to a Kyoto candy shop every night, always after midnight, always with a single coin. One night, the shopkeeper followed her.
What was reported
In Kyoto's Higashiyama district, near the temple of Rokudō Chinnō-ji, an area long thought to be a crossing point to the world of the dead, a sweet shop has sold candy for centuries. The story goes that one night a pale, thin woman knocked and bought a little malt candy with one coin. She came back the next night, and the next, always late.
When the shopkeeper finally followed her, she disappeared into a graveyard. From a fresh grave came the sound of a baby crying. A woman had been buried there while expecting a child, and the baby, born in the grave, had been kept alive by the candy his mother brought. The child was saved and is said to have grown up to become a monk.
Explanations offered
The tale is a version of the ubume, a Japanese spirit of a woman who died in childbirth and returns to care for her baby. Similar 'ghost mother' stories are told elsewhere in Japan and China. The shop still sells its 'ghost child-raising candy' today, and the story is part of the area's long-standing traditions.
- When
- Told since the 1500s
- Where
- Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan
- Witnesses
- Kyoto folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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