The Faceless Woman of Akasaka
On a dark slope in old Tokyo, a man found a woman crying by the moat. When she turned to him, she had no face.
What was reported
In Kwaidan (1904), Lafcadio Hearn tells of the Kii-no-kuni-zaka slope in Akasaka, Tokyo, a lonely road beside an old castle moat. One night an old merchant found a young woman crouched there, crying. When she turned and stroked her face, it was smooth like an egg: no eyes, no nose, no mouth.
He fled to the lantern of a roadside noodle-seller. When he told the man what he'd seen, the noodle-seller stroked his own face, which became smooth as an egg, and the light went out.
Explanations offered
In Japanese folklore, mujina (badgers) and foxes are tricksters that can take human shape to fool people, and the faceless spirit is usually called a noppera-bō. Hearn's tale became the best-known version in English and has inspired many stories since.
- When
- Written down in 1904
- Where
- Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan
- Witnesses
- An old merchant, in Lafcadio Hearn's retelling
- 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.