Teke Teke
A Japanese school legend tells of a figure that drags itself along by its elbows at night, making a teke-teke sound.
What was reported
Teke Teke is a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young woman who died after falling onto a railway line, often said to have been in Muroran, Hokkaido. She is said to roam at night with only the upper half of her body, pulling herself along by her elbows with a scraping 'teke-teke' sound, and to chase anyone she meets.
Like many school legends, it comes with rules: some versions say she asks a question, and that you can escape by answering correctly.
Explanations offered
There's no record of the event the story describes, and versions disagree about where it happened. Folklorists see it as a warning about railway lines, spread and embroidered by children, and it has inspired films and manga.
- When
- Told in schools since the 1970s
- Where
- Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan
- Witnesses
- Japanese schoolchildren
- Status
- Urban 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.