My name is Ruoko. I grew up in a Rural village in Japan, and I later moved out and travelled to Sweden when i was 18 for a University bursary. The village was located around the north side of Tottori. I lived with sister and mom. I had a few friends around the neighbourhood. We loved exploring around the village since it was mostly just plain farmland, but it was beautiful. There was a shrine built at both ends of the village. On the far left side of the village, I lived around 2 houses away from the shrine. Next to the shrine there was a small shack, and inside was a place for offerings, alongside materials used for rituals.
We would do our rituals very different than the rest of Japan. Typically, you’d to two bows, two claps, and a bow. In our village we would gather a white cloth or towel, dirt that has been blessed by a Shinto, a silver scissor, and lastly water that has also been blessed by a Shinto. We would hang the white cloth or towel on 2 wooden bamboo poles. Place a bowl of Blessed dirt on a stone slab infront of the towel, and pour half of the blessed water into the dirt, then gently place both hands into the bowl, covering your hands lightly in the mud. We would then wash our hands with the remaining water over the cloth, essentially dirtying the cloth, while symbolically washing away the “evil” and transferring it onto the cloth.
We would then snip the cloth with the silver scissor, destroying the “evil”. We would then stand up, bow 4 times, followed by 2 claps, and a very deep bow. We would do these rituals every month in order to ward off the evil spirits in our village. There was an urban legend of a woman. Her name was Hanura Ichimori. She was in her mid-20’s. She lived exactly in the middle of the village. It was around the time of the month where people would start to complete rituals, but that year, Hanura did not complete her ritual. In fact, she did not do it at all. At the last hour of the month, it was rumoured that the people heard loud shreeks at the core of the village. The next morning, people found Hanura’s eyes ripped out of her pale corpse. Hanura had a white blindfold wrapped around where her eyes should have been. The blindfold was made out of the clean, white cloth usually used during rituals.
Her bedroom was covered in blood. It was said that hours later, her body was not found anywhere. Ever since there has been an urban legend of Hanura. It’s said that if you do not complete your ritual before the end of the ritual month, you will find a woman in a white dress, wriggling around. Almost dancing with a blindfold on in the middle of a distant field. It’s said that if she stops dancing, and looks at you, you have 1 more night to live before she steals your eyes, and wears them as her own, but if she takes her blindfold off, you will be curses for the rest of your life, and be doomed to have the most torturous life possible until you complete the ritual, but Hanura would make it very difficult for that to happen.
I thought that the urban legend was created so that people would complete their rituals. When I turned 13, I decided that I would see if this was true. I was very confident that it was all a hoax. The last night of the month, I didn’t do the ritual. At exactly midnight, I felt a presence watching over me. I decided to leave my lamp on that night, but it didn’t help. Eventually I managed to sleep. That night I had a very vivid dream, it almost felt real. I was infront of the shack used for offerings. It was covered in sealed chains.I had to reach into a pot to grab the keys and break the seal. I entered the shack, and closed the door behind me. I bowed down to the shrine and after that, the doors started to rattle, and the door handle would repeatedly be pushed down until it suddenly stopoed. Blood leaked through the bottom of the door before I turned around. There was a pair of eyes aitting on the table on the shrine.
The shack started to shake before the door burst open, revealing a tall woman in a white dress, before I woke up in a cold sweat. It was early afternoon when I woke up. That afternoon I met my friends outside. We went out of the village to go exploring again. After about an hour, I noticed a woman standing in the middle of a field near a mountain. She appeared to be wriggling around. I grabbed my friends binoculars and looked at the woman dancing around. Her arms were flailing like a flag waving with the wind. She twisted and turned, but not like a human. Her torso twisted right around until she stopped dancing. She was looking right at me. I asked my friends if they saw her too, and they couldn’t see anything. She pointed at me as her other hand removed her blindfold, to reveal an empty eyesocket with blood leaking from them. I told my friends to run, as I ran back the village.
I told my parents what happened. They immediately sent me to my room and covered the windows and walls with blessed papers they commanded me not to open my room to anybody. Later that night somebody knocked at my door, followed by viggerous attempts at opening my door. I fell asleep again shortly after that. The next morning, I was told to complete the ritual, which I “did”. During the ritual I spontaneously forgot to complete the ritual with a deep bow.
From then on, I would be haunted by Hanura every night for years. I was told to leave Japan several years later for a bursary. I felt relieved that I may be cured of the horrid nightmares I had each night. I moved to sweden. For months life seemed to be okay, until about 3 months later. I woke up at 3 in the morning. I looked outside my window and found Hanura. Dancing. I immediately looked away at her, praying to myself. I could feel her. I went to sleep after that, having a dream. She was standing at my bed, staring at me with her blindfold off, but I couldn’t move.
That week I went to a Shinto. They commanded me to return to my village and complete the ritual, and once I did that I’d have to live the the villages Shinto for 3 weeks before I can return to Sweden, so I did just that. I returned to Japan, and I completed the ritual. I was surrounded by a bowl of Shinto blessed salt, and k completed the ritual. It was not easy though. I heard whispering while I’n the process of the ritual, followed by tapping, pushing and the feeling of a presence surrounding me.
After that I loved with the Shinto for 3 weeks before I returned to Sweden. I visited the Shinto in sweden, and he advised me to bless my house, and surround ever room, and the house in salt for 78 days, which I did. After that, life seemed to have went back to normal. I’ve been having normal dreams, I’ve been energised and happy for the last year, until yesterday. I had a dream I was back at the shrine. It was day time at that time though. I saw myself as a 13 year old completing the ritual, unlike when I was actually 13. I saw Hanura standing infront of the shrine, haldi g the scissor used to cut the cloth.
When I was about the cut the cloth, she held the scissor under her blindfold. When I snipped the cloth, she snipped the blindfold. When the blindfold fell from her face, she had beautiful, light brown hazel eyes, glimmering in the sunlight. She vanished and I woke up. I felt calm when I woke up. I don’t know of by chance, that means she will take my eyes, or she found hers, but I need somebody to tell me whether thats bad or good.
Life