Yamanoke: What lurks in the deep forest in Japan - Japanese Urban Legend/Creepypasta

Today, I would like to share one of the scariest stories from Japanese urban legends, Yamanoke.

“Ten… Sou… Metsu” What is that voice? Then something white is coming towards us…

What is Yamanoke in Japanese Urban Legend?

Yamanoke (ヤマノケ) is a Japanese urban legend story/the name of the creature that appears in the story.

Since its story was posted in 2007 on 2chan, a Japanese message board website, it has got the attention of Kaidan (horror & scary storytelling) lovers widely in Japan.

Yamanoke Urban Legend Story (podcast)

In 2007, a post was made on a thread of 2chan, the Japanese message board. It was from a guy who had a scary experience in the mountains with his daughter.

From here, I will describe “I” as the guy for convenience.

↓Tap ｢+｣ to expand to read more, ｢–｣ to close each story chapter!

A Fun Driving Turned into…

It was what happened a week ago.

I took my daughter for a drive.
We were going along a nice mountain road and had dinner at a drive-in on the way. It was going on like a proper fun driving out there.

But at some point, for no particular reason, I wanted to scare her, so I took an unpaved side road. My daughter was trying to stop me, but I was still joking around so we kept going and going.

Then suddenly the car engine stopped.

We were deep in the mountains, so there was no mobile phone connection, and I didn’t know anything about fixing cars.

My daughter and I were at a complete loss. It would have taken hours to walk to the drive-in where we had dinner.

So we decided to stay in the car that night and walk to the drive-in the next morning.

While we were in the car, it got cold and night fell. You know, you hear nothing in the mountains at night. Sometimes, the wind blows, and the trees rustle. That’s it.

In that condition, time went on and on, and my daughter fell asleep in the passenger seat. I also closed my eyes and thought I’d go to sleep too.

“Ten Sou Metsu…”

But then I heard something.

“Ten…Sou…Metsu”

Or it could be Ken, Sou, Metsu. I wasn’t quite sure. But anyway, it was repeating over and over again.

At first, I kept my eyes closed, trying to convince myself it was just my imagination or something. But I felt the sound was getting closer and closer, and I couldn’t resist opening my eyes.

Then I saw something white and fluffy approaching the car, moving in a crazy way. It was like a silhouette without a head and with one leg.

I don’t know if you have seen Ultraman, a famous superhero series in Japan. In that series, there is one of the monsters called Jamilar, which is kind of a monster without a head.

It looked like that Jamilar from Ultraman, coming towards me by jumping with one leg and waving its hands and shaking its body in a crazy way.

I was so scared that I almost screamed, but for some reason, I was trying to be nice on the weird thing that was like, “I don’t have to wake up and annoy my daughter sleeping next to me” so that I couldn’t scream or run away.

The white thing was getting closer and closer to the car, but he seemed to be passing by it.

I kept hearing “Ten… Sou… Metsu…” as he passed by.

The sound went away, and when I turned around I didn’t see him, so I was relieved. I turned to look at my daughter, then I noticed the white thing was outside the passenger window.

And I looked closer, and I thought he didn’t have a head, but he had a face on his chest. He was kind of creepy smiling at me with a horrible look on his face that I don’t even want to remember.

I was scared, but beyond that, I was rather angry that he got close to my daughter.

So I shouted, “Just go away”.

Did he get in?

As soon as I shouted, the thing disappeared, and my daughter jumped up. I thought she was startled awake by my yelling, so I tried to apologise to her.

But she was mumbling like,

“I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it”

I had a bad feeling about this, so I tried to get away from the location and started the engine.

Then a miracle happened, and it started this time. I hurried back the way we came.

My daughter was still mumbling next to me.
I wanted to get to a place with people as soon as possible, so I drove on and on. Then, finally, I saw the lights of the town,

While I was a little relieved, I just noticed my daughter’s mumbling changed. It was “I got it, I got it, I got it”. But now it changed to “Ten… Sou… Metsu…”

And her face also looked like it wasn’t her face.

I thought this was an emergency, so although I felt hesitant because it was the middle of the night, I ran to a random temple nearby.

Temple Visit

It was the middle of the night, but there was a light on at the temple next door where monks lived. I pressed the chime, dragging my daughter with me.

A man who looked like a monk came out, and before I said something, he saw my daughter and immediately said to me, “What have you done!?”

When I told him that I went into the mountain and saw a strange thing, he looked disappointed and just said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know if I can do anything, but I’ll do my best”, and started chanting a kind of mantra and banging on my daughter’s shoulder and back.

He asked us to stay the night, then we took the offer.

The next morning, the monk said, “Your daughter seemed to be possessed by Yamanoke”.

Yamanoke lurks in the mountains and is said to possess women. The possession is kind of infectious, so if another woman is near the possessed one, it will move to the other one.

The monk also said that if the possession continued after 49 days, my daughter would stay like this for the rest of her life and would never come back to how she used to be.

The monk continued saying, he would take care of my daughter and try to get rid of Yamanoke.

I called my wife with the monk and managed her to at least believe that.

Then we were told that we would not be able to see her daughter until Yamanoke was completely removed.

Epilogue

It’s been a week, and my daughter is still with the monk. I go to check on her every day, but she doesn’t seem to be my daughter any more.

Because, you know, she smiles and looks at me with a creepy and malicious look in her eyes.

I want her to be my daughter again as soon as possible.

And just one advice, don’t go to the mountains and joke around just for fun.

Characteristics of Yamanoke

White body, without head, creepy smile on the chest

Yamanoke has a white, headless body wearing no clothes on it. Also, it has a face with a creepy smile on the chest.

The guy who posted the story on 2chan described its look as Jamilar (ジャミラ) from Ultraman, the famous superhero series in Japan.

Yokai? that lurks in the deep mountain/forest

Although Yamanoke has kind of a monstrous look, its identity remains unknown. However, in Japan, we often call any strange/supernatural being as Yokai (妖怪), so some people put it into this category.

Only Possess women to…

According to the monk in the story, Yamanoke is said to possess only women. Also, the possession is infectious, so if another woman is near the possessed one, it will move to the other one.

It is also said that if the possession continued after 49 days, the possessed woman would become sort of similar being to Yamanoke (like always creepy smiling…) and would never come back to how she used to be for the rest of her life…

Yamanoke appearance in Japanese pop culture

otonoke_yamanoke — The song is Available on Amazon

In 2024, Creepy Nuts, a poplular Japanese hip hop duo, released a new song called “Otonoke (オトノケ)” which serves as the opening theme for Japanese anime series, Dan Da Dan (ダンダダン).

This song is paying tribute to a lot of Japanese urban legends and horror stuff, and as you might imagine from the similarity in the pronunciation, the name of the song is inspired by Yamanoke story.