Today, I will introduce Inunaki Village, a hidden village that may be located somewhere in the Inunaki area of Fukuoka prefecture.

If you happen to find the village, never set foot in it. Otherwise, you might be harmed by the villagers in their madness…

Inunaki Village (犬鳴村) is one of the most famous Japanese urban legends/the name of the village in the story. This village is said to be located around the Inunaki area in Fukuoka prefecture.

The original story was posted in 1999 on 2chan, the Japanese message board website, and it has spread widely in the nation along with various experiences and actual incidents around the areas

Inunaki Village: Hidden village where madmen lurk – Japanese Urban Legend/Creepypasta

The beginning of the Inunaki Village was a post on 2chan on 30 October 1999. However, the content of the post was originally submitted to the TV programme “Special Mission Research 2000 (特命リサーチ2000)”.

The TV programme consisted of the programme’s own investigations of requests received from viewers (clients) each time. The Inunaki Village request was never actually investigated in the programme, but it was posted on 2chan, which led to nationwide publicity.

↓Tap ｢+｣ to expand to see the original request to the TV programme, ｢–｣ to close it!

There are many theories about this Inunaki Village urban legend. Here are some of the most commonly mentioned characteristics.

In the Inunaki area, there is the Inunaki Tunnel, which is also a famous haunted spot. Near the tunnel, it is said that there is a path leading to the village that is not shown on the map.

There is a sign at the entrance to the village that says, “The Constitution of Japan does not apply from this point onwards”.

Perhaps on that basis, the existence of Inunaki Village is said to have been erased from administrative records and maps maintained by Japan.

Rumour has it that any brand of mobile phone will not be able to connect to the internet around the village. There are also public telephones in convenience stores in the area, but it is said that 110 (the Japanese police number) cannot be accessed from there.

There are villagers seen with the crazy look in their eyes, and if you are found, they will chase you with an axe.

There is a theory that the village was so severely discriminated against before the Edo period (1603~1868) that it cut off all contact with the outside world and became self-sufficient in its own village. And that because there were so few women, they repeatedly committed incest and became genetically dangerous.

According to the reports from some witnesses, a little further on from the village’s entrance is a square with a battered sedan car. Also there is a hut with a pile of skulls.

There is no clear information about those caught by the villagers, but it is likely that they were killed.

Another theory is that a couple who had previously attempted to visit the village for fun have since disappeared. They are said to have been driving a white sedan car, so the car that was destroyed by what appeared to be an axe, as described by witnesses, may have been theirs.

In many cases, Inunaki Village is now considered an urban legend that is probably only a rumour, now that the internet and various digital technologies have developed since that time.

Here are some of the factors that led to the formation of this urban legend.

As mentioned above, the urban legend of Inunaki Village spread through the internet after 1999. However, long before that, the Inunaki area had a nationwide famous haunted place called the Inunaki Tunnel.

Inunaki Tunnel, or more accurately the Old Inunaki Tunnel, was an abandoned tunnel that fell into disuse when the New Inunaki Tunnel was opened in 1975. Since then, it has become a well-known haunted spot in Fukuoka Prefecture with the locals.

In 1988, a murder took place in the tunnel, which, also because of its brutality, was widely reported nationwide and became known throughout Japan.

It is thought that the urban legend of Inunaki Village was born from the combination of such a foundation and the expectation that “the internet would reveal previously unsolved mysteries or secrets” at the dawn of the internet era in Japan in 1999.

↓Check out this related article to deep dive into Inunaki Tunnel

It is a fact that homeless people were living in tents near Inunaki Tunnel at the time. It is also said that in summer, people used to walk around the area with sickles in order to use pit vipers for herbal medicine.

As Inunaki Tunnel was a haunted place visited by many people, it is possible that these people saw the homeless and the pit viper hunters, and their appearance led to the image of the villagers of Inunaki.

There used to be a village called Inunakidani Village (犬鳴谷村) in the Inunaki area. The village existed for about 200 years from the end of the 17th century, and has a history of merging with other villages in the area.

The area where the village once stood was largely sunk in water by the completion of the Inunaki Dam in 1994 and no longer exists. It is possible that this history may have been derived to form the basis of the legend of Inunaki Village.

In 2020, Inunaki Village (English title: Howling Village) film was released in Japan. The film was directed by Takashi Shimizu (清水崇), who is best known as the director of the hit Japanese horror film Ju-On (呪怨 / English title: Grudge) in the early 2000s.

The film is based on the urban legend of Inunaki Village, but also contains some elements of a ghost story about Inunaki Tunnel. If you are interested in this film, I recommend that you have a try!

Actually, there is another famous urban legend associated with a village, which is called Sugisawa Village (杉沢村).

Sugisawa Village is said to have once existed in Aomori Prefecture, where all the villagers were killed by a young man who went mad and took his own life in the end. The spirits of the villagers and the man still live in the ruins of the village, and attack anyone who enters there.

The legend of Inunaki Village is said to have started to be told around 1999, which coincides with the late 1990s when the legend of Sugisawa Village started to be told. Although there are some differences pointed out (like the attack is from the ghosts or spirits of past villagers in Sugisawa Village, it is from mad villagers who may actually still exist today in Inunaki Village), it has been suggested that the legends about the two villages may have influenced each other as they spread around the internet.

↓You can check out this related article to deep dive into Sugisawa Village!

It has been decades since the urban legend of Inunaki Village was first introduced to the public. With all this technological development since then, many people honestly believe that the village probably does not exist.

Even so, there is still no end to the number of people who come looking for this village around the Inunaki area. This exciting feeling of “it probably doesn’t exist, but just in case it does”, which is unique to urban legends, may be inappropriate, but it is a natural human emotion that cannot be denied.

↓Check out these related articles as well to find out more about Japanese urban legends/creepypastas!