Today, we will dive into the mysteries of “Kankandara”, a Japanese urban legend that was posted on 2chan.

If there is a forbidden area near your town in Japan, do not get close to it. You could unintentionally unleash what is sealed in there…

Kankandara (姦姦蛇螺/かんかんだら) is a popular urban legend in Japanese creepypastas/the name of the monstrous woman creature in the story.

The Kankandara story first appeared in the 2000s when a boy shared his encounter with it on the Japanese message board 2channel (often shortened as 2chan).

<–podcast episode coming soon!–>

A junior high school boy accidentally entered a prohibited area of the local forest to test his courage with his friends. Then, they encountered a monstrous woman called “Kankandara” who was chasing after them.

They managed to escape from the monstrous creature, but then they learned the sealed truth of the former village in the past…

The identity of Kankandara is said to be that of a Miko (巫女/a priestess in a Japanese shrine) who was eaten by a snake. Therefore, her upper body is that of Miko, and her lower body is that of a snake.

She has six arms and attacks anyone who sees her.

The place where Kankandara was sealed was a hexagonal space with six trees, each with a Shimenawa (注連縄/sacred rope) attached to it, and the six trees bound together with six ropes.

In the centre of the space is a box. When you open the box, jars containing some kind of liquid are placed in the four corners, and in the centre of the box are six sticks of about 5 cm in length.

The sticks appear to have been placed in this way. /\/\＞

Moving these sticks would break the seal of Kankandara and reveal its horrifying appearance…

For those who move the sticks, the curse of Kankandara is said to fall. This curse kills them in the end.

In the 2chan story, the boy who moved the sticks only sees the Miko part of Kankandara, not the snake part, for some reason. Then he was paralysed and suffered from horrible pain for a while, but he barely escaped death

The place where Kankandara is kept is regularly moved. It’s usually in a mountain or a forest.

In the 2chan story, the fence that surrounded the area where Kankandara was sealed was removed within a year after the incident, so it was presumably moved from there to somewhere else.

We don’t know if Kankandara still exists, but it might still be sealed up somewhere in the mountains or forests of Japan…

How did Kankandara come to emerge? There is a sad past behind this.

Once, a village was troubled by a giant snake that ate people. There was a Miko (a priestess in a Japanese shrine) who stood alone against it. During the battle, the snake ate Miko’s lower body, but she continued to fight desperately to protect the villagers.

However, the villagers, assuming they would not stand a chance if Miko lost the lower half of her body, begged the snake not to attack them, saying they would give up Miko. Moreover, they cut off Miko’s arms to make it easier for the snake to eat and offered her as a sacrifice.

It was later discovered that members of the Miko’s household were the ones who proposed this negotiation…

The serpent stopped appearing, and the villagers seemed to have found peace. But only after a short time strange things began to happen.

After Miko was sacrificed, people started dying one after another in the village, and as many as 18 villagers died in the end. There were six people in Miko’s house, and they were all included among the 18.

All the dead were missing their right or left arm. Only four villagers survived.

Miko, who was sacrificed by the villagers because of their betrayal, became Kankandara and started to take revenge on them. Four survivors concluded this. Then, the four joined forces to seal Kankandara.

This resulted in the hexagonal space and the box in the forbidden area. The six trees and six ropes represent the villagers who died, the six sticks represent Miko’s family, who were also dead, and the jars placed at the four corners represent the four survivors.

In my opinion, the thrill of being chased by an unknown monster stirs a deep sense of fear throughout the story.

Also, as I mentioned earlier in this article, the place where Kankandara is sealed is regularly moved. This possibility that it might still be close to daily life in Japan brings up even more fear, doesn’t it?

Anyway, if you find a forbidden area in a forest or a mountain in Japan, Do not even go near it. Now you know what you would encounter there…

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