Hanako-san, or , is a

Japanese urban legend A is a story in Japanese folklore which is circulated as true. These urban legends are characterized by originating in or being popularized throughout the country of Japan. These urban legends commonly involve paranormal entities or creatures who ...

about the spirit of a young girl named Hanako-san who haunts school toilets. Like many urban legends, the details of the origins of the legend vary depending on the account; different versions of the story include that Hanako-san is the ghost of a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

–era girl who was killed while playing

hide-and-seek Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chose ...

during an air raid, that she was murdered by a parent or stranger, or that she committed suicide in a school toilet due to

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

. Legends about Hanako-san have achieved some popularity in Japanese schools, where children may challenge classmates to try to summon Hanako-san. The character has been depicted in a variety of media, including films,

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

, and

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s, and not just as the notorious Hanako-san but in some as Hanako-kun, the male version.

The legend and its variations

According to legend, Hanako-san is the spirit of a young girl who haunts school toilets, and can be described as a ''

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...

'' or a ''

yūrei are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western model of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, (''yū''), meaning "faint" or "dim" and (''rei''), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include , meaning ruined or depart ...

''. The details of her physical appearance vary across different sources, but she is commonly described as having a bobbed haircut and as wearing a red skirt or dress. The details of Hanako-san's origins also vary depending on the account; in some versions, Hanako-san was a child who was murdered by a stranger or an abusive parent in a school toilet; in other versions, she was a girl who committed suicide in a school toilet; in still other versions, she was a child who lived during

and was killed in an air raid while hiding in a school toilet during a game of

. To summon Hanako-san, it is often said that individuals must enter a girls' toilet (usually on the third floor of a school), knock three times on the third stall, and ask if Hanako-san is present. If Hanako-san is there, she will reply with some variation of "Yes, I am." Depending on the story, the individual may then witness the appearance of a bloody or ghostly hand; the hand, or Hanako-san herself, may pull the individual into the toilet, which may lead to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

; or the individual may be eaten by a three-headed lizard who claims that the individual was invading Hanako’s privacy.

History

Author and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Matthew Meyer has described the legend of Hanako-san as dating back to the 1950s. Michael Dylan Foster, author of ''The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore'', has stated that Hanako-san "is well known because it is essentially an 'urban legend' associated with schools all over Japan. Since the 1990s, it has also been used in films, so it became part of popular culture ... not just orally transmitted or local folklore". In 2014, an article published by

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

described Hanako-san as having "become a fixture of Japanese urban folklore over the last 70 years".

In popular culture

The Hanako-san character has appeared in films,

, and

s. She made her first cinematic appearance in the 1995 film ''

Toire no Hanako-san Hanako-san, or , is a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young girl named Hanako-san who haunts school toilets. Like many urban legends, the details of the origins of the legend vary depending on the account; different versions of the st ...

'', directed by

Joji Matsuoka is a Japanese film director. After studying filmmaking in the College of Art at Nihon University, he won an award for his independent short '' Inaka no hōsoku'' at the Pia Film Festival in 1984. He directed his first commercial feature, ''Bataas ...

, in which she is depicted as the benevolent spirit of a girl who committed suicide, and who haunts the toilet of a school. She was later depicted in the 1998 film ''Shinsei Toire no Hanako-san'', directed by

Yukihiko Tsutsumi is a Japanese television and film director. He began directing commercials and music promotion videos as an employee of Nihon Television. After spending time abroad, he returned and started his own production company, ''Office Crescendo'', from w ...

, in which she is portrayed as a vengeful ghost who haunts the middle school that she attended before she died. She is also depicted in the 2013 film ''Toire no Hanako-san: Shin Gekijōban'', directed by Masafumi Yamada. Hanako-san appears in the manga series ''

Hanako and the Terror of Allegory is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sakae Esuno. It was serialized in the publisher Kadokawa Shoten's magazine ''Monthly Shōnen Ace'' from April 2004 to September 2005. The series of individual chapters were compiled into fo ...

'', written and illustrated by

Sakae Esuno is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his manga series ''Future Diary'' and ''Big Order''. Esuno started drawing at age 15, at the time he was an admirer of the works of Rumiko Takahashi in particular her horror manga '' Mermaid Sag ...

, as the roommate and friend of Daisuke Aso, a private detective who investigates urban legends. Hanako-san has also been depicted in the manga series ''

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by AidaIro. It has been serialized in Square Enix's magazine ''Monthly GFantasy'' since 2014. It has been collected in eighteen ''tankōbon'' volumes as of August 2022. The story follows Nen ...

'' by Iro Aida—which debuted in 2014—in which the character is portrayed as a young boy. An anime television series adaptation of ''Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun'' produced by Lerche premiered in early 2020. Other anime series which feature the Hanako-san character include '' Kyōkai no Rinne,'' ''

GeGeGe no Kitarō , originally known as , is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as ''yōkai'', a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters ...

'', and ''

Ghost Stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

''. Hanako-san also appears in the anime and video game franchise '' Yo-kai Watch'' but is renamed Toiletta in the English versions. The Hanako-san legend was also incorporated into the 2020

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

short story "Who's at the Door?".

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Urban legends Female legendary creatures Japanese bathroom ghosts Japanese urban legends

The legend and its variations

History

In popular culture

See also

References

Bibliography