The word Hachishakusama translates to an 8-feet-tall woman in Japanese, and it refers to the most creepy Japanese urban legend you may not know about.

You probably know about the Slenderman, but can you imagine a tall Slenderwoman? We hear a lot about many scary and sometimes creepy urban legends from around the world, but this 8-feet-tall Japanese Urban Legend is something that will give you chills as you get to know about it.

Hachishakusama is not the usual John Doe of Urban Legends, because when we think of one, we imagine something like a human figure, scary but at least not an inhumanly tall one. Hachishakusama is way more different, as described in folklore, it is an 8-feet-tall woman, lurking in the darkness making the scariest sound one can hear, waiting to abduct children without being bothered for an adult prey. The appearance could vary from a withered hag, or an attractive woman, but always inhuman in terms of its height. This creepy Japanese legend is known for luring little kids out of their home by sometimes calling their name in a familiar voice, and sometimes crying for help.

Hachishakusama in folklore is considered to be a witch or soul of a woman, lurking in the darkness. It is believed that it sometimes waits for its hunt for days and sometimes months before luring them out. But the scary sound is something like – “Po … Po … Po …”, in a deep masculine voice.

Hachishakusama Origin

The legend says that Hachishakusama was imprisoned years ago by monks using four small “Jizo” statues, placed in four directions surrounding a ruined building, on the outskirts, hidden from everyone else so it cannot be released. But one of the statues broke, and this gave the Hachishakusama opportunity to escape from her prison that she was kept in for years. Hachishakusama then took the form of an 8-feet-tall woman, wearing a white summer dress and a wide-brimmed hat. Eyewitnesses say her appearance varies from an attractive woman to the most horrific thing.

It is believed that Hachishakusama also stalks children for a few days to months before abducting them, and later killing them.

Hachishakusama Story — A Tale of a Boy who survived

This is a story of a Japanese boy, and possibly the only narrated story that has been known for the legends of Hachishakusama. The story is from a small village in Japan, where lived the grandparents of the 8-year-old boy.

In the summer of 2008, he was going to visit his grandparents as his parents would take him during every summer vacation. On a fine day, when the grandparents were inside the house, the boy decided to play outside in the backyard which was surrounded by long hedges all around it.

Suddenly a strange sound caught the boy’s attention, coming from behind the hedges. “Po .. Po… Po….“. The boy, being surprised by the weird noise tried to figure out where it was actually coming from. While looking around, he notices a straw hat above the hedges, and that’s when he realized the hat wasn’t just resting on the hedges, it was actually moving behind it.

Suddenly, the hat stopped moving, and through a gap in the hedges, he could see a face peering through. It was a woman, but surprisingly the hedges were so high that any normal human would not be visible unless with an extraordinary height.

The boy in shock not realizing what it was kept wondering what this figure is, but soon the strange noise started to disappear, fading into the distance, along with the face that he saw between the hedges. For a moment the boy couldn’t imagine anything that could be that tall.

The boy, confused returned back into the house and sat down at the table where his grandparents were drinking tea. He started telling them about what he just witnessed, but the grandparents didn’t seem to be paying much attention to him until he mentioned the distinctive sound.

“They both froze”, their eyes grew wide in shock, and grandma ended up putting both her hands on her mouth. Grandpa’s face becoming pale and serious, he grabbed the boy with his arm, bombarding him with questions like – “How tall was she ?“, “Where you saw her?”, “What did you do?“

Being terrified, the boy tried to answer everything he could but this wasn’t enough for his grandpa. Still, in shock, he ran to grab the phone, called someone, and rushed out of the house after a while. The boy without a clue asked his grandma – “Grandma? What is happening ?”.

Grandma started telling him about the strange figure he just saw. “There is something dangerous abducting children in this area”, she said. “We call it, Hachishakusama”.

She continue to tell him how Hachishakusama would take the appearance of an extremely tall woman and make a scary masculine noise that he might have heard. Long time ago, Hachishakusama was captured by monks and was kept locked in a ruined building on the outskirts of their village. 4 Jizu statues were placed in East, West, North and South corner of the building to trap Hachishakusama inside the building. But unfortunately one of the Jizu broke and Hachishakusama was released. The last time this giant Urband Legend appeared in the village was 15 years ago. She told him with a scary look on her face how anybody who see the Hachishakusama is destined to die within a few days.

This made him unsure of what to believe and what not to, but soon his grandpa came back, along with an old woman named Kasan.

The boy was then taken to one of the room in the house, and Kasan begin to cover all the windows with papers having ancient runes written all them. She also placed 4 bowls filled with salt almost overflowing on the four corners of the room. A statue of Buddha was placed in the middle of the room. Kesan upon finishing her work called the boy in the room and told him – “Soon, the sun will be setting. So listen carefully. You MUST stay in this room till the morning, and no matter what, do not open the door even if your grandparents call you out.” And she placed a bucket in his hands, “Not even to use the restroom“, she added.

Kasan knew how Hachishakusama could lure out children mimicking the voice of their family members. Both Kesan and his grandparents then left him in the room, he quickly locked the room after them. Trying to take his mind off everything that’s been going on, the boy started watching the T.V, before falling asleep.

A tapping sound on the window woke up the boy around 1 A.M, followed by a knock on the door. Then he heard his grandpa’s voice – “Are you okay in there ? If you want I can come inside!“, he said. Hearing his grandpa’s voice was such a relief for the boy that he got up to open the door, but just before sliding the door open he felt something strange.

There was no shadow at all on the door! As the door was a sliding panel, when someone is behind it, the person is supposed to be visible through the translucent panels. Completely terrified of who it was, the boy when turned back, he saw the salt in the 4 bowls turned black!

And then started the most scary sound again – “Po… Po.. Po…..”

And the tapping on the window continued. Completely scared, the boy knelt before the statue of Buddha and started to pray, keeping his eyes closed in fear. After a while the knocking stopped, checking his watch the boy realized it was 7.30 AM and he was safe to go out of the room as was told by Kesan.

He slowly opened the door and rushed to his grandparents. All 3 of them quickly got into a van and headed straight to the airport. His grandpa couldn’t take anymore risk and decided to send him back to his parents. As the legend suggested, there were others who survived Hachishakusama too, as long as they don’t step their foot back into Japan.

He was not allowed to visit his grandparents ever again. 4 years after the incident when his grandpa got sick, he refused to let the boy visit him. Even instructed not to let his grandson visit him at his funeral. Almost 10 years later of the Hachishakusama incident, his grandpa died.

The boy received a call from his grandmother telling him about the unfortunate death of his grandpa, he was diagnosed with cancer. The boy could not take it anymore and told her grandma that this couldn’t stop him from visiting his grandpa for a final goodbye, and his grandma finally agreed, “If you say so dear … Come and visit your grandpa“. Before the boy could end the call, he heard a familiar voice – “Po … Po… Po…”